How to Make Dyed Silk Standards

by Bartholomew Hightower

(updated Oct 6, 2006)

Ever look across the field at an SCA event and see a bevy of gorgeous standards flowing in the breeze?  Ever wonder how those things are made, and if can make one yourself?  Well, look no farther!

My favorite banners to look at are the nice floaty silk ones with incredible medieval/heraldic figures on them, like something you'd see in Foster's "The Dictionary of Heraldry".  I finally screwed up my courage and made one.  Getting started was a little more expensive than I anticipated, but a couple of hundred dollars was enough to get supplies for literally dozens of banners, so it is best to get your friends involved early.

The basic process involved is to get a length of silk, apply a rubbery liquid resist substance called "gutta" to form lines, use dyes to color the silk inside the lines, set the dyes and gutta with steam, and then with an iron, and hang it up on a pole.  The result is a pennant that is translucent and is colored on both sides. They float like a dream in the smallest breeze.

A Word of Caution -- This is NOT a Weather Proof Creation

Be advised that the steaming process will allow the dyes to get sucked into the pores of the silk, but there is still a lot of dye left over on the surface of the silk.  It is not waterproof.  If you leave your standard out in the rain, the colors will run.  If two wet parts of the standard get stuck together, the colors will transfer.    You can ameliorate this by giving your standard a careful rinsing to remove the surface dye.  This will take the bright colors down a few notches, but will help a lot with colors running.  I still think I would prefer to keep them out of the rain.

Sun, wind, time... they will all take their toll.  That is the price of using silk.

Materials

If you are going to do this, you should probably get a book.  I found "The Art of Silk Painting" from the Walter Foster Artist's Library series to be a nice little book -- a few of the projects described could be easily turned into SCA standards.

The best place I've found to get supplies is Dharma Trading ( http://www.dharmatrading.com ).  Here are some of the things you'll need:

Designing your Standard

[with thanks to Effingham for this section]

First, A little terminology.  What is shown here most closely fits under the term "standard" , as opposed to "pennant" or "banner" or some other name.  Pennants are not standards, which are not gonfalons, which are not banners, which are not pennoncels, which are not... but you get the idea. Although modern speakers tend to use the terms interchangeably, they are not properly so.

Some kingdoms actually restrict who can have a standard and what size they can be (dukes get really big ones, simple peers not so huge).

Standards typically follow one of two forms: In the fly, the arms of the owner, or the flag of the kingdom (England: cross of St. George; Scotland: cross of St. Andrew; most SCA kingdoms have flags). The body of the standard is often (read: almost always) broken horizontally to display the livery colors of the bearer. The bearer's badge(s) appear on the standard in this section, often interspersed with bands displaying a motto.

Here are a couple of standards:




Here is a good article to get you started on the right foot"

http://www.heraldry-scotland.co.uk/flyingherald.html

My place to start was my shield device.  Your standard doesn't need to be an exact copy (in fact, should not be) but it might be nice to take some elements from your shield device and use them to create a pennant that those who know you will instantly recognize.  As an example, my shield device looks like this:

The elements that are most likely to stick in someone's head are the roses and the checky.  I rearranged the components, but I wanted to keep the roses in front of the checks.  I turned the chevron on its side, and used it to separate out some solid blue space on the end, like this:

I also added a red&white border in the style I see in many heraldic texts, and I put in an element near the pole side.  This seems to be pretty commonly used to identify a person with a specific kingdom, so your kingdom badge would be well installed there.  For myself, I happen to be a Gryphon of Artemisia, whose badge is a gryphon passant erminois, and so I was proud to add that to my pennant.

You get a real benefit from designing your standard on a computer:  this turns out to be a tremendous help later on.

Getting your Design onto the Silk


The 8mm habotai silk scarves (22" x 90") from Dharma work great for this purpose. They come with a rolled hem, stand up well to being stretched, and are plenty light enough. They come all folded up, so they need to be ironed before you can work with them.

Once they are nice and uncreased, lay the silk on a looong table, and tape the corners and sides down.  I have a couple of long, straight boards that I use to get the long edges straight, and a few shorter boards to help out with interior lines.

When you are ready to put individual charges onto the silk, just slip those printouts between the silk and the table, and trace them out.  It's almost too simple.

For marking on the silk, use a regular old ball point pen.  Do NOT use a sharpie marker, or any other type of marker, or any gel rollers -- the ink from these beasts will quickly migrate through the silk.

If you have access to a digital projector (like those for making laptop presentations) you can greatly simplify the process by taping your silk up on a white board or wall, projecting the image onto the silk in the exact size that you want, and then tracing with a ballpoint pen.  

Getting it on a Frame

Well, first you need a frame.  It has to be big enough and strong enough to stretch the silk, and them some.  It has to be light enough so it doesn't collapse under its own weight, And the wood has to be soft enough to get push pins into it.  

