Lucite Paint and its use for painting ripstop nylon In 1987, Gerard van der Loo set up the Hague Air gallery - a collection of edo style kites painted by dutch artists - a gallery in the sky. Hy sourced and used Lucite House paint for this from Wilbrink Coatings in Holland who have a mixing machine and are able to produce Lucite in over 3000 colours. Lucite House Paint was originally made by Dupont - now made by Dorken Paints in Germany, however although this firm fabricates the paint, they seem unable to supply it in a wide range of colours! Or in small quantities. In 1995, I was working with Sunderland City Council and we decided to set up the European Air Gallery. We decided to use the same pattern as the Hague Air Gallery and although we tried several other types of paint we settled on the one they had used - Lucite. However - we couldn't buy it in England - not in the colours we wanted - so we bought from Wilbrink Coatings in Holland who have a mixing machine. Painting with Lucite Paint The paint is Acrylic with added Teflon - which helps it to stick to anything - even ripstop - although it is designed for painting onto walls, timber etc. It sticks really well to the ripstop - without any extra preparation needed. It responds a bit differently on the coated side and the non coated side especially when watered down. - but you just need to try it for yourself as ripstop varies. It depends what type of finish the nylon has as to how well the paint sticks - but it usually remains permanent - you can scrub as hard as you like but you wont budge much of it - I have tried. You can add water - and I guess you could use a printmakers extender instead of water - if you wanted is to be more translucent but not so runny. When using Lucite for Kite painting it's important too remember that the paint was designed to go on walls and woodwork - it is designed to cover well and it's a bit too opaque. * If you are painting with black or very dark colours - its ok to use the paint thickly - although if its too thick it will just make the kite heavy. * If you are using light colours and pastels - especially yellows - you need to water the paint and use it thinly because other wise it becomes opaque in the sky. * Always try a test piece and hold it up to the light to see what a difference it makes. * Avoid using white paint - it will just look grey and patchy in the sky * Avoid adding white to other colours to make them paler - again they will look dirty in the sky. If you have a chance to buy paint from a firm that mixes colours in store - They usually use a different base paint for light colours than for dark ones. I think that the base for light colours will be more opaque. Try asking them to use the base which is meant for the dark colours but add the light colour dyes - I think that this may give a better result - It just might work. I'm sure they'll tell you if they think it wont. It's best to tell them what you want it for. It may be possible to buy a tin of base paint without colour and use it as a sort of extender base (like you do for printing inks). You would then mix some yellow with some extra base paint if you wanted it to be thinner and paler - but it would still be quite viscous and would sit well on the fabric. Things to think about when planning your design for the kite: You have a chance to do things that you cant do in appliqué - like merge colours and use more uneven shapes. You can drip paint and splash it on too. You can use techniques like stencilling to resist the paint - even bits of scotch tape, masking tape, old newspaper can be used as a resist and then peeled off when the paint has dried. This way you can build up layers of colours. You can use a hair drier to speed up the drying process. Think big scale - not too much detail - it just wont show in the sky But do try to make use of the main advantage the paint has over appliqué techniques - variability and brushstroke. There's not a lot of point in measuring out the kite and painting blocks of colour by number -and it will look patchy and streaky compared to an appliqué! Become a painter - use brushes, sponges, cloths, your fingers, rollers anything you can find - and make the most of the different processes. Sometimes its best to just roll up your sleeves and try it! Don't think for too long. Have fun Pauline Taylor Wilbrink Coatings Uitenhagestraat 85 2571 PV Den Haag Holland T 00 31 70 360 6803 F 00 31 70 364 8803 Contact Izaak Koudstaal Ewald Dorken AG Wetterstrasse 58 D-58313 Herdecke tel 00 32 2332 631 fax 00 32 2466 8735 there's a store in Vienna too with a mixing machine but I don't have the address I should look up where to get it in UK now - I guess its available somewhere - I think it was Leeds Marine Coatings had it.