In-between all of the other things going on in our busy lives, work continues on the Hazelnut Inn project. The building plans and engineering are now largely complete. The realities of engineering, building codes and plenty more thinking has meant some adjustments to the design along the way. We've made some styling changes and size adjustments as well. The front explorer's suite now has more of a Moroccan feel and the castle leans a little more to French influences. Our goal is to get the last of the drawings done in the next day or two and then submit them to the city for the development permit prior to Christmas. It's exciting!
Marvellous machine progress
I started my Sign Invitational entry piece just after we got back from last year's event down in Las Vegas. Back then I just knew how this year was going to happen and I knew I had no time to waste. The year happened at a much more frantic pace than I imagined with many trips to Trinidad, Salt Lake, Orlando, Atlantic City and more. We've been busy in the shop as well and much time has been spent at my design board dreaming up new projects. The truth is that for much of the last nine months the piece has been tucked into a corner of the shop gathering dust. Phoebe needing to work on her school project was just the motivation for me to dust off the piece and begin work once more. In the last two days I've made great progress. The bottom end is largely complete, save for paint. Much of the detail is completed in the middle section and I mounted the 'human interface device' this afternoon. An old, inoperable antique typewriter donated it's parts for the 'HID'. I know everyone is eager to ask it's purpose... but that's still highly classified... for now. Stay tuned... :)
A train!
It's no secret I've long loved steam trains. I drew many when I made my living doing pen and ink drawings. Later, steam trains were featured in numerous historical murals I painted across Canada and the USA. And through the last decades we've had the chance to build many replicas of these steam powered monsters for theme parks. This little beauty was built in our studio and then transported to Mall of America in Minnesota. The tricky part was lifting it up, inside the mall, three stories to the adventure golf. They erected a crane inside the mall for the task. We did the work after the stores had closed for the evening. It was a very interesting all nighter.
