Another Workshop is a SUCCESS!

The Sign Magic Workshop is now done. Our group this time around was small but showed no less enthusiasm than previous workshops. Each morning they were here bright and early, ready to begin the lessons and the hands-on portion of the learning. We discussed every aspect of dimensional signage for hours at a time. We toured recent projects including the MultiCam office and the shiny new Fox and Hounds Pub. We also splashed paint, molded Abracadabra sculpting epoxy, routed Precision Board and a whole lot more in the time we had. We shared many great stories and endless laughs as we learned together.

Now we have three days to catch our breath before it is time for the next Sculpting Magic Workshop!

-grampa dan

READY for the workshop!

Today was our last day to ready the shop and studio for the next Sign Magic Workshop. Chairs and tables were taken from storage, dusted off and set up. The large screen TV was readied in the library. Materials and notes were reviewed and organized one last time. Our guests began to arrive and by supper everyone was present and getting aquainted. While the numbers are a bit lower this time around the group lacks nothing in enthusiasm and eagerness to learn. Even though the program has yet to start already many questions have been answered.

It is the quiet before the storm...

This is going to be another GREAT workshop!

-grampa dan

Ideas revisited

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.

bucky's bumper boats.png

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