Naming boats is never easy, especially for eager new owners. It is a task that requires great care. Wooden boat name plates make this process a little bit easier, as Names for sailboats, no matter how trivial they appear at first, define the boat, its owner, and their legacy. Some of the boat names are unique and interesting, while others miss the mark completely. We’ve named many boats over the years. Here are few suggestions, simpler is always better. Avoid names with many letters.
Choose a font which is appropriate for your vessel and the dimensions of the installation area. For example, some elegant scripts are not well suited for boat naming because the letters have very big ascenders and descenders. Vertical space is always a contraints on wooden boat name plates. Tall fonts just don’t fit well.
Choose a color or two colors which look good together, avoid red/blue combinations. If you wish to include some sort of graphical element, just choose one simple idea to include with the lettering. Multiple graphics can make the boat look too busy, or random in appearance.
lastly, choose gold leaf! It’s the best material we have and when we use it your boat name, big or small, will look absolutely beautiful.
Our wooden boat name plates last…
a long time with proper care, and they always look great!
The letters on these wooden boat name plates are not carved. However, the boards still look great because we used 23 karat gold leaf. The outline and shadow are applied by hand with black one shot lettering enamel.
Mechanical Gilding
The term mechanical gilding refers to the processes of preparing gold leaf, as well as attaching the gold to surfaces mechanically. Burnishing, water gilding, and oil-gilding are the techniques used by wood carvers and gilders; and the gilding techniques used by artists, sign painters, and bookbinders.
Gesso and Size
Gilding on wood requires gesso to be applied first. The term “gesso” refers to a mixture of finely ground gypsum or chalk and glue. Thee coating of gesso is applied, allowed to dry, and then it smoothed with light sanding. Oil based size it applied with a brush and allowed to rest until a suitable degree of stickiness is achieved. The gold leaf is applied at this point, when the size it not too whet and not too dry.
