The Hand Lettering Forum

Just an aside....Damar is a traditional artist's painting medium and is usually mixed with linseed oil while doing oil paintings. It's also used as a finishing varnish BUT it does yellow and will eventually cure to a tough hard yellow film. Years ago while at Fine Gold's Conclave the honourable Mr. ...

This is such a great topic to introduce and I hope it goes deep. That someone is producing (or even trying) a quality product for our industry gives me hope. There has been guilds and standards organizations for artists colours and paints for many years. If you buy a tube of watercolour or oil paint...

Just a quick addition....the gelatine capsules are probably not the best idea. You can get the diamond wedges from a bakery supplier or if you're in Canada Canadian Signcrafters. In the states Ron and Kristi Purcell are a best guess.

The technical questions this post opens up is huge beyond belief. I've been doing a lot of research the past year into paints and the research into them that's available.I'll do my best in the near future to summarize some of what I've discovered about our "treasured" and sacred cows.

It's been a while for me but has anyone had trouble ordering Mother of Pearl as of late? A friend of mine thats a luthier informed me there is none available anymore for "green" reasons I think he mentioned. I'd like to hear anything more about this

All the advice re; safety is well worth regarding. All that said there are remarkable results available with mixed techniques....for instance acid etching chipped areas etc. This could easily be one of these techniques but the image as mentioned is far to difficult to make out. Good luck at working ...

For what it's worth I concur with Dan and Rich. It "may" be possible to water gild with copper but I'm sure the level of expertise required is considerable and the time much the same. I asked the late great Rick Glawson about this very subject 25 or 30 years ago and is advice was the same as above. ...

Is a hand drawn type for sure...so no "font" unless someone has translated one....especially judging by the age. French (probably Paris) late 1900's for a Bakery. Thats the translation. If you have to build this there's certainly enough info there to make a complete typeface if you'd care to take th...

Hi Jacob, I'm not sure if this is the answer you're looking for but if you have access to a projector (there are quite a few on the market) you should be able to trace your design to anything you like as far as size goes. I have an old Artograph from many years ago but they also make them to accept ...

Well Vance....thanx for the good words but all to say this "IS" the new way. I guess it settles into..... are we manufacturers of other peoples designs or do we work on our own ideas? I for one wasn't ready to hand my favourite part of my business over to often less than competent craftspeople regar...

Not sure if others are noticing this but I did see a post on Facebook some time ago and the author was annoyed to find the client was looking for something other than what he was used to doing. I too had seen this and in the last few years had been asked to make a sign with supplied artwork that I d...

Sounds like you have the answer. If you've seen a good video and are "inspired" try it out....although I'd practice a little on something else before taking on the real thing

Hi Ren....this is not a good idea. With 1-shot I expect you will want a hard dry (varnished?) surface. I would definitely take a small sample and try anything you're thinking of using first. I have done exterior wood finishing many hundreds of times and wouldn't dream of doing this. Firstly the wax ...

Hi again Stephane....it goes without saying that there's no "mix and matching" the acrylics and your 1 shot right?

Well Vance...it's time for a photo of that!!

I've never used the urethanes before but have heard only great things about them. It looks like something that would be a good test case

Hi again Robert. Last time I did a truck was quite a few years ago and they were just fine then. I've since seen many of the guys doing these sort of jobs at Letterheads events and they're still using those and the new urethane paints. What I'm "not" sure of if there's any prep for the truck to do i...

Welcome aboard Stephane. I'm thinking you'll want somewhere between thick cream and stirred yogurt. The reasons will become apparent immediately if you are using lettering brushes. I'm assuming you are using lettering enamels and are thinning with an appropriate solvent

Hi Tyler....the dots are Mother of Pearl, the edge is actually bevelled glass. The part I was most curious about was what is the actual time required for the embossing to cure so you can get the bright water gild after? We know a year works ;=)

Thats a wonderful project to have. I've seen illustrations like this on some antique glass pieces from France a few years ago and from the back they were on some sort of paper or canvas that I'd not seen before. I've done this quite a number of times on canvas and used the 3 varnish method to apply ...

Was at a small heads meet at Phil Ghi's in March and made an interesting discovery. I had used embossing damar before and had usually left it over night to flash off and then gild with water. It so happened that there was a year between this process this time and instead of getting the usual semi gl...

I've tinted the west system often and for what you want to do wouldn't hesitate to add more colour if necessary. However....hold fast is the right product for this and in Canada you can get it at Canadian Signcrafters in Bayfield Ontario

Mikey....just keep doing what you're doing. I can see there's a huge following and just when I thought nobody was reading our stuff.... ;=)

Yes....Noel Weber showed me using course steel wool. Put on 23k and right under it your 12k steel wool thru the centre and 16k. Easy peasy and looks sweet!

Another great trip thru the past Mike...is that Bob Behounek (sp?) in the second photo with Ray Chapman and Mike Stevens looking over his shoulder?

Kevin....Is that silver or white gold? If silver how did you adjust your water size? She really shines BTW ;=)

Hey Mr. Betz....how did you do the project. Hand carved...CNC? Looks good and clean and am sure you've got a happy customer.

I'm a real sucker for the "Packard" wall and the glass piece at the bank (probably all done by hand) but makes me wish I'd taken photos all those years ago of the great work I saw everywhere. I saw an amazing half in and half out wall at a youth hostel in Los Angeles some 15 or so years ago.Was an o...

Hey guys...not April fools joke. I'll still be around and an extra pair of hands when and if anyone needs them. I've been looking forward to spending more time at the other passions (oil painting and the like) but I've been an 8 days a week guy for a little too long. Promise to try and organize my p...

Mike...Have been having a great tour thru all the old photos. A lot of kids before grey hair settled in !