Flags 2008

[superdry]

just thought i would bump this in case anyone wanted any tips on how to make a flag for this year.

Enjoy

[ampersand]

just thought i would bump this in case anyone wanted any tips on how to make a flag for this year.

Enjoy

[timespeedsup]

can i take it to the pyramid stage?

[MrZigster]

can i take it to the pyramid stage?

Edited February 5, 2010 by MrZigster

[superdry]

can i take it to the pyramid stage?

[Harrow Strongbow Ciderman!]

Of course you can, the higher and bigger the better. Wave it around a bit too just to make sure you've hit at least 30% of the crowds eyeline. jobs a good'un!

[ampersand]

Depends what you put on it.

Seriously, expecting something properly off-kilter from you

[norainplease]

got two from last year that never made it out of the bag. remains to be seen if they will be this year.

[ampersand]

Have you decided to come to Glasto this year?

Our flags will be making ab appearance but only as a homing beacon to our tent!!

[norainplease]

theres a ticket there if i want it. just in two minds just now whether to go or not.

and that's not a cry for people to persuade me to go.

[ampersand]

Well it'll be good to see you again if you decide to go, I wonered when I saw you about in here if you had changed your mind or not!!

You going to download as well?

[norainplease]

nah downloads not got anything on last year for me and far too pricey. only one i've got confirmed the now is open'er in poland.

[ampersand]

Yeah it is a bit pricey! We're only doing Glasto this year I think but might do Loopallu or Wizard again - depending on funding!

Ace, we're were looking at open'er last year - would love to go to a festival outside the UK! Who's on?

[norainplease]

pearl jam and kasabian so far. and a couple of filler has been announced. still two headliners to come.

70 quid for the ticket and camping, and about a hunner for the flights. works out pretty decent value.

[ampersand]

That is quite good isn't it! Take it you can fly from Edinburgh?

[norainplease]

yup. 55 quid there. still to book the flight back. one of the problems with glasto is that my flights on the monday at tea time. so would need to drive back at about midnight on the sunday night.

you can fly from prestwick too but think it's more pricey.

[Paul ™]

Bit of forward planning was needed there, you could have just flew from down south straight over to Poland

[ampersand]

Bit of forward planning was needed there, you could have just flew from down south straight over to Poland

[finchey]

Is there a website on which you can create your own flag online, or get iron on transfers?

Want to do a flag for this year (for tent finding purposes only) but my drawing ability ends at stickmen, so looking for so techy help.

[ampersand]

Is there a website on which you can create your own flag online, or get iron on transfers?

Want to do a flag for this year (for tent finding purposes only) but my drawing ability ends at stickmen, so looking for so techy help.

[guypjfreak]

pearl jam and kasabian so far. and a couple of filler has been announced. still two headliners to come.

70 quid for the ticket and camping, and about a hunner for the flights. works out pretty decent value.

[ampersand]

pearl jam are not playing that festi that im sorry to say is true

[finchey]

rasterbator. blows up an image so you can then trace on top of it

[ukslim]

What I've done, is borrowed a projector from work. Pin the flag to the wall (with some newspaper behind!), project something onto it, and trace it.

[mccdyl001]

Just thought I'd requote a much older post I put on this thread a couple years ago with how I created my flag. Was pretty easy and it was finished off at a pre-glasto warmup party at our place, where we tested out all the tents to make sure the parts were there and everything. Please note this is a flag for our campsite, it is not ever taken to any of the stages so if you see it at a stage it's been nicked. If you're planning on making a flag, be curteous with its use and do not take it in front of stages where it will block peoples views.

Ok, steps I took for my flag building...

First of all, I ordered:

• 5x3 plain white flag (plus clicked the 2 flag bungees on the page)

• 6m telescopic flag pole (plus clicked the box for 2 ground stakes)

• various different colours of dylon fabric paint (for a guideline, the zebra would have used i guess 2-3 pots of the black paint, but i was painting it thick)

from the great sky blue leisure. I reckon if you got on the blower to them they could organise some rapid delivery and you could get your stuff easily in time for the weekend. You'll probably also want a fine tipped paint brush from somewhere.

Next, i found a pic of a zebra i liked, and spent 2 days trying to figure out how to enlarge it to a 5 foot by 3 foot print size. Eventually came across a tip somewhere which said open up excel, insert the image you want, change to "print layout" view (or whatever its called) and expand the print size and your image to whatever size you want. My zebra for example was a 4x4 array of A4 pages. Alternatively, print out your image on a single A4 page, then hit your photocopy machine at work and do A4-->A3 enlargement over and over until you have your desired size. (The zebra was equivalent to 2x4 A3 pages).

Next I taped down the zebra to my kitchen table and gently stretched the flag over it (used 3M scotch tape the flag down so it doesn't mark and comes off easily). With a pencil i then traced which parts of the zebra pic I wanted. You'll probably find the fabric stretches a bit and will slightly distort the image, if you pay attention you should keep it under control.

Once the trace was done, it was time to start painting. I read somewhere that permanent marker pens wreak havoc as they "run like f*ck" (to quote the other user who said that), so i used the method of paint the outline of each area with the fine tipped brush then coming back to fill in the middle. It means painting the edges takes a stupid long time, but the middles are much easier. Also found to get nice sharp lines, put a small blob down on the fabric a bit away from the edge, then "push" the blob ahead of the brush up to and then along the edge. Practise in the middle of some of the bigger solid areas you're going to paint to perfect your technique.

Finally, once you're done and the paint is dry, its time to heat cure it. I made the mistake of trying to put a hot iron on a nylon flag. Not good. Never put a hot iron direct on nylon. Next I tried putting down a towel and ironing through that. It seemed to work, although i got bored of ironing such a large massive area for the specified number of minutes, so after giving all the painted bits at least a minute of hot iron, i put the flag, by itself in the tumble drier on its hottest setting for about 30-40 mins. From what i can tell, thats heat cured the paint. (Although this is a moot point since its not going to rain this year, right??) Thats pretty much it. The fabric paint, once cured, has the slightest "rubbery" feel to it - it gives the impression its on there for the long run and i have total confidence its not going to flake off ever.

To attach the flag to the pole, extend the pole and use the bungys. The bungy looks like an elastic band for long hair (i.e. covered in a fabric sleeve) with a single plastic ball / bobble attached to it. To use, thread the loop of the elastic through the eyelet on the flag then around the flag pole and then over the plastic ball. That simple. If you're right near the super skinny section of the flag, you might need to loop the elastic around the pole twice or maybe even three times before putting it over the plastic ball.

Finally, you may notice your flag, when fluttering in the wind, pulls away from the flag pole in the middle (i.e. away from the bungys). If you don't like it when it does that and want the edge of the flag to stay "lined up" with the flag pole all the time, cut a small slit just above the flag's bottom eyelet to make a "tube" out of that edge of the flag and thread the flag pole through the "tube". Use the bungys to secure as before.

Kewl beans. Flag building is so worth it, and helps massively build up the excitement factor! Its probably still not too late to start!