Oh what a mess! - DPChallenge Forums

09/21/2006 10:08:16 PM · #1

I tried last fall to make a muslin backdrop. Went to walmart and got a big piece of muslin (90 or 10- feet wide and 12 or 15 feet long - only $17) and tried dyeing it...I wanted a random kid of mottled pattern and intesd got a olive drab army looking thing.

I tried some tie dyeing and got a hippie army thing, still in olive drab. Winter came and this is a BIG chunk of fabric to try and work with, so I let it sit.

SPRING! I take out the fabric and lay it on the grass, using rocks to hold it still in the breeze. I tried to mottlw it with spray cans of paint...well, i can't reach in far enough without standing on the fabric and that means stepping on wet paint...so i do the best i can and get an ugly backdrop..mostly olive drab with some tiedye efects and paint splatters in several colors. If not for the tiedye bit it might be useable...at f1.1 so it's really OOF. LOL

Someone recomends paiting it, as in dunking in bucket of thinned latex paint. OKAY, I'll try that. I got nothing to lose, right?

I take an old 1/2 gallon of a paleish yellow and a 5 gallon bucket, add some water and in goes the cloth...doing this in my stationery tub in the basement. I had gloves, but the 'soup' was deeper than the gloves were long, and paint washes off. I was wearing old clothes - i had done some planning.

A bit of swiching this about, in and out, ringing it...well, i'm yellow to the elbows and my wife is complaining that i'm stinking up the whole house (she hates the smell of paint) and i think it's ready to hang up.

I take it outside along with some clothespins. I have a dog run - a steel cable about 8 foot in the air from the back door out to a tree. I plan to hang the cloth on this. I am standing up-wind, and carefully, very carefully, with ruber gloves on now, (washed my hands before coming out to keep the door handle clean at least) I pull/lift and try to wring out the cloth as i remove it from the bucket...paint is dropping and splaishing all over about now and this cloth is too much to hold in one hand in volume and weight. I throw one end up over the wire - I'm proud of myself - i managed to not coat myself in paint when I did this!

I have to walk around to other side - looking for an edge now to stretch it out along the wire to dry you see. Well...ummm, not on downsinde side wiht the cloth slowly getting bigger and lighter and then, well, that's when the wind came. just a gust, not even a big one. Big enough to blow this wet yellow bed-sheet sized fabric, soaking with paint, onto me. I am now yellow - from my shoulders to my ankles on the one side.

I get the fabric all hung up and the line is not high enough to keep it from hitting the grass...so i double it up. Well, as it is moved onthe wire the wire acts like a squeegee and scrapes off the paint. So instead i leave one edge on the wire and find the othe edge to do the same, making essentially a big U if seen from the end.

I wash up and go do dinner.

Upon my return i notice, somewhat as expected, that gravity is working on the paint too, and one end (the last one in the bucket?) is not as yellow as the other end...i see that dreaded tie dye coming thru! And the bottom of the U, the middle of the BG once it's hung up for use, is not the wettest part, the area will have a ugly dark yellow stripe and the ends will have drained toward it, and they'll be green again...

I fold it up and few times and left if for the night, still hanging.

If it dries, when it dries, I'll take some pics and you can laugh too!

Beetle

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/21/2006 10:12:46 PM · #3

Take it to a preschool and let the kids loose on it - hand prints, foot prints, etc.... can't get much worse, right?

Or just give up and make it all black.

kgeary

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Sigma 35mm f/1.4 DG HSM for Nikon

09/21/2006 10:15:36 PM · #5

and for $108 you can have muslin that collapses into a circle like a reflector that expands to 8 X 12 feet and comes in dozens of colors.

what were you thinking? Lol.

ralph

Nikon Z9

09/21/2006 10:31:24 PM · #7

my home made back drop:
i bought 15x30 painters drop cloth (heavy canvasstuff )-- 3 packets of rits BLACK dye total cost ~30$

used the 2x1x1ft cement basement sink -- two caldrons of boiling water & let it sit for ~3 hours (more hot water was needed so i used hot tap water) - used a plunger to stir -- not bad
dumb part is -- to dry i put it the 'new' drier .. ran it twice (~2hours) & the inside of the drier was covered in black dye (took a year to ware off ..) kinda got into trouble for that one ...

but it gave me a rather mottled PURPLE back cloth .. if i was going to do it agian .. i would consider tieing it every 2 ft to do a total tiedye effect, as it is only the center is 'patterned'

Judi

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L USM

09/21/2006 10:35:57 PM · #9

But wait....where is the photo of you covered in paint????

