embossing sails

[popeye the sailor]

I have seen many topics about making flags and sails. on some early galleons and ships of this period, the main sail......and in some cases, other sails as well, are embossed with crosses and crests. I had suggested in the past, to try using your ink jet printer to make flags.....but wasn't too sure how this would apply to the sails. this week......as a spur of the moment, I embarked on such an experiment. I went on line and found lots of images of crests, shields, and stuff. you can also find quite a bit of scroll work there as well. these images can be brought into paint shop to alter and change to your specifications, but for now, I didn't go that far.

 

I used the Testor's decal maker to do this little experiment. on some crosses, the bottom appendage is elongated. now, I used what many would say is an Iron cross, but if you look at it in the mindset of motorcycles and Harley Davidson.....I think you'll forgive me the admiral did some looking as well, and she came up with a couple....one of them I really like. so, in the decal maker program, I sized it and changed the color.

 

 

since the decal sheet is half size, I re-positioned it so it would fall somewhere close to the center of the cloth.....yes....cloth. first, I ran a sheet of paper through. it looks good, but there are some abnormalities with it. I'm thinking that this is the first image....the printing track may have something to do with it. plus the fact that I've done nothing to clean it up.

 

 

now, the cloth that I used is very soft and flimsy....it did bind up the printer a couple of times. I did manage to run it through. I'm hoping that these abnormalities are what I think they are.

 

 

they did clean up to some degree. it may be the type of cloth I used, but printer lines are quite visible through the image. I have some sail cloth from other kits that I can try this on. they are of different textures and a bit stiffer as well. here is the same image on some of the material I got in the Gothenborg kit.

 

 

.....as opposed to using soft cotton cloth

 

 

there are different textures you can use.....here is the cotton cloth I used first {bottom}, the white cloth I got from the Regina kit...stiffer but smooth to the touch {roll on the left}, and the beige cloth I got from the Gothenborg kit {roll on the right}, stiffer than the Regina cloth, and feels like canvas. I won't be using it.......sadly, there isn't enough there to do all of the sails in the kit.

 

 

I haven't gotten farther than this....at this point, the embossed image needs to be sealed onto the sail. I would think that if the image was allowed to dry, the sail perimeters could be drawn and cut out. but, before the sail goes through the rigors of the sewing machine, the sealing process should be done first. the process could be done in a couple of ways:

 

1) you could use decal bonder or some sort of fast drying sealer....anything that does not contain water.

 

2) this would be an experiment in itself.....mixing white glue and alcohol. this would have to be misted a very light coat at a time.....not that you need to give this a very thick coat, but it does need to get into the fabric to be effective.

 

sealing the image should be done in light coats anyway.......saturating it would result in the ink bleeding and creeping. the sail should lay flat for this process, which is the only detriment I see.......not good if you desire billowing sails, but I think shaping may still work. bend to shape.....lay them on a crumpled towel or rippled surface, and give them another coat. preferably, with a flat clear coat of sorts.

[cwboland]

This is a really good idea. I wonder if the same principle could be used with iron on transfers that you can print from your printer as well

[popeye the sailor]

I haven't done much with transfers. I would imagine there is a program out there for it. transfers work backwards from decals, the film for it would be on the surface, and with decals, your printing on the film, but then another film needs to be overlaid as a sealant. I could go into the process of both mediums, but that would be moot.....the process I speak of negates both. whether you use a decal program as I did, or you do this through a paint shop program, the results would be the same. the one thing I can add is that with softer cloths, the use of a sealer may be required to stiffen up the cloth. a light coat would be the best. this might even be good to prevent hidden problems, like ghosting, and the ink bleeding through the other side of the cloth.