A sight you won't see in Trinidad

Winters are generally pretty mild in these parts. We get only a couple snow storms each year. This weekend is such an event with a couple of inches on the ground now and temperatures quickly warming. Heavy rain and higher temperatures are promised before nightfall and by morning the snow will be a memory.

As I walked out to the shop I snapped pictures of a couple of the features in the snow. It's a picture that will be impossible when they get to the Caribbean.

In a few months when we are sweating like mad as we work in Trinidad I'll do my best to remember how cold and miserable today is. 

Skallywag Bay golf sign

All of our projects start out with a concept drawing. This gives our clients (and us) a good idea of what we intend to do but it also leaves lots of room for interpretation and to add better ideas later. The golf sign is a good example. The concept was done more than a year ago as one of the first drawings for the project. Things have changed considerably since then. Skallywag's is spelled differently. The sign now faces a different direction which means that things had to be changed around. The realities of putting the sign into a container for shipping meant it had to spread out horizontally and not be as high. This required a rearranging of the rule signs to make them fit. The bark texture and colors of the tree will change some as well as we get into those processes. The hanging light and bird house will disappear. Even so the sign will still keep the same flavor as the original concept and hopefully become better in the process.

On Thursday and Friday I started in on the task of building the frame for this sign. I first welded up a sturdy structural frame using heavy tubular steel. I blocked out the basic shape and thickness of the trunk and branches with pencil rod and then welded on all of the signs. Then I went back and finished the pencil rod frame.

It's hard to see the finished sign and tree at this point but the proportions look good and in spirit it looks a lot like the original concept. Now the crew will begin the tough job of attaching the galvanized metal lath to the frame, no easy task on all of those compound curves of the tree. We'll sculpt the bird and nest using sculpting epoxy and then the concrete sculpting will happen in a hurry. Once cured the painting crew will work their magic to bring it to life. Stay tuned for more progress...

Mass production

It isn't very often we make more than one sign of any kind in our shop but on occasion, as part of a larger project this is called for. The adventure golf requires many signs as do all of the rides. Each entrance and exit need to be clearly marked. Chances are people won't read the signs but they still need to be there and for this project they need to be dimensional of course. Since there are seven attractions it meant seven sets of these signs.

There are also a whole bunch of rules signs for the golf as well. Smoking is not allowed and for safety reasons no climbing nor running is permitted. Because this is a family park we added 'No Cussin' as well.

The signs were trimmed and then woodgrain was carved into the ends and edges by hand. A sturdy metal frame was laminated into the middle of each sign with a strong piece of steel framework sticking out of the back. This was trimmed to length and then welded to a welded steel armature that will be sculpted to look like a piece of bamboo. These will be 'planted' around the golf where needed.

Now the steel lath will be finished on these posts and then in one day all of them will get their bamboo shaped sculpted concrete. One last marathon painting spree will see all of them get color. Then at last we can get back to one of a kind signs and features once more.