90 days and counting

We’ve attended many trade hows through the years and actively participated in various shows as well. The biggest one to date is the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions EXPO which is held in Orlando, Florida. The event boasts more than a thousand exhibitors and thirty thousand attendees from the amusement park industry around the world.

After attending the show since the 1990’s we finally pushed the go button to be a vendor there this year. We built our display booth this past winter while things were a little slow. In the next couple of weeks we’ll bring it back into the shop, clean it and tweak it with our latest stuff before sending it down the road to Florida. We’ve booked our travel arrangements, bought the required insurance, and let our theme park industry clients know we’ll be there. We’ve submitted our booth plan and even entered it into the Brass Ring Awards for prize consideration. We’re ready.

Now we count down the last ninety days in anticipation…

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NICE pictures of trade show booth

The trade show booth is now complete. I carry a small pocket point and shoot camera for the pictures I take several times each day. With the small point and shoot camera handy in my holster on my hip it is easy to whip it out to grab the shots I need to illustrate the blogs and magazine articles I write. Although I used to use an expensive digital SLR camera in the past it just wasn’t practical in the dirty shop environment.

Because we want to enter the pictures of this project into a contest, feature it an article and some other uses on our website we decided to put a little more effort into some better quality pictures. I asked my daughter Becke to take some good shots with her professional equipment. We moved the booth into the centre of the shop, hung some new tarps behind it to block out the busy background, and set up some proper lighting. While we were at it we built a second smaller booth to take some pictures of a few of our other recent projects. It was a lot of work and took the better part of a day to complete but the resulting photographs were spectacular. The pictures on this blog are low resolution at only at 100 DPI but soon we’ll be launching a new gallery on our website that has much higher resolution pictures of our sculpting projects. I’ll be posting some of the other projects soon. Enjoy!

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Trade show booth near completion

Our trade show booth for IAAPA is now fully mocked up with all of the artwork we will display. Second copies of all the artwork are being laminated for durability and these will replace the  temporary mockup artwork as we permanently fasten it in place.

The upper portions of the display have concept art and plans for many past projects as well as some in progress photographs. Models, sample signs and sculptures abound. All this is combined with the faux painted metal work and sculpted concrete showcase much of what we do. The TV monitor will showcase our recent videos. The display is an accurate slice of our studio on display.

In the next couple of days we’ll finish the electrical hookups and do the last patina on the base to finish off the display. It is undoubtably a very busy environment with plenty to look at. It is our hope that it sparks lots of interest at the show.

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Trade show booth – part six

Work continues on the trade show booth. The last of the sculpted concrete was done yesterday. This meant we could get on with the final coats of paint and glazes.

Once the glazes were done we started fastening the shelves onto the backdrop. We took a few of the samples off the wall and fashioned brackets to fix them permanently in place. Then we experimented with the layout of the booth, fitting the display together. We still have a ways to go but the booth is quickly coming together. Next week we’ll do our best to wrap this thing up.

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Trade show booth – part four

With addition of the top faux I-beam along the top of the back wall the welding done on the front of the booth and it was time to begin the painting process. We had originally planned to have the steel all exposed and rusty but changed our mind to have it a weathered teal green instead. Before we got to that we first had to add the rivets and textured primer coat to make the back paneling look live steel. We used Abracadabra Sculpting epoxy to fashion the rivets.

I carefully laid on three coats of teal green on a steel shelf and allowed it to dry. Then I brought out the finish sander and judiciously went at the corners and edges to scrub off the paint. A little acid sprayed on and we had instant authentic old. I loved it!

With the test successful it was time to recreate that same look on a grand scale. We’ll first brush on three coats, then add glazes and weathering and some real rust. The sculpted concrete work  on the pillar supports and floor will soon begin. We are also busy on the pieces which will be showcased in the booth. It’s going to be a wonderful display!

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