Past the hump

As I posted yesterday, the sign came together quickly and any fleeting doubts of it working out vanished with the next coat of glaze. The dark color we call plum crazy instantly popped the details and made the sign sing. The bottom still looked a little heavy and foreboding, but that will change in an instant as I paint the white lettering and lastly apply the gold leaf.

Tonight I put in a couple of hours to make up for the time I snuck out of the shop in the warm sunshine to mow the lawn this afternoon. It took two coats of white paint to cover the dark underpainting but it sure looked sharp in a hurry. The raised letters were a snap to outline.

Tomorrow I'll lay down some size and press on the gold leaf to add some instant sparkle and class to this big sign. And that will bring another project to it's end.

-grampa dan

imagination corporation dot com

We've owned the dot com version of our name for a few years with the intent to slowly convert our web presence from dot ca which we were forced to use early in our web presence. But, like many things it has languished on the back burner for years while I was busy with other things. This year, at last, it moved to the top of the pile. I decided a simpler web presence that I could continually update and add to was more important than a fancier website that required the expertise of my web guy. Changes are now easy and instant - something I like much better.

I built the new dot com website some months ago and have been continually adding to it as I could fit in the time. Now at last we will begin to officially make the switch. Today I'll post this notice on my old .ca blog redirecting people to the this new journal. Soon that whole site will merely redirect people to this one. I've ordered new business cards, the lettering will be switched out on the truck soon. We are now a dot com company at last.

-grampa dan

Trust me it will be fine...

The slow part of the painting process is not the applying of the many paint and glaze layers, but rather the drying time in between each coat. This sign will have seven coats of primer, paint and glaze. Two or three more coats of paint will surface the letters. Each coat of paint needs to dry thoroughly before the next one goes on. Our shop fans speed up the process greatly. Yesterday the sign got its double coat of glaze color. The sign looked pristine and white at that stage - but not for  long. Today I applied the first of the glazes first thing this morning. The sign looked great but it was only an undercoat.

The next color, a mustardy yellow  looked horrible, as I knew it would. The yellow was to provide highlights under the darker shades to follow. At this stage it is easy to doubt myself - wonder what I had done. But I’ve been at that stage many times and knew better. So I set up the shop fans to force the drying time and then pressed on when the time was right.

Today's final color was a medium brown with a touch of grayish purple. This color would best be described as mud. It toned down the mustard yellow in a hurry, but the sign didn't yet look like it would when we finished. At this point I know to simply trust my instincts and experience. After everything dries overnight I'll be putting on the last of the colors to bring it into alignment with the design.

If I squint my eyes just right as I look at the sign I can see it as it will be when it is finished.

Trust me. It will be fine...

-grampa dan