Making Banners for Knight realms!

Hey guys! It's Bill, and I have an exciting new group project for Knight Realms players to help out with! I've talked it over with some of the costumers and other players, and we've decided to have a go at making banners for the Barony, the 5 lands, and Winterdark. The initial 7 will be put up in the Inn so that everyone can see them in their bannerly glory, and if we like the banners and are enjoying making them, we'll probably be making more to go around camp, and possibly even building portable ones to bring to battle. Let's be honest, every battle is cooler with banners snapping in the wind, and it gives a visual focus point to the fight. What we'd like from you all is donations of time to craft the banners, and fabric to help cover the cost of those making them.

Plans for production:
We're going to have a Baronial banner made first as proof of concept, then work across each of the lands and winterdark as we get more volunteers and money so we can ramp up production. Then, if we like the banners, we'll continue producing them for various places around KR. The initial 7 banners should be of the same size, as they IG will have been made by the Barony for the lands and such. This doesn't have to be exact, but we'd like them as similar in dimensions as possible This will also help standardization for fitting them to banner poles.
Compensation:
You will be awarded SP for your time or fabric contributions, what I ask is that you track hours spent producing banners and keep all your receipts related to stuff you buy to produce banners.
Discussion: I intend to use this forum thread to talk about possible banner production methods, and have us decide on ones for each banner we're making, possibly with a volunteer to head up each individual banner. I don't mind them being made with different methods, as that allows us to compare and contrast which style of production we like the best, though if everyone agrees on one method prior to working on them that will also work.
Contact: Hit me up here, on facebook, or through PMs to talk to me about helping with this.

Thanks in advance for your help in making KR an even cooler place to rolelplay, I really look forward to seeing these things in person, and helping them be made.

so, as far as the banners for the Inn...those should be relatively easy to make. We should be able to rig them to hang over some of the windows (NJ safety/fire/excessive farting laws notwithstanding). For a battle banner, are we thinking similar to this:
images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt...s-001&hspart=mozilla

Or this?
images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt...s-001&hspart=mozilla

I like the smaller ones from your first link better - easier to see the whole design over everyone's heads and less likely to get tangled in all the nature.

I helped make something of the sort for Drega'Mire, and I have a large cardboard stencil of the drake. Could this be of any use?

Definitely! We should talk.

I'd love to add any assistance I can. I have an old-as-dirt sewing machine, and slight less old-as-dirt machine that I wouldn't mind using again.

Sure, are you associated with any particular land that you'd like to make a banner for?

Let me know if my printing skills can be of any assistance.

You bet they will. Do you want to work on Drega'banner with someone?

I'm not associated with any land as of yet (Only one game in) Though I've heard rumors that the Romani are associated with Drega'Mire if I'm hearing correctly. I would just need reference to keep the final products similar to the others

So, if the Guard plans to be out there carrying banners will that then make them a color guard?

Serious:
Due to the intricate nature of many of the land sigils I recommend screen printing the designs onto the fabric rather than sewing them. (whether through a pro screensprinting shop or at home) Embroidery is also a possibility for banners that do not need to be double-facing. I have some personal experience with screen printing and can advise people on the process, but currently lack the space/facilities to make truly large banners. If I have the time I'll see if I can put together some smaller streamers or pennants for carrying into battle. (Now I'm really tempted to make an Alisandria kite)

Thanks Kat, that's an important point. Do we have anyone who has the space/facilities to make truly large banners? I'd like a proposed heigh/width discussed, so we can have a standard size for our standards (hah!) for the original 7, then go wild with creativity and diversity for the follow up ones.

22 in is roughly your standard fabric bolt folded in half and 60 in is a good length, so I propose something like this:
[img size=500]http://http://i.imgur.com/3neeCYV.jpg[/img]
22x60 in not counting streamers or ending bits.

That looks like a goodly size to me. What do the other folks think?

