With the tenth Sign Magic Workshop now only ten days away we are in full gear with our preparations. The last of the name plaques is now on the CNC router at last - fourteen in all. It has been both fun and extremely challenging to come up with fourteen new ideas but I’ve managed it one more time.

The good thing is that this regular task forces me to be creative and with each new idea I have to think of new ways to stretch the software to do the things I want the machine to do.

I believe that sometimes limitations or physical boundaries can make us more creative than we might be if we didn’t have them. In the case of the name plaques there are many. They all need to be of similar size (to be fair) and measure about 10” high by 16” wide. That way they fit in our guest’s suitcase for the journey home. The material we start with is an inch and a half thick. I try as much as possible to stay within the techniques we will teach in the workshop. And they all need to be different of course using as broad a variety of techniques as I can muster. They also must take a reasonable amount of time to make. There are fourteen of them to complete after all. It’s a challenge I relish with each workshop - and the total to date is well over a hundred and twenty name plaques in all.

It is always a learning experience.

-grampa dan