I spent the bulk of my Monday travelling to Orlando to attend the International Sign Association EXPO, which starts on Wednesday. I had an early direct flight, and amazingly, we arrived a half hour early, which was nice! Tomorrow, Tuesday, is setup day for the ISA show and Sign Invitational. I planned to sneak away a little early to get a quick peek at Universal’s new Epic Universe park, but tomorrow’s weather forecast looked pretty dismal. I decided to go this evening instead. As I arrived at the park, some heavy rain hit. I bought an umbrella and decided to keep going. It turned out to be just a shower, but it was enough to thin out the crowds in a hurry. The outdoor rides were shut down because of possible lightning in the area, but I was only there to see the eye candy in any case. It is a beautiful park with lots of great signs and themed architecture. My favourite land by far was the ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ area. With my quick visit now complete, I will be able to concentrate on the show over the next few days. I’m looking forward to seeing my sign friends and seeing lots of new things. Stay tuned…
Building a complex piece
Work continues on the Skull Rock feature for Vala’s Pumpkin Patch in Nebraska. The pencil rod armature was roughed in by Peter, and then Matt filled in the framework to ready the armature for the diamond lath, which follows this coming week. This is a much more complicated piece compared to most of what we do, and the crew is dreading the lath and sculpting process on the hard-to-reach areas. I remind the crew, as always, that the more complicated the armature is, the cooler the finished piece. Stay tuned to watch this come together…
EEEEE HAW!
We have designed and begun to fabricate a saddled horse that will be part of a roping experience for kids at Kraay’s Family Farm in Alberta. It will be a partner to the Highland cow we welded previously. As always, it starts with a sturdy welded-steel structure, followed by a hand-formed pencil-rod armature. I completed the horse armature on Friday afternoon and then took a quick test drive to make sure all was well. It passed. :)
