DIY silks

T

Tim Sewell

Well-known member
So I'm looking to build a couple of home-made butterfly frames and silks and I'm balking at paying hundreds of pounds for the fabric just because it comes from a grip supplies company. I'm sure it must be available from a standard fabric shop for much less - but I haven't been able to find out exactly what sort/weight of silk (or more likely rayon) I should look for. Does the DVXUser hive mind have any pointers please?
 
Good point - I guess spray on fire retardant would do the trick. My planned use would be more for diffusion of overhead/intense sunlight, but I do have mainly tungsten lighting kit up to 2K so I guess it's conceivable I would end up using them with that too.

When you say 'sail boat stuff' - is there a proper name for that that I could google?
 
Looking like bridal tulle may be closest to the bobbinette type of fabric used in some scrims. Have ordered some to find out.
 
I just used white ripstop nylon. Seems fine. You could argue that it probably isn't very consistent with what people expect from "full grid," but at some point there's only so many ways to diffuse or bounce light.
 
Thanks Phil - looks good. I've ordered some of that, some sailcloth and some tulle so I can see what works out best. Now all I have to do is source some tubing, elbows and yokes/adaptors for the frames!
 
Tim,

I love DIY, quite a while ago, I made my own Kino Flos, from scratch, sourced ballasts that were better than what Kino used, built the boxes, found reflectors, wired them up myself and they have worked great for more than a decade. But how much is your time worth? I would personally look at these http://cheesycam.com/prostudio-solutions-scrim-diffuser-bounce-kits/ I priced them on Amazon, pretty cheap and look like they would work under normal use, not off a grip truck with a grip crew, not rugged enough, but for small crew and if you treat them kindly, I think these would be fine. A lot of stuff that used to be cost prohibitive is now cheap.
 
Thanks @puredrifting - I do have a couple of similar sets to them - the reason I'm looking at DIY is it seems that anything bigger (I want at least 2m x 2m) really jumps up in price. However, looking for these on Amazon I did come across the Lastolite frames by Manfrotto, which are just over GBP100 and look ideal - I can get a couple of them, which would be cheaper than building the frames myself, then have complete flexibility courtesy of standard fabric suppliers and my daughter's sewing machine!
 
Tim Sewell said:
Thanks @puredrifting - I do have a couple of similar sets to them - the reason I'm looking at DIY is it seems that anything bigger (I want at least 2m x 2m) really jumps up in price. However, looking for these on Amazon I did come across the Lastolite frames by Manfrotto, which are just over GBP100 and look ideal - I can get a couple of them, which would be cheaper than building the frames myself, then have complete flexibility courtesy of standard fabric suppliers and my daughter's sewing machine!
Click to expand...

Glad that worked out for you. DIYing is a lot of fun, but it's the same as the nice YouTube clips showing you how to make your own LED flexible panels. Definitely a fun project but in the end, when we can buy the Kamerar Flexible panels for as little as U.S. $350.00, building my own becomes impractical. So over here, we would call the 2m x 2m a 6x6, not sure if you have shot with overheads that size before but if you have not, exercise caution when shooting outdoors with them, they have a tendency to fly away and take a lot of things with them. We always weight them with a LOT of sandbags and tie them down with ropes as well. It's best if you can assign a PA or grip to watch them or stand on the stands if gusts come up. They are not conducive to run and gun shooting at all, they take a while to put up, safety rig and take down. But they work really well. Noting like utilizing the sun to light your scenes effectively, we usually can't afford the 6k and 8ks and the generators needed.
 
The material used in making sails is called Dacron....if there's a place near you that builds sails, you can probably get old sailcloth from them for nothing....the advantage is that with time and use, the Dacron softens...and if yo got one sail from say a 25 to 35 foot sailboat, you would have more material than you'd know what to do with....very strong....impervious to sunlight and you can test the safe distance to tungsten lights easily enough...or just on Ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Jib-Sail-Fa...ash=item33c1b676d5:g:nFkAAOSwUEVYD4EW&vxp=mtr
 
I made the frames very simply and quickly using one-inch aluminium tube and a type of clamp intended for retail clothing display rails. The only special requirement was to replace the screws that secure the clamps with handwheels so they can easily be fastened without tools. Works nicely and took very little time to make - I got the tube cut to length.

You need to be very careful with the fabrics, particularly with plastic stuff (like that tulle almost certainly is) as it can melt as well as catch fire.
 
A progress report:

The Lastolite 2m square frame arrived. Gosh! 2m is actually quite big, isn't it! Anyway - the fabric samples also arrived and to my eye there are 3 types worth pursuing. The bridal tulle will, I think, work very well for diffusing daylight with very little loss of luminance. The ripstop parachute nylon looks like an excellent choice to diffuse a lighting instrument (I have a 2.5k tungsten fixture I picked up on eBay arriving soon) and, lastly, plain old white muslin looks like a good in-between choice (and obviously makes for an excellent bounce as well).

So I now just have to find these fabrics in 2m wide rolls and order sufficient to make the panels - I'm thinking iron-on velcro will be the best (and easiest) solution for fixing to the frame.

BTW - Thanks Phil - I didn't think of those clamps - will have a look and maybe save on buying a second Lastolite frame!
 
A lot of us favor unbleached muslin, just like I like my old Chimera medium softbox. After a decade or two, the formerly pure white front diffusion element begins to yellow and fade and the color of light is nice and warm.
 
Since you intend to use the rags outdoors consider testing how noisy the fabrics are in the wind.

Rag vendors often refer to their wares as 'silent', & others "noisey", with "silent" typically be preferred for outdoor work.

Not sure how much luck you'll have finding 2 meter wide fabric as most seem to come in 4' wide rolls, which are sewn together to form bigger panels.
 
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