BS: Help With Wall Stencils?

Subject: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 07:30 PM

OK, I have done this but not with layering colours. The ones I did kept all the colours seperate. If I want to shade and layer do I do all the colours before moving the stencil template? The instructions don't say. Somebody has to have done this.

My pattern is an Enlish Ivy vine and I want the Autumn Look....yellow first, then dark green with touches of burgundy. Thanks!

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 07:41 PM

I'm guessing you would do all of one color before beginning on the next so as to keep your work as consistant as possible. But I have a book on stenciling. I'll see what it has to say.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: CarolC
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 07:57 PM

Ok, my book has all of one color going on before moving on to the next color. He does each step everywhere it's going to go before he starts on the next step.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:39 PM

If the template just has one repeat of the pattern on it..so you would need to keep moving it along to get a trailing effect, it would be easier to complete each whole stencil first before moving it along?

Otherwise you would have to do all the yellow, move it along, do another all yellow move it along etc...then you would have to start from the beginning again with the next colour, but you would have to reposition the stencil back on exactly the same spot.

So if your final design is ten stencil lengths you would need to reposition it thirty times, if you do the colours one at a time. But if you completed one whole stencil before moving it along, you would only need to reposition it ten times.

It may be simpler to do all three colours on the stencil and move it along, then do all three colours again. Use three different brushes for the three diff colours, keep the brushes as lightly loaded with paint as possible and sort of scrub gently with the brush where the colours meet, to give a smudgy blended effect. There shouldn't be enough paint on the brushes for the colours to run.

But if it is just one really long trailing stencil then do as Carol said. One colour at a time. Sounds nice.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Kaleea
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:53 PM

Where is Martha when we need her? As I recall, various "home" shows have said to use painter's masking tape (thenot so sticky type) to tape stencil to wall, start with color you want on bottom, let dry, do next color. Some folks suggest that you test the layer effect on some plain paper or whatnot to experiment as needed with which comes first--the light or dark colors. Good luck!

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 08:57 PM

Yes low tack masking tape or just a can of spray mount will hold the buggers in place.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 09:52 PM

I used spray mount for my walls, but it can be a bit tacky and leave marks if you get over enthusiastic with it. I recommend using the 'one whole thing at a time' method, if only to stop you going completely mad trying to match up exactly each time!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Sorcha
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 10:12 PM

Thank you all. Yes, I have it mask taped to the wall (clean wall!) and was thinking about all three colours before moving as it is only about 14" template....LOTS of repeats. And yes, I knew to use a diff brush for each colour and dab on a paper towel first. Re positioning 'exactly' is always a problem....and, the 'paint' is a dry paste stuff, not runny so it will be easier to control the run and smudge stuff.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 24 Sep 04 - 10:24 PM

Register, register, register-- if the stencil doesn't already have a little hole punched in each of the 2 lower corners, make one. Mark a tiny dot on the wall there where the hole is, in a color that will not show from a distance or that can become part of the pattern later. Next pass, when you start the next color, be sure the stencil hole hits that dot. You will be all lined up. More accurate with 4 dots, 1in each corner. The dot is called a registration mark, from the printing industry so diff plates/negs line up in color printing. When your newspaper looks funny and blurry in the color pix, the REGISTRATION (aka REGISTER) is off.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 02:09 PM

LiK says she did all the colors before moving the stencil, but that you need to let each color dry before adding the next color - which makes it a rather slow process, but not necessarily a lot slower than trying to re-register the stencil multiple times.

A google for "Dressler," a well-known stencil maker, finds How to Stencil, which has lots of help.

John

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: CarolC
Date: 25 Sep 04 - 03:41 PM

The book I was using for my last post was written before the invention of acrylic paints. The author was most often using oil paints, which would probably account for his doing all of one color before starting the next. Oils can take a long time to dry, while acrylics tend to dry quickly.

