Painted Bows lets see them

[Swissbow]

@Semo: The only tattoo I ever have designed is tho one around my arm. But I like tribal tattoos and I like to draw so the two come together. I have a few ideas about archery and tribal designs but haven't really worked it out until now.

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Andy

[twitchstick]

Hey this is great stuff. Thanks for the info b.glass agian. I have almost finished up some painting obligations and it about time to do some bow work.

[sadiejane]

b.glass-thanks. i also used natural earth pigments(from another source)on the bow. it came out as i wanted(tho i did experiment on a scrap of rawhide glued to a scrap of osage first). used hide glue for the fixer/medium. and covered with tru oil(which i also used on the test piece). worked great. tho the tru oil leaves a shiny coat, i found 0000 steel wool fixes that right up. will post some pix here later. thanks everyone! let's see some more of yr painted bows  please.

[sadiejane]

heres a cupla pix. one of the bow right after paint. you can see the "test" piece to the left. what the bow looked more like after finishing with tru oil.
 
the tools used to paint. what you dont see is a small film canister that i mixed the hot water and knox in, dipped the brush in it, then into the powdered pigment. worked real well, as long as i kept the glue hot enuf. there were a few tiny globs that came off easily with steel wool after drying.
 

[b.glass]

Ha! Knox! I hadn't been happy with how "hide glue" changed the color of my pigments so I was research alternatives a couple of days ago when I came across Pat B. on another site discussing knox. I thought "Of course!" it's clear and "hide glue". I was planning on testing it out today.

Very nice paint work Sadie. Are you going to add a full draw pic?

[sadiejane]

b. yeah i need to get someone to take some pix of me drawing that bow. it really shoots sweet. im happy so far.
yeah i most always use knox for my hide glue. its cheap and readily available. before i decided on the design on this bow. i took a large sheet of butcher paper and drew a half dozen outlines of the bow. then drew in designs i was thinking about and painted em. used the pigments to get as accurate a rendition as it would look on the bow. liked several but wanted something simple.
since this is my first rawhide backed bow, and first painted bow, did that test sample seen in the pic. really wanted to be sure how everything was gonna work together before i put paint to bow.

[b.glass]

I did similar things but not as meticulous as you. And now I'm try to figure out what to do to make it look better as I go.   :rolleyes:  I used your technique and added some red and painted over the yellow and my design is looking much better already. I'm trying to decide how to add some white to make the whole design stand out more. Thanks for sharing your knowledge.

[sadiejane]

really looking forward to seeing yr painted bow b.

[Ironfist_Canada]

Holly and Ivy on the handle of this Hickory backed Longbow.

[Lee Slikkers]

Nice work folks...and thanks for sharing some of your hard work and "recipes."

[twitchstick]

More good stuff.

[b.glass]

I had trouble getting a good picture of the paint work. With flash, without flash, anyway I hope you get an idea of how it turned out.

[apecos]

heres my short 48" sinew backed osage. painte with natural pigments.

[b.glass]

Whoa! Very nice!

[twitchstick]

Cool Stuff apecos. I was just looking at some juniper I have and I can only see a short bow in it. I had been thinking something with american indian design would be fitting. I have Blackfoot and Puite in my blood lines and was thinking using a design from ether of them but I just haven't come accrossed what I want to use yet. B.glass that is looking great I like the colors.

[Mike Yancey]

I like apecos!!

[sadiejane]

wow, more great looking painted bows-both of em! thanks

yeah b, i have yet to figure out how to get good pix of bows. a challenge for sure.

[sadiejane]

ok, here's a few more lame attempts at getting pix of this bow. still havent gotten a full draw...
 
 
 
my "signature"
 

hope to see many more painted bows in this thread
thanks for getting er started!

[apecos]

thanks for the great comments fellas. the designs i do on my bows are inspired by my native tribe/pueblo pottery makers and the designs they have been using for generations.

couple more pics for you all. Strung w/arrows and full draw.

[b.glass]

Sadie, very nice looking bow! I like it alot!

Apecos, also, again, very nice bow and paint! Do you mind telling me if you mask off what you don't want paint on?