Lance and Becky's Sagwagon

[KCStudly]

That's pretty cool. I like the font you picked.

Maybe consider going back with another smaller mask and fill in the breaks in the tires?

I can see you getting quite creative with this, adding some darker highlights (... er, low lights) in an earth or red tone. Maybe some shadowing on the text or a bit of pin stripping on the bike.

Will you use the same logo for curtains, or do you have something else up your sleeve?

Looking good.

[Oldragbaggers]

KC, thank you so much. You just gave me some awesome ideas that I hadn't even thought of. I wasn't totally satisfied with this particular piece and had decided to turn it into a grocery bag and give the accent pillow another go, so this would be a great piece to experiment on with some of your suggestions. You are the bomb.

[KCStudly]

You are the bomb.

Well, reading your thread is a blast for me, so I guess that fits!

[S. Heisley]

I have been having a hard time finding fabrics I like to go with my bicycling theme. Most of them are either too busy, too juvenile, or I don't like the colors. So I decided to try my hand at fabric stenciling to do my own designs. I really don't need a lot, just a few subtle touches here and there. This is my first attempt at an accent pillow cover. The designs were cut out of freezer paper using an exacto knife. Paint was applied with a chunk of foam rubber.





Maybe a little more practice.

That's some very good cutting and art work, Becky!

[Phooey]

Really clever design. Have you tried using a stencil brush? By using one it gives you a lighter hand and makes adding highlights with additional colors easier. You could try cutting portions of the design from additonal paper or blank stencil plastic that you can usually get at crafts shops to play with an overlay effect. The clear plastic makes it easy to see how you want to highlight your design. It's easy to get really crazy with creating.

[nevadatear]

Really, really nice.

[Cummins01]

That is very cool !

[Corwin C]

Very nice.

I airbrush custom t-shirts/sweatshirts on occasion, and have found that using Reynolds Plastic Coated Freezer Paper can be adhered to the fabric with an iron and after you paint it will peel off. This makes the stencil stay put as I change colors, move the fabric, etc. and leaves a much cleaner line if that's what you're looking for. I trace my pattern on the freezer paper by taping it and the original to the glass patio door (makes it easy to trace.) The bad part is that the stencil can rarely be re-used and complicated patterns can take a while to cut out.



This is a poor cell phone image of one of my wife's sweatshirts that I airbrushed. I painted the green and brown, fading them together in the middle, darkened the edges with a hint of black, and dusted some gold glitter paint over it. The gold leaves at the top were painted in by hand. The artwork was found on the internet (searched for Celtic tree).

[Oldragbaggers]

That's a beautiful design Corwin.

I used the Reynold's freezer paper also and it worked very well. I think it would have been perfect if I hadn't been too heavy handed with pushing the paint around. I will know better next time. Maybe I should get a cheap sprayer from Harbor Freight and some fabric scrap and try my hand at spraying mine on also. Would be a fun experiment.

[Oreellyfool]

I wonder how well the paint would stay on the fabric (not bleed)if you applied some resin to the fabric sitting on wood...... what I am thinking is if someone was going to fiberglass their teardrop, you could add designs/graphics to the material first and then it would be permanent base coat under the resin.

[KCStudly]

I helped my mother make some Mylar templates for this technique. As was said above, one of the things that made a big difference was a special short bristle brush with round ferrule, keeping the brush very dry, and using a blotting technique (poke the paint on, don't stroke it).

[Oldragbaggers]

Today was the first day of our spring break and the weather was unusually cooperative. I got the galley walls all sanded down from the fiberglass work I did on them last fall. After a bit of finessing with the sander, and taking into account the cap molding, sealant and gasketing, it appears that it is going to fit just fine and no more fiberglass layup is required. (My drawdown latches are on their way from Grant Whipp. I will force it into submission.) It was a time consuming fix, but I am happy with the results.



This teardrop has been a real lesson in problem solving. I was removing the hatch and managed to strip a Phillips head screw, but good. I went through my entire arsenal of Phillips head bits but it just got worse and worse. Then a straight bit caught my attention and a light came on. So I used my Dremel to cut a slot in the screw and used a straight bit. It came right out. I will never struggle with stripped screws again. I love my Dremel almost as much as my Kreg jig.

Next problem, the crushed corner on the hatch. I mentioned a couple of weeks ago that I was attempting to move the hatch by myself and dropped it right on one of the corners. Fortunately, because it had fiberglass cloth on both sides, it did not break right off. But the 1/8" plywood did crush a bit. I got a medical syringe (using a needle enabled me to get deep in between the plys of the wood) and some CPES and decided to try "gluing it up." I doubt I would have been able to force regular resin through that needle, but CPES is very thin and worked great. I filled the syringe several times and over the course of maybe 5 minutes I injected as much CPES as the wood would hold as deeply as I could force the needle in. Then I clamped it up really tight. I am hoping that the CPES will act as a glue and stick the plys of the wood back together. If not, at the very least it should add some moisture protection. Either way it will not be any worse than it is now.



I sanded the whole exterior of the trailer lightly and put primer on the raw fiberglass on the galley wall. Tomorrow I am supposed to have a sunny 60 degree day so I plan to get the last coat of paint sprayed onto the exterior of the trailer. Then I can start closing it up. I hope that part will go relatively quickly. We have our first camping trip planned for May 17-18-19 to the Shore I'm Irish Festival. I am feeling pretty optimistic that we will be campable by then. And even if we're not I think we'll just tie down whatever isn't permanently attached and go anyway.

We're getting pretty darned excited around here.



Pray this good weather holds up!!

[KCStudly]

Go Becky! You're back on the "up swing".

Don't you just love it when you get past a rough spot (something that didn't go as planned, requires trepidation, needs more work and takes more time) and things finally start falling into place again?

I had that kind of day on TPCE build today, too!

[Oldragbaggers]

I'll tell you KC, sometimes I think the only possible purpose for some days is to test my patience. But I think we're in the home stretch now. Not that it will be done, but at least it will be usable.

[S. Heisley]

Becky, I don't know that CPES will glue things back together. You probably would have been better off using some Titebond II or III glue. However, the CPES will help fight moisture intrusion. I'll be interested in seeing how this corner comes out after you remove the clamps. Now that the CPES is on there, if it doesn't stick things back together, you'll probably want to use a polyurethane construction adhesive like Loctite's PL or something like that. Good Luck.