A little more traditional.

We've worked very hard for many years to establish a reputation as a sign shop that did anything but 'ordinary' signs. But that doesn't mean we can do traditional designs - with a twist to take them over the top of course.

Our latest project is a sign for a naturopathic doctor. He asked us to design a sign that reflected the heritage of the old farmhouse that housed his clinic. It was well over a hundred years old, but now in the center of town. We came up with a sign that respected this heritage and also the occupation of the doctor. The sign will sport the same green color as the house. Everything that is yellow in the design will be 23K gold leaf of course. The base of the sign will be covered in river rock as a symbol of his natural approach to medicine

The sign design was created in EnRoute using the vector logo the doctor had provided. The curly-cues are from the Butler Gold collection.

I used a variety of techniques to create the 3D routing file. The lettering is beveled as are the culy-cues. Other elements are domed. I also added a subtle dome under the logo to make it pop off the sign. The woodgrain texture was created from a sandblasted woodgrain bitmap from my collection. The file is being routed from a 1.5" thick sheet of 30 lb Precision Board as I type. The picture below shows the rough cut about 3/4 of the way through.

I never get tired of watching the MultiCam whittle the shapes from the flat sheet. I know the files are complex mathematical formulas - code generated inside EnRoute. While I could never hope to understand how it works, I do know having this amazing program allows me to dream up ideas, and then in mere minutes create files that takes hours to run. I love watching the result... watching the machine move as if by MAGIC... and before my eyes the project I had just imagined comes to life.

Stay tuned as the pieces of this project come together...

-dan

Twisted metal

The second name panel I would create for the Sign Magic Workshop was for Doug from Illinois. I knew he was into rusty, weathered (faux) metal and rivets. I also knew he claimed to be a member of the "Blind Magicians of the Orient." I would combine these two ideas into one name plaque. The premise of the piece is that it is an old piece of a ship wreck, salvaged from the deep. The name of the ship is 'DOUG' of course. A few of the rivets on the slightly stressed and twisted metal are missing. But if you take into account the clues above namely 'Blind Magicians' you will notice the triple row of rivets spell out MAGIC in braille.

This vector file was relatively simple, comprised of two panels, a triple row of rivets, and the lettering. It only took minutes to create. I then created simple reliefs in EnRoute adding a simple fade/blend bitmap to create the twist in the metal.

Then I used a second bitmap file from my collection called Splotches 2 which creates a deeply pitted look to faux metal.

The rivets were simple rounded reliefs. The missing reliefs were done as zero height reliefs which effectively drilled holes when I merged lowest with the main relief. The lettering was a simple 0.2" tall relief.

The file was tool pathed with a rough cut using a 3/8" ball nose bit and the final pass was done with a 80% overlap using a 1/8" ball nose bit. As the MultiCam churned away I was back to my desk with another inspiration for the next panel...

-dan

The brainy one

One of our attendees to our Sign Magic Workshop is just finishing her Arts Masters degree at University. Robin seems to enjoy a playful but very thoughtful approach to her art. As I thought about a name plaque for her the image of a brain came to mind. I would wrap her name over this image - just for fun.

I did a quick sketch in my book to make sure the idea flew and I was happy with only a quick partial drawing. I already had created a bitmap in my collection which would provide the texture I needed. Then I created the vector drawing which I would need to make the reliefs in EnRoute. The design would be both formal and playful at the same time.

The relief for the 'brain' was a simple oval. This was made into a domed relief. The two halves of the brain were then added to this relief by O.15". The outline around the lettering was created as a flat relief .7" high - an arbitrary number. I then selected an oval the same size as the brain relief as well as the letter outline and created a domed relief of the lettering. Going to the side view I bumped it up until the letter outline protruded over the brain relief a suitable amount. The texture bitmap was added to the brain to a depth of 0.15"and everything checked with a render before proceeding.

The background oval was created with a chamfered edge by limiting the height of the relief which was done with the create bevel relief. Lastly I added the domed lettering to the lettering outline. Once I had adjusted everything to fit inside my 1.5" thick material I them merged the elements together to form one relief.

I used my favorite tool bits to cut the piece... a rough pass with a 3/8" ball nose bit at a 50% overlap to start. The rough pass took less than 10 minutes.

The final pass was done with a 1/8" ball nose tapered bit with a 80% overlap. I was running the files with an island fill - perfect for this shape piece. I ran the files on our MultiCam 3000 series router at 300 inches per minute. The final pass took just under an hour for this 12" x 14" panel.

While the file was running on the MultiCam I was busy at my desk creating the file for the next panel...

-dan

What's in a name?

One of my most challenging tasks these days is to dream up name plaques for each of the attendees at our Sign Magic Workshops. While it would be easy to simply type out each name and then create the routing files I try to do a little better that. My own name plate above is a good example of what I am trying to do with these pieces. My name is there of course - all lower case as I sign it these days. It's a cartoon font signifying the type of work I enjoy. Every line on the plaque is wiggly and textured of course - my trademark. But creating a tag for myself is easy. I know who I am and what I am into. It is not nearly that easy to come up with unique plaques that suit each of those who come.

As each person signs up for the workshop I immediately go on a quest for details about them. While this sometimes limited information helps me come up with ideas for the plaque I also do my best to find out more. The better I know my students, the better I am able to teach them. What are they into? What are their hobbies? What are their current abilities? Where do they come from?

