Materials
Bunting is frequently made with fabric and sewn together on string. Unlike fabric, the bunting materials for this installation needed to weather the outdoors for an extended period of time. Materials also had to be easy for workshop participants to decorate and efficient for me to assemble on site. Following some good advice and good fortune, here are the materials I ended up using:
Billboard tarp scraps for the flags. There’s a warehouse in Minneapolis that has a scrap pile of this material. I found lots of “blank” scraps- black on one side and white on the other. I acquired 2 pieces of tarp that were about 5 x 20 feet and cut them into 2.5 by 4 foot sections to paint different colors. The tarp material also has a nice weight to it that helps keep the flags from fluttering and twisting as much as they would if I had used fabric.
Paint samples from hardware store. Latex paint permanently adheres to the tarps and 5 sample sized paints covered all the tarp material I used.
Scissors are all you need to cut the tarps.
We used Sharpie brand oil-based paint markers to decorate the flags. I decided to use paint pens instead of paint and brushes in order to contain mess and for faster drying time. Acrylic paint pens didn’t stand up to my rain testing. I tested various brands of oil-based paint markers and Sharpies had the lowest odor.
Letter stencils. I purchased a pack of paper letter stencils from a craft store but realized they would probably be too flimsy for repeated use by workshop participants. I used the paper stencils to make sturdier mylar stencils.
Jacquard “professional quality” screen printing ink. This ink is water based, easy to clean up, and waterproof once dry. It’s thick and therefore easy to apply and dries quickly. Great on a variety of surfaces.
Sponge daubers for applying the ink using the letter stencils.
Duct tape never ceases to amaze me. I was going to sew the flags to some kind of line or string like I would do with fabric but when doing some experimenting on site, I realized that duct tape was the perfect solution (I think that’s its slogan- “the perfect solution to almost anything”). I could unfurl the duct tape to the length I needed, stick the flags onto it, and then fold it over so it stuck to itself and secured the flags. No advanced measuring and no sewing required!
