I have many sign making friends who are literally scattered around the world. Many have visited me in our studio and I see them on occasion at Letterhead meets in diverse locations. Over the years I have heard many comment that they want to do more creative work but don’t know quite where to begin. I have long insisted that dreams alone are not enough, we must also work hard to make these dreams come true. The bigger the dream, the

harder it is to implement. But that does not make it impossible by any means.

We all can spare a few minutes each day without exception. So I decided to challenge each of my sign making friends to do this year - something they have been long wanting to do. It could be any project in any medium but it had to be something that brought them closer to their goal of doing more creative work in their shop. By creating samples I believe it makes it much easier to sell this work. In short we must build it and they will come. And it wasn’t enough that I simply challenge my friends - I too would walk the walk. Only my goal is to do one major sample piece each month of the year - projects I too have been longing to make.

Starting on New Year’s Eve and then taking a minute here - a few minutes there over the next weeks I did a little on my projects. The first was this display sextant. It was to be featured in a tile medallion I had designed in the center of my library floor which was completed more than six years ago when we built my new studio. Some how I had never found or made the time to do the piece I had in mind when I tiled the floor. This years CHALLENGE would provide the inspiration.

I sent out challenges by email and on the web forums I frequent. SignCraft magazine also published a small piece to encourage others to do the same. I have received many emails back, some with photographs of projects already started. The CHALLENGE is on!

-grampa dan