What paint for wellie gumboots?

A. A language problem. Gumboot is not a name used in most of the world. Just like I thought a 2 wheelie was a bike only to find out that it is a garbage can.

A. In the UK a gumboot is another name for a wellington boot. The wellington boot is named after one of national heroes, the Duke of Wellington, who first wore them. For those who still do not know, it is a boot that reaches to the upper calf muscle or just below the knee; it is usually made of rubber or, more recently, thick synthetic waterproof plastics. They are usually lined with some form of insulation to keep our feet warm in the winter. Wellington boots are quite popular in the UK, especially in our wet weather. Green "wellies" are also a prestigious status symbol amongst some city dwellers who like to pretend they are living in the country, especially when worn with waxed coats such as the world renowned "Barbour"; to make the set, you ideally need a spaniel, labrador or retriever dog and pretend you have a broken shotgun under your arm. If you have the whole set, then you have really "arrived" in trendy city (especially London) society!

A. I somewhat doubt if any paint will stick for a long period of time and especially where it flexes. You could try a hobby shop and get a small bottle of paint for plastic models. Try it on the least obvious area you can find on the boot. If it works, buy a large bottle or bottles.

Freeman, I have survived marvelously well without a pair of wellies or boots known as gumboots. Now, I do know what a Fosters is and have downed a pack or two.

A. Kristine,

Good luck with your year 12 project. The answer is very simple, I know from experience, you see when I paint the outside of the house I occasionally wear gumboots.

Strange the North Americans don't know what gumboots are considering there are gumboot throwing competitions all over the world. I thought everyone knew about or had seen Monty Python on TV. Even stranger still that James didn't know what Fosters was until he was educated in the refinements of world class beers. Its a good drop. And of course our rubbish (garbage) goes out in a rubbish bin (trash can) which is made of plastic and has two wheels on it. Naturally its called a 'wheelie bin'. Reminds me of that story of the garbage collector on his rounds when he came to a house where the bin was not out. He knocked on the door and asked the occupant "Where's ya bin?", and the guy answered "I's bin away on holiday". The garbage bloke said "No, where's ya wheelie bin?" and the guy says "Geez I's really bin in prison".

Back to the problem, the acrylic paint that fell on my gumboots when I was painting the house is still there. So I know the spots of acrylic paint stay, but perhaps you could ask the local shoe repairer if the paints he sells for changing the colour of shoes would work on your gumboots.

 Kristine,

I hope that you will let us know what you tried and what worked. At least your letter provided an amount of good natured discussion of the differences in language.

Tony, Freeman is from Canada and he still does not know exactly what a Fosters is. The beer is good, but it is not making itself available worldwide. I do not think that Fosters became reasonably available in the USA smaller cities until 15 years ago. I was introduced to it by an Aussie in Jungle Survival School in Singapore about 40 years ago.

Freeman,

Bloody MARYS have been around in the USA for quite sometime...you canucks just have different terminology. And personally.. I prefer a lot of our local micro-brews to the imported Fosters, and..even worse..Labatts :)

Ahhh... Freeman.. you are correct. I forgot about the clam juice stuff in a Ceasar....yuck. Here, in the states, clams are for eatin...not for milkin.

A. I have a small business, and we are wanting to design our own wellies. I recently found out that for wellies to be patterned they print on to jersey and use this to line the see through rubber wellie. But this is expensive and can only do when mass produced. We are also looking now for a way of painting on the boot. My friend once used acrylic paint, but her wellies kept sticking together.

A. Hi Kristine,

Maybe if you mixed acrylic paints with a thickish pva you could prevent the paint cracking as the pva is very flexible. Or paint the wellies them paint over with two coats of pve to seal them. Mind you, by now you're probably not bothered anymore are you? Just realised this thread started 2003!

Incidentally...forget the fosters, stick to JD!