posted
I wish to express special thanks to Dan Sawatzky and Perre St. Marie for their patient technical help in the true Letterhead spirit on a sign we just completed.
I emailed Dan and he called me right back, giving me a number of pointers to help with this project. His love of textures and the hammered Copper sample in SignCraft gave me inspiration to try some new things.
Pierre St. Marie and his family have been master carvers and fabricators with HDU for a long time. Pierre took quite a bit of time on the phone to walk me through some construction details.
The logo design was by David Beck, an illustrator in the Dallas area. We have worked on some projects together. I tweaked the final design for construction purposes and came up with the 3D concept for the job. The owner was early on talking about a vinyl on Aluminum sign. I felt we just had to do it in 3D and when I described the ideas I had in mind, he got quite excited about it. Corel X3's new bevel features made a rendering easy to produce so that he could see what I was seeing.
The shapes were cut out on a Multicam router. The beveling was done with my version of MC Router and the hammered Copper look was accomplished with my very own MC Hammer. I took out lots of frustrations beating on that thing for two hours with hammers, shovels, rakes and other implements of destruction (ode to Alice’s Restaurant) and ended up with the frustration of a very sore arm. Well, actually, I didn’t use shovels and rakes, but I did use wrenches and several different hammers.
The sign is approximately 3-1/2' x 6'. The background is 3/4" HDU finished with Black Beauty smalts. It is laminated to a Dibond panel for stiffness and mounting integrity. There are keyhole slots in the back of the Dibond to align with Tapcons that were set into the wall. Additional Tapcons went through the panel at each end and are covered with circular pieces.
The outer ring was routed of ˝" HDU, with incised letters, which were finished with Black Beauty smalts. The scroll and vine work was routed of ˝" HDU and hand carved for the 3D effects. Amazingly, we only broke one piece while carving and it epoxied back together well. The letters and grapes were made of 1" HDU and the letters were carved to a prismatic shape. The drop shadows were cut out of ˝" HDU and finished with 23K Gold leaf. Most of the elements were finished with Copper paint.
Although not priced by the square foot, this job ended up being about $220.00 per square foot, installed, plus tax, permit, and lift rental.
This picture shows the carving up close. Cam, please don't laugh too hard!
This one, taken during installation, shows the smalts in the incised letters on the Copper ring.
Edited because the sign was better than my spelling. Also, I forgot to credit the designer.
Edited also to repost the photo.
[ May 09, 2006, 06:08 PM: Message edited by: David Harding ]
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5089 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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DrCAS Custom Lettering and Design Saint Cloud, Minnesota
"Things work out best for the people who make the best of the way things work out." - Art Linkletter Posts: 6451 | From: Saint Cloud, Minnesota | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
Dave was kind enough to send me high resolution files of these pics... the workmanship is nothing short of AWESOME!
The many hours of labor could have been done with the router if he had used EnRoute Pro and bitmap texturing... but then he would still have all that pent up frustration inside which wouldn't be a good thing.
I am glad I could offer a little usable advice.
AWESOME work Dave!
-grampa dan
-------------------- Dan Sawatzky Imagination Corporation Yarrow, British Columbia dan@imaginationcorporation.com http://www.imaginationcorporation.com
Being a grampa is one of the the most wonderful things in the world!!! Posts: 8738 | From: Yarrow, B.C. Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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That is stunning David! I love the design and the colours. Well Done!
-------------------- “Did you ever stop to think, and forget to start again?” -Winnie the Pooh & A.A. Milne
Kelly Thorson Kel-T-Grafix 801 Main St. Holdfast, SK S0G 2H0 ktg@sasktel.net Posts: 5496 | From: Penzance, Saskatchewan | Registered: May 2002
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posted
Well done, Harding. A real masterpiece. I didn't notice any hand lettering on the sign, but it is still a beauty.
I looked for you this past weekend at my hand lettering demonstration in Fort Worth. Another chance to learn the mastery of the brush just down the drain.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Dan told me about Sophisticated Finishes Copper paint. I wasn't able to find their full line at our local paint supplier but I did find Modern Masters Metal Effects Copper. It has real Copper particles and will tarnish and give a nice patina if desired.
I experimented with some patinas and decided to keep the Copper fresh looking and clear coated it with their clear to stop oxidation. The paint and clear coat are water borne acrylics, suitable for exterior use.
The designer had envisioned red for the outside ring and I was already pushing the envelope on color with the Copper, I didn't want to put green in there.
I could see the job in my mind's eye when we started, but it looked even better in real life.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5089 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I wanted to break loose to get to Fort Worth, but at this time, everyone wants a piece out of me and they all want it right now. I couldn't get away. Besides, I had to go hold my new granddaughter for a few hours.
Our daughter has two children, she named her son after me and her daughter after my wife. I guess she liked us after all. Either that, or she wants to think of us when she's yelling at her kids!
Edited to add:
One of the early ideas on this was to paint it directly on the brick. I wanted to try that but when I found out they were installing an awning before we could get up there to paint, I abandoned that--I didn't want my first hand lettering job to be under such circumstances.
By that time, I also had the 3D concept in mind as well. I think the dimensional sign is markedly better than my pounce pattern hand lettered one would have been.
[ May 08, 2006, 03:24 PM: Message edited by: David Harding ]
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5089 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Really superb! Thanks for the walk through as well! Cat
-------------------- Catharine C. Kennedy CCK Graphics 1511 Route 28 Chatham Center, NY 12184 cck1620@taconic.net "Look at me, Look at me, Look at me now! I't's fun to have fun, But you have to know how!" Posts: 2173 | From: downtown Chatham Center, NY | Registered: Feb 2004
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I'm very excited to see someone using the Modern Masters paint outside. I've been wanting to give it a try for a while now but haven't gotten around to it.
-------------------- Jon Androsky Posts: 438 | From: Williamsport, PA | Registered: Mar 2002
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That is the nicest sign of it's kind I've seen in a long time. Every part of it is perfect from my point of view. Way to go everyone involved in this masterpiece. Thank you for sharing.
posted
Very nice and clean David...very exceptional!!!
-------------------- Kelsey Dum Dum Designs Sherwood, AR 72120 501.765.2166 kelsey@dumdesigns.com Posts: 827 | From: Sherwood, AR | Registered: Oct 2005
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posted
If I had Enroute Pro, I would have tried one additional thing. I would have liked to make the sign slightly convex in the middle, sort of like a belt buckle. Trying to do that by hand would just be too difficult. We were also under a time crunch on this job and couldn't do too much extra experimenting.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5089 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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My mind wanders. And that's not a good thing, 'cause it's too small to be out there alone. Posts: 3129 | From: Tooele, UT | Registered: Mar 2005
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Wow, that's great- words fail me! (but Coal Vines sounds a pretty wierd name to me- like Mud Trees?)
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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They use a coal fired oven for their pizza, hence the name "Coal". The "Vines" part comes from their wine cellar. It's in a historic part of town where coal deliveries were a daily occurrence a century ago, although the building itself is relatively new.
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5089 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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""Good judgment comes from experience; and a lot of that comes from bad judgment" - Will Rogers Posts: 3485 | From: Beautiful Newaygo, Michigan | Registered: Mar 2003
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It was hammered or tapped, no? And its not metal at all!![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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