CUSTOM STRETCHER MOUNTS

19 Jun

Art without composition can be a lost opportunity. When galleries showcased a talented Californian artists work, from Thomas Leo Chapman IV, they expressed concern in being able to handle his pieces professionally. Over time, his hard labour and dedication began to stay wrapped and was collecting dust until he got a knock on his door from iterator.de…

“WHEN SHOWING MY WORK WITH GALLERIES AT ART FAIRS, THE GALLERISTS WERE FEARFUL OF HANGING THE WORKS. COLLECTORS WOULD DROP THEM. I LOST SALES EITHER BECAUSE THE GALLERY DIDN’T WANT TO SWITCH OUT SOLD WORK, OR THEY’D HANG IT ASKEW. A FRIEND OF MINE KNEW A GUY WHO HE THOUGHT COULD SOLVE THE PROBLEM SO I CHECKED OUT ITERATOR.DE”

Thomas Leo Chapman IV (Artist/Performer)

STEP ONE. ASSESS
THE SITUATION.

“I spoke with Thomas and he told me the situation. We made an appointment for me to come and check out his works. The day we met, I was just blown away by all the awesome work he had achieved and was inspired by all the cool artists that he was surrounded by.

I started designing stretcher mounting systems just for myself a few years ago. At first it was a solution for some of my compositional pieces and then I began to use them for all of my paintings. Now it is one of my signature products.

Starting with just two of his trickiest art pieces, I took some measurements of angles and distances to map out a mounting area. Thomas was fully engaged in helping out. There were some center of mass issues which he quickly rectified by adding flat support material to crossbars and made some minor modifications to make space for the mounts.”

— Cameron at iterator.de

Cameron from iterator.de visiting Thomas’ studio in Wedding, Berlin.

STEP TWO.
MODEL IT.

“I already had several series of mounting systems for canvases, but nothing that was going to handle the weight of Thomas’ work. The weight is distributed quite evenly in his pieces so I designed a mount that should be centralised on the crossbar, and that could be used for both of his art pieces. I made the attachment flanges perpendicular to achieve a flush mounted connection.

The forward weight of the pieces had to be taken into account, which was solved by creating a double stack of seven magnets in the male part of the assembly and a single stack in the other.

I sent some renderings to Thomas to give him some idea of how the mounting system would work. I also printed a few test pieces and reduced the seven stacks of magnets down to just five, which had more than enough magnetic force to hold his artwork securely in place.”

— Cameron at iterator.de

STEP THREE.
PRINT IT. INSTALL IT.
TEST IT.

“Thomas gave me the opportunity to install the mounts and test them together at his studio. Installation went smoothly and as quickly as expected. There was a lot of excitement and anticipation in the air and the look on Thomas’ face when he attached his piece to the wall showed me immediately how happy he was!

We continued to do some tests to make sure the system was working as intended. We also took the time to document the test and share the results with some of his fellow artists.

It was truly a pleasure and an honour to work with you Thomas. I’m so glad we found a solution for you. Now you can show galleries just how easy it is to exhibit your inspiring work!”

— Cameron at iterator.de