Some of us are very short. I would suggest 48" for the battle ones due to the low hanging nature of these. the Inn ones should be 60"

I agree with Raidrthebetrayr, especially when it comes to shorter players.

The inn ones are the ones we are making first, so we can have those be 60 inches.

Alisandria already has a banner that gets hung inside the main building during feast. Alisandria also have a banner that hangs inside the Steakhouse.

We tried having banners fly on the battlefield some time ago, but it proved to be problematic as few players are willing to stand around, holding up a pole while everyone else is running around, fighting. Also it became easy for the banners to get targeted by spells and attacks. We had no boffer poles, so it was hard to repress the instinct to attack with the wood poles we used.

I'm aware of the concerns, we're addressing the ones for the inn first. This isn't just about Alisandria, after all (But if they want to consider their banner done I'm a-ok with that, they do lovely stuff).

As for the banner poles for any ones in the field we're discussing about getting boffer poles or whatnot, but that's phase 2. Phase 1 is getting the Inn ones done first, and we don't worry about people swinging those about. I do want to consult with safety marshals though.

Good point about the various heights of people! I'm actually really short myself, so carrying a 60 inch vertical banner on the battlefield is a no-go (although a horizontal flag could be cool) but I think it could work well in the Inn as a display banner length.

I had some red fabric and white yarn laying around so I sewed a quick banner 22x60 (minus those triangles on the end. Those add some extra length) and now there are TASSELS. I'll figure out screenprinting/embroidery later (possibly collab with someone? Anyone interested?) but if any of y'all wanted to try this I'd recommend making it two-ply, turning it inside out so the seam is inside and then sewing down the edges. That way you don't get fraying seams or threads coming off every which way.

Paul: Alisandria will dominate. We are awesome.

[img]http://http://i.imgur.com/56urhb2.jpg[/img]

(PS: For really cheap basic colors of fabric I recommend checking out the bedsheets at your local thrift store)

Whoa you did it already? Holy smokes. Well done!

Of course Alisandria will dominate. It's what we do. :evil:

Sorry if it seemed I was saying we did this already. Was just informing those who were unaware, that banners were made in the past, so don't do all this work if it's unnecessary.

I think James had banners made up. Are those templates still around? If so, most of the planning/design work has been done. Just need someone to take it to a fabrication/manufacturing supplier.

Oh I'm quite aware. I've been asking around about them and they haven't been seen in years, so I reckoned we could make some new ones.

Embroidery of this size would be far more time-consuming or expensive than it's worth, so screenprinting is probably the way to go.

I have the space to do printing on large banners. I also intend to get a much larger screen mesh thing for other costuming purposes. But, I am far from accomplished at printmaking I tried it yesterday for the first time, and it was... an acceptable effort, but not something I'd want to take point on for something this scale.

I've done silk screening in years prior (thank you art school), but never took printmaking so I'm uncertain how different the two are. That being said, I'm between houses and have no space in the first, and the second is covered in dirt, sawdust, and snow.

I'm really not too familiar with this - is silk screening the one where you put the mesh down and the stencil and then squeegee ink onto the thing, or is that screen printing? I did the first one, and that's the one I know I have space for.

Yes, that is silk screening! Where you have a mesh with the light-screened pattern (done in reverse so the sun bleaches some of the pattern, yada yada yada) then you take said screen, flop it on fabric and squeegee fabric paints through the mesh. Fun stuff. Tempermental when it comes to making screens, but beautiful results.

A cleaner transfer happens when you apply the stencil to the screen. A stencil applied to the screen gets space between for the ink to blot and create widening. The best bet is to either "glue" your screen over a cut out positive, or use a photo emulsion and a photo positive to "burn" your image. I made the current iteration of our guard badges if you would like further input.

That's not clear at all... Attaching a stencil to the screen is unreliable. Using emulsion or glue to block out parts of the actual screen itself gets a cleaner transfer...

Yes, burning is the best method, though it takes specialized tools/materials/dark room