When I developed this style wrap a half decade back, I thought a lot of folks would try their hands at it. If they did, I never heard much about it. It didn't seem to really catch on, perhaps due to the difficulty of securing the thread in the desired pattern. Recently I ran the old photo on the cover of the magazine, to give it one more shot in the arm. Today Matthew Smith shot a few photos of his attempt at a free form wrap and posted them to the photo page. I didn't notice the color change over the background at first. It's a nice touch and opens up even more possibilities for this method.

He can fill in the details, but I believe he's using color preserver to hold his thread in place.

[www.rodbuilding.org]


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Nice job Matthew!


I posted the following pic back in Dec. 05. Lousy photography but ya get the idea. I used metallic thread & cemented the thread with CP. I surely would go about it differently now.

[www.rodbuilding.org]

Raymond Adams
Eventually, all things merge, and a river runs through it..

I got the pleasure of seeing this rod last week in person. Matt did a great job and the color change made a very nice variation to the wrap.

Thanks Guys.

Yes I am using CP and putting it on fairly wet, then go back and dry brush the heavy spots carefully so as not to have too much build-up. Just going free-form is pretty easy as you can twist and loop the thread into the wet CP and blot it down with a soft brush, but I tried writing my name with the thread and it is much more challenging. I could probably get it done but to make it look good would need alot of stop-and-waits to let the CP dry, where with the free-form you could do the whole pattern without stopping in just a few minutes.

I did also find it easier to do with NCP white over a dark background. The NCP just seems to be a little smoother going on.

Matt Smith
Greensboro, NC

Not for nothing but I have written my name with thread.

I used Elmer's Wood Glue thinned out at least 25 percent so it did not dry white. A drop of it where i wanted the thread to stay put and a hot low hair dryer set it. It had more adhesion then CP.

I used two good coats of white paint - thread will do also. CP if wanted and then a good coat of clear.

This way when I used a razor blade to cut the thread I did not go into the lower layers and have different colors showing up.

Should have taken pictures but needed the scrap piece for female ferrules and had to clean it all off.

Bill - willierods.com

Recently say some posted on a board out this direction using the freehand technique. It is alive and well just doesnt seem to get as much attention as some other thread art forms do but it does have a lot of area for experimentation.

I've been experimenting with the technique using that flat kalidescope thread and using gold leaf size to anchor it down and its been working good, havent had time to mess with it for a couple weeks though

I suppose it will take some time for it to really catch on - it's not terribly easy and due to there not being any "patterns" to follow it requires some amount of personal creativity. All in due course, I suppose. Six years out I thought it would have gone a lot further by now, however.

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I think you hit both nails on the head! I gave it a try early on when you first unveiled it and got a little frustrated trying to get the thread to stay where I wanted it. Plus I am not a very creative person and with no patterns or instructions to follow I felt a little lost. On the other hand when the Throop Tiger Wrap came out the instructions were blunt and to the point and the only creativity needed on my part was in color selection. So that ended up being something I could do a lot more easily and know before hand what the results would be.

I do plan to come back to the free form stuff later when I get more ideas and have more time. I'm sure there is a lot to be done with this technique that has yet to scratch the surface. FWIW I thought it was noble of you not to name it after yourself, which you could have done. You have done a lot to see that others get credit for their innovative techniques so I was impressed that you did not take this wide open opportunity to do the same for yourself. You should have. There are a lot of possibilities there.

I have done several recently and found that the most challenging part was reapplying glue stick to the thread without tugging on the thread I already had in place. I was using Elmers extra strength glue stick and while it held the thread down well you just could not coat 3-4 feet and have it stay tacky long enough do do a good length of freeform. Other than that its a cool technique
1 more trick for wrap possibilities

I have done one with success, I found it to be the easiest if cp is applied first then the thread is glued on. This allows the glue to hold the thread in place better, then i applied a second coat of cp before finish. It was easier to manage the second attemp. I used a tooth pick to hold the thread In place until the glue held.

On a couple of rods I wrote names free form and stuck them down with CP. The trick I used back then was to tie the threads in place with long strands of my wife's hair - taken with permision of course! - and removed the hair once the CP had set.

Ken,

I named it what I did primarily because I wanted a name that was descriptive of the method itself.

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