A plan comes together...

[khiemtran]

For the last two weeks, Liem and I have been working on giving Shearwater, our Mirror dinghy, her final touches. Last week, we sanded off her old name and prepared the surface with white paint. This week, we're going to paint on her new name in its place.



Our first plan was to prepare a stencil, based on Liem's bubble writing...



We also wanted to add in a streaked shearwater silhouette, based on a photo I took at Cape Solander. Here are some early sketches.



We then made a stencil from a print of the photo. The cut out bit is now blue-tacked to our kitchen wall.



Testing out the stencils. The name stencil (upside down on the bottom of the box) didn't work at all. It turned out the lines were too fine and the paint crept in under the paper. Likewise, painting freehand with a largish brush (the text on the top) didn't look any good either.



The shearwater silhouette came out a bit better, but it still looked pretty rough. On the top of the box, you can see where I tried sketching directly onto the box and then cutting in with a fine brush. This seemed to work best of all, although I don't have the brush skills to keep it all within the lines.



Sunday is the big day. I've sketched the name onto the transom. I put some masking tape around the edges to de-risk things, but I'm still pretty nervous. Any mistake is going to be highly visible.



After I've done the outline with the fine brush, Liem fills in the letters...



Nearly done...



Success! (At least from a distance!) Now for the shearwater silhouette...



I use the stencil to trace the outline in pencil, then paint an outline in "cherry red".



Liem captures my concentration...



Now, it's Liem's turn...



The final result. It looks pretty rough up close, but hopefully it will be okay when seen from a distance. The lower wingtip might end up just under the waterline too. We put one on each side. The real test will be how it looks in the water, but I guess we'll be painting the hull again anyway in a few months, so we'll have a chance to adjust it as necessary. I wonder if it might look better further aft, or else smaller and further forward. (We're constrained by the shape of the hull, which gets narrower the further forward it goes...)

Comments

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Well, I am impressed! It's better than I could do.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

I think we've learned a lot about how to do it now. Of course, being a wooden boat, we'll probably need to repaint it in a few moths anyway, so we'll get a chance to try again...

[marina-bonomi.livejournal.com]

It looks pretty good to me. :)

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Thank you! The next test will be how it looks on the water...

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

I love, love, love that you have done this together. :D

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

Liem was great! I was so proud of the way he stuck to it, and didn't lose patience or concentration.

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

(That's both of us love-love-loving---I made my comment without seeing yours!)

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Aww, gorgeous! I love-love-love the shearwater's silhouette, and you and Liem did such a careful, beautiful job.

[khiemtran.livejournal.com]

It was a lot of fun, and I was amazed at how careful Liem was (although that always has been one of his traits). We haven't seen it in the water yet, but hopefully we'll be able to take her out for a sail next weekend.