Laminating art for a placemat.

October 5, 2005 4:00 PM

How to make a placemat.

So I always make my father some kind of homemade art-object for Christmas, but I like these things to be useful as well. This year I decided to make him a set of placemats. What's a good way to do this that they'll last.

I'm going to be working from drawings on paper. Is basic laminating the best/only option? Is there some kind of heavy-duty lamination that I should know about, that can be done for a reasonable price?

posted by ITheCosmos to Sports, Hobbies, & Recreation (4 answers total)

Basic lamination is what's going to be the most cost-effective, if you don't want to go custom print on foam or vinyl.
Go with about 3-5mil thickness and make sure to leave about a quarter inch around the edges otherwise they'll peel over time.
posted by klangklangston at 4:53 PM on October 5, 2005

The basic lamination is really flimsy and eventually hazes. It's great as a kid's project, but it's lacking on the "classy" scale.

Here's a woven placemat. Instead of construction paper, maybe use some organic material (blades of a plant leaf) or perhaps newspaper strips could be 'artsy.'

Alternatively, you might be able to use, say, raffia - you wouldn't have to laminate it and it would be appropriate for picnics or outdoor meals? (Sorry, I couldn't find anywhere that had a pattern available)
posted by PurplePorpoise at 5:30 PM on October 5, 2005

What if you did something like this? You could design the art and then have it printed. (Never used any company like this, I just found it by googling "custom placemats"
posted by radioamy at 11:36 PM on October 5, 2005

Thermal laminating goes up to 250 micron (I don't know what that is in `mil') . That's very thick, and will last a long time.
posted by tomble at 5:44 AM on October 6, 2005