I’m in Los Verdes, a supporters group for Austin FC, the local MLS team. Several times a year, we create large art pieces called tifos and raise them during games. Here are some of my favorites from previous years to give you context of the size.
These start out as 5’ bolts of fabric, cut down and sewn together into roughly 50’ by 50’ sections. Once we get them all sewn together, we create a grid on the fabric so we can transfer the image accurately.
We did this today, and it didn’t go great. So I’m curious how y’all would approach creating a 50’ by 50’ grid on fabric.
Key things to be aware of:
We typically have to do this outside, so laser levels are difficult to see (or at least the ones we’ve tried)
We have to stretch the fabric to ensure accurate lines, so we need a large space, so it’s typically done in a parking lot, so staking is also out
How we approach this currently:
Snap a chalkline across the longest side.
Use a square to run/ chalk a perpendicular line
Repeat on the other three corners until we release we have an out-of-square mess
Spend 15 minutes trying to figure out what went wrong
Kind of eyeball it until it’s roughly square
Mark out 1’ distance on all four sides
Snap out chalkline grid
Thoughts? Is there a better way to approach this?
Also, if I still have your attention and you know of any indoor spaces that can accommodate a 2500sq ft canvas, let me know as we’re always looking for painting spaces!
Just a thought… Measure both of your diagonals and when they are equal you’ve got a rectangle or square. Using the intersection of your equal half-diagonals should be the center. Chalkline plus and minus 6" from your center every 1’ thereafter. I’d be happy to sit down with you and a CAD tool and diagram up what you currently do and see if anything I’ve said would help.
I’d use nylon rope or mason line or something to tie a big square with an X through it (the diagonals of a 50’ square should be around 70.5’ if my math holds). Mark 1’ intervals on the four sides with Sharpie. Then you just need four people to pull the corners out and you can mark all your grid, fill in grid lines with chalk line as you have been.
Interesting, I’ve never really considered using the diagonals as a way to measure. It’s a little challenging as every design is a different size (this one is probably closer to 100’ x 40’ split into two 50’ x 40’ panels), but it would probably work better than what we’re doing.
If you used flat strap material for the diagonals and also mark the one foot measurements along the outside of the square you might be able to skip marking the fabric and snap chalk lines directly from the rope jig marks. Maybe also use sandbags to hold down the corners to keep them stable and free up people if needed.
