Working in the dark

This morning as we were well into work when the power again failed and the shop went black. Another major fire across the river at a regional power substation put us in the dark for the second day in  row. I was well into a sculpt with lots of epoxy sculpting medium mixed ahead of me. We had no choice but to finish what was already mixed - even if the shop was a little dark.

The fine detail would have to wait for another day but we worked until lunch time on the small sign and then loaded the truck and went to do the last of the painting touchups at the Fox & Hounds Pub.

Although conditions were not ideal and the day was broken up rather badly we still got lots done. Tomorrow we'll begin again once more - hopefully with the lights on. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Down but not out.

We seldom think about how reliant we become on the internet until we can't access it. Yesterday I went down to the local hardware store for some bits I needed. As I parked a lady came running up after noticing smoke in a neighboring building. We looked close and there was indeed some smoke coming from the former lumber manufacturing plant across the street. The owner of the hardware store phoned the fire department. When we went back outside the smoke was thicker and within a few minutes fire had obviously gained a good hold on the building and contents inside. I stood on the corner flagging traffic another way until the fire department arrived a few minutes later. By that time an end wall had come down and things were definitely way out of control. The flames were higher than the telephone wires and we could in fact see them burning. 

All this meant the internet was down as well as power for a while. The local firemen were kept busy late into the night. Thankfully no one was hurt in the fire. My client who owns the building has plans for the property, which this fire may just hasten - good news for us.

It is all pretty exciting news for little old Yarrow.

This morning we got back internet for a few minutes but before I could do any posting or answering emails the power went out again. This time it turned out to be a regional electrical substation going up in flames. The shop is black once more and it may be a while before things get up to speed. Here's hoping.

I'm posting this from the Fox & Hounds Pub as we do a little work there this afternoon. Thank goodness for wifi !

Stay tuned...

-grampa dan

Small projects are fun too!

While we do some pretty large projects in our shop, smaller ones are also tackled. They fill the gaps in our schedule nicely. Although smaller in scale, these projects are no less creative than the big ones.

A current project is a small cottage sign for some very nice people. These types of signs are fun because we get to pull the stops out a little. My clients asked for something fun. They named their getaway 'Shady rest'. After some discussion we settled on the image of him resting in a hammock between two trees. I sketched as we talked about the project in my studio. A wild chicken was aded at the bottom on a whim, but later this was changed to a small rabbit, common in thse parts. I'll add the bunny in the final sculpt.

I cut steel, welded up a storm, made lots of sparks and generally worked hard until the structure was complete.

In short, I had fun. Now the next fun stage starts - the sculpting that will make the sign look like the drawing. Stay tuned...

-grampa dan