Wood Magic - coming soon

I love wood although we seldom build our projects using that medium. Instead we carve concrete or other durable materials to look like wood. This means I am always on the lookout for cool wood grains we can emulate in our work. Wherever I go, I am constantly taking pictures of interesting woodgrains I find for reference. When we use our CNC router to create signs and features we also incorporate the wood textures into that work. This is done by using modified or created images of woodgrains. The 3D routing program would read the images and then create a digital file to create a dimensional version of the image on the routed piece of material. When we did workshops our students would always ask if our material was available for their use. Eventually, after many requests I assembled a varied collection of proven bitmaps to use with the routing programs. This eclectic accumulation was marketed through our website.

I've had plenty of feedback through the years from many who use these files and the overwhelming request was for a wood bitmap collection. For quite some time I have been working on a new collection of purely wood textures. Some are heavily modified images from my wood photographic reference file. Others are custom built images to be used for just this purpose. The collection will include modifier bitmaps to allow the woods to be easily and controllably bent, twisted or warped inside the routing program. The assortment is now of sufficient number to package them up and release them to market. I have another day or two at most of work complete the task. It will be called WOOD MAGIC and it will be officially launched next week. Here's a sampling...

Peter's take

Peter applied his style and tastes to the design for the Neb's Pub project. He sketched his ideas out on an iPad using his stylus pen. His design will be layered and created using a variety of mediums. The support structure which will be laminated into the centre will be CNC plasma cut steel and the front elements will be dimensionally routed from Precision Board HDU. The fairy will be hand sculpted in epoxy. He is documenting every step of the process so he can teach the workshop sessions in Denver using these as examples. It is going to be stunning when it is done.

Pub signs - take two

I'll always be a sign maker at heart but ordinary signs aren't what excites me. I love super creative and dimensional projects. One of my favourite group of signs we've made was for the Fox and Hounds Pub. The signs we designed and crafted for that project told the story of the place rather than advertising real brands of beer. Each sign was a visual pun, and real eye candy. When we finished that project I wondered if another opportunity like that would ever arise again.

It turns out we are indeed that lucky. The decor in NEB's Pub will again feature delightful, tongue in cheek, fictitious beer advertising who's sole purpose is to tell a story of NEB's Fun World. Peter and I decided we would start with four signs to start. He picked two and I did as well. The signs will illustrate some aspect of the magical and enchanted garden, while staying within the theme of the pub. We'll be making the signs in the next couple of weeks and then using them as examples while we help teach a sign routing workshop we are doing in Denver later this month. Here's the two designs I worked up today. I'll post Peter's designs tomorrow.