ShutterPug

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/21/2006 10:58:07 PM · #11

Damn - this sounds like something Leroy would do !

Originally posted by Prof_Fate:

I tried last fall to make a muslin backdrop. Went to walmart and got a big piece of muslin (90 or 10- feet wide and 12 or 15 feet long - only $17) and tried dyeing it...I wanted a random kid of mottled pattern and intesd got a olive drab army looking thing.

I tried some tie dyeing and got a hippie army thing, still in olive drab. Winter came and this is a BIG chunk of fabric to try and work with, so I let it sit.

SPRING! I take out the fabric and lay it on the grass, using rocks to hold it still in the breeze. I tried to mottlw it with spray cans of paint...well, i can't reach in far enough without standing on the fabric and that means stepping on wet paint...so i do the best i can and get an ugly backdrop..mostly olive drab with some tiedye efects and paint splatters in several colors. If not for the tiedye bit it might be useable...at f1.1 so it's really OOF. LOL

Someone recomends paiting it, as in dunking in bucket of thinned latex paint. OKAY, I'll try that. I got nothing to lose, right?

I take an old 1/2 gallon of a paleish yellow and a 5 gallon bucket, add some water and in goes the cloth...doing this in my stationery tub in the basement. I had gloves, but the 'soup' was deeper than the gloves were long, and paint washes off. I was wearing old clothes - i had done some planning.

A bit of swiching this about, in and out, ringing it...well, i'm yellow to the elbows and my wife is complaining that i'm stinking up the whole house (she hates the smell of paint) and i think it's ready to hang up.

I take it outside along with some clothespins. I have a dog run - a steel cable about 8 foot in the air from the back door out to a tree. I plan to hang the cloth on this. I am standing up-wind, and carefully, very carefully, with ruber gloves on now, (washed my hands before coming out to keep the door handle clean at least) I pull/lift and try to wring out the cloth as i remove it from the bucket...paint is dropping and splaishing all over about now and this cloth is too much to hold in one hand in volume and weight. I throw one end up over the wire - I'm proud of myself - i managed to not coat myself in paint when I did this!

I have to walk around to other side - looking for an edge now to stretch it out along the wire to dry you see. Well...ummm, not on downsinde side wiht the cloth slowly getting bigger and lighter and then, well, that's when the wind came. just a gust, not even a big one. Big enough to blow this wet yellow bed-sheet sized fabric, soaking with paint, onto me. I am now yellow - from my shoulders to my ankles on the one side.

I get the fabric all hung up and the line is not high enough to keep it from hitting the grass...so i double it up. Well, as it is moved onthe wire the wire acts like a squeegee and scrapes off the paint. So instead i leave one edge on the wire and find the othe edge to do the same, making essentially a big U if seen from the end.

I wash up and go do dinner.

Upon my return i notice, somewhat as expected, that gravity is working on the paint too, and one end (the last one in the bucket?) is not as yellow as the other end...i see that dreaded tie dye coming thru! And the bottom of the U, the middle of the BG once it's hung up for use, is not the wettest part, the area will have a ugly dark yellow stripe and the ends will have drained toward it, and they'll be green again...

I fold it up and few times and left if for the night, still hanging.

If it dries, when it dries, I'll take some pics and you can laugh too!

KaDi

Canon EOS-300D Rebel

Canon EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6

09/21/2006 10:59:18 PM · #13

Hooray! Tragicomedy is alive and well in the 21st Century! (I'm laughing as I weep for you...)

