I had fun yesterday assembling the Gnome sign and then hand sculpting the gnome figure. We wanted him to have some semblance to the famous garden gnomes found in many gardens as the name of the schnapps plays on that visual pun. I couldn't bring myself to creating a gnome quite that generic and so had some fun with the oversized facial hair. The sculpt is now almost complete save for the two mushrooms and the bottom cloverleaf in the corner blocks. Then it is on to paint.
Forest lady
Peter made good progress on his signs today. The super duper fancy bracket was welded into place and the Forest Lady sign mounted to it. Then he started in on the dimensional sculpt of her face. It's looking pretty fine! Another couple hours of work should make this sign ready for paint.
Competition (in brackets)
There's a rumour that Peter and I love a little competition. And the truth is sometimes it does happen , just a little. But if you were to watch us in action it would be clear in a hurry that Peter always starts the competition. Then I have to (reluctantly) rise to the challenge - just to keep his ego in check. It's my job as Peter's dad. I can give a perfect example. Peter and I are each doing three pub signs for the NEBs project. I finished assembling mine first (no competition there) and somewhat later Peter began doing his. We had discussed doing fancy brackets... and sure enough as Peter got going on his brackets they were indeed pretty fancy. I can always tell when Peter is competing for he hums a little song louder than usual. He also works with a big smile on his face. And today he was doing plenty of both.
The first bracket was very nice. The second was much more elaborate. But the third was out of this world crazy. He was cutting steel, hammering it into shape madly and welding and grinding all day long. He unveiled the bracket at quitting time. And it is a thing of beauty - if not just a little over the top. He was pretty proud - and with good reason.
But we weren't done quite yet. As he went out the door at quitting time (with that smile on his face and humming loudly) the plasma cutter was busy out back. I had one more bracket to make. I had started a fourth pub sign and by coincidence it needed a special bracket. I cut no less than six layers of quarter inch steel plate along with a half inch centre core. After supper I went back out to the shop to check the CNC router's progress on another project and couldn't resist doing a little grinding and welding of my own. It didn't take long. While not as monstrous as Peter's fancy bracket the little dragon sign mount looks pretty cool if I don't say so myself. Not that I'm competing in any possible fashion. :)
