Toronto Restroom Sign

[bob gamache]

I thought you guys would get a kick out of this..........I was in Toronto Canada this past week gilding a window. I went into an old local coffee shop and saw this really cool, old glass sign on the restroom door! The owners said they picked it up in a antique shop a while back. I guess it just shows that even the most common, taken for granted sign probably on the earth can be taken to a high level!!! The sign is about 18"wide x about 5"high. Pretty cool!

[Lee Littlewood]

That's a cool sign. Is it held on to the metal backing sheet by little flanges bent over the "plinked" edges?
I have a mimeoed page of directions for making "lead foil" signs; I think from the 1930s. You would glue thin lead foil on the back of the glass, then cut the letters and border with a sharp knife and weed them out. This one looks to be backed up with red in the border, with black everywhere except the letter centers, then with a textured foil. All the ones I've seen use a simple block letter, but if you were hot you could probably cut a script too. They seem to last forever...

This is one I bought from a dilapidated hotel, about to get torn down. I think they are "gold" decal letters, with the lead foil over them and some sort of grey border, then black paint. No plinked edge - it may have been in a frame, or just held with mirror clips.

FamilyHotel2.jpg (63.26 KiB) Viewed 3790 times

[BruceJackson]

Earlier this year I did the windows and some internal lettering for a bar in Prahran (Australia). It was done out in a club atmosphere, with hunting paraphenalia, dark timber panelling and some early 20th century fittings.

The door to the toilets had this nice ripple glass, so i wrote "water closet" upon it in matt gold with an outline, painted freehand so it looks nicely hand-done. Some of their young patrons kept asking "where are the toilets?" so a few weeks later, I added the silhouttes to help the illiterate...hahaha

It's only small, but i think it works nicely for it's purpose and also keeps the feel of the 1920's

Painting her hair is easy by squeezing the brush hairs between finger and thumb to separate them and then a few quick flicks.

[bob gamache]

Hi Bruce
It seems the 'water closet' is getting more attention than usual these days!!!

Nice clean solution to your project. Nice job!

In nyc, pubs and restaurants normally letter'em up 'WC' which leads to alot of confusion in my opinion!
Your silhouttes help to clear that up alot. Real cool.