PAINTING ON RIPSTOP (PART 1) The following account is my personal experience, although if anyone knows of any additions or improvements please let me know and I will in turn pass on their tips. Preparation. Ripstop spinnaker nylon the type which I use is Carringtons so I cannot speak for any other brand, the type I use is not the balloon quality and I suspect this would not accept the paint I used so readily. Since the ripstop is coated with silicone this causes some problems with penetration of the paint into the fibres of the fabric, I have discovered that first washing the plain white piece of ripstop in hand hot water with a little washing up liquid not only helps to soften the silicon coating but also removes any oily stains and grease marks which are surprisingly common on the surface of the fabric, if this is then rinsed to remove any residual soap bubbles, and then hung out to dry and finally ironed with a medium iron then you will have your ready to use slightly softened ripstop, I am not sure how much this process affects the porosity of the ripstop but for single line kites the loss of performance will be minimal if any at all. if you are a sports kite maker I must declare that I don't know whether this will affect performance since I haven't used it to make a sports kite. Painting The paint I have used with great success are silk paints the brand I have used are called SETASILK made by PEBEO but I guess any similar heat set silk paints would also work, unfortunately these are quite expensive at around (UK pounds)2.45 for each colour, and unfortunately they don't mix very well often producing muddy colours, the other thing you will need is GUTTAS, guttas are used to divide areas of colour so that the adjacent colour will not run into the next , when used in silk painting they sink right into the silk and produce an impervious layer which the paint cannot penetrate, the same principle applies to ripstop but they are not infallible and small amounts of colour can occasionally migrate along the reinforcing weaves in the ripstop fabric, Guttas are available in two basic types, clear and opaque, the clear variety washes out later, and the opaque type does not, the opaque guttas is usually metallic in colour, silver, gold and copper are common black is also available, in practise on a kite the colour is of little importance since once the kite is flying all colours might as well be black, the effect at ground level close up of course is different. Guttas come in three different forms either as a paint for application with a brush, as a felt pen type marker, or in a toothpaste type tube with a long applicator nozzle, I have not used the pen type although I have heard they are good on silk, the best type I have used come in the tube with the nozzle, they take a little practise but produce clear relatively even lines. Silk paints are quite watery in consistency and therefore they may not always produce a dense colour with only one application, a second coat can often produce a much more rich colour saturation. Once all your painting is complete, you will need to iron the piece of fabric with a medium iron on the back, practise this on a small scrap piece first and try to use quite a hot iron if you can, don't just give it a quick press keep going over the painted areas for a couple of minutes to insure that the paints are well set into the fabric. Above all practise with scrap pieces first and don't be afraid to experiment, the results can be quite impressive. Charlie Charlton **************************************************************** PAINTING ON RIPSTOP (Part 2) I have more recently moved away from silk paints and have been experimenting with fabric paints, with these there is no need for any preparation unless the fabric is particularly dirty of greasy. In addition there is no need to use Gutta to divide areas of different colours. Just paint them on straight from the pot. The Fabric paints I have used are much cheaper than silk paints almost half the price, they are DYLON COLORFUN SOFT FABRIC PAINT they come in 25ml bottles in a wide range of colours including fluorescents. Once dry they need to be ironed on the back to set the colors I have also had a frame made for me on which I can stretch ripstop rather like a painters canvas, the ripstop is attached using staples from a staple gun and when the painting is finished the fabric is cut away and the frame can be re-used ********************************************************************