kalkamel
Master Member
Since it's still the 4th of July (barely 
), I thought it fitting to show the work I've done in replicating the Declaration of Independence.
When I started my National Treasure kick, the first thing I looked for is a decent replica of the Declaration. Unfortunately, the ones I found at the online stores like the Archives etc, although they were printed on parchment, looked like they just came fresh of the presses. The real Declaration has a very faded look:
As you can see, the writing is barely legible.
The prop we see in National Treasure though, has a more distressed look, but the writing is, although faded, still quite legible.
I like the way the original looks but at the same time I also liked the heavily distressed look of the movie prop. So I decided to replicate both.
I downloaded the hi-res image of the stone engraving of the Declaration, cleaned it up and tweaked it to look extremely faded and got it printed on regular A1 size paper (which was then cut to the size of the actual Declaration). I had originally wanted it printed out in color to show the sephia ink tone but the local print shops here could only laser print in black and white. Inkjet is available but it doesn't bode well for my weathering methods (i.e. coffee and tea ).
Here's my attempt at replicating the original Declaration:
The back is plain (no secret ciphers ) save for the hand written label which identifies the document when rolled up.
And here's my replica of the movie prop:
The back:
Comparison between the replicas:
Happy 4th of July!
), I thought it fitting to show the work I've done in replicating the Declaration of Independence.When I started my National Treasure kick, the first thing I looked for is a decent replica of the Declaration. Unfortunately, the ones I found at the online stores like the Archives etc, although they were printed on parchment, looked like they just came fresh of the presses. The real Declaration has a very faded look:
As you can see, the writing is barely legible.
The prop we see in National Treasure though, has a more distressed look, but the writing is, although faded, still quite legible.
I like the way the original looks but at the same time I also liked the heavily distressed look of the movie prop. So I decided to replicate both.
I downloaded the hi-res image of the stone engraving of the Declaration, cleaned it up and tweaked it to look extremely faded and got it printed on regular A1 size paper (which was then cut to the size of the actual Declaration). I had originally wanted it printed out in color to show the sephia ink tone but the local print shops here could only laser print in black and white. Inkjet is available but it doesn't bode well for my weathering methods (i.e. coffee and tea
).Here's my attempt at replicating the original Declaration:
The back is plain (no secret ciphers
) save for the hand written label which identifies the document when rolled up.
And here's my replica of the movie prop:
The back:
Comparison between the replicas:
Happy 4th of July!
