Stencils have long been manufactured by expropriated methods such as die-cutting, routing, laser-cutting, engraving, exposing by ultraviolet light, developing, and etching. Some of the earliest stencils used by professional painters were cut out by knife from paperboard or cardboard such as Manila-board impregnated to be oil resistant to a degree, since, at that time, most of the paints used with stencils to illustrate and decorate walls and furniture were oil based. More recently, stencils were die cut from vinyl and polypropylene plastic sheets, which results in stencils that are resistant to water-based acrylic and latex paints. Because of the limitations of die making, routing, cutting, and plotting, the original artwork embodied in the stencil has had to be modified and adapted. For example, sharp corners and small diameter holes were not possible. Because of this inconvenience, the industry more recently has moved to laser-cut stencils, which is an improvement and finer details are achievable. Another group of stencils is stencils formed of copper, messing, or stainless steel that has been chemically etched to form the stencil mask.
The most common drawback of today's stencil technology is the necessity to bridge every non-connected part of the stencil mask to the main body of the stencil material to hold these otherwise free-floating parts in place. This results, however, in a bridged transformation of the original artwork when the stencil is used to apply a design because the bridges mask paint and result in unpainted voids or gaps in what should be painted areas of the design. Typically, this can only be corrected by sequential overlaying use of up to three stencils, with the decorator layering the paint, or other color material in steps to obtain the original design. This is not only cumbersome and time consuming, it often results in a less than pleasing design due to difficulties of overlaying subsequent stencils accurately, matching the paint precisely from layer to layer, and similar problems.
Another drawback of prior art stencil manufacturing is that, since the stencil is formed by a cutting knife, die-cutting, laser-cutting, engraving, routing or some other subtractive technique, the inner parts that are cut away are lost as waste. With stencils created by photographic and etching techniques, excess material that is dissolved or etched away is wasted and needs to be disposed of as does the emulsions and other chemicals used in these techniques. When using electroplating techniques to fabricate stencils, there are subsequent environmental issues arising from the chemicals and metals used in the process. A problem with laser cut stencils is that the laser cutting is usually done from polyester sheets that are relatively thin and thus have limited dimensional stability. Metal etching techniques of forming stencils is a slow process with large environmental drawbacks. Further, it results in stencils that lack transparency and flexibility and therefore that are not particularly useful for artistic decorating with paints and pigments.
It is more and more common that individuals themselves, often referred to as “do-it-yourselfers,” carry out many home decorating improvements that involve the use of stencils to apply designs to a surface. To overcome problems associated with the bridges of traditional stencils, U.S. Pat. No. 2,651,871 teaches a method of multiple sequential layering of complementary stencils to reproduce the original art. As mentioned above, this can be cumbersome and can produce unsatisfactory results even for professionals, and these problems are only exacerbated with the less experienced home user. U.S. Pat. No. 3,724,420 teaches, among other improvements, the use of thick stencils with high walls and narrow bridges to allow one to apply paint within the stencil beneath the bridges. A disadvantage of such a stencil, however, is the loss of flexibility for use on irregular walls and textiles. U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,576 teaches the use of a special porous tissue paper to support open or loose parts of the stencil in an attempt to avoid bridges. However the stencil mask material itself in this patent is a photosensitive or ultraviolet curable film that must be developed and/or washed out in areas where paint is to be applied. These methods are less practical to produce efficiently in large numbers, and the mechanical strength and the reusability after reclaiming or cleaning the stencils with water, soap, or solvents is severely limited.
Accordingly, an improved stencil and method of its fabrication is needed that addresses the problems and shortcomings of the prior art, some of which are discussed above. A need also exists for a method of decorating with such stencils that produces better and more consistent images on many surfaces without the need to layer stencils sequentially or to try to match paint layers applied by successive stencils. Finally, a need exists for stencils that are more convenient and instructive for use both by professionals and non-professional individuals or do-it-yourselfers applying decorations in their own homes. It is to the provision of a stencil, stencil fabrication techniques, and stencil uses that address these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.