Fox & Hounds Pub & Restaurant Construction: Part 1

When we began work on the Fox & Hounds Pub & Restaurant, it had already been operating for decades. The heavy post and beam building was actually brought to Canada from England, and was more than a century old. And, while this original structure remained intact, the owners were building an addition that more than doubled its size. The challenge was to modernize and refurbish the pub while enhancing and expanding its original charm. All while the original portions of the building stayed open for business.

Our job was to make the new construction look like it has been there for at least a hundred years — warping, bending and aging everthing to achieve that look. And we had three months to complete the project.

As I mentioned, construction was well underway, with the new addition now almost to lockup stage. Since we had no input to this point we needed to work with everything already planned and currently in construction. But, 'restrictions' like these are the life’s blood of creativity!

The addition’s entryway needed to indicate strongly to guests that they had entered a magical place. To achieve this we designed ‘ancient’ twisted timbers interspersed with flowing lines of ‘old’ brick walls. Even the tile-work on the floor followed an undulating line.

After three days on the project. we had already made good progress framing out the straight and level structures the carpenters had built; making them look like the heavy, bent timbers of a one hundred year old pub. As this plywood frame was completed, we covered it with expanded lath, over which we would later apply and sculpt our concrete.

Come back and see more next week!

Laughing Tortoise Sign: Part 3

We used Modern Masters Metallics for the Laughing Tortoise Beer sign’s green base colours. The tan colours were General Paint — a (now defunct) 100% acrylic house paint. As usual, everything was double coated before we started the glazing process.

The first glaze was a very light brown. We applied it over the tortoise and around the edges of the scroll. As we brushed it on, we followed with a soft towel and dabbed it off to blend it into the base colour. The glaze remained full strength in the cracks and low areas and on the edges of the scroll.

We make our glazes using 50% clear base paint (without any added pigment) and 50% of normal (tinted) paint.

The next glaze was a dark, dirty blue we call “blue jeans.” We applied it over the green areas of the sign and carefully towelled it off. Once we had finished going over everything once, we went back and second coated the ridges around the letters. This will make the painted letters jump off of the final sign.

A green glaze was next on the list and suddenly the turtle became part of the sign!

Then it was time for the last glaze — a custom blend of dark brown, metallic cherry and a teeny bit of black. We call it plum crazy.

And finally, two coats of gold finished off the lettering (and the sign).

See you next week!

Multipart Projects

Fox & Hound Pub Project

You can read more about our Fox & Hound Pub Project on our Journal.

Construction Part 1

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4

Laughing Tortoise Sign Part 1

Part 2, Part 3

Fox Head Sign Part 1

Fox Head Barrel Part 1


Multicam Project

You can read about our Multicam Boardroom Project on our Journal.

Multicam Boardroom Part 1

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, & Part 14

Multicam Submarine Part 1

Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, & Part 8

Multicam Boardroom Table Part 1

Part 2, & Part 3

Jungle Ceiling Fan Part 1

Office Desk Part 1


Workshop Name Tags

You can read about our Workshops on our Journal and our Sculpting Workshop page.

Name Tags: 001, 002, 003…