Letters on stone

[Lars Wacherhausen]

Today I would like to try to make some letters on a rough stone, but the transfering of the design I would make was not succesfull. I printet my sketch out from the computer and made the holes with the pounch whell, taped the sketch to the stone and pounched the design with a bag with talkum, removed the sketch and.. nothing there?

I guess this is not the right methode so I did some reseach in my books, magazines, the internet but I couldnt find a answer.

Hope you guys can help me, because my freehand lettering is not very good yet.

The stone looks a little like this one: http://www.ehlert-stone.dk/billeder/and ... ten_16.jpg

Thanks.

-Lars

[Robare M. Novou]

Lars,

You might want to switch from talcum powder (which is white) to charcoal powder (which is black).

You also might want to take some 120 or 180 light grit sand paper and sand the back of the pattern to open up the pounce holes. Doing that will allow more pounce powder to get through the holes.

RMN

[Lars Wacherhausen]

Lars,

You might want to switch from talcum powder (which is white) to charcoal powder (which is black).

You also might want to take some 120 or 180 light grit sand paper and sand the back of the pattern to open up the pounce holes. Doing that will allow more pounce powder to get through the holes.

RMN

I use black powder, I wrote wrong

I did it like you wrote me to do, but maybe I should use a bigger pounche whell.

Are there other methodes?

-Lars

[Mike Jackson]

As Robare mentioned, try a contrasting chalk or powder to your stone. You might even consider a red or blue chalk used for snap lines. It is a bit more coarse than talc or charcoal powder, but might work in this case. You can pour some of the red or blue powder in an old cotton sock and make an old-school style pounce bag. Sanding the back of the pattern often opens the holes. Also, there are different versions of the pounce wheels that have either finer or more coarse teeth in the wheels. Most people used the very fine version for gold leaf windows and the coarse versions for larger signs and billboards.

Before I went too much farther, I'd double check and see if your pattern and pounce materials work on a plain white panel. Depending on what you used under your paper when you ran the pounce wheel over it, the teeth may have never penetrated through the paper. A long time ago, they used a backing material called Beaver Board. We used a sheet of 4x8 ceiling tile material but you can also use a stack of old newspapers. A few days ago, I used just a chunk of a corrugated cardboard box for a small area.

Lastly, you might end up having to transfer the layout to the stone using carbon paper or saral paper. Saral paper (colored carbon paper) comes in a variety of different colors and sizes, often sold at art supply houses. http://www.saralpaper.com/main.html
Good luck!
Mike Jackson

[Kelly Thorson]

One other option if you have access to a vinyl cutter would be to use vinyl letters to lay out your text and then trace around the outside with a pencil. I find it easier to use the letters rather than the negative stencil when working on rough surfaces. Alternately if the place you are lettering isn't too rough you can use sandblast mask as a stencil as it stretches and conforms to the uneven surface.

[James Warwick]

I hope this will help.
Pounce your pattern just inside of your design edge with a large pounce wheel, sand back and place on stone. next, stencil same color paint with a stencil brush (maybe spray if extremely rough) and let dry. Your lettering will cover the dots... use a thin enough stencil to follow the contours of the object or stone.. You can finish your project at a later date with this method. Chances are your stencil will only get one shot, so make extras, if needed.
This is how this non-professional would do it in the hills of Ohio, USA
Good Luck...

[Lars Wacherhausen]

Thanks for all the great answers.

I wil try all the methodes you people gave me, so I can see what works best for me.

-Lars

[DAVE SMITH]

One more if it helps Lars.
You could project your image onto the stone and draw around it.
Do you have a light projector for enlarging and transfering images to walls and boards?
Maybe an easy route to go down ,plus you can pick the best area with the design in front of you on the stone.

Dave

[Mike Jackson]

Yes, and if you want to go all the way down the "old school" road, you could draw a top and bottom line on the stone and use a charcoal stick to sketch the lettering on the stone prior to hand lettering it. You could move that up a notch by pen plotting your line of copy on a piece of paper, then taping the line under the bottom line you draw on the stone. Then, use the paper one as a spacing tool for the letters you sketch with a charcoal stick just above it. In the old days, a journeyman would walk up to the stone with his little sign kit, snap a couple of lines, sketch the letters (compensating for the roundness and tapering of the stone on the fly), and get to letterin'. Job done.

Cheers,
Mike Jackson

[Kelly Thorson]

Just a word of warning if you project, any uneveness in the depth of the surface you are painting will resullt in distortion which may not be as apparent when projecting or painting but will jump out at you after you step back when the job is done.