WELCOME!


It is hard to believe that it was only seven years ago I witnessed a CNC router in action for the very first time. I was fascinated and simply had to have one! Although I had been in the creative end of the three dimensional sign business for most of my life I didn't really know what I would do with one - but I just knew it could do fantastic stuff.

Through extensive research I quickly found out that with the relative simplicity of EnRoute, CNC routers were capable of just about anything imaginable. This journal will chronicle that journey to date and continue each week with two or three entries as we continue to explore just what is possible with this wonderful software... -dan

Monday, October 10, 2011

Sculpture MAGIC Workshop report one

Our first Sculpture Magic Workshop was a resounding success. The students came from British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, Arizona, Colorado and Washington. Our guests arrived Thursday afternoon for the most part, eager to get started. Four had attended previous workshops. Six had not. The range of experience was wide ranging as was the type of work they did. The questions started right off the bat as they were eager to learn all they possibly could. This would be a great workshop! Since everyone was so eager to start we did just that. While we waited for the last guests to arrive the ones that were there started preparing their panels which would be cemented and carved on Friday.

Friday morning I presented the first lecture, then we headed out for our first field trip. We visited the MultiCam office first, then headed over to the Fox and Hounds Pub to look at our current project. We enjoyed a delicious lunch while we were there. Then we headed back to the shop to officially start in on the hands-on part of the workshop. The student's first task was to mix up some fiberglass-reinforced-concrete and pply it to their panels. We did the carving a few hours later when it had cured perfectly for the task. Although the sample projects were small they employed the very same techniques we use in our shop every day.


While we waited for the concrete to cure it was time to start in on the primary sculpting project. The assignment was to design and sculpt a dinosaur head. While we had plenty of reference material at hand each student was encouraged to use their imagination to make something truly original.

As we would find out, in the next couple of days, this class had plenty of imagination! Stay tuned for more...
-dan