A tartan for the Merchant Marine Service

[JohntheBiker]

I am enjoying your tartan design journey - keep at it!

[Steve Ashton]

There is of course the "US Merchant Marine Academy Tartan ITI #7749 which perhaps could be used for inspiration.

[Antipodean Celt]

I am enjoying your tartan design journey - keep at it!

Thanks John, a bit like a voyage, but I remain uncertain of the destination!

[Antipodean Celt]

There is of course the "US Merchant Marine Academy Tartan ITI #7749 which perhaps could be used for inspiration.

Thanks for the pointer Steve. I had found it as part of my research and it is a good design that I like a great deal. I am going to incorporate the crossed red lines into an Ulster variant and see what it looks like.

For those interested without wanting to look it up, it looks like this:

[Antipodean Celt]

Thanks for the feedback all.

Back to the drawing board today with a couple of thoughts to feed back into the design. I have gone back to Ulster because it is a sound design with good proportions, and it is a tartan that I am going to have at least 2 kilts in (as Ulster red and peat), so why not continue the theme into the blue and make it my signature tartan.

Ulster also satisfies the criteria of keeping it simple, and the 2 thread count lines in the pattern lend themselves easily to my southern cross and port & starboard sidelights idea.

I also took on board the idea of making the colours more Southern Hemisphere Pacific Ocean colours. The ocean is the same all around the world of course, it is just the quality of the light that makes the colour change. The sunlight in the Pacific is brilliant, lending the ocean a deep and bright blue. The sky too is clear and bright. So I need the brightest water and sky blues available in the weaver's range, so I went with Seventeen Blue for the wet stuff and Ice Blue for the sky. The rest of the design stays pretty much the same, but I have done a variant with red lines forming squares on the Ice Blue to evoke the US Merchant Marine Academy tartan.

But with the lighter blue, I felt I needed some black to make the southern cross 'pop'. So this is what the first try looks like:

Southern Cross (Pacific Ulster)

I then wanted to take out the black, and because I am impatient, changed the blue cross to a red one at the same time. I also fiddled with the sidelights, and the result of all that tinkering looks like this:

Southern Cross (Pacific Red)

Moving in the right direction?

[sailortats]

Just my own uneducated thought but to me the red lines in your "Pacific Red" make the design a little cluttered. Maybe you could try putting the red lines close together as you have the white lines on the dark blue. To my minds eye this would make a neater look.

[Antipodean Celt]

Just my own uneducated thought but to me the red lines in your "Pacific Red" make the design a little cluttered. Maybe you could try putting the red lines close together as you have the white lines on the dark blue. To my minds eye this would make a neater look.

Something like this Sailortats?

Southern Cross (Blue Ulster)

I haven't got the proportions quite right but for some reason the web designer was not updating my changes.

And I also just came across this Lochcarron design intended to raise funds for veterans of the armed forces. Some similarities in theme here.

Help for Heroes (#10561)

I suppose I am mining a similar area of inspiration. The light blue for RAF, the Navy blue for RN, the green for Army. Well at least I am in good company design-wise.

[sailortats]

yes, I like this look better

[rmccool]

Just one landsman's opinion...

Southern Cross (Pacific Ulster) = Best

Southern Cross (Blue Ulster) = OK

Others = less attractive than the above.

[Antipodean Celt]

Thanks for your thoughts chaps.

Just to help illustrate the colour choices, I took these snaps this morning. We are about 8 degrees South off the coast of Timor Leste. The sky is brilliant and the sea is oh so very blue.