Proceeded to cut out 12 triangular gores with the use of a card stock template. This time I had triple checked the seam allowance around the template. Did not want a repeat of the cone of shame incident.

With the 12 panels cut out, I proceeded to make templates for the upper pattern pieces. The pattern templates were all made of card stock, and the designs cut out using a scalpel. The 8 point star pattern is in deference to the principality stars… I used this as I could not make out what the original pattern looked liked.

I made these templates as best I could from the small some what blurry painting. I have since found a better, larger and high MP copy of the painting. The upper most part of the tent is now clear enough to tell what it should look like…. but by that time I had started painting the tent…doh.

each triangular gore had the template patterns drawn onto the canvas with pencil.

Here’s a shot of the first section painted. Its a little patchy so a second coat has to be done. The paint is an exterior latex acrylic paint cut 50/50 with tap water. The straight lines were made with painters tape rather than cutting in. Sadly on the second coat I had some bleedage… doh. Still looks good.

Checking out the first two sections to see if the patterns were going to match up right.

Here’s a shot of the better image. The top section is pretty clear, and the middle section shows the frogish finger (how else to describe it?) section on my tent should have been a bit more bell flower like. The 6 different central medallions were printed as large as I could without getting to much distortion. I then place the printed copy upside down on a light box and traced out the patterns.

I then took each one of these penciled patterns and place them on a photo copier, and enlarged then till they were all  ~14″ long.

At this point I made a central line down the pattern, cleaned up some of the lines, and then cut out the pattern, and traced in on to some scrap card stock. I then used a scalpel and cut the scrap pattern to make a template for the template.

The template was traced on a new sheet of card stock that is cut to the right shape of the tent gore. Then the new template was cut out with a scalpel.

The first central medallion template traced onto the canvas.

The bottom section will have Kufic script around the bottom of the tent. My friend in Saudi Arabia is taking a Sufi Quote I found and getting it calligraphied by a professional for me. This will then be scanned and sent back to me. Because the quote will not have repeating patterns, it will be easier to paint it once the panels are sewn together.

Next sewing the roof.

• February 22, 2011 -- Disked Bell Tent v1.0 (2)
• August 2, 2010 -- Tent Color Poll (0)
• August 24, 2009 -- Lelands Norse Play Tent v1.1 (0)
• August 17, 2009 -- Lelands Norse Play Tent v1.0 (0)
• August 2, 2009 -- Clinton War 2009 (1)

I got 100g of weld from Maiwa and put it into one of my V.V. pots. The amount of wool I have for the yellow is ~120g. So in this case the dye will be  about 85%wof. They recommend 100%wof, but the price of weld is $15 100g, and the next size up is 225g that sells for $30. Double the price for a small amount more that I need… no thanks.

I poured boiling water over the weld and let it sit over night. In the morning I heated up the brew to ~150′F and kept it there for a full hour. I then poured this tea for into my dye pot, and repeated the procedure two more times… trying to get as much dye out of the weld as possible.

I eventually put the weld into a paint strainer bag (Not my cheese making strainer), and steeped it all one more time, and then squeezed out the weld as hard as I could. I then put a ground up tums tablet into the water (as per instructions from maiwa).

I then plunked the yellow down into the dye bath, and kept it at 150′f for a good hour.

It turned yellow, but only a faint shade. I need a bold yellow to stand out from the surround white areas. I left it sitting over night and checked it in the morning… still pale yellow.

This was what I got after rinsing out the wool. No good. It was then I found a book I borrowed from Morweena ages ago on natural dying, and figured I had acidic water.

PH strips are awesome. I had very acidic water. 4.5ph was the problem. Used soda ash to raise the ph to a 8.5ph.

and this happened over night. Wished it was a bit more goldy yellow, but I cant totally live with this bright color. I may  do some tests with iron to see if I sadden it, I could get a golder color.

Yellow wool started to felt a bit after so much mucking about. Drip drying above the laundry tub

and then drying next to the fire. I used EB’s swift to roll it into a ball. with the yarn starting to felt, it worked wonders at keeping it all organized and knot free.

Finished product.

I saved the weld tea, and put it into a jar, and have a large skein of cotton in it just to see how much color I can still get out of the tea.

• January 18, 2011 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.8 Mordanting the Wool (0)
• August 19, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.7 The Math (0)
• March 14, 2010 -- Daffodil Carpet Sample (0)
• March 4, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.5 ~ More Cartoons (3)
• February 14, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet v1.4 Cartoon Time (0)
• February 12, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.3 (0)

So here we have all the skeined up wool samples. I have different amount of wool on each colored skeine so I color coded them by different colored yarn. The green skeins were going to be for the indigo dye (no blue yarn), but at the last second I decided I wanted even more of the red. The yellow and blue are relatively small amounts of wool compared to the red, black, and white colors. I can always get more of the white, but I want to make sure I do not run out of the black and red colors, as it will be difficult to color match the yarn after the fact.  If I was to run out of the blue or yellow, the difference in color of a different dye lot wouldn’t be nearly as obvious. I could even try to blend the colors by slowly mixing those colors at small points in the pattern.

