[Ansteorra] Making a wall hanging for campsite (talky)

[willowdewisp at juno.com]

Dear Folks
Some of you are thinking about painting something for your Campsite and you may have looked at some of the Web Sites. I would like to warn you about some of the advice. 
Some of the Web sites tell you to prepare the Fabric with Gesso or to prepaint it. In mine and the HL Roger Red Hand's research over the years we have discovered that this is not always good for things that are hung outside or are moved around. 
The more paint you put on the wall hangings the stiffer they become. If they are kept on a wall they will stiffen up and the paint will even break if you try to move it. If they are kept in storage for long periods they sometime glue themselves together. 
The gesso is good for making a nice surface. Mistress Branywn had use scrub the first layer of paint into the fabric to make sure it linked with the fabric. I find this better. 
I like to use color fabrics so I don't have to paint all the background. 
Many people suggest Canvas or all natural fabrics. I have found that these things rot and weaken outdoors. Rayon is especially bad. Satin last for about 5 years. Cotton about 10. We have found that a bottom weight sports material that has some polyester works the best. You don't want more then 60% poly because the paint won't stick to polyester. Tigger isn't that good for hangings. For some reason the paint fade after about 9 years. 
I have wall hangings that are still nice that were done on this bottom weight sport fabric for Sutan's Coronation. I have some things done on tapestry fabric that are 5 year old and are going strong. 
Paint. I use water base Latex house paint.mixed with any kind of acyclic paints hobby paints. So far the only color fading problems I have had were on Tigger or gold. Sometimes you can purchase house paints cheaper in the mismatched paints. I find it necessary to paint a white base first if I am using white, gold, yellow or red as the final color. If I don't paint things white first I will have to use more layers to get a true color. Flat paints dry chalky. Gloss or semi-gloss will get you a shiny surface but it is more flexible. I would suggest testing your paints on a piece of your fabric so you can get an idea of how they will work. 
Drawing. You can free hand or use an overhead or opaque projector. Mistress Branwyn can just free hand but she started me with using  paper and drawing everything out to full scale just as I wanted it and then using tracing paper to transfer the drawing. Mistress Branwyn used charcoal to draw everything but I use chalk. The Charcoal gets into my paint and colors it, but if I use while or yellow or light blue the chalk doesn't change the color of the paint. Reds and pink make everything pink. 
I use a brush to get rid of extra chalk and I have used a small hand vacuum.
After you transfer everything you should permanently mark it . You will be working on it for a long time and chalk or charcoal will wear off.
 Do not use pencil! Pencil lines bleed through. I have a wall hanging that I put over 7 coats of paint and you can still see the pencil marks. 
I use sharpies. Be careful of non sharpies markers they sometime bleed. Do not use blue markers because they will fade and do not use red because they tend to turn things pink. 
I put a border of another fabric around my wall hanging. I do this because it is the edges that get worn and I can change the fabric without affecting the drawing if this happens. I sometime paint my border which of course nullifies that good idea. 
How to put up you wall hanging. Grommets tear out but if you have a border that is OK. Sleeves work and tabs work. I like to sew rings on to the border. They tear out but cause less damage. 
If you have any questions write me. 
willow
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