Glass Sign Restoraton Workshop - Report

Larry White · Post by **Larry White** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:06 pm

David Trujillo, formally with the Fine Gold Sign Company, under Rick Glawson, is holding a reverse glass sign restoration workshop on the weekend on June 24th & 25th, 2006, down in Wilmington (south Los Angeles area), California. Learn how to fix up those old signs. If you are interested in attending, contact David directly at david@esotericsignsupply.com

Perhaps I will see you there!

Doug Bernhardt · Post by **Doug Bernhardt** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 8:49 pm

Would loved to have gone down there for a few days...or daze, whichever you preffer, and just too bad to hear about it so late. We gotta talk the guys, and girl, into letting us know sooner! David is a top notch craftsman.

Larry White · Post by **Larry White** » Mon Jun 26, 2006 5:53 pm

Greetings all! ...Well, I just got back from spending the weekend down at the Fine Gold Sign Co. at a reverse glass sign restoration workshop held by David Trujillo. Let me first report that I was slightly uneasy about going down to the Fine Gold Sign Co. as I very much cherished the vision of how it once was. But, much to my surprise, a good majority of it remains intact! The store section is much as it was when we'd visit for the Conclaves. There's a few less signs and a couple of the display cases have been rearranged, but the store was stocked and ready to fill our whims. Rick's old office and studio are a bit different, but David has taken on some of the space for his gold art endevours and is keeping the space alive with gold artistry! The Fine Gold Sign Co. inscription is still on the window, and the doors are still the same. In fact, if you were to go over there, you'd probably have a heart felt smile that the place is still intact and producing art in gold! David even made mention of having some folks over to do some glass work! If you're down that way, stop in and say "Hi", David's minding the store and can assist you with some products and probably some advice.

As for the workshop, what an eye opener! I thought creating reverse glass art was tricky, but came to find out just how much more tricky it is to restore them. This workshop gave me an even greater respect for the work Rick did, right now I'm feeling like restoring one will be enough. It is so teadious and time consuming, and it appears each one represents a new set of challenges and techniques. We were able to review several old pieces and work on them. I happened to have an old piece I brought with me to work on. I proceeded to make it look even worse, then spent quite a bit of time rebuilding it. I'll let the cat out of the bag... all that's really entailed in restoration is, take the piece out of the frame, remove the old paper from the back, seal the piece, scrape off what needs to be fixed, and replace it. Oh, but you can't just replace the old with new, it won't match. You have to make the new look old. Might I suggest attending the workshop. Hopefully I can procure another old one and go down for round two. It was a great time, with good friends, in a comforting place, and quite the learning experiance. I'll post a photo of my restored piece as soon as it's done. ...that's all for now!

Tony Segale · Post by **Tony Segale** » Tue Jun 27, 2006 12:31 am

Well, by gosh, I have to concurr with Mr Black, I mean White.
Tedious, patience, challenging and rewarding would have to be a few of the descriptions I'll give this workshop. And yet, it all felt right, to be working in a restoration capacity in such a historical shop.

I, too, was apprehensive about entering the Fine Gold Studio, but felt at home, and at ease with being able to be privilged to feel that fine craftsmen's aura I felt inside. Many memories came back while there, but new ones made as well. I even felt compelled to leave with a bag of goodies I purchased, didn't feel right not doing so.

Thanks for the fine class, David.

Zippin' off for now....

Larry White · Post by **Larry White** » Fri Jul 07, 2006 1:21 pm

Here's a few photos of the restoration project I did at David Trujillo's Restoration Workshop...

Here it is, just taken out of the frame. Although it appears much of the background color was still intact, it was mostly seperated from the glass and stuck to the backing paper. The darker tone in the background color was still adhered to the glass. The rest basically all fell off.

The first step of removing the backing paper was quite the chore. It seems as if the paper had been afixed to the back of the sign. In it's removal, most of the background color was lost, along with a good portion of the drop shadows on the lettering, as well as some of the gilded inscriptions and logo. By the time I was done with this step, I was thinking that it pretty much looked like a train wreck and it was hopelessly ready for the dumpster. But David assured me, he had worked on worse, and it could be restored. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of it at that state.

We matched the background color and it was blocked in. The drop shadows were maticulously rebuilt, taking 3 to 4 sessions of scraping, painting, rescraping, and repainting. Same with the logo. After that the holes in gilding were patched and backed-up. The 10-15% of the original paint that was left, was resealed to the glass.

I stuck with it and finished it up. It was a lot of work, but rewarding in the end. The frame was a bit haggard, so I fixed it up too. It came out pretty darn nice, truth be told. I kind of like it and had a great experiance in doing the work and attending David's workshop. Thanks again David!

Mirella Nuzzolese · Post by **Mirella Nuzzolese** » Mon Jul 24, 2006 4:23 am

so perfect

Glass Sign Restoraton Workshop - Report

Glass Sign Restoraton Workshop - Report

Thanks David!