It is a bit difficult for me to already embrace the Christmas season. I prefer to slowly slide into the celebrations around mid-December. But this weekend is light-up in Yarrow, and we, of course, love to support our community. We keep our giant lighted wreath hoisted to the ceiling of our steel storage room in the shop. We gently let it down, dusted it off and began the annual refurbishment, replacing a few strings of lights as needed and making sure the rest were tied on nice and neat. Then we carried it out to the front yard and carefully hoisted it into its place in the giant round window of our house. Tonight, we lit the wreath for the throngs of townsfolk who were enjoying the light in the park down the street. Merry Christmas!
More sculpting
I sincerely hoped to finish the sculpting on the Downey’s tractor today, but my day didn’t go like that. It was the day’s last hour before I got to it. Nonetheless, I made great progress, finishing much of the bottom portion of the figure and one arm. One more day will make him ready for paint! Stay tuned…
A little more texture!
We often use a precise CNC router to create our signs. Most sign makers I know, whether they do things by hand or with a similar machine, do their absolute best to be as perfect as possible. The result is then sanded smooth to take away any remaining bits that are handmade. The result is often beautiful but without much character. We instead purposely introduce character and texture. I program the CNC router to add surface texture, like the woodgrains, to both the front and back of the sign. The fonts are manipulated to make them appear hand-drawn. I don’t care for straight lines, and our work embraces this philosophy. Once the signs are routed and glued up, we then bring the woodgrain texture around the edges of the signs. As I studied the ’finished’ signs, I decided the lettering needed one more bit of texture. I spent a few minutes with our air-powered die grinder, taking off a teeny bit of the surface. The results added the perfect amount of hand finish. The process of hand-painting and glazing will add more character. Stay tuned…
