Wooden American Flag

Been watching all these makers build these beautiful American flags out of wood and wanted to give it a whirl. Surprisingly, as I look at each flag I see subtle differences and each offers a new detail: for instance, one user on Instagram used pallet wood, another did the blue section out of a solid piece of wood, while most used 13 separate strips, while yet another user did a 1/8 inch round-over bit to offer a bit more detail between the stripes. As always, I became consumed with the options and delayed starting the project. Fortunately, I was asked to be in the #woodnessgracious build contest and that forced my hand.

I started off with (13) new 1.5 inch pine strips ($1.48 each at lowes) and I ran the torch over them to make the grain a bit more visible.

The next part was a new technique to me. I took my colors and diluted them with 50% water, and then I applied the paint like stain with a rag. The diluted solution gave the color I wanted and sill allowed the burnt grain was still visible. I didn't apply any paint to the white stripes, and left the natural color for those strips.

After I masked off the blue areas, I made a template for the 50 stars on my plotter. I used the stars as a way to block the paint from getting under the stars. I used the same 50/50 solution for the blue section.

Because the solution was diluted, it did seep under the edges of the stars- this detracted from the crisp sharp lines I was hoping to achieve.

For the most part I was pretty happy with my first attempt, but I am my own worst critic: so in an effort to constantly improve, this is what I would do differently next time. I think I will try the solid piece for the blue area: this will avoid the stars falling on any seems. I will stain the blue section first and then instead of using the stars to block the stain, I would use the background as a stencil and I will spray the stars white- then I would use dark wax to give them an aged look to match the burnt grain. The next two ideas come straight from @whyknotwoodworking, I would frame the entire flag with a nice burnt border and I would try to use the 1/8 inch round-over bit to create the distinction between each stripe.

Keep an eye out for the post of my second attempt!!!