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Cotton Canvas - Select, Duck or Fill

Most cotton canvas from John Annesley Company is professional-grade, heavy weight 12 oz. The canvas from retail outlets is usually 7 oz. or sometimes 10 oz. Even with multiple coats of gesso, it's not good enough. Although cotton doesn't expand and contract as much as linen, it's softer than linen and won't last as long. The length of the finest cotton fiber, the "staple length" is 3 inches compared to the 6 to 10 inch length of linen. Cotton fibers are easily pulled apart by a child, but it takes a strong man to tear a linen fiber. Under a microscope cotton looks like twisted ribbon; the stronger, thinner linen thread looks like bamboo. When duck is manufactured, the threads are wrapped around each other and each weave is knotted, so the material doesn't slip and slide. Cotton canvas is widely used because it costs less and it expands and contracts less. But conservators tell us it won't last as long as art work on linen.

In the past we only used the fine weave, unprimed duck select cotton, which is much finer than cotton duck or fill. Now select weave is only available in 60 inch rolls, so we've added a range of styles to meet artist's needs. For instance, we added a less expensive, canvas fill - A60, it's the kind of material they use to make blue jeans.

We will stretch any of these fabrics over any of our stretcher bars, cradled panels, or strainers.

Or you can purchase whatever fabric you need - by the piece, by the yard or by the roll. Then you can use our canvas pliers and stretch it yourself.

In addtion to cotton, we have:

Linen

Polyester