How Your Canvas Is Made in Our Workshop

When you order a canvas from Sail Workshop, nothing is pulled off a shelf. There is no warehouse of pre-made prints waiting in plastic. Your piece does not exist until you click "order", and then it is printed, stretched, framed and packed by hand in our own workshop before it leaves for your door. That is what made-to-order means in practice, and it is the reason we can offer nine sizes, five presentation styles and five frame colours for almost every artwork without compromise.

People often ask what actually happens during those 1–3 business days between ordering and shipping. Here is the honest walk-through, step by step.

Step one: preparing the file

Every order starts at a screen, not a printer. Before anything is printed, we check the artwork file against the exact size and orientation you chose. A 20×30 cm (8"×12") portrait and a 90×150 cm (36"×59") landscape of the same artwork are not the same file simply scaled up; the composition is adjusted so that the important parts of the image sit where they should and nothing crucial ends up wrapped around an edge.

For a gallery wrap, where the canvas folds around the stretcher bars, we add the wrap margin at this stage so the image on the front stays complete. For a floating frame or wooden frame, we prepare a border that will disappear neatly behind the frame lip. It is unglamorous work, but it is where most quality problems are prevented.

Step two: printing on artist canvas

We print on 380 gsm poly-cotton artist canvas. The weight matters: a heavier canvas holds its tension on the bars for years and does not sag or ripple the way thin, lightweight material can. The poly-cotton blend gives a fine, even texture that shows detail clearly while still looking and feeling like a painted canvas rather than a photograph on fabric.

The inks are archival pigment inks. Unlike dye-based inks, pigment particles sit in the canvas coating and are far more resistant to fading from daylight. This is the same type of ink used for fine art reproduction, and it is why we are comfortable with a canvas hanging in a bright room, a kitchen or a bathroom.

After printing, each canvas is left to cure before it is handled. Rushing this step can leave marks in the surface, so we do not rush it.

Step three: stretching by hand

This is the part most people never see and the part that makes the biggest difference to how a canvas looks on the wall. The printed canvas is laid face down and a stretcher frame made from kiln-dried pine bars is placed on top. Kiln-drying removes the moisture that would otherwise cause bars to warp or twist as the seasons change; a bowed frame is the most common reason a cheap canvas looks wrong within a year.

The canvas is then pulled tight over the bars and fixed in place, working from the centre of each side outwards, alternating sides so the tension stays even. The corners are folded cleanly, not bunched, so a gallery wrap looks tidy from every angle. A well-stretched canvas has a slight drum-like firmness when you tap it, and that is what we are aiming for on every piece.

Step four: framing and finishing

Depending on the presentation style you chose, the stretched canvas now goes one of several ways:

• Floating frame. The canvas is set inside a slim frame with a small shadow gap all the way around, so it appears to float within the frame. Available in oak, walnut, black, white and gold.
• Wooden frame. A classic solid frame that sits against the edge of the canvas for a more traditional finish, in the same five colours.
• Gallery wrap. No frame at all; the stretched canvas is finished on all four sides and is ready to hang as it is.
• Hanging canvas. Instead of stretcher bars, the canvas is fitted with wooden rails at the top and bottom and a cord for hanging. Lighter, more relaxed and easy to move.
• Rolled print. The printed canvas only, with no bars or frame, carefully rolled for customers who want to frame locally.

For all stretched and framed pieces, hanging hardware is installed before the canvas is packed. You should never have to open a bag of screws or work out where a hook goes; the piece is ready for the wall as soon as it comes out of the box. If you are deciding between styles, our size and frame guide shows how each one looks.

Step five: inspection and packing

Before anything is wrapped, the finished piece is checked in good light: print quality, corner folds, frame joints, tension and hardware. If something is not right, it goes back a step rather than out of the door.

Packing is designed around one fact: a canvas is a taut surface and a frame has corners, and both need protecting from the same knocks. Corners are protected first, the face of the canvas is covered, and the piece is boxed so it cannot shift in transit. Larger sizes such as 80×110 cm (32"×43") and 90×150 cm (36"×59") get extra reinforcement because long boxes are handled differently by couriers.

Then the parcel is handed to the carrier with tracking, and you receive the tracking number by email. Shipping is free worldwide, and you can read more about delivery on our shipping process page.

Why we make things this way

Made-to-order is slower than shipping from stock, and it asks for a little patience: 1–3 business days of production before the parcel moves. In return, you get a canvas made for your wall, in the exact size and finish you chose, with no compromise forced by what happened to be in a warehouse. It also means less waste, because nothing is printed that nobody wanted.

We stand behind every piece with 30-day returns (14 days in Türkiye). If a canvas arrives and something is not as it should be, tell us through the contact page and we will put it right.

If you have been meaning to add something to your walls, this is how it will be made. Have a look at what is arriving in the workshop this month in our new arrivals.