Had a long-put-off home project today – finally cut out the darn stencil that acts as a wall frieze in one of the parlors (the red one). We chose the Kipling quote years ago, but I’ve just been putting off the grueling cutting.
Printed the whole thing out on one J-sized sheet from a roll plotter, four text rows high. The total stencil is actually 56′ long. All hand cut on a piece of masonite from 10 AM ’til midnight today. My hand is a wreck!
Hope to get it painted on tomorrow. DW invented a technique using a really dry 2″ roller, and the “stenciling” goes fast. Painting in the bridges takes a little longer. Multiple-use stencils get cut from acetate, but these will work about thrice before they get fuzzy.
Forrest
Replies
Cool! I had to do something similar once - I took my design to a Quick Sign place - they make vinyl lettering. I painted the surface the lettering colors, then placed the vinyl letters (they have a computer with an exacto knife - cuts the whole thing flawlessly). Once I had the letters placed, I painted again, the background color. Then removed the vinyl letters, and it turned out really cool looking.
"...never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was worth it, too" - Mark Twain
Here's one I designed in ACAD, converted and sent as a .jpg, and a sign company put vinyl on a glass I supplied. Easier, but about c-note! It's actually gold foil over slightly larger black letters. Used to be my office door; now it's the upstairs laundry room!
View Image
Forrest
Yeah, I think that's about what I paid. Maybe you could add another line at the bottom..."and laundry"!"...never charged nothing for his preaching, and it was worth it, too" - Mark Twain
<Maybe you could add another line at the bottom..."and laundry">
LOL - consider it done - the kids will love it.
Forrest
most excellent
do you own a roll plotter ?
is there special software you use to help determine the overall length of the text ?
how will DW get the paper to lay flat on the wall ?
what does she use to paint the bridges, a brush or small roller ?
one of the parlors ?
how many do you have ?
carpenter in transition
Heck, I'd probably leave the bridges--part of the charm, the way you know it's a stencil and all that!
There's a company that I saw in FH called Walwords, or something like that. They cut it out for you and all you have to do is stick it up.
Lots easier, but slightly different and more expensive I'm sure.
I've been looking for something to put on the wall over the fireplace in the parlor in the old house in VA; can't find the right words yet.
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
I like writing on the wall - must be something from my childhood. We've got a great Ecclesiastes verse around our bedroom - "Two are better than one, for they have a good reward for their labors, . . .
Library has a good husband and wife quote from Homer - might be good for over your fireplace, if you and the DW get along!
One of my favorites, maybe for a dining room, as yet uncut, is also from Homer -
"Dear to us ever is the banquet, the harp, the dance, and the changes of rainment, and the warm bath, and love, and sleep"
Sounds like a great day -those Greeks knew some stuff!
Forrest
"Library has a good husband and wife quote from Homer - might be good for over your fireplace, if you and the DW get along!"
...Okay, and the quote is???
Teasing me?
Don K.
EJG Homes Renovations - New Construction - Rentals
Here's a pic - it's hard to see against the sunlight, so:
"There is nothing nobler or more admirable than when two people who see eye to eye keep house as man and wife, confounding their enemies and delighting their friends"
Homer
View Image
Forrest
No roll plotter for me - I e-mail it to a local company - $9.35 and ready when I get there. For layout, I just measure, lay it out in Autocad, play with the sentence breaks and font and font size, and actually generate a .plt (plot) file from that.
I have actually taped 8-1/2 x 11 printer sheets together for the long stencil for our bedroom frieze - it's 67' long! (I was younger then).
The great thing about the dry roller technique is that the roller pushes the stencil against the wall - no need for stiff stock. We just tack it up with blue tape level, and go to town.
Bridges get tacked in with an artist's brush - I'm allowed to do that!
It's going in the red room (redrum!) - above the picture rail. We have double parlors; one "light" for summer, and one dark and heavy, for winter
http://forums.taunton.com/tp-breaktime/messages?msg=77645.21
- I'll post the done pictures this afternoon, if I can.
Forrest
Here's some installation pix of the Wonder Wife this afternoon -
Rolling over the stencil ("What, the ceiling's not flat?")
View Image
Dry, thick paint - won't drip off back off Pyrex 13x9 palette!
View Image
Detail of rolling
View Image
Tacking in the bridging
View Image
And she's done before dinner, and we've reassembled the furniture!
Forrest
Edited 8/26/2006 6:39 pm by McDesign
Lookin' good. But I thought Mr. McClanless was gonna do the "bridging." Have fun with the open house.
Allen
You know artists - at the last moment she decided she couldn't trust me -
Forrest - "He may be fast, but he sure is inaccurate!"
Nice work