Since the 15th century, the wooden canvas stretcher has stayed almost exactly the same — wood, staples, and fixed sizes. Formaet is the first ground-up rethink of that structure, built modular and sustainable for how artists actually work today.
Painting practice has transformed again and again — materials, mediums, art movements. The one thing that hasn’t changed is what holds the canvas up.
The wooden stretcher was already standard practice in 15th-century oil painting, and the basic construction — mitred wood joints, staples — hasn't fundamentally changed since.
Aluminium stretchers arrived mid-20th century for museum conservation and large-format work — but stayed niche: expensive, and rarely stocked in ordinary art shops.
Standard wood stretchers still ship in a handful of sizes — marine, landscape, portrait. Anything custom means building it yourself or paying a workshop, at a real cost in time and money.
Side by side, the difference isn’t cosmetic — it’s every tool, every workstation, and every limitation removed from the process.
Complex assembly — tools, time, physical effort
Staples puncture canvas and wood, causing lasting damage
Solid wood is heavy — hard to transport, hang, and ship
Bulky assembled canvas frames — difficult and costly to ship
Inefficient storage — takes up space, easily damaged
Manual assembly, no tools — modify formats mid-project
Clip system replaces staples — zero punctures, ever
Hollow recycled-plastic profiles are ultra-light
Ships flat and disassembled — no custom crates needed
Disassembles for compact storage — saves space and protects components
Every piece — Linear Sections, Connectors, Clips and Clip Hooks — connects through one standard joint. That interchangeability is what makes an infinite stretcher possible: start small, and add pieces to extend the canvas frame as the work grows, without ever replacing what you already own.
Every Linear Section and Connector, regardless of length, locks together the same way — a single standard union that builds structures of any size or shape.
Fabric mounts and unmounts in seconds with a press-fit clip — no puncturing canvas or wood, no specialist tools, remount able indefinitely.
Beyond the Standard rectangle, the same connectors build Extensible, Geometric, Hinge and Volumetric formats — polygons, articulated structures, and three-dimensional compositions.
Formaet is sold in packs of pieces rather than closed kits — pick exactly what your next format needs, the way you'd pick ingredients for a recipe.
If a single part wears out, order that part. You never need to replace the whole canvas frame again.
Formaet’s value isn’t one feature — it’s five, and each one solves a specific limitation of the traditional wooden stretcher. Here’s each in detail.
Build your canvas frame by hand in minutes. No tools, no staples. Take it apart just as easily, add pieces to make it bigger, and reuse every component in your next work. One system, endless formats: build, expand, reuse, create.
Mount and remove your canvas in seconds with our clips. No staples, no holes, no damage to the fabric or the canvas frame. When the work is ready, hang it straight on the wall with Formaet Hooks.
Four clip sizes give the right grip for each fabric:
Every component is made from 100% ocean-bound recycled plastic. Our packaging is 100% recyclable and biodegradable.
Choosing Formaet doesn’t just get you a better canvas system — it directly funds the removal and reuse of ocean bound plastic, kit by kit.
