Sunday 5 October 2014

Flint dashing...

Mornin' all.  Just wondering, as I do.
On the way to and from the wee break last week, we saw some superb examples of typically Norfolk flint dashed churches and farm buildings.  Many years ago, I made a small smithy, using Maw seeds, but they make great full flints.  Churches are knapped flints, so generally greyish with the stark blackness of the faces of half flints.
I confess, I am all out of good ideas, any ideas at all actually.

What have any of you clever devils done, considered, thought of, heard of?  Care to share?
I can't ask on forums as I've been kicked off 'em :-)
For instance:-----

6 comments:

  1. That church looks fascinating. Of the flint-knapped examples that I have seen, there is little relief, so perhaps if you made yourself a cut-down paintbrush ferrule tool like Emannuel Nouaillier, you could emboss foam board and then dry-brush it afterwards? It might work even better if you used the sort of foamboard clad with paper and stripped that off...just sayin' ...:-)

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  2. Hmmm, there is certainly less relief with flint dashing. I had considered a photo realistic print on paper, then glue on, like brick paper/Scalescenes type stuff. It depends on whether the dashing is in panels or whole walls. The tube impressions technique would be a little too regular I think.

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  3. I know nothing about poppies I swear to god!
    Thought, Have you considered using garnet paper or some similar abrasive form there of? Could use it to emboss or simply stipple on painted surface? I have no idea what I'm talking about so please feel free to ignore .....
    How about budgie gravel? Just sayin'

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  4. Rich, you might just have it sussed there, old son. Especially with Foamex and careful paint! I'll gi' it a try. Thanks.
    (People...Rich is my oldest friend and we've never met! Such friends are priceless)

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  5. Martin, Don't know if this went through the first time or not. Also I don't know scale double ought nine or whatever is so it's a crap shoot from my end.(I think I made a funny there didn't I?)
    Had another think about it and why not try using ceramic tile grout (it comes in many flavours and colours) and mixing it with some white carping glue diluted with water and applying it with a palette knife (Spatula) You could check out your local ceramic tile shop and see what they have as I know you can buy smallish bags for short money. N'other idea would be using swimming pool surfacing grout. That is sort of like tile grout but the bags are a bit large but it's water proof.
    Thanks for the compliment old chum but I'm far from priceless,,, more or less simply really expensive. (chortle)

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  6. Now you're almost in Iain's territory, Rich. He's the master of spreading and scribing. I think the grout method would be useful as an infill, instead of just painting.
    The Foamex takes impression very well, so I like the sand paper/budgie paper method for knapped flints. For un-knapped flints, maybe resin block could be cast on the sand paper and then used as an impression tool to get a negative, leaving flints sticking OUT of the surface, like some of the smaller churches and domestic buildings.

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