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Sign-It’s staff transfers its signmaking skills to sculpture fabrication.
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By Nancy Beaudette and Noella Cotnam
We were hired to fabricate a lamp sculpture for Founding Farmers, a whole-food, organic restaurant in Washington, DC. It resides near the White House and caters to the health-conscious segment of the political crowd. The sculpture serves as a mascot that adds folksy ambiance to the dining area.
Mark Yearwood, the owner of Yearwood Signs (Oklahoma City), fabricated the restaurant’s signage and contracted us to fabricate the sculpture. Like us, Mark is a veteran of many Letterhead meets.
The client insisted the sculpture be made of wood. I chose bass-wood because it’s a softer wood that shows detail very well. Also, it would mesh well with the antique finish I envisioned for the piece.
Animal magnetism
I began my process by drawing a paper pattern to scale. For reference, I downloaded online photos and altered them with Adobe Photoshop® and Gerber Scientific Products’ Omega® software to match the angle and profile I needed. When carving in full dimension, you need various angles – both sides, front, back, top and bottom. The pattern helped me determine the size of the wood block that I would sculpt. But, as you’ll see, much of the sculpture “appears” as the carving progresses.
The three basswood panels required lamination into one large block. After lamination, the panels measured 24 x 14 x 12 in. I used carpenter’s glue and epoxy to laminate the panels, then secured them by applying even pressure with bar clamps.
I then transferred the pattern to the large wood slab. I later carved legs and attached them with epoxy and double-ended screws. To fabricate the head, I formed an additional piece from material cut from the original slab. I added chipped material for extra padding.
Tool time
Then, the fun began. Chainsaw art at its finest! It’s the perfect tool for cutting away excess wood because we simply wanted to rough out the shape. I used a 16-in. Mastercraft electric chainsaw and a 12-in., timber-framing notcher.
After I’d roughed out the profile, I arranged our tools: grinders, a sharp ax, chisels and a wood mallet. With our grinder, A chainsaw wheel removed lots of material quickly. To remove material more smoothly, we used a coarse-wheel attachment.
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