On a technical note, you say you folded it a "few times and left if for the night, still hanging" - I'm wondering if, once the paint dries, you'll be able to unfold it.

Looking forward to the next "scene" in your drama. ;-)

Melethia

Canon EOS-80D

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/21/2006 11:03:56 PM · #15

Drag it behind the car for a few blocks, maybe? It'll give it that rough and tumble look....

ShutterPug

Canon EOS-6D

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/21/2006 11:17:02 PM · #17

maybe you could sleep on it overnight - literally

Message edited by author 2006-09-21 23:19:04.

MikeJ

Canon EOS-1D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

09/21/2006 11:55:15 PM · #19

I think you read the wrong instructions about painting a muslin. LOL!

You don't soak it in paint, you brush, blob or rub it on with a brush, roller, mop, sponge, wadded up towel or something like that. You take the cheapest latex paint you can find and add enough water so that it is thin but not watery. You don't want it running after you put it on.

Lay it on the grass like you did and put kitchen bags over your feet so you can throw them away afterwards when you get paint on them.

Start in the middle and work out towards the edges. When you take pictures with a background of this size, part of it is hanging over the top so it won't be in the picture. Part of it will be under your subject and probably won't be in the picture. But the middle will, so that is where you want to take care in painting to get the pattern you want.

If you do this during the day, it should be dry in a few hours. If the first coat was a base coat, you can now put on another color coat. You don't paint it solid like you were doing a wall, you paint so that the base coat still comes through to give you your different color schemes. You can use thicker paint (not watered down or use less water) to give it a 3D painted appearance.

Let it dry again. You can even put on more coats like this if you want. It's going to be stiff when it's all dry, but that's ok, it will soften up with use. Your paint should have gone clear through, so the backside will have a muted softer looking verson of the front side.

If you are artistically inclined and have a good sense of colors, have the room and time, you can paint up a really great muslin background for very little money. I have no artistic talent, have 7 dogs that I don't want running over my wet paint (although I've really wanted to do a dog paw background) so I just buy my painted muslins now. I can get excellent 10x20 painted muslins for $150 when the place I buy mine has their monthly specials. :D

Mike

Prof_Fate

09/23/2006 09:16:42 AM · #21

S0me things addressed to all -

I read about the sizing bit afterwards...regarding dying. I won't be dyeing any more.

most of my BGs i get from a guy than paints them the mottled/masters type are not expensive ($99-150 for 10x20) BUT the scenic ones are prices (10x12 xmas for $289 and up) and the ones with graphics or color splashes (the things HS seniors like) are in between.

He spray paints his with latex paint - custom made when you order. I also want colors for the local schools, and i guess he can do that to order it'll cost extra.

If the material is $15-20 and I have left over paint from the past 20 years and 3 houses I can make me a lot of BGs for $100, IF i can figure out a reasonable way to do it.

I will think on the grass with a mop and plastic bags on my feet (sounds slippery, walking on the wet paint weargin plastic..i could see falling, and trying to get up and falling, and ending up all wrapped up in the fabric LOL)

pulling it apart...yep, it's gonna be fun! It started to rain here, so the material is draped over my garen tractor's trailer. It appears that a pattern can be had by rolling or pleating the fabric - not intentionally but it has happened..some of the fabric is still wet with paint (this is sat morning - i painted it thurs afternoon)

My friend (after the fact of course) suggests using my garage - the exterior. He suggests hang a large plastic tarp on the face of the garage, since the basketball hoop is about 10' high he says the fabric will hang and not hit the ground, the garage is 24 feet wide so that works. the tarp will become a mess, but it's a tarp who cares. I'll have to tarp the ground too or my blacktop driveway will be a bit too artistic for my wife LOL.

I will try a roller, of red I think. going for something like //www.coleandcompany.com/abstracts.htm or perhaps like the one i used at school earlier this year

jemison

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

09/23/2006 12:54:45 PM · #23

I would use a faux paint technique on it, picking out at a paint store the pattern you want and go for it! Maybe even one of those textured or patterned rollers that they sell. sounds fun and easy!

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