The project I'm working on right now is somewhat similar to stenciling, only I'm blocking off the areas that I don't want to paint using blue tape instead of a stencil. I'm layering several colors. My own temperament being what it is, I'm finding that I need to complete all of one color before moving on to the next in order to keep things relatively consistant. But I have a peculiar temperament, so you might find things work differently for you than they do for me.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 10:13 AM

If watching paint dry is a particular hobby of yours, do all of the colors before moving it. Despite the number of times you move it, if you move along and do all of one color at a time you'll get a lot more done faster. Mark the registry points, as was mentioned above. By the time you finish circling the room with the first color the earliest stencils will be ready for their second color, rather than wait through three dryings.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 07:16 PM

Doing the whole thing before moving is useful when you can't stand for long periods or have to keep stopping and starting for other reasons. You don't have to stay and watch it dry.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: GUEST,milk monitor
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 08:37 PM

Exactly! It's decorative painting, not the 100 metre dash. Let it grow organically and with love.
As Carol said acrylics dry in the wink of an eye, and if the design is layered, the brushes should be so lightly loaded the drying time is minutes, if at all.
Put the kettle on, step back and admire your handiwork, then reposition.
Sorcha do we get to see a photo of the finished masterpiece? I have imagined it in my head and it looks lovely.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Gypsy
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 08:52 PM

Good on ye, Sorcha! Either method will work, just a matter of preference. Single colour method allows you to have a border instantly, with the colour growing. Or you can have full colour, little bits at a time. Just finished doing a FIVE inch border on our EZ up. 'bout died doing it, but sure makes the performance look good!

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: CarolC
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 08:56 PM

Acrylics dry way too fast for my purposes. I find that I have to add a retarder in order to work with acrylics for the particular kind of word I'm doing, otherwise they dry long before I'm ready for them to be dry. I love oils for that reason... you can work and rework them for a long time. But I need to be able to put a new layer on without having to wait 6 to 12 hours between layers, so I've taken the plunge and I'm learning how to paint using acrylics. It's a whole different way of relating to the paint and to the process, I find. But the retarder helps a lot. That, plus adding a lot of glazing medium and water.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 09:21 PM

I'll imagine a piece 2 feet long. If we each imagine one piece, she won't have to do the project at all-- we can just materialize our visions onto her wall!

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Sorcha
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 09:32 PM

LOL, Soos Sis...since I've been putting it off for at least 4 years, sound good to me.
Now all ya'll gotta unnerstand...these are 'stencil paints'....a very dry paste pot...I think they will be dry almost after applying....So, I'm gonna kick into this project in the morning...I'l let you know how it goes.

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: wysiwyg
Date: 26 Sep 04 - 09:53 PM

OK, my section is a row of misty, wavering scorch marks! :~)

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Sep 04 - 01:51 PM

It's done! The paint I used was cream stencil paint...almost solid so it was almost impossible to overload the brush. I ended up doing all the colours before moving the stencil and cleaning the stencil each time before taping it back on the wall.

Finally decided to go with Traditional Ivy...yellow and 2 shades of green. Decided the burgundy would make it look too much like Christmas. The Green Man I bought in England now has an ivy vine to rest in. Yippee! (Now, to get the DIRT out of the house....anybody have acess to heavy duty earth moving equipment? grin....)

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 04:54 AM

Oh my lord, what have I started? It's all my fault - Sorcha saw my dining room in May and it's inspired her.... watch out the rest of America, she'll be stencilling anything that doesn't move fast enough now!

Glad it went OK, I WILL try and find those pics of my room, or else I'll try and find the camera and take some more!

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 07:39 AM

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: Mr Red
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 07:42 AM

sorry - I must have been using white ink

my designs were always large and free hand like a sun with flames all in yellow (before the redness kicked in)

Subject: RE: BS: Help With Wall Stencils?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 28 Sep 04 - 09:35 PM

.... nothing but dancing pink elephants ....