I bought three 8' lengths of 1" x 3" cedar (the actual dimensions are closer to .75" x 2.5").  One of the lengths I cut into two 35" pieces.  I used four corner brackets I found in the joist hanger section of Home Depot to hook them together, like this:

I screwed them together using some 1"  #10-32 screws with wing nuts.  I had to drill out the holes on the brackets just a bit, with I did at the same time I drilled the holes in the cedar to accommodate the screws.   I wouldn't walk on it, but it's plenty strong for the task at hand.

You'll also need some legs to hold the frame up off the table.  I used a few pieces of scrap 2x2, about 6 inches long, screwed directly along the outside of the frame at the corners (overlapping the break in the 1x3s) and in the center of the long sides.  If you keep the legs outside of the area used (on the other side of the board) by the push pins, then your frames will stack on top of each other if you have multiple frames.

To put the silk on the frame, put safety pins in the edges of the silk, 5 or 6 inches apart. Be careful not to tear individual silk threads. I needed over 50 safety pins for this. As you do this, also add two size 32 rubber bands in each safety pin. Lay the silk with pins inside the frame. Put push pins in the frame at points between where the safety pins line up. Stretch the rubber bands from the safety pins to the push pins. All stretched!

Applying the Gutta

Next, apply the gutta to the silk along the lines you drew with the ball point pen. I'm using an oil-based gutta. This stuff is kind of hard to work with. As you do it, the metal applicator tip has a tendency to become clogged with the already-setting gutta, requiring you to clean the tip frequently. You can try adding a few drops of thinner to the gutta. Not too much, or the gutta will spread out when applied. I used the largest bore tip I had, and learned to clear the tip often by holding the applicator bottle upright and squeezing air back and forth through the tip until the rubber gutta boogers came out.

Drawing with the gutta takes a little time to get the hang of. You have to move deliberately -- too slow and the gutta piles up. Too fast, and the gutta is too thin. The lines of the gutta *must* meet at the ends -- you are building little dams to contain the different colored dyes. If there are any breaks in the line, the dye will flow out and discolor other parts of the pennant.  Still, it is pretty easy to watch for that.

The tough part with the gutta is learning to draw in mid-air. The silk doesn't provide much support, and you can't always rest your hand (even lightly) on the silk, for fear of messing up your earlier lines. This part of the process works better if you don't try to be such a perfectionist. If you get off the line, no big deal. If your line isn't exactly straight, then that's just too bad. Keep going. You can't go back and pick a line up, and adding more gutta doesn't always help.

I think that the best way to do lettering (on those standards that have it) is to print out the words, outline them in pen and then in gutta, and dye them like the rest of the standard.

Important: Along the outside boundary lines of your standard, you should lay the gutta on a little thick.  You want to have a nice wide line of gutta here.  The reason is that you will eventually cut the standard out of the silk scarf along a gutta line, using that line as your rip stop.  Can you say "no hemming"?

You have to let the gutta dry somewhat before the next step. It doesn't have to dry completely, but enough to hold up to being touched with a dye applicator.

Putting on the Dye


Dyeing is definitely the fun part. I used some small 1" foam paintbrushes (Home Depot) for all my dying. You don't need very much dye at all. 1 or 2 cc at a time is sufficient for the size standards we are making. 

Mix 50% dye, 25% water, 25% alcohol.

Do all of one color at a time. Start with the lighter colors to get the hang of it. If you hit something with a light color that is supposed to be dark, you can cover it with the dark later. If you mess up with a dark color... well, just live with it. I made a few minor mistakes in my standard, but you'll never see them when the standard is on the pole.

The most difficult part of dying is doing large sections -- especially large fields with detailed charges.  You should NOT attempt to do all the detail around the charges before doing the rest of the field.  That will result in unsightly water marks where the dye dries in an open area of silk.

Instead, you need to think about moving from one side of the field to the other, handling the dye around the charges as you go.  There should be only one area of your field that is wet at any given time.  Think about moving that wet area across the field.  Work quickly enough to keep the dye from drying out.  Move slowly enough so that you don't make any mistakes.  Simple, eh?

You don't have to dye right up to the gutta line. There should be a little white between your applicator an the line -- the dye will spread out on its own.

The result looks really neat. The design appears on both sides of the silk. If it weren't for the pins, you wouldn't be able to tell which side you applied the gutta and dye to. The lines are crisp. The colors are not bad. Not as vibrant as stained glass, but still pretty good. As you choose dyes, I'd recommend colors as dark as possible. And don't forget, you can always mix dyes to get different and/or darker colors.

After you put the dye on, you need to wait until the gutta and dye are completely dry before you take it off the frame. In cold and/or humid conditions, this can take 2-3 days.  When it gets to the point where you can touch it safely without smearing anything around, you are ready to steam set the dyes.

Steam Setting the Dyes

Yes, you should do this.  No, you should not skip this step.

You need to roll your standard up in some porous paper.  Newsprint is best for this, but if you use actual newspapers, they need to be a minimum of 6 weeks old, else the ink may transfer to the standard.  You can buy newsprint ends from most newspaper printers for a steal.  Set the standard on top of it, and roll the whole thing up. Use some pieces of masking tape (not much) to make sure the roll won't come apart

To steam it, take  a large spaghetti/steamer pot ( WalMart --$10). Many pots come with a steaming basket included -- or you can use a veggie steamer. 

