The Letterville BullBoard: Bar Mirror and Glass creative block busters

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Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :

I was thinking about Robert Mandelbaum's post concerning pub signs, and though this doesn't necessarily answer that post, I have a few minutes and some fresh coffee and some out there could find this helpful or interesting or at least not controversial....

I created a series of sandblasted, backlit custom mirrors over a five year period for a group of sports bars in northern Indiana. Regulars on the Letterville chat may be familiar with my "Time Out Inn" series.

When I first began experimenting with backlighted mirrors back in the mid 80s, I knew right away that the person I had to contact was Rocky Clemens in Warsaw, Indiana. Besides owning several very popular, "upscale, working class watering holes" (haha believe it or not, that's an accurate description LOL), Rocky is an interesting, colorful charactor has something of an art mirror fetish plus a reputation for not being shy about opening his checkbook for things that might make his bars look better. I had known this fellow for several years and knew for a fact that if I could sell him one fancy mirror, he'd be hooked and I'd have a place to get paid to do stuff that I woulda done for free just cause I loved to do it...and I was right!

Anyway, that's not what I'm writing about here.

What I wanted to tell you was that this guy collects art mirrors that the various liquor and beer companies offer to their distributors. Some of the coolest glass eye candy you'd ever want to see. I did some searching and found a site that has many of the glass signs that Rocky has in his collection, and thought some of you might like this kind of stuff too.

http://barsigns.homestead.com/files/1lobby.html

and these two pages, which aren't nearly as good, but along the same lines...

http://www.drinkstuff.com/large-mirrors.htm

http://www.drinkstuff.com/signs.htm

I don't know if it will work as well for you, lookin at pics on a website, but before I moved down south, I would get a good deal of creative inspiration from spending weekend evenings soaking up the coldest bottled beer in the Midwest or the Time Out's special "lemonades" and studying the layouts, letterstyle selection and color schemes of this stuff. Everything from screenprinting to gilded to glue chipped to layered acrylic pieces. Some was fairly simple, but alot of it was exquisite...and ALL was very well done.

If you're ever in the Warsaw area, which is about 40 miles west of Ft.Wayne, don't miss the Time Out Inn on old US 30, just west of Warsaw. There's well over a thousand of these collectable mirrors on the walls, plus over a dozen large backlighted mirrors that I custom made for that bar...and don't forget to try the lemonades.

Tell Rocky that Don Coplen sent ya, he'll give you a tour of the stuff I made for him! A truly unforgettable charactor with a great gift of gab!

(If you couldn't tell, this post could have just as easily been titled "Who's your favorite customer of all time?"...If I can get together a dozen customers down here in the TampaBay area just like Rocky, I'd be in artist heaven!) Which brings up a BB question...how do ya change the title of a post after it's already been submitted?
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Don Coplen aka "SaintPete"
Coplen Designs
St.Petersburg, FL dcoplen@mindspring.com

[This message has been edited by Don Coplen (edited March 25, 2001).]

Posted by J.T. Gazaway (Member # 2001) on :

Don, you must be psychic. I was just about to post a question about this very subject. I worked on a few backlighted mirrors several years ago when I worked for someone else. I sanblasted the backs and then airbrushed them in reverse with stained glass paint. They turned out really nice, but unfortunately I never got any photos of them and the bar they went in is now closed. I have no clue what happened to them. I was just going to ask if anyone else had done any of these types of mirrors and has a photo of one. I'm trying to explain the concept to a company that owns the bar I am working on now. I just tried another really neat effect the other day with a small mirror as an experament. I dremeled some tiny indentations into the back and glued some endglow fiber optics to it so you get little sparkles in the mirror. I think a combination backlit airbrush and fiber optics is going to make one interesting looking mirror. The neat part is, you don't really see the fiber unless it is lit because they are so small. It looks just like a mirror. I guess I'm going to make a small prototype of this idea I want to do behind the bars in this club. I'll let you know how it turns out.

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J.T. Gazaway
J.T. Graphic Design
www.jt-graphicdesign.com
jt@jt-graphicdesign.com

Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :

Actually, JT, I'm psychodelic (I can read people's minds in full color

)

I'll send you a pic or two via email. Catch me on mirc chat sometime and I'll be glad to dcc you more pics and talk mirrors for hours on end.

BTW, I've done the airbrushed transparent paint on the backs of the mirrors too, but my favorite way to color the designs is to lay translucent vinyl to the backs of the mirrors, placing the various colors over different parts of the design. Very saturated colors, only takes minutes to complete and they don't fade. I then only need to put into a 3" deep framed cabinet with fluorescent ballasts inside the cabinet for the final effect.

Maybe one of these days we can get together at a meet and whip out a nice sample mirror or two? I have a 40# pressure pot and Dave Grundy will be more than happy to supply the sand. (inside joke)

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Don Coplen aka "SaintPete"
Coplen Designs
St.Petersburg, FL dcoplen@mindspring.com

[This message has been edited by Don Coplen (edited March 24, 2001).]

Posted by J & N Signs (Member # 901) on :

Hey Don it would be interesting to find out more about these backlit mirrors that you made. I have always been interested in doing them but never got around to it firstly because of lack of knowledge and procedures. I have done vinyl on mirror with reasonable results but...I'd like to go a step further.

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Mario G. Lafreniere aka Fergie.

http://www.onlink.net/~mgl

jnsigns@onlink.net
Chapleau, Ontario home of "The World's Largest Game Preserve"
Spring is upon us,in Shania Country. Farewell Mosquito here comes the Snow!
"Go figure" got me 30 cords of wood and haven't seen a snow flake yet!

"I cut it twice and it's still too short!"

Posted by Don Coplen (Member # 127) on :

There's been replies here and in my email asking for more info on doing sandblasted, backlit mirrors. Maybe if some of you guys want, we could set up a time on MIRC letterville chat for a "focused discussion".

I know I'm not the only person that does this stuff on here, so if any of you guys who have experience want to join in and trade some tricks, that would be great!

Just an idea.

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Don Coplen aka "SaintPete"
Coplen Designs
St.Petersburg, FL dcoplen@mindspring.com

Posted by Jerry Mathel (Member # 526) on :

If you can get hold of a copy of the September/October 2000 issue of Sign Builder Illustrated, it has an article that I wrote on just this very subject, including how to make your own media recovery system.

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Jerry Mathel
Jerry Mathel Signs
Grants Pass, Oregon
signs@grantspass.com

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