It's funny how things seem to go in patterns. I'm not sure whether it is generated in my own mind by will or if it is a random thing but it appears that when I start a certain project, suddenly others want a similar thing. For a while I'll do nothing but dragons, and then it is down the road doing something like horses or bugs or other such thing but always a series of similar things in a row. Funny how that happens.
Recently it looks to be that projects and ideas I designed five to ten years ago but for various reasons were shelved are suddenly coming alive once more. Most of these projects were ones that I worked on well before we built our shop have suddenly re-emerged as viable at last. Old drawings were dug up, dusted off and looked over. The ideas are re-thought, rearranged and redrawn as necessary. Some still stand unchanged after all these years. Old numbers and prices are a distant memory, as are many of the methods we considered to build the projects back then. Now it is a whole new game.
One such project is a bumper boat attraction, named in honor of an old friend, now gone. Bucky was a practical joker, who once tricked me good with an extremely elaborate ruse. I laughed with him but promised that one day I would indeed get even. There is renewed hope that day may come soon.
I can't quite remember how I was going to build this sign back then. Most likely I was going to carve it from cement troweled over a welded steel frame. As I reviewed the design today I decided I would change nothing about the design, save for how I woud fabricate the sign. A sturdy steel frame will still be welded up for the middle, but the outer skin will be modern, high density urethane and sculpted epoxy. Some of the work will now be done on our automated CNC router, but much of the detail will still be done the old way - by hand and by eye.
The idea, character and design of the sign still hold water - even after a decade has past. I found myself eager to get started... thinking of how I would fabricate each piece of the puzzle and then fit them together.
Then there are all those other projects and ideas - suddenly come alive once more. Good ideas never go bad.
-grampa dan