This whole week was done full blast, sculpting the sculpting of Vala’s Pirate Ship. There’s a fine line between ambitious and greedy when we apply the magical concrete mud. Today we again skirted that line. The goal is to apply the concrete at the same pace you can soon sculpt it. With Matt and me applying the mud, Tony worked up a sweat mixing and delivering it to where we were working. Today’s mighty goal was to sculpt the poop deck floor and the two bridges that will lead guests on and off the ship. Trowelling on the concrete is the easy part and went quickly. The crew took an early coffee break, and then we moved twelve cubic yards of sand into the storage bin. By then, the concrete was ready to sculpt. We called in the entire crew, and there was absolutely no time to waste! The carving went fabulously as we chased the rapidly curing concrete. Lunch break was delayed by an hour and a half, as we didn’t dare stop and relax. The result was worth the effort and lunch delay. In the remaining work hours, we got in a shop cleanup and packed away a final twelve cubic yards of fine masonry sand into the storage bin. Thanks to our awesome crew for a monumental effort all week!
Visiting artists
We were pleased to welcome a visiting family of artists into the shop today. Chris, Laura, and Hannah received a personal sculpting lesson from Matt, the master of woodgrains, and then they got to try their hand at sculpting on the pirate ship’s wheel. The result was fabulous!
Sign painting memories
When I was in my mid-teens (fifty-five long years ago), I owned my first sign shop. I remember the time I designed and painted my first commercial truck doors. In those days, the design was created by hand and painted with a brush. I carefully laid out the first door and then brushed on the paint. It went well and turned out pretty good for a first effort. Then came the second truck door. I discovered that this was not nearly as much fun, and by the time that second door was finished, I had decided being a typical sign painter wasn’t for me. I LOVED designing and creating dimensional projects. Painting one-offs was perfectly OK. But doing multiple copies of flat painted signs was totally out of the question.
That same logic holds to this day, and that's most likely why I love sculpting concrete. There isn’t much repetition, and you are forced to work quickly, finishing before the concrete sets. Today’s task was to put the name on the transom of Vala’s pirate ship. Matt carved in the awesome woodgrains, and as soon as he was done, Henry and I carved in the lettering. I carefully incised the lines around the letters, and Henry’s job was to clean out the inside and gently smooth things up with a soft brush. We had fun, we were finished in about twenty minutes, and it was a whole lot more interesting than painting a second truck door!