I jot down the details I manage to gather... then set to work creating the dimensional artwork. Sometimes it's easy. We've played host to many folks I've known for years. Some I have read about in the sign magazines. Other times it is a real challenge. When I'm really stumped I'll pick up the phone and talk to them - but don't come out and tell them why I've called. Listening to their voice alone is often enough to spark a cool idea that reflects their personality. Contact is often only by email only meaning I have very little to go on. The web is sometimes a great source of information. Most are business people with websites and there are always clues there to go on. Some are artists who have had showings of their work. Sometimes I simply have to come up with something with little to go on except their name.

Today I started work on six name plaques for the folks that have signed up so far for the workshop in June. In the next series of entries I'll chronicle the process of design and production on this fun projects...

-dan

Quick painting job

The painting started with the tan color, followed by the first of the glazes purposely overlapping the areas not yet painted. I painted it in this fashion to minimize the amount of edge cutting I would need to do.

The next step was to lay in the colors on the bib jeans, followed by a dark blue glaze to bring out the jean textures. Then I painted all the other bits including the buttons, bow tie and the bear's eyes.

A dark brown glaze was next over everything that was painted. Then the lower areas of the letters was painted the same color as well as the bear's nose and eye pupils. Things were progressing fairly rapidly. The lettering areas got two coats of white paint in preparation for the next step. Each time I completed a color I would put the piece under the shop fans to speed up the drying time.

The only thing left was the lettering. I started with the black which was easy to cut with the raised layers I had created as I built the file in EnRoute. The blended lettering was next. The finishing touch was the two little white highlights in the bear's eyes to bring the piece to life.

The parade is still two weeks away but things are almost ready. It sure beats rushing around at the last minute!

-dan

Making it look like a bear...

After the basic shape of the bear's head was established I got a bucket of clean water and slopped it onto the sculpture. This would stop my fingers and other tools from sticking to the sculpt. I first smoothed things out then using a piece of an old towel I pressed it gently into the soft sculpting medium. The terry towel makes believable skin texture complete with pores. The folds I had in the material even created wrinkles. This texture was applied to all the areas which wouldn't be covered by hair.

Then I formed small bits of sculpt about twice the size of a finger nail and applied them in random rows, starting at the bottom. After wetting the sculpt I used a small sharpened stick to draw in lines which looked amazingly like fur. I kept it random ... this was a wild bear after all.

Then it was time for his coveralls. I formed the parts, wet them down and pressed in some coarse lawn chair fabric we had bought for this purpose. When the fabric is pulled off the pattern remains. Once stained with the glazes it will look pretty fine!

The final step was to add his eyes and bow tie. It needs to cure overnight before we get busy with the paint...

-dan

Creative on a budget

Most projects in our shop involve CNC router work in some form. Often it is just little bits... if the router is the best tool I fire it up in an instant. One of the projects I am working on this week is a parade float for our second business Giggle Ridge Adventure Golf. Since the parade float will only be used for one parade this year the budget and time invested were of course limited. But that didn't mean it was to be less creative.

I've been working on a train project for our yard for more than five years. Every grampa should have an electric train for the grandkids. Mine just happens to be a little bigger than most. There is still lots of track to be laid and the engine still lacks the electronics and motor, but it is looking pretty good already. The train engine has employed a little dimensional router work including the name plates and the numbers on the side of the engine, With the forced deadline of the parade it was the perfect excuse to put in a little time on the project making it ready to use as this year's parade float. That involved doing some metal fabrication work on the hitches which went quickly. I also decided the signs we would use for promoting Giggle Ridge should be dimensional. It's the way we do things in our shop. I had built the EnRoute files and done the routing for two copies of the signs more than a year ago. One was for up at the golf - the other as a sample piece for the wall here at the studio. Only one copy had been completed, while the other had gathered dust in the time since I had begun the project. Yesterday I dusted the pieces off and set to work once more. I know there are some who are curious how we combine our sculpting work with the routered stuff we do. This project will answer that question.

The routing file was done in four layers. The bottom layer was the log background. This file was created by using one of my bitmap textures. The grey scale artwork instantly was transformed into dimensional artwork by using EnRoute. The next two layers of the sign were simple routing offsets of the letter shapes. The top layer of the sign lamination was the name Giggle Ridge. It features a custom font I call Spaz and more textures created using one of my bitmaps. I had done some priming and painting of the pieces back when they were routed but they were also marked with the dirt, dust and paint splashes from hanging around too long in the shop. No harm however for we would soon fix that.

To start the sculpture I cut some bear shaped blocks from scrap Precision Board. These would save a bunch of epoxy sculpting material and speed up the process.

I screwed the pieces to the base layers and then used the die grinder to quickly add some rough shape to the head and shoulders. In short order we were ready to begin the sculpting process. The epoxy is made from two components... a resin and an activator. They are mixed in equal proportions and the end result is a sticky, clay like medium. I compare it to plasticene - the stuff we all played with as kids. Only this gets rock hard in about 3-4 hours. I quickly shmooshed it on the blocks I had cut to shape.

Once the entire shape of the bear head was done it was time to start in on the detail work.

I'll be continuing the story the next time I post...

-dan