Two months ago I was privileged to visit Vala’s Pumpkin Patch and Apple Orchard in Nebraska. I was thoroughly impressed with the Vala family and their incredible farm operation. They open to the public for only a short season in the fall and amazingly welcome hundreds of thousands of guests during those few weeks. Over the last couple of months we’ve been exploring, and sketching ideas for a series of fun dimensional signs throughout their operation. The design work is now complete for this year’s projects (and many of next year’s as well) and it is time to begin building the signs. Over the next weeks I’ll be posting lots of pictures of our progress as the signs come alive. Here’s a sneak peek at a couple of the fun designs. Stay tuned…
Down to the detail
Finding time to work on my Sign Invitational entry has been tough of late as we’ve been super busy. But there is always time to sneak in a few minutes once in a while. Those minutes add up to significant progress. The bases for the two trucks are now routed and assembled and the truck chassis are mounted to them. The next stages of the sculpt can be done a little at a time as it is all handwork. The bulk of the big stuff is now complete and it is down to my favourite part - the detail. Stay tuned…
Dramatic change
Each large project we do has many components and as we get going the shop quickly fills with these many pieces. Initially it is about welding and grinding, and building the sturdy armatures. Then the features are covered in lath. The progress to this point seems to take a long time. Then comes the sculpting phase. The features we could previously see through become solid and with detailed form. Even though the concrete skins are generally less than inch thick on the the sculptures and add little to the actual size, the features become bulky in an instant. From here on the changes will be dramatic as the grey shapes become colourful and lifelike. Its a fun process to watch. Stay tuned…
