1/26/09: Nordecke Offseason Tifo Video

1/26/09: Thoma Two Stick Tutorial From December

Thoma has been making alot of two sticks in the offseason. I asked Thoma how he goes about mass producing these and he provided a nice tutorial here. Enjoy and please share your artwork here. I'm going to try to make at least 10-15 myself, hopefully we have over 100 for opening day to hold up as a demonstration on opening day in the Nordecke.

1. Piece of Fabric
Two stick Flags can be any size (as seen with the Wanted McBride one). So far, I've preferred to make them 4ft 9 inches once complete. The cloth seen here starts out at 4ft10 tall x 3ft8in wide.

* Notice the creases on the edges as this is key.

2. Make Creases
I like to get my folds in place before I start the sewing process. First, I will fold and iron creases to keep those in place (top and bottom about one inch, and the sides 2 inches).


3. First Fold Over
Self explained in the photo. The first folds are the longer sides.




4. Top/Bottom Folds
Fold the top and bottom of the flag over the side folds



5. Pre-Pole Cuts
As seen in the photos cut a little off on all four corners (futher away from the edge)





6. The Overlap

Cut this!


Overlap pole ends with top and bottom ends


The penciled part shows how much the pole ends have overlapped the top/bottom ends


7. Sew the Ends

Notice the overlapped top/bottom ends will be sewn over. I've done this asin attempts to keep that top and bottom end strong enough.


This photo shows the top end. Arrows show how the patterns are sewn. Obviously the top edge is sewn.


Um, please don't sew the bottom edge corners! The poles are slotted in here. This has happened to me once, rookie mistake. Please not that the bottom fold IS sewn like the top fold. When sewing, pay attention.

Finished sewing and ready to get busy!


Be creative, do your best, it doesn't have to be perfect, remember it's all about your show of support for Columbus.

Mistakes + Practice = Learning

1/19/09: USA Tifo Along With Some Old School Tifo

One Thoma made for USA vs. Mexico, I'm going to spend next Saturday working on a couple banners and two sticks as well:


Old School Pics:
And I only have been in the TIFO(banner making) game since the start of this year, Thoma has been in it for quite a while, these old school pics are pretty sweet, glad the rest of us caught up:
2000

Thoma being a luminary before his time as it seems from the above section that it was missing the Nordecke's rowdiness a wee little bit. :-)
2008

some more old school pics as Thoma was inspired in the late 90's by watching Serie A games and their fans.

1/16/2009: USA Tifo

Thoma is hard at work on some sort of banner for USA vs. Mexico:



I may work on a two stick or two for USA vs. Mexico as well, since it's a long weekend. Feel free to join in and send me your work to post.

1/9/2009: Some New Ones

AS Roma logo plus a stick figure version of an awesome pic to the left, ends up like this:

Some new Big Al ones:

1/7/09: Combining Images For Creativity

I just typed in Ultras for a couple different ideas and came across the first two images. Then ran across the Athletico Madrid logo idea to put like a slit in the logo. Then before I heard about the Soul Crew, and always thought it would make a good thing for a banner like this:

1/7/09: One More From Me Tonight

I think I'm starting to get a handle on the free hand, :-) :

1/7/09: More Thoma Two Sticks

1/7/09: Flare Guy Two Stick

Made my second two stick today, flare guy is a little better than my first, getting there:


Lol, Vincent Van Hooligan?

1/7/09: Big Al Gets In The Mix Of The Off Season Two Sticks

Nice work here by Big Al. He is probably going to make the whole first team as two sticks, along with some other images:





Kevin is also getting in the mix with at least six two sticks:
I had my Mom sew up six two-stick flags while I was home for the holidays. I can't remember the dimensions off the top of my head but they are similar to Thoma's. We also used the JoAnn's broadcloth but first sewed two pieces together to make the flag thicker.

Also. I have a projector here at my office that Myshap purchased for the group and everyone is welcome to use it. If anyone would like to use the projector send me a PM and we can schedule some time in the evening or on a weekend.

Hopefully some of us can get together for some painting/beer drinking parties like we had for the Eastern Conference in this offseason. But, good work guys.

12/1/08-1/5/09: The 100-200 Two Sticks Plan For 2009

Some of us are looking to do at least over 100 two sticks for the opening walk out for the Crew in 2009. I'm also going to make an absolutely huge banner about the team for the first or second home game. Either after half of the first home game or at walk out of the second home game, not sure yet. But, it will be of this size:


Here is just a small sample of Thoma's and the start of my efforts so far, please join up and make some two sticks. Here's a Thoma demo on how. I don't think any of us plan to post many more of these to ruin the surprise element, the point of posting some of these is to just generate interest and get more people to follow Thoma's two stick lead. Can you imagine the smiles on the team if they had us holding up over 100 two sticks during their walk out in 09?:









My not as good first effort on 1/4/09 is below. The point is whether your a professional like Thoma or a novice like me, the more two sticks for 2009 the better our displays will be. So join up and help out.

I have enough fabric to make 10 of these ones of this size. There about the size of the McBride playoff one in the post below.

The one I plan to make tomorrow I actually have a plan for, usually I just let the spirit move me with the TIFO's and start painting and spray painting with a faint idea of a plan. :-). Also would help if I could get my hands on a projector like Thoma, probably will by my next round of ones of smaller size. Anyways, here's my first attempt at a two stick, I'm a little rusty:


Still once it's in standing form, it has Crew on it and will do the trick in filling up space, just like the other 30 or so I plan on making.