Personal Heraldic Banner

There were MANY iterations of design for my personal heraldic banner (thank you PowerPoint and Paint!). When I finally settled on a design, I printed full scale, traceable objects (tankard, millrind) and hand drafted the remainder of the geometrics on tracing paper. 

Next, I laid the washed, 8mm habotai silk scarf I purchased from Dharma Trading Co. on top of the design and taped it down with painter's tape. Using a pencil, I traced the design lightly onto the silk. Pencil lines are damn near impossible to erase off the fabric so one has to be careful with this step. 

I made a goof in my measurements and didn't leave enough room for my Spike. After spending quite a bit of time drafting my design, I decided I'd just have to leave him off and make an Atlantia banner to fly with my own another time. 

With the design transferred to the silk, I stretched the banner on a PVC frame. A more historical approach might be to use a wood frame and sew through the edges of your banner to stretch it. For my purposes, binder clips and rubber bands worked great.

I used the Jacquard Silk Colors - Starter Set from Dharma to resist dye my banner.  The instructions were pretty thorough and I highly recommend it. 

Step 1 is to apply resist to your lines. I chose black because I like the look but white and clear are also options.  

In the tail of my banner, which will be cut away in the final product, I made a series of resist circles and squares. This will allow me to test the colors of the dyes I create and things such as bleeding. I learned that with the pre-rolled hem of this silk scarf, I need to apply resist to both sides of the edge to get a full seal. 

Once the resist has dried (about 30mins) and you've mixed your colors according to the kit instructions, it's time to paint! This is my favorite part because it's much like paint by numbers and it goes very quickly. Artist tip: always start with your lightest color. If you have leaks in your gutta, it's possible to cover up a yellow with a green but REALLY HARD to go the other way. 

And then my banner was done! I made the mistake of trying to touch up a spot in the middle blue section and you can see where the second layer of dye dried darker and with a watermark.  I used one of my copious tester spots in the tail to see if I could reasonably rewet the entire section of blue and even it out. This did work and I'm very satisfied with the results. 

Next, I rinsed the banner in liquid dyeset in a bathtub to lock in the colors. No photos of that step as it needs both my and my partner's hands. Lowering the banner into the bath without allowing it to fold onto itself is critical in the first few seconds. 

After the dye setting, I washed the banner by hand with a small amount of gentle soap and hung it to dry. 

The final steps are folding over and sewing the sleeve for the pole and cutting out the triangle of the tail. I let the gutta lock the threads and save myself having to hem the back edge.