Ok Gang, This is going to be a step by step with some photo gaps. 2 years ago I was asked to give an estimate to dress up the Westminster Oaks' assisted living hallways these were to include quaint signs to Identify the 4 different corridors as "Street" signs and signs for 2 different Cafeterias. Even though I have done other similar projects for them in the past. see http://www.saulssigns.com/index.cfm?cat=clients&subcat=Westminster They were a bit taken back by the prices this time. I knew these would be stepped up designwise and be multi-paneled if not fully dimensional. They did them in stages over several years for budgetary reasons. They never would pay for full dimensional. Sometimes there are jobs that would be nice to do for our own reasons: Learning new medias and techniques. We have to create high end samples if we are ever going to sell them. Might as well get paid partially to do them. On the Canopy Oaks Cafe sign and on the up coming Garden View Cafe, I'll be making a smaller version of each for my own wall. Now with the history behind us we move on. My objective was to wow them and others with what is possible. Knowing that I would be taking a financial hit in the hourly rate department I wished to used shop scraps whenever possible. Why not let past clients pay for the materials for this project. The only materials that I would purchase would be. $8 worth of ESP foam, 2 Cans of spray paint and 4 machine screws with matching nuts. I began by transferring the letters drawn by my plotter on to Poly-metal with a ball-point pen and carbon paper. I then laid the metal on a piece of 1 inch thick Styrofoam sheet. I then placed an 1/8 inch router bit in my plunge router and cut out the Poly-metal letters by hand. The foam sheet was just a soft material to suspend the Poly-metal on for routing. Although this worked well as Sam Staffan suggested my hand routing skills did no justice to Dave Correll's Signmaker and Stone Cutter fonts.
I then pressed a 1/8 in. layer of MagicSulpt Epoxy clay on to the letters. This 2 part clay remains workable for a couple of hours give or take depending on temperatures and humidity. I then took a tool from a ceramic sculpting set, that was nothing but a heavy duty straight pin secured in a wooden handle. with it I trimed off the clay that was over lapping the edges of the lettering. After the trimming and some hardening of the clay I smoothed the surfaces, letter faces and edges, with my water soaked fingers. While the Clay was reasonably soft I pressed in texture with a round end wooden tool and a wet burlap sack for the Garden View letters. I cannot tell you with enough enthusiasm the hiding benefits of adding the texture. My rough routing went away and the letters were just plain more interesting.
My next step was to join two pieces of foam together edge to edge. Because I did not know what type of adhesive to use on this frajile product I went with duct tape a seam on the front and one on the back. because of the layout I could trim the tape and remove it from between my raised letters. The foam was to be used mainly as a build up or filler for the clay. I was relying of the MagicSculpt to harden and create a durable shell. But first some depth and detail, would have to be added to my foam base with Hot-wire hobby tools.
My next step was to firm up the foam base because I would need to spread a thin layer of the dense clay on to the soft beaded cells, all without tearing it up. I had done an experiment with a local company that sprays Pick-up truck bedliners the product that they use creates a tough rubbery shell without "eating" the foam chemically. My guy when asked about spraying one for real suddenly mistook me for Donald Trump, so I fired him. He finally suggested that I try an aerosol product sold at Home depot's paint Dept. It was Rustoleum's Black bed liner spray. Thank Heavens I did a test it DID eat the foam. I Painted 3 heavy coats of latex primer on all surfaces before spraying on the coating. It did pock the foam even through the primer, so I kept the coats very light with a lot of curing time between about 3-4 coats. Would the Magic Sculpt or latex paint stick to this coating? I would know soon enough. Next a layer of Clay was spread on to the coated foam in strategic areas. Before a more detailed layer of Magic Scuplt could be applied.
Here some of the components are laid together un-painted.
Continued in Part 2
[ November 24, 2011, 11:32 PM: Message edited by: Bob Sauls ]
Posted by Bob Sauls (Member # 11321) on :
bumped
Posted by Craig Sjoquist (Member # 4684) on :
This is interesting, and looking great.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Thank you very much!
Posted by Deb Fowler (Member # 1039) on :
Nice to see something still done by hand and not machine, nice and refreshing!
Posted by Bob Sauls (Member # 11321) on :
Bumped back up for dave Sherby.
Posted by Dave Sherby (Member # 698) on :
Thanks Bob. Don't know how I missed it the first time.
Posted by William Desrochers (Member # 7508) on :
Have to ask, what's poly-metal..?
Posted by Bob Sauls (Member # 11321) on :
It is a solid sheet of nylon or some form of plastic clad on both sides with a thin aluminum laminate. I have heard it called by several brand name. Dibond being the most well known.
Be watching for part 3 of this post I am almost done with Garden View Cafe, the sister cafe to Canopy Oaks.
