The brief is to make a banner for some loyal Reds using a favourite quote from a song by Liverpool legend Ian McNabb.
The banner is to have a traditional feel, with a large Liverbird featured along with six stars and, most importantly, two eternal flames in honour of the 96.
Day 1 in
After a few messages back and forth, we agreed a design and I have begun creating stencils while I wait on a fabric delivery.
As I already had plenty of yellow in stock, I was able to get ahead on the tricky bit, marking up and cutting the Liverbird. Normally I do this after the lettering, but as the yellow is all I have to work on at the moment, I decided to start here.
Also cut 6 stars ready to adorn the flag, and a seventh to supply along with it to be added after future European success.
Day 2
Cracked on today by making lettering stencils. This design is quite a wordy one, so there is a LOT of cutting to do. My methods are quite laborious – I’ll have to cut all these out again in felt when I’ve marked it up. This is what takes most time in making a banner, but it is one of those tasks you can just switch off to.
Managed to finish all the smaller lettering which is destined for the bottom of the banner. The larger lettering for the top of the flag is tomorrow’s job. Goodnight!
Day 3
Managed to finish making the letter stencils today, and then moved on to the eternal flames. These are quite fiddly and complex, and given the importance of what they represent, I worked on them with all the care and reverence they deserve.
Day 4
Very happy to receive a delivery of white felt this morning which means I can crack on with the lettering. Finished the big ones, little ones will take me a few hours more.
Now finished all my cutting on this job. Looking at the next few photos, you’d be forgiven for thinking I’d finished, but there is a lot of meticulous work still to go on this one – it has to be carefully measured so that everything is perfectly symmetrical and the gaps between letters and words are consistent. Those are tomorrow’s jobs though. It’s beer o’clock. ?
Day 5 & 6
Spent yesterday and today meticulously measuring and marking positions, then measuring a second time before fixing the designs and lettering in place. I’m delighted with the end result… I hope the customer will be too!
Eugene Monaghan