Here's one of the reason I was off the hook lately, been busy painting away from the 'puter!
My latest project was the restoration of the gold leaf ornements on a 1876 Silsby steam fire engine. Spent around 200 hours on that thing from deciphering the original design, with the help of Pete Payne, re-drawing, gold leafing and asphaltum-glazing it!! Lots of fun!...and stress.
This machine is undergoing acceptance from the cultural department to be protected under the heritage program.
This is probably my biggest project to date and I am one very proud of the result.
One of the picture is the best side of what was left of the original ornements. Nothing was left on the coal box and the front axle so I designed them.
life is so good!!
-------------------- Pierre Tardif P. Tardif Inc. 1006 boul. PIE-XI sud Val-Belair QC. Canada G3K 1L2 418-847-4089 pierre@ptardif.com Posts: 800 | From: Quebec city | Registered: Aug 2002
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-------------------- 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's beautiful.....nice to see "REAL" hand painting still going on. I've restored 31 or is it 32 antique safes so far. Complete with oil paintings too. Could we see some closer pictures? I love this stuff! I'm like most of us....I want to "SEE" some of the brush strokes up close! What clear did you use to blend the asphultum with? How many glaze coats did you use to get that good of a blend? Great quality!
-------------------- John Arnott El Cajon CA 619 596-9989 signgraphics1@aol.com http://www.signgraphics1.com Posts: 1443 | From: El Cajon CA usa | Registered: Dec 1998
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The close ups are amazing! Hopefully Pierre will post them.
Good Job Pierre, you are one of the best Sign Painters I know.
-Charles
-------------------- Charles Borges de Oliveira Borges Lettering & Design Snohomish WA Posts: 352 | From: Snohomish WA | Registered: Mar 2003
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Top shelf job, hats off to all that worked on it.
I really like the new butterflies compared to the old I feel they tie in better. The old look more like an add-on.
-------------------- Sam Staffan Mackinaw Art & Sign 721 S. Nokomis St. Mackinaw City, MI dstaffan@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1694 | From: Mackinaw City, MI | Registered: Mar 2004
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Here's some close-up. I was unable to get better shot but I will on my next trip there.
The asphaltum glazing is mixed with one shot tinting clear and they were done in one stroke. If I missed the first time I wiped it off and did it again until the shade was nice. I did practice a lot during the holidays on the living room table!!
Funny thing is that we discovered that the butterfly were originaly done with gold leaf and covered later with aluminium leaf. There was other parts also with aluminium leaf covering gold. We're still trying to figure why. Here's a pic of the original butterfly ornement.
In this case I had to reproduce as close as possible what was there 132 years ago.
Life is so good!
-------------------- Pierre Tardif P. Tardif Inc. 1006 boul. PIE-XI sud Val-Belair QC. Canada G3K 1L2 418-847-4089 pierre@ptardif.com Posts: 800 | From: Quebec city | Registered: Aug 2002
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-------------------- "A wise man concerns himself with the truth, not with what people believe." - Aristotle
Cam Bortz Finest Kind Signs Pondside Iron works 256 S. Broad St. Pawcatuck, Ct. 06379 "Award winning Signs since 1988" Posts: 3051 | From: Pawcatuck,Connecticut USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I am flat on my back, looking at the ceiling just saying "Wow, Wow Wow"
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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The "Feeling" after performing a piece of beautiful craftsmanship as this has to be overwhelming!!!To stand back and look at it...WOW!Very, Very, Very outstanding work.Thanx for sharing...
-------------------- Dale Flewelling Art Attack Signs & Design Newport, NH Posts: 114 | From: Newport, New Hampshire | Registered: Dec 2001
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You have done very well- I AM impressed, Pierre!
It's quite a job, 're-interpreting' it to what it used to be before it became aged. You did nicely on the back, too, keeping the theme consistant.
(Can I ask a silly question...what else is asphaltum like? I've tried to get some here, and had no luck at all. The closest guess I figured was some oil-painting ivory-black, which is kind-of transparent, compared with say drop-black, or lamp-black. I still wasn't happy, so I ended up mixing a mission brown with penetrol & some boiled linseed oil, and used that to do the shading.
Asphaltum sounds like a tar or bitumen derivative, to me.
Many old books I have here, mention it being the item of preference for shading on gold.
Thanks!)
-------------------- "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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Hi Ian, nothing else like asphaltum that i know of, looks almost black but spreads out to a rich translucent golden brown, it's like a thin fine grade tar. It is sometimes used to coat heavy equipment and castings for outdoor storage to prevent rust prior to painting as it is easily removeable with varsol or other solvent. We also use it as a resist when acid etching glass or metal so a chemical or industrial supplier might be a good place to look. Awesome job Peeair, wish i could have been there but obviously you didn't need any help!
-------------------- Pete Payne Willowlake Design/Canadian Signcrafters Bayfield, ON
posted
Thanks, Si- I was kind-of hoping I could find it a bit closer to home!
(I'm not sure they like posting liquids like that overseas in aeroplanes by mail.)
-------------------- "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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yah si, we sell it too, but shipping by air is expensive and illegal and ground won't quite work , boats are slow so i tried to give him some options closer to home
-------------------- Pete Payne Willowlake Design/Canadian Signcrafters Bayfield, ON
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Thanks Jon, I appreciate that, and it turned out really cool. May have to post it on another post...but right now let just enjoy what we're look'n at here...Pete must of instructed Pierre well ,as those fades are grand....And Pierre you didn't miss a thing, like the antenna on the butterfly being offset. Nice attention to detail. Thanks again, Pat.
-------------------- Pat Welter Masterhand Signs and Designs Unity, Saskatchewan.Canada Posts: 1304 | From: Unity, Saskatchewan.Canada | Registered: May 1999
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Really exquisite...beautiful...however reading the dialogue reminds me of how little I know about the sign industry...down here in the backwoods of Tennessee "asphaltum" is what we do to the good roads.
posted
Pat ....I didn't get any real good pics of that Reo and there's nothing much on the letterhead past meet site. Comes up great in Kelly's daughter slide show of the meet, but too big files to post here.
Please post here seperately with detail and names of the guys who did it.
posted
hey pat, if you know pierre you know you can't slow him down enough to listen, so unfortunately, as much as i'd like to i can't take any credit for that masterpiece, it was all da lil french guy, and credit also to ken soderbeck, a master at this sort of thing with a good video
-------------------- Pete Payne Willowlake Design/Canadian Signcrafters Bayfield, ON
posted
Yesterday as I was driving, I was thinking of this job. I thought, "Gee, if I got a job like that, where would I start? I so sure hope to see the real thing one day. It is so beautiful.
-------------------- Signs by Alicia Jennings (Mudflap Girl) Tacoma, WA Since 1987 Have Lipstick, will travel. Posts: 3812 | From: Tacoma, WA. U.S.A. | Registered: Dec 1999
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Beautiful work Pierre. 
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