Really nothing very special Mark. I am glad you like it, I had some fun making it. I started with thumbnail sketches of a few concepts and scanned the one I liked. I recreated the layout in CorelDRAW over the imported jpeg working out the sizes and colors. I originally wanted to use HDU but that project had to be stopped midstream due to time constraints and replaced with a plan to use PVC instead. I generated patterns and paint mask to the proper scale and cut the appropriate thickness PVC to size. To eliminate unnecessary weight I trimmed out the insides of the two basic shapes of the safe. Next came the shaping, routing & sanding. A little fine tuning of the parts before a test-run assembly preceded masking and painting . I hoped to have enough time left to make the ivy from copper but had to cheep out & buy silk imitation ivy at the last minute. Most of the parts are screwed together internally and the top layer is glued with silicone adhesive.
The materials used were .050 aluminum for the background plate, painted with Matthews polyurethane. The clock is a converted standard battery operated quartz desk clock. The body parts are all PVC from 3/4” down to 1/8”. All paint is Matthews polyurethane.
Matthews Tie Bond sprayed prior to spraying the colors, used as an adhesive for the polyurethane and a pretty effective sealer. The copy areas were sprayed white before the paint mask was applied (copy & border applied, background peeled). An extra step of masking the background with the letters peeled was required for painting the word “COMBINATION” over the white prior to re-masking & spraying the dark blue-green background. Having the word “COMBINATION” in place created the need to apply that next set of paint mask letters very accurately considering the size. The word “LOCKSMITH” is white faded into yellow. The colors were sprayed and coated with a few coats of straight thinner to burn them together a bit better. That area wasn’t masked until time to shoot the maroon background. Again, the letters & border were masked & the background peeled. The main body block that attaches to the aluminum & houses the clock was sprayed an off white and semi marbleized while wet. The color I hoped for here was more toward a blue rather than green, time didn’t allow me to correct that. Perhaps I should have taken the time and been a bit late, I would have been happier with the results. While the white background and blue-green accents were still wet, I flooded the block with straight thinner again to get the colors to blend a little, forcing a bit swirling with the air only stage of the cup-gun. I added another coat of straight thinner to level the results then cleaned the equipment and waited to assemble the parts. The next evening I assembled the parts and added the Ivy. I then spent about two hours out in the garage trying to letter the bottom corner. It got down to about 45 degrees that night before I was done. These hands don’t work so well at that temperature, not that I was all that happy with results anyway. Time to set up the easel and start doing the ////||||||\\\\\\ exercises again.
Hope that answered the question Mark. Thanks Letterville, for the chance to be involved in this panel swap, was good fun. I’m eager to see the rest of the panels.
[ October 23, 2003, 10:18 PM: Message edited by: dave parr ]
-------------------- Dave Parr Sign Painter USA Posts: 709 | From: USA | Registered: May 2003
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posted
Well Dave...that's just a real fine panel you did. I like the idea of a sign being a functional appliance, or household decoration, in your case a planter and a clock...it's like it used that third dimension in a way similar to sculpture. I think thats real cool.
[ October 23, 2003, 10:15 PM: Message edited by: Jeff Ogden ]
-------------------- Jeff Ogden 8727 NE 68 Terr. Gainesville FL, 32609 Posts: 2138 | From: 8827 NE 68 Terr Gainesville Fl 32609 | Registered: Aug 2002
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