Do not use a pot that you intend to use for food ever again.  I have no idea what is on those dyes, but it can't be good for you.

Take an old tin can, cut out both ends, and set it in 2-1/2" of water in the pot. Then set the steaming basket on top of the tin can, so that the basket stays out of the water. Take the standard roll, bent it into a ring, set it in the basket, and cover it with a tent of aluminum foil (leaving the bottom open).  This is to catch any condensation drops that come off of the top.  Set some newspapers on top of the pot, then a folded up towel on top of that (again to keep condensation from the top of the pot from dripping down onto the standard), and finally set the cover on top of *that*.  Medium heat, wait for the steam to show, and let it cook for 1 hour.

After that hour, take it out, unroll it, and look at  the results.  Steaming really makes the colors more vibrant.

Building a Better Steamer

After you've done one or two pennants, using the spaghetti pot gets kinda old.  And it's a little risky in that you may get some condensation that, as it drips, could have a deleterious effect on your design.  It won't take very long before you start looking for better options.  

You can buy a vertical steamer at Dharma Trading, designed for a lifetime of use, and costing a paltry 899 smakarolies, but if you are like me, a hopeless tinkerer and penny pincher, you can do much better for yourself.

Behold, the Steamer of Wonderment:



It is made from a $1 pot I found at a junque store, a 3' piece of (double walled) vent pipe I had in my shop, a $14 walmart hot plate, some foil tape, an old towel, and some crafty plywood jury rigging. Oh, and there is a pipe wall cover plate between the top of the pot and the pipe, covered in foil tape.

Yes, that is a lamp timer sitting on the base, which makes the whole thing a breeze to use.

It takes a long while for the cheap hotplate to get things boiling, so I find it easier to jump-start the process with some pre-boiled water from the tea kettle. Even then, it take a 10-15 minutes to get the whole unit hot enough to boil (the pipe acts like a built-in heat sink). Once I get it boiling, I do all pennant I have ready, in succession. I have the lamp timer set to boil for 1.5 hours.

I can check the level of the water with a wooden dip stick. 2 inches of water in the bottom is more than enough.

I take the pennants, rolled up in newsprint (easily available and cheap from newspaper printers), and suspend them on a rack made of romex wire and plywood. Plywood circles at top and bottom, with the romex fed through the center. It is okay if the rolls touch each other, but you want them to not touch the pipe walls.






To suspend it in the pipe, I just bend the tops of the wires over, and hang it from the top.



I have started putting a little foil teepee around the romex over the tops of the rolls to further avoid drips and condensation -- and I have several layers of paper at the center of the roll before the pennants. I put the towel on the top to help keep the steam in.

Iron Setting the Gutta

After steaming, you'll wanted to permanently set the gutta. This is done with an iron, with paper on both sides so that the gutta doesn't stick to the iron or the ironing board. Takes about a minute under heat (silk setting) for the gutta to set.  After setting, the gutta will still have a tendency to stick to itself.  This will diminish over time.

Never dry-clean your standard.  That process will remove the gutta, and you'll have nice white lines where there was once black.

Cutting and Sewing

Cutting out the standard. Yes, the gutta will act as a hem. You need sharp scissors to cut the silk precisely. 

Finish up the standard by folding over the pole-end a couple of times and sewing a single line to keep it folded. For the ties, take two 18" lengths of black paracord, strip out the inside cords, then melt the ends to keep them from fraying. 

Or you can use shoe strings

Or you can dye and sew strings made from your leftover silk.

Whatever you use, sew the middles of the cords onto the top and bottom of the standard, and viola!

A Word of Caution -- This is NOT a Weather Proof Creation

Be advised that the steaming process will allow the dyes to get sucked into the pores of the silk, but there is still a lot of dye left over on the surface of the silk.  It is not waterproof.  If you leave your standard out in the rain, the colors will run.  If two wet parts of the standard get stuck together, the colors will transfer.    You can ameliorate this by giving your standard a careful rinsing to remove the surface dye.  This will take the bright colors down a few notches, but will help a lot with colors running.  I still think I would prefer to keep them out of the rain.

Sun, wind, time... they will all take their toll.  That is the price of using silk.

Job done

Find a pole and hang it up.  My favorite method is to take two 8' lengths of closet doweling, and stain them a dark color, such as walnut or mahogany.  You can use a pole joiner from the chain link fence section.  You'll have to tape the ends of the poles to make a snug fit, and I usually tape over the whole joint with gaffer's tape just so it won't show so much when in place.  You can screw a drapery finial onto the top end of the pole to give it a little panache.

Pound a portable hole into a spot near your pavilion, tie your standard onto the pole, and set it up.  

Open the beer, kick back, and enjoy!

A Final Treat

Here are a few designs of pennants I've been working on lately.  Enjoy!

Last updated: October 06, 2006.