Edit: Hills using canvas. Was: Anyone know about canvas?

[olicana]

I'm guessing that may have something more to do with paint shrinkage, rather than canvas shrinkage. Perhaps the distortion is due to paint depth on different parts of the canvas. It's one of the primary reasons I'm going to stain it with coloured water, rather than paint it with household emulsion - which was one of my initial thoughts on how to do it. Paint shrinkage on anything can cause warping.

It's going to be an interesting experiment, isn't it?

Reasons for staining:

1: Even shrinkage
2: Ease of application
3: Overall blended effect of colours bleeding into one another and ability to do shading with a light touch.
4: Tea is a cheap dye.

[Atheling]

I'm guessing that may have something more to do with paint shrinkage, rather than canvas shrinkage.

That would be logical. Thing is, you get very little shrinkage with quality (artists) oil paints when compared to acrylics. I think it more likely it was the solvent in the turps

Reasons for staining:

1: Even shrinkage
2: Ease of application
3: Overall blended effect of colours bleeding into one another and ability to do shading with a light touch.
4: Tea is a cheap dye.

Good luck with it all and do post up the end results

[olicana]

I've just noticed that my big garden table umbrella appears to be made of canvas. That gets wet all of the time and doesn't 'distort'. 

[Atheling]

I've just noticed that my big garden table umbrella appears to be made of canvas. That gets wet all of the time and doesn't 'distort'. 

Is it treated? Pre stretched etc?

[olicana]

Also, having thought about pre-dampening the cloth with a hand pumped spray bottle before applying the tea stain (I really like this idea), what about spraying the tea on too. Spraying it on would allow for a lot of gentle tone changes to be going on - and the cloth would probably get less wet and dry quicker.

[Atheling]

Also, having thought about pre-dampening the cloth with a hand pumped spray bottle before applying the tea stain (I really like this idea), what about spraying the tea on too. Spraying it on would allow for a lot of gentle tone changes to be going on - and the cloth would probably get less wet and dry quicker.

A step by step might be nice to see on your blog James, if you can find the time that is?

[olicana]

I do plan on doing that.

Because I haven't a clue how it's all going to turn out I was thinking about doing the job over two or three days and doing a very short post / edit at every stage: A, will they or won't they story of a man and his cloth. 

[Atheling]

I do plan on doing that.

Because I haven't a clue how it's all going to turn out I was thinking about doing the job over two or three days and doing a very short post / edit at every stage: A, will they or won't they story of a man and his cloth. 

 

I look forward to seeing how you go.

[FifteensAway]

Have no idea how your tea and coffee mix will work but when I painted Very Large canvasses for games (6' x 24+') using interior house acrylics, my shrinkage was about 2" or so in width and many feet in length.  Been a lot of years but I think I went from 24' to a bit over 18' in length.  The good thing is, once painted, the canvas lasts 'forever' and stores rolled up.

What I would wonder, cotton canvas being a natural fiber, is whether or not the tea and coffee stain will have any ability to last with out some sort of mordant to 'fix' the color into the fabric.  Maybe they both have some sort of chemical makeup that will create a natural mordant.  If not, you might go to a lot of trouble for what will turn out to be a temporarily colored gaming mat.  Hope someone with better information on this can provide input.

[olicana]

I don't know about how the tea stain will 'fix'. I do know that tea stain is a devil to get out of clothes if you don't catch it quickly.

I don't know where I've heard that khaki uniforms were initially dyed with tea, and I can't find any mention of it on the web. Perhaps it's urban myth: with both khaki and a good deal of tea coming to Britain from India you can see how such a myth might come about.

Fortunately, my table is never in direct sunlight for very long because I always keep the blinds in my wargames room closed to diffuse the light: to stop flags, etc. getting bleached out. Also, in the case of this cloth, it will spend most of its life under my green baize cloth. I'll probably only use it for Crusade, WW2 Western Desert, and some Punic Wars games.

This cloth will actually be replacing some TSS tiles that I painted 'desert' on the blank side, if you get what I mean. I've had them for donkeys years and they are now a bit battered and bent with more than the odd chunk knocked off their edges. Also, they take up too much room and I need the storage space. Here's a pic of what the cloth will be replacing:

[Atheling]

I reckon that as long as you don't wash it it will be fine. Sounds obvious but I've certainly done sillier stuff without thinking 

[olicana]

People wash their battle mats!!!!!!

[Atheling]

People wash their battle mats!!!!!!

No idea really.... I think some of the commercial ones can be lightly washed()

[BillK]

People wash their battle mats!!!!!!

Yep, they do! After viewing some very nice game pics online, I pinged the fellow who posted and asked him about his battle mat; and how he had gotten such subtle, well-mingled colors. He said that after initially coloring the mat (a cotton sheet) with various paints and dyes, it has been re-colored numerous times as the colors faded from washing over the years.

[olicana]

Staining a canvas sheet with tea and coffee to get a desert mat - yeah right!

The whole story here:

http://olicanalad.blogspot.com/2021/08/into-blue-new-playing-surface-for.html

It was an epic struggle. Biblical in proportions. More ups and downs than a Bradford lass's knickers.

Honestly, I'm still not quite sure what happened.