BCL Report – Nov 28, 2008

We spent the afternoon testing nylon rope and other materials in a fence

We spent the last couple of daylight hours on Friday working with rope and one of the fences at LeBel. We needed to test some techniques for communicating via rope (or ribbon, as we later decided) on a fence for another project. After moving inside to the warmth, we also settled on a preferred material, our message, and a potential location. 

Immony holding the rope we'll use

Immony kept our 100′ of rope contained while we tried to determine a fence on which to test.

Immony, Michelle, Danielle, and Steven begin sorting out the 100 feet of rope we'll use in the fence

Immony, Michelle, Danielle, and Steven being to sort out the rope and work on some knot-techniques.

Danielle, Michelle, and Steven measure some of the rope on the fence

Danielle, Steven, and Michelle work on the first letter of our test—we decided to spell out “ROPE”…

Steven and Michelle work out the logistics of the rope in the fence to create the R

Steven and Michelle consult on the feed-through technique to get the rope on the fence.

Michelle works on the R

Michelle makes the top of the R; we were working backwards in preparation of our eventual installation location.

Danielle secures the bottom of the R

Danielle secures the bottom of the R.

Steven suggested looking at the rope being backlit, as this would be the regular view when the rope is installed

Danielle and Michelle knot the end of the R to the next length of rope.

Danielle and Michelle work out the knotting system

Knot technique.

Justin tries to help Michelle and Danielle with the rope

I stepped in to try to help feed the rope through the fence.

Steven starts working with his red mylar ribbon

Steven came out with some mylar ribbon and began working on a second test site.

Steven works threading his mylar ribbon through the fence

The ribbon was a bit more difficult to work with, in terms of feeding it through the fence, though Steven seemed confident he could fashion a needle with a coat hanger to help feed the ribbon.

Michelle and Danielle begin attempting to use the lighter instead of knots

Danielle and Michelle attempted working with a lighter to avoid having to tie knots.

documenting Justin documenting Danielle

Danielle measures out the O.

Immony gets his mad skills working on other letters

Immony begins to work on another iteration of rope-letter technique—the bubble letter.

Steven continues with his ribbon expertise

Steven tries to keep the ribbon folded in half to keep the shiny side out.

Steven and Immony keep working while Danielle, Michelle and I take a step back

Halfway through the parking lot, the yellow rope definitely doesn’t stand out as much as the ribbon.

the look of the fence from the road

I don’t think the photo does either rope or ribbon justice, both stood out fairly well from the road.

Immony works on his bubble letters technique

Immony moves forward with his bubble letter technique.

Steven and Justin work on ribbon with the fence

I try to assist Steven with keeping the ribbon straight.

Immony working on his bubble letter

Immony moves fast.

Taking a step back to talk about the ribbon vs the rope

There was something about the ribbon against the fence that had a better effect, on top of just being more visible. I liked that it looked almost as if it could have been blown up against the fence rather than just being tied to it.

the results of the test

We were happier with the ribbon, though we’ll likely execute the final version of this with a neon (or at least a brighter colour) ribbon. The rope has potential, but it seemed that it was a bit more difficult to work with and the technique to make it be more visible from a distance would have to be further developed.

8 Replies to “BCL Report – Nov 28, 2008”

  1. i kind of like the rope better actually. but the ribbon does stand out more like you said. would be interesting to do it with found garbage too, like coffee cups and just stick them in the fence. i don’t know… it’s late and i have too much energy. : )

    i’m looking forward to meeting up and being more creative. since i have way too much energy lately

  2. If you use nylon rope instead of the poly you could dye it any colour you choose or check out marine stores for coloured nylon dock or anchor lines. Nylon is also more flexible than poly. It will stretch, bend and form much better

  3. Hmmmm… interesting idea to dye the nylon rope… I think we were torn about the thickness of the rope vs its flexibility (less of a problem if we were to use nylon like you suggested, BBS), but to get the visibility we’re hoping for, we would have to double or triple the letters with rope (at 1/4″ anyways), where we might be able to do it in one pass with the ribbon.

    I also think it would’ve made for a better comparison had we actually finished a word with the ribbon.

    And actually, this Flagging Tape is probably closer to what we’d like to use than “ribbon.”

  4. ooouu the flagging tape is only $5.97!
    We should go to Canadian Tire and check out the nylon rope and/or buy flagging tape.

  5. agreed… I think we could definitely stand to do one more (short) test with the flagging tape… I think the orange could actually work quite well, though I’ll certainly look for some neon…

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