So the mordanting recipe I am using is from the Maiwa Dying sheet.

After scouring the wool with orvus paste (7ph wool soap), I added 15%wof  alum to very hot water, made sure it was completely dissolved and then added it to the large S.S  pot of warm water. I then added the scoured damp wool to the bath ans slowly brought the temperature up to ~90′C and left it there for and hour, gently moving the wool around periodically.

My super Duper massive SS cook Pot. Takes up most of the stove top. The thermometer was just barely long enough to reach the water. Once the hour was up I let the pot cool down for a couple of hours. That pot can hold heat for a long time.

So the pot had cooled down a fair bit, and I took the wool out to drip out . I had originally had them hanging over PVC pipe over the laundry tub. Rearranging them periodically to keep them equally damp. Then someone decided to use the washer, and I rescued the yarn seconds before the dirty washer water flooded the laundry tub (The washer discharges water faster than the pipes in the house can handle, and the back up puts a few inches of dirty wash water into the tub). Do to my fast actions… no one had to die that day!

So next choice was using a laundry basket, and PVC pipe (and a few tongue depressors). I carefully rearranged them, and made sure none of the wool dryed out, but all the dripping was done. I then store them in a damp pillow case waiting for the dye bath process.

• January 18, 2011 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.9 Yellow (1)
• August 19, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.7 The Math (0)
• March 14, 2010 -- Daffodil Carpet Sample (0)
• March 4, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.5 ~ More Cartoons (3)
• February 14, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet v1.4 Cartoon Time (0)
• February 12, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.3 (0)

I turned the handle and put on two beads so my hand wouldn’t slip while winding. Rosewood finishes so well it was easy to make the handle kind of slippery.

I have one side pined in place, and the other side is free to twist around.

I wish I had curved the arms a bit more. When starting the skein its easy for it to slip out from the ends.

The yellow is wound (yellow ties), and so is the Blue (green ties), and the red has 6/10 wound (red ties). I still have 12 skeins of black to wind, and the white wool will need to be cleaned too.

Random Posts

• January 29, 2010 -- Mystery Game Board (2)
• April 11, 2010 -- Siege Engine Boules (0)
• June 29, 2009 -- Thoughts on a $35 Yurt (10)
• June 6, 2010 -- Cone Tent v1.5 ~ Final thoughts (1)
• February 1, 2009 -- Triangle Back Stool v1.0 Wood Chips Aplenty (0)
• January 8, 2010 -- New Old Loom (3)

I just realized while writing this post that I had put the ensign upside down…. Ack. Drachenwald in distress… OMG.

I was happy to say the queen didn’t notice, and seemed to like the standard.

• June 29, 2010 -- AT War 2010 (4)
• June 29, 2009 -- A.T. War 2009 (0)
• August 19, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.7 The Math (0)
• August 11, 2010 -- Ouled Naïl Bedouin Tent v2.2 Wooden Bits & Rope (0)
• August 11, 2010 -- Art of Seagirt (0)
• August 10, 2010 -- Ouled Naïl Bedouin Tent v2.1 The Other Tedious Stuff (0)

When I had made the cone of shame, I had made a banner finial for the top of it. If you have a banner finial… you need a banner. I had originally taken a workshop on the subject taught by Mistress Agnes, and had played with it a bit since then… but this was going to be my first banner. Mostly just images after the jump

Stretcher built out of stuff from the scrap bin.

Decided to free hand the turnip. It ended up a little large. All hail the mutant turnip.

The stripy edge bit was all haphazardly drawn. Each segment is a totally different length.

My Motto is a bit of Dog Latin… Make my Day Punk.

You can just make out the pencil lines on the upper part of the banner

Final product with the edges all sewn up

The wonder twin wanted me to show her how to make a banner. I am not a particularly good teacher, but I figured… its the  wonder twin…. Gotta give it a go.

I couldn’t stick around till completion, but I think it is going to look FABU!

• August 11, 2008 -- Silk Experiment (0)

I did a quick doodle of a paint design I could put on the tent. I was hoping to have the Tir Righ Star encircling the tent.

The design cut out and taped. Looks more teepee that anything else <sulk>

My work place has a storage bunker they allowed me to use. Good thing, as I have no place large enough to paint the tent in one go.

First step was to stretch the canvas out on the floor. I used a strip of duct tape stuck to the underside of the canvas, on top of this strip, another strip (facedown) was then attached to the cement. Each seam was pulled taunt one at a time, trying to keep everything stretched out as much as the tape would allow.

Having spent a good portion of time mucking about with the painter tape, I decided to simplify the design. My back was starting to object.

