Heraldic Banners

Fabric Banners for Pennsic

June 2004

Explanation

These are some banners of the "heraldry" we made up to show off to our friends at the Pennsic War. You shouldn't infer that we've had any heraldry experts look at this, or that they are authentic attempts at medieval coats of arms.

To the left (or sinister, as they say) are the arms for Señor Miel Conejito (the honey bunny) and to the right (or dexter) are those of Sharon (my kitten).

At the bottom of the page, there are some for our friend Kindly Sir Maugnus, and a Japanese sashimono-style banner for Yama Caffienari (the coffee god of the mountain).

Materials

The fabric for all of these is just thin cotton or muslin. The banners above have eyelets in the corners for display. Sir Maugnus' banner was something of experiment, putting ties in the corners although I'm not sure what for. The sashimono has loops all the way around, and is mounted on actual bamboo. The crosspiece swivels freely.

For applying the art, I used inkjet transfers for dark fabric. These use am opaque white base instead of a clear base, so they wind up looking more like paint. They are more annoying to apply than the clear kind, but still much easier than doing the art by hand, so I love them.