As summer wraps up we are looking forward to the projects and activities of fall, winter and even into the spring seasons. One of those is the Sign Invitational at the ISA EXPO in Florida. Signs of the Times magazine is one of our important supporters and has begun running a series of articles to promote the event. The first articles describes the event from my perspective as a long time organizer and participant. Here’s the links for those interested…. https://signsofthetimes.com/sign-invitational-2026-rules-and-background/. https://signsofthetimes.com/14-sawatzky-sign-invitational-projects/
Eye candy enjoyment
The good thing about finishing early and having a completed project sitting in the parking lot for a bit is that we get to enjoy Vala’s pirate ship each day as we go out to the shop. The bright colours and oversized skull figurehead make me smile whenever I walk by. As good as these pieces look in our driveway, I know they will look even better when installed at Vala’s Pumpkin Patch in due time.
Instant sword
Each day, I head out to the shop with a plan, or at least a wish list of what I hope to accomplish before quitting time. Then the day happens. Today was certainly like that. I had just started on my list when Peter requested that I make the sword that would hang in a specially built nook in the Copper Crown suite of the Hazelnut Inn. It was needed as the sculpting crew is making great progress on the stone sculpting on the walls.
Creating the sword involved routing the hilt using a miniature version of the chandelier file. While our ShopSabre CNC Router did its magic, I made a digital file for our FastCut CNC plasma cutter and set it in motion on the sword blade. Welding up the two halves of the sword and grinding things smooth didn’t take long. The routed pieces were ready to be fit and glued before lunch. After lunch, it was time to do a little sculpting of the braided leather handle and fancy fleur-de-lis hilt decoration.
A trip to town for welding supplies still left me just enough time to do a teeny bit of work on the chandelier fixture I had started in the morning. At the end of the day, I already had my to-do list for tomorrow. I’ll just do what I intended today. Stay tuned…