I was using a 1:1 ratio paint to water mix. The paint was acrylic latex exterior house paint. I had a bit of a score on the paint. I went to Canadian tire on my lunch, and they were having difficulties matching the color I wanted. My lunch was over, so I had to leave the store without the paint. The next day I went back and I guess they had continued trying to get the color and succeeded. I got the can at 1/2 price in the mistint section. Score!

When I got to the bottom of the pin striping I looked at how much paint I had left. I decided I didn’t have enough paint to get all the way to the floor so I added more painters tape to make a strip  around the bottom. I think it looks pretty good.

My Back was right pissed off at me by this point. 4 hours mucking about either stooped over, or on my knees. Not Fun.

Random Posts

• January 1, 2011 -- Intermission is over. (0)
• December 20, 2009 -- Emily’s Highchair v1.5 Almost Done (0)
• January 11, 2009 -- X-Chair v2.0 Spiral Nails Suck (0)
• February 4, 2009 -- Triangle Back Stool v1.2 Argggg (0)
• August 31, 2009 -- A&S Poll (5)
• October 6, 2009 -- Tir Righ Fall Tourney 2009 A&S Display (0)

OK, I will admit it… I have huge feet. So Big that I find that shoe shopping is one of the more depressing things I can do. I ussually revert to buying a pair of mens shoes. Well, I decided I wanted shiny pretty work boots. This is my second pair, and I thought I would share my technique.

You will need one pair of work boots, artist gesso, acrylic artist paint, glitter glue, and a paint brush.

To make the color pop, you need to cover up the dark colored work boots with an artists gesso. One coat is more than enough.

Once the gesso is dry I do a thick coating of red acrylic paint. Red is my favorite color, but you can use what ever color you want.

Micheals craft supply carries a sparkle paint in various colors. Its a small bottle, but I have not even come close to using it all. Once the red paint has dried, apply copious amount of the sparkle glue/paint. Once this first coat is dry, look for dark patchs that have not got alot of sparkle going on. Re coat those areas intil full sparkle is in affect.

Thats it. Now go sparkle up your work boots.

Random Posts

• February 24, 2009 -- Pillar Cube Dial (0)
• April 2, 2009 -- Turned Bed Frame v1.3 (0)
• August 2, 2010 -- TOA 2010 (0)
• March 23, 2009 -- Turned Bed Frame v1.2 (0)
• December 14, 2009 -- Emily’s Highchair v1.4 (0)
• September 27, 2009 -- Tir Righ Fall Coronet Tourney 2009 (0)

I turned a bunch of the eric stand tops and then painted them with red oxide mixed with linseed oil.

The final cartoon is coming along. I took all the things that were wrong with the first draft and used it to work out the kinks on this version. My hands are in severe trauma over all the coloring this weekend.

• March 4, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.5 ~ More Cartoons (3)
• August 19, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.7 The Math (0)
• July 1, 2010 -- Turkish Rug project v1.6 a Looming I Will Go (0)
• March 30, 2010 -- Break Apart Eric Stands v1.0 (4)
• February 14, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet v1.4 Cartoon Time (0)
• February 12, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.3 (0)

The contest was “items inspired in some way by the theme “daffodil”. Since I only decided to go to the event the weekend before, I decided to do a quick carpet sample piece. The daffodil design is from a blanket I found online. It was a grid pattern so it adapted well. The tourney is in its 33 year, and my heraldic obsession & mascot is the turnip named Ash.  Design done, I warped up the porto-loom with  52 threads (4 threads for the bound edges each side, and 22 sets of threads for the knots). I should have done the sides in a different color, as they just blend with the knots right now.

I still am having some issues with the edge binding. Will be working on that in my next mini project.

The weft threads were cotton sewing thread (2 shoots).

I had every color I needed except a nice yellow. The gold wool I had just didn’t seem right. I did two skeins of wool. One pre-mordant in alum, and one with no mordant. The dye stuff is Turmeric and its 100%wof. ( I think you could use a lot less considering the amount of slug on the bottom of the pot. I also added 1 tbs of vinegar to try to get it brighter yellow.

Cooked it at a low heat for 30minutes.

The large skein is the pre-mordant Alum one, the one on the right on mordant. The color is just about the same.

I feel kind of stupid though. So many of these A&S things are little throw away things put in place for something to do while the fighters fight. I didn’t document it at all. I had the cartoon for the design and a few notes jotted down in pencil. Well four judges sat down with principality A&S judging forms, and the judging was pretty bad. They all seemed to like what I had did alot, but the lack of documentation was noted down ALOT….

I hunted down the organizer to thank her and the judges, and apologized for wasting their time. No Documentation… Bad Apprentice… No Cookie for You!

• August 19, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.7 The Math (0)
• August 11, 2010 -- Art of Seagirt (0)
• March 4, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.5 ~ More Cartoons (3)
• February 14, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet v1.4 Cartoon Time (0)
• February 12, 2010 -- Turkish Carpet Project v1.3 (0)
• July 1, 2010 -- Turkish Rug project v1.6 a Looming I Will Go (0)