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jepe suzette - Posted - 04/25/2012: 12:51:32
I've just completed my first Banjo head and I was wondering what were other peoples ideas, I't isn't really common place these days and i'm eager to get going on another one what have you decorated your banjo head with?
Couchie - Posted - 04/25/2012: 13:04:38
Very beautiful and inspiring Mathew. I have seen a number of decorated heads over the years, yours stands up very well indeed.
Don Couchie.
beegee - Posted - 04/25/2012: 13:20:15
I decorate my banjo heads with wear.
JedZeppelin - Posted - 04/25/2012: 13:22:51
I've been wanting to put a design on the inside of a clear banjo head, but need someone with the talent to do it. I'm also concerned with how tensioning the head will affect the paint, and how the paint would affect the sound. Has anyone done this already?
PapaSapps - Posted - 04/25/2012: 13:56:12
Nice work!
I'm in the process of putting a blue crab on mine. I'll throw it on here when I'm done.
Fathand - Posted - 04/25/2012: 14:03:55
Can this uke be changed to a banjo?
daytripper - Posted - 04/25/2012: 14:59:22
I've trotted this pic out a few times in the last few months - it's a vinyl sticker on the back of a frosted head so it won't wear out and also gives a nice muted effect which I like.
JackJack - Posted - 04/25/2012: 15:22:17
I like the birds! If you want to make anything look better, you can always put a bird on it. 
I did this a few years ago. It's almost all worn off and ready to re-ink.
SWCooper - Posted - 04/25/2012: 15:40:18
I'm contemplating drawing a little Celtic knotwork on my banjo head. Can't decide whether to put it on the front and let it wear with the rest, or put it on the back for subtler look.
What's the weapon of choice here, Sharpie?
stigandr5 - Posted - 04/25/2012: 15:53:17
That looks great! I like the subtlety of your design.
I've been interested in designs on banjo heads ever since I saw what Scott Avett (of the Avett Brothers) does with his banjos. I also got the chance to see one of Richie Stearns's banjos that had a neat paint job/design on it.
I'm pro-banjo decoration.
RogerA - Posted - 04/25/2012: 16:34:05
Check out MSFeller on Youtube, he has a tutorial video that shows how to paint a banjo head. He is really into confederate flags and has an amazing southern accent. If either of those offend you be warned.
bkdraft - Posted - 04/25/2012: 17:34:51
I had a vinyl decal made that says Maple Blossom and put it on my head to see how it looked. I am thinking about doing in Calligraphy, one of my other many hobbies.
I was going to take my banjo to the Deering Factory on Friday and get Janet and Greg to sign it, but.....they left this morning for South Carolina, bummer.
jepe suzette - Posted - 04/26/2012: 06:19:59
Thanks everybody got some great ideas for my girlfriends banjo next week, bit of advice stay away from the sharpie pens the ink is too thick for a frosted head which leads to bleeding they might be better on a more porous suface like a vellum head. I have some celtic animals planned and maybe some writing in old gaelic
Jim Yates - Posted - 04/26/2012: 08:22:49
Sharpies work fine on Fiberskin heads. Good for autographs as well as graphics.
jbalch - Posted - 04/26/2012: 10:39:03
You should consider using a natural hide head as your canvas. Back in the jazz banjo days, lots of folks decorated their skin banjo heads with ink drawings of flappers, school names, signatures, etc.
I'm no artist....
But I traced a simple Celtic Knot on a dyed calfskin head. It was actually drawn on the bottom side using a sharpie pen. The design was visible from the top because this hide was mostly transluscent. I got the idea from a young banjo player I saw busking in New Orleans. She had a very beautiful Celtic knot hand drawn on her head. It looked great. See attached.
OldTimeGal - Posted - 04/26/2012: 10:45:59
I recently decorated my Remo banjo head with dip pen drawing inks (but used a fine hand brush, not a steel nib), picture below. There's been natural wear from finger placement, but otherwise so far so good. I wonder if anyone has compiled an index of decorated banjo heads/technique, would be a good resource.
JedZeppelin - Posted - 04/26/2012: 19:43:26
I just went ahead and ordered a banjo head from OleRed via eBay. This is what he expects it to look like. Gotta say, I'm really looking forward to this. I've wanted this design on a banjo head since I first saw it.
jepe suzette - Posted - 04/27/2012: 02:40:12
I really like your celtic knot, pity its near to impossible to get a fibreskin head around here never mind a calf skin!
Banjo Hero - Posted - 04/27/2012: 07:40:43
I wish I had the eye/hand coordination for to do one of them fancy Celtic knotwork designs. Alack and alas.
I had a head on my old banjo with a peace symbol on it. The trouble was figuring out how I could off-set it so's to remain recognizable when being played, and have the finger-plant area fall as much as possible in the white space. I think I rotated it slightly clockwise, as seen if I had it in my lap and was playing, probably thirty degrees, and off-center down and left; the middle of the design fell around the fifth-string end of the bridge, IIRC. I dunno, I thought it looked cool.
