Thursday, February 4, 2010

Flexible Paint for Vinyl Billboards


I was intrigued by an EcoLogicalART Youtube video where artists painted on used billboards. They used acrylic or oil paint. I wondered about how the paint would stand up long-term. Might be fine for a hanging piece of art, but some of my products get a lot of flexing, and I wondered if there was a paint that would remain flexible when dry.

I went to Industrial Plastics & Paints to pick up some Vynabond for gluing decals, and I found samples of System Three's WR-LPU paint, a high performance waterborne marine coating. I was assured it was flexible, the surface just required sanding first. As it came in trial sizes and was water-based, I just had to try it.

I used it to paint out an undesirable section on a soap tote I was making, and it performed beautifully, just like acrylics. I'm excited by the possibilities of offering custom colours, stencilling and hand-painted items to my repertoire.

The other possibility was Varikote, but it wasn't available in my city.