Tartan "rules" for designing own EMS tartan

[CelticMedic]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before but i can't find a search feature.
What are the "rules" for designing your own tartan? Does a tartan have to be in a horizantal vertical or can there be a diagnal pattern.
Why do I ask...as you can see by my name I am a paramedic. Every tartan site I go to has MULTIPLE designs for Fire Dept. around the globe, general FF to Specific Deptartments, heck some down to specific staions, same for PD, There is yet to be a specific EMS service tartan. I have considered this for years, but the final push for me came when I found the FF Memorial kilt (dedicated to the 373 FF's who passed on 9-11) yet no such memorial design for the 37 EMT's Paramedics who also died. Anyway off my soap box.
My idea would be interlocking stars of life with vertical white lines (the staff and snake generalized) and a red and blue line symbolizeing the interagency work and roots we have with the FD and PD. I will try and draw up a sample for display...maybe somebody better than I will steal it and run with it....

[Barb T]

Forgive me if this has been discussed before but i can't find a search feature.
What are the "rules" for designing your own tartan? Does a tartan have to be in a horizantal vertical or can there be a diagnal pattern.

Traditional Scottish tartan has the same stripes (same colors and proportions) in warp and weft. No diagonal patterns.

The most practical tartans are symmetric, rather than asymmetric, because making a kilt from an asymmetric tartan can be difficult or even impossible, depending upon how the tartan is woven.

Sett size should ideally be in the range of 6-9".

Run your tartan design by a kiltmaker before you finalize it. I've posted several threads over the last couple months about tartans that are very difficult to pleat well because the person who designed them didn't give any thought to how the tartan might be pleated.

Barb

[beloitpiper]

I'm afraid tartan has always been in a horizontal/vertical pattern. Here's a tool to help you design your new tartan:

http://www.tartansauthority.com/Web/...signerpage.asp

Good luck!

p.s. - The search feature is in the thin blue bar at the top that has "Portal, User CP, Forum Rules, New Posts, Search, Quick Links, and Log Out"

[Barb T]

Oh - and one other thing. Be sure to view your tartan at full scale but at a significant distance. What dominates to your eye up close may vanish completely at a distance.

And, at a distance, colors also blend with one another. For example, red adjacent to blue viewed up close will be distinct, separate colors. When viewed at a distance, however, the overall effect is likely to be strongly purple.

Barb

[Mr. MacDougall]

And again... allow me to recommend the "MacMedic" tartan. The more of us who wear it, the more people will recognize it.

[possingk]

I have considered this for years, but the final push for me came when I found the FF Memorial kilt (dedicated to the 373 FF's who passed on 9-11) yet no such memorial design for the 37 EMT's Paramedics who also died. Anyway off my soap box.

I think you are talking about the tartan designed by USA Kilts, and it is actually 343 FF that died that day, I wish that there was a overall 9/11 tartan designed that includes the 343 FF, 37 PAPD, 23 NYPD and now I have learned 37 EMT's. that would be awesome. I have worked out a design for drone ribbons for a 9/11 piping memorial performance that will now include another number 37 for the EMT's. I hope that someday there is a tartan to memorialize not only the 343-37-23-37 but all 2999 people who lost there life on that day. It is a day that I will never forget as long as I live.

Thank you for your question and I hope that you are able to design a tartan to represent the EMT's that rushed in when everyone else was rushing out. EMT's who everyday wake up knowing that everyday is different and deal with tragedies that most of us only see in movies. A tartan to salute them would be something pretty special.

Thanks for what you do CelticMedic,

[CelticMedic]

The MacMedic Tartan on this site shows a much different pattern than the one sported bt Mr MacDougall. What gives?
http://www.tartan-kilts.com/tartans2.php

[Mr. MacDougall]

At a guess, I'd say they made an error. I researched the MacMedic tartan fairly well before I had Matt weave it for me, and it's the one I'm wearing in the photos in the review thread... red and white check, to make a repeating pattern of red crosses. Matt in fact knows the lady who registered it, and she was reported to be thrilled that people in the medical professions were adopting it.

[M. A. C. Newsome]

The tartan shown on that web site is definitely in error. I don't know what it is, but it is most definitely not the tartan worn by the medics at Stone Mountain.

[CelticMedic]

No offense MacDougall, but i can't say i'm not disappointed that the one i found isn't the MacMedic...LOL