Carved signs under glass question?

[joe cieslowski]

I was looking at John Studden's web site where he shows 4 carved signs mounted behind glass. http://www.johnstudden.com/
I've heard of this presentation and I would like to try it.
Has anyone seen this before?
What is the effect?
Is the glass mounted directly on the substraight or set off a little?
As I get into this I'm sure to have more questions that aren't obvious right now.

Thanks in advance.

Joe

[John Studden]

Joe, The carved effect mimics the way some english shopfronts were done 100 years ago, although they used mostly pressed brass letters.
In my case I use mostly carved MDF. The artwork is seperated and sent to a router ( in this case Gerber) this ensures perfect registration, I use mostly 120 degree bits. After carving they are simply primed & gilded.
Sometimes I just spray them with an epoxy brass aerosol which has the look of a pressed brass letter. You are right about stand-off, the background is seperated from the glass with some strips of rubber sand blast mask, in case you wish to seperate them later. Several years ago at Rick's place we made some pressed brass letters using male/female molds on his old stamping machine, the way they would have been done 100 years ago, it turned out great................John

[joe cieslowski]

Thanks John,

I should have something together in a week or two.

Joe

[Doug Bernhardt]

Hi Joe...just to second what John has said and add that standing them off the backgnd is critical. Have seen very few(over there) that were not and usually in poor condition... glass gilded outlines were also very much in prominence. Look forward to seeing what you do!

[joe cieslowski]

Thanks Doug.

My plan is to carve, gild and outline a fancy letter. I'll then put it in a frame. The only thing planned right now for the glass is to paint a border around it.....sorta like a matt on a print. Are you suggesting that the letter outline be done on the back of the glass? Wouldn't that cause a registration problem when viewing the panel from either side? (because of the stand off)

Thanks Again,

Joe

[John Studden]

Joe, Traditionally the glass portion of the job has water gilded outlines & the background color, the letter itself is viewed thru the glass as a carved dimensional letter, that is what Doug is referring to. It sounds as though you have something different in mind, more of an artistic look?..........
Even doing this by hand should not give too much of a registration problem, if you are only doing one letter, of course the more letters the more problems, that is where computers make life easier........John

[joe cieslowski]

Thanks John,

I get it now......boy, I had that wrong!

Well I don't have either the computter, the stuff or the experience to do much more than some simple painting on the glass.

I've gone off in wrong directions before and sometimes it leads to pleasent surprises. Or not. I like adventures...

I'll stick with my original plan for now and see what happens.

BTW I think I would have registration problems with THIS letter.

I'll send a pic when it's done.

Thanks Again!

Joe

[Kent Smith]

Another thought is to remember that when making a sandwich of dis-similar materials, especially when one is non-pouris like glass or plastic, a spacing of at least 1/32" is critical. When the lateral dimension is more than 12 to 14 inches, either additional support is needed or more space to allow for natural sag. Even 1/2" plate will sag at 24". Remember that woods are constantly breathing and polycarbonate plastics are constanly outgassing, both of which need to be accounted for also styrenes and some related buterates allow moisture to pass through them. These lesser plastics are uses in inexpensive glass replacements in some framing supply applications.

[joe cieslowski]

Thanks Kent,

I'm keeping this pretty small scale for the present but I have made allowances for the movement of the wood in this piece.

The wood is eastern white pine (8"x10") stained with 1Shot black thinned about 30% with low temp reducer (for penetration and quick drying).
When it's dry, I coated it with Minwax Helmsman Spar Urethane (4 coats).

This is the same way I produce my house markers......imagine......someone still using wood for signs...

The wood is then masked with paint mask and the paper pattern is applied to the mask with spray adheasive and carved. I apply 2 coats of Sign Prime (cause I got it free ) that I tint with Tintsall black. I burnish the primed letters with a fine Scotch Brite. Then I apply 2 coats of 1Shot Speed Dry UV Clear. Coat with 1Shot fast dry size and gild. After sanding the overflow of paint on the mask, I remove it. Again, the same way I make house markers.

The letter is then outlined with maroon 1Shot. I have done very little painting in my career so this will get better with more practice.

I replaced the thin glass that came with the frame and used 1/4". I painted the "matt" on the back of the glass (the side against the carving) with 1Shot maroon mixed with a little black. The gold outline is on the front of the glass and is about 1/4" wide. I then attempted to bevel gild it....I need a lot more work on this part. This band of gold on the front casts a nice shadow on the matt and a deeper shadow on the panel, which gives it some pretty good looking depth.

I cut the back edges and ends of the wood panel at a 30 degree angle and coated out the back with 3 coats of Sign Prime. I then put a 1/2" wide strip of HVB tape across the top and bottom edge of the panel face. This gives me the seperation between the glass and wood. When I put it all together, I left the paper on the face of the tape so when the wood moves, the tape won't tear the paint from the glass. The panel was then toe nailed onto the frame.

Although quite different from the traditional presentation that John used, I'm pleased with these results. I also see potential for the application of several reverse glass techniques in this type of presentation.

Thanks everyone for the information and help.




Joe

[Danny Baronian]

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