Had another one that I put a yin-yang on, but ended up hooked on Sharpie by the end of that project ;)
Oh, I like that dragon, too, and that cool woodstock-looking bird under the head. Hell, they're all nice :D
Banjo Hero - Posted - 04/27/2012: 08:13:48
Hey, Fathand,
How's this?
mcjones - Posted - 04/27/2012: 09:02:17
I'm not an artist either, but the wife is a professional portrait artist... so I commissioned her to do a portrait of our bulldog, Dumbledore, on this Backyard Banjo. It's oil on panel (her favorite combination of media and one that lends itself to detail) with a painted profile of the dog on the peghead and some other details elsewhere on the pot. It now plays like any other quality +$1,000 banjo!
I'm waiting for her to do a second portrait, but this time of his sister, Hermione.
Jim Yates - Posted - 04/27/2012: 16:00:33
quote:
Originally posted by Banjo Hero
Hey, Fathand,
How's this?
Are you rum drinkers, Fathand and Banjo Hero?
Edited by - Jim Yates on 04/27/2012 16:02:07
SWCooper - Posted - 04/27/2012: 16:19:59
Sailor Jerry was a great and famous skin artist.
Your wife's got it right, mcjones. In addition to being no mean dog painter, she's got the design running so it reads right when you play. I'm surprised how many decorated heads only read right when they're upright and out of action.
What kind of posture is that for a banjo?
OldTimeGal - Posted - 04/27/2012: 17:38:36
quote:
Originally posted by mcjones
I'm not an artist either, but the wife is a professional portrait artist... so I commissioned her to do a portrait of our bulldog, Dumbledore, on this Backyard Banjo. It's oil on panel (her favorite combination of media and one that lends itself to detail) with a painted profile of the dog on the peghead and some other details elsewhere on the pot. It now plays like any other quality +$1,000 banjo!
I'm waiting for her to do a second portrait, but this time of his sister, Hermione.
Soo cool - did your wife need to put a finish over the oil?
Banjo Hero - Posted - 04/27/2012: 21:35:36
Nah, I was just playing with the pic that fathand put up. Not huge on rum. I mean, I'll drink it if it's there and all, don't get me wrong, but I prefer my liquor of the poteen variety, you know, uisce beatha (or "whiskey," if you insist on English)
Fun fact: the Irish "uisce beatha" translates literally as "water of life." The Russian word that comes into English as "vodka" means just about the same. 'Least, that's what some Russkie tole me once ;)
Dammit, now I'm thirsty.
mcjones - Posted - 04/30/2012: 10:29:05
quote:
Originally posted by OldTimeGal
quote:
Originally posted by mcjones
I'm not an artist either, but the wife is a professional portrait artist... <yada yada yada> It's oil on panel (her favorite combination of media and one that lends itself to detail) yada yeda yada.
Soo cool - did your wife need to put a finish over the oil?
It's finished with several coats of clear varnish, maybe 5 or so at the finger positions, three elsewhere. Even with that I put clear tape at the contact point with the bridge. The bridge vibrations scuff the surface and eventually would have broken through to the paint otherwise. The dog likes to be scratched, but...
Michael
Fathand - Posted - 05/01/2012: 07:23:43
Fabulous, I want one. I may even consider getting a tat as that is the closest I have ever come to finding something I would wear forever.
quote:
Originally posted by Banjo Hero
Hey, Fathand,
How's this?
Fathand - Posted - 05/01/2012: 07:29:08
I am but I was actually saving that Graphic for a motorcycle tank.
quote:
Originally posted by Jim Yates
quote:
Originally posted by Banjo Hero
Hey, Fathand,
How's this?
Are you rum drinkers, Fathand and Banjo Hero?
Jim Yates - Posted - 05/07/2012: 08:15:36
quote:
Originally posted by Jim Yates
quote:
Originally posted by Fathand
I am but I was actually saving that Graphic for a motorcycle tank.
_____________________________________________________
I might've guessed that a Dover resident would own a motorcycle. Are you looking forward to the second Friday in July? I've never been there on the 13th, but my next door neighbour takes his Harley down every Friday the 13th.
Edited by - Jim Yates on 05/07/2012 08:17:41
Jim Yates - Posted - 05/07/2012: 15:01:07
Wednesday is Banjolele Night at the Corktown Uke Jam in Toronto. Here's a Packmanjolele:
OldTimeGal - Posted - 06/04/2012: 19:52:46
Anyone on this thread with banjo illustrations, can I have permission to add your images to the "Banjo Head Decoration" Group Forum image collection folders? (plus any process details would be nice:-)
Kind regards,
Old Time Gal
