Often it seems things seem to go in waves. This week had a lot to do with bricks and pets. I spent a bunch of time at my drawing board designing a cat cafe. I also sculpted the animals for the Pet Hospital sign. The base of that sign was sculpted bricks. We spent a whole day carving hundreds of bricks into the wet concrete. This weekend I did a whole lot more brickwork, albeit on a much smaller scale as I worked on my Sign Invitational piece. Two floors of brick work are now compete with only one floor remaining. Thankfully the building gets smaller as it goes to the top!
Another dad lesson learned
My dad was a builder of houses before he retired. I remember well with each and every house he built the most important thing in his mind was to get the roof on as soon as possible. On more than one occasion he would tell us of his dream to build the roof first, then hang it in place while the house was built underneath it. That way the workers would stay dry and the house would too. He felt the quality of the house would be better as a result. He never figured out a way to do it however.
As we designed the castle we were looking for ways to built the more complicated parts in the shop and on the ground. We knew we could do a better and faster job and be safer too. We also knew we would save money in the process. Experience has taught us that it always takes longer if you have to climb a scaffold to work on a project. We have completed the bulk of the work on the large castle tower roof. The cone roof measures sixteen feet across, plus the turret on the side. It was built in one piece but breaks in half to go out the shop door. We’ll bolt it back together again on site before we lift it into position. Most of the shingles will go on while it is on the ground as well.
Each time I see my dad and show him pictures of our work he asks me where I learned to do all the amazing things we do. I answer that I was watching and listening to him when I was growing up. He had many great ideas which I use every day.
Tree in a day
Alyssa is our latest hire, Denzie the next in line. They were given the nod to apply the concrete mud to the tree and do the bulk of the sculpt under my close direction. Their mandate was to create a twisted, gnarly tree growing through the hole in the brick wall. They did awesome! The finished result looked good from every angle. The separate sign board will insert into the two small holes in the brick face. Few signs look this good on the back. It will be allowed to cure for a while before we begin the painting process.
