Dan Sawatzky’s Blog

More awards

More awards

We are pleased that two of our last year’s projects have been honoured in the Signs of the Times annual international sign competition. Each year they receive many hundreds of entries which compete in various categories. The Institute for the Study of Mechanical Marine life piece (documented here on the blog and completed last September) won first place in the Unusual Signs category. This sign was designed using EnRoute software

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Pedal Power – Part one

Pedal Power – Part one

The next critter sign is for a peddle buggy business which is a part of the park. I drew up the concept which the owner approved. It was decided to make the sign two sided which means the gear in the skeleton clock need to look good from both sides and the bear will be rotated 90 degrees.

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Happy Horse Sculpt

Happy Horse Sculpt

The next sign to come off the MultiCam was the Happy Horse Saloon. It was routed from two layers of 2″ thick 30 lb Precision Board. The sign measures 42″ in diameter. I glued up the boards with a 3/4″ thick plywood backer and then cut a large french cleat to the back.

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Three more in the series

Three more in the series

Today Peter and I managed to sculpt three more signs in the series. These things are a ton of fun to build. They make me chuckle each time I walk into the studio. The MultiCam continues to whittle away at sheets of 30 lb Precision Board. Tomorrow morning another sign in this series will be ready for sculpting.

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Busy day!

Busy day!

The shop is full – wall to wall with routed pieces and concrete sculptures as well in all stages of completion. The painting process is well underway on both routed signs and concrete work. As fast as the pieces are cut from Precision Board on the MultiCam and I can get them glued together we are also starting the sculpting of the fully dimensional elements. Peter finished the horse sculpt today and it is looking very fine! In between all of my other tasks I managed to do the tortoise sculpt with lots of help from Sarah. The sign is now ready the head to the paint department.

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Let the sculpting begin

Let the sculpting begin

The MultiCam has been going non-stop all weekend and today I started gluing up the pieces in readiness for the hand sculpting portions to begin. There signs are ready for cleanup,  finishing and sculpting tomorrow. Peter got the jump on the sculpting today as he fashioned the bucking bronco for on top of the sign. He is talented and also has worked very hard to hone his autistic skills

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Overnight MAGIC

Overnight MAGIC

The old compressor is now repaired and working once more at last. It will be relegated to a standby spare as soon as we hook up the giant new one that has now arrived. In the meantime the MultiCam is now busy churning out the pieces we need once more. Last night I laid down a two inch thick piece of 30 lb Precision Board, set up the MultiCam and set it in motion.

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Critter sign number 3

Critter sign number 3

Dusty’s dry goods was the last sign in this critter series. The desert tortoise is about the dustiest and driest thing I could think of and it seemed fitting for this sign. As with the others the critter would be added as a separate hand sculpt. We would route this sign in two layers of 2″ thick.

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