Posted by Mike Jackson on April 24, 2003
I had to dig around on the hard drives tonight to find this photo, but I thought a few people here might enjoy seeing it.
This piece was created for the Signs of the Times Atkinson Projects probably in about 1987 or 1988. I seem to remember it being plate #45.
Just a few notes:
We used Anchor Continental stencil (for glass and smooth surfaces), without any kind of asphaltum under layer. It held the acid nicely, but you do have to watch out for overcuts in corners. The little ornaments in the borders were hand brushed with asphaltum in the open spaces. Since the stencil was fairly thick, it was easy to fill the open areas with copper BBs, prior to acid etching. They created the little divots you can see in the detail. The BBs protected the glass a little longer, creating the raised spots.
This was our FIRST silvering project. Best to learn on a Letterheads project, right? Needless to say, I didn't know at the time I really NEEDED to do the silvering first! (not last) The silvering process really applies a lot of water over the surface, and it loosened the entire blue wreath off the glass, followed by a bit of the brown outlines. We had to do quite a bit of those areas over, then be more careful when silvering the next time. We did get it to work, thank goodness! Over the years, some of the silvering darkened in the corners, but I have never worried about it. Looks older! The photo above was taken about 5 years ago and it really hasn't darkened any more since then. I believe this project was done before Rick started selling Mirror Back Up paint. Apparently, the normal back up paint used for gold had a heavier concentration of sulphur, causing it to tarnish.
As a last note, we boxed this piece up and shipped it to the National Letterheads meeting in Cleveland that year. We didn't get to go. When people asked how the dots were done, the standard answer was "it was shot with BBs". The more correct answer was "it was done with BBs"
Happy gilding!
Mike Jackson
CAUTION: READ ALL SAFETY LITERATURE AND INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING ANY SORT OF HYDROFLOURIC ACID!
David ButlerTony Segale
Beautiful piece, Mike. I would sure like to see it up close someday. For now, I'll save the pic for inspiration. Great job!
Tony
Mike Jackson - Meeting David ButlerI can tell you first hand that I well remember seeing that piece at the Independence meet...and was not surprised at all when I saw who had done it...it is still a favorite of mine...that set the bar way up there for a fella that had never really even seen any gold on glass before...and for along time I thought I'd try to do something that would someday maybe rival that...but came to the relization one day many years later that it just wasn't going to happen and wisely gave it up...some times you're better off just standing off to the side and looking up there at those bars.
Larry WhiteOkay then.....
I remember the first time I met David Butler. We were at a trade show at Pheasant Run in St. Charles, Il, just outside Chicago. I was doing some sort of slide show at the event. There was a nice convention area where everyone was set up showing their wares. Someone came over and told me David Butler was in the building. My stomach got queazy. My hands started getting clammy. So, someone directed towards him. He was a giant, even from a distance. As I approached, my legs got shaky and my voice started to tremble. "Hi David Butler....nnnnice to mmmmeet you!" When I told him my name, he said "Who?". A giant, I tell you!
Mike
Mike JacksonMike-
You state that you "fill the open areas with copper BBs", but from the picture, they look to be randomly spaced apart. I would think if they were randomly spaced apart, and you poured in the acid, they might roll around or flow down to opposite end of the area. From the picture, I imagined that the acid was poured in first then the BB's quickly dropped in in the random fashion. Could you elaborate on the execution technique you employed?
Also the MSDS sheets say HF can react with diffferent metals. I take it there was no ill reaction to the copper.
CAUTION: READ ALL SAFETY LITERATURE AND INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING ANY SORT OF HYDROFLOURIC ACID!
Thanks, LW
Mike Jackson - Dangerous Materials DisclaimerCAUTION: READ ALL SAFETY LITERATURE AND INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING ANY SORT OF HYDROFLOURIC ACID!
The acid was carefully poured into the open areas after the BBs were in place. While they may appear random, they basically filled the open areas. They probably did shift a tiny bit but maybe that is the random look you are seeing.
CAUTION: READ ALL SAFETY LITERATURE AND INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING ANY SORT OF HYDROFLOURIC ACID!
D. BernhardtJust to be on the safe side, here's a better disclaimer when posting about acid or any other dangerous materials or processes.
CAUTION: READ ALL SAFETY LITERATURE AND INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING HYDROFLOURIC ACID OR ANY OTHER DANGEROUS MATERIALS! PROPER USE, HANDLING AND DISPOSAL OF HAZARDOUS MATERIALS IS THE SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE END USER ONLY!!
Mike Jackson - Tuscan RedBeautiful piece and have a great photo of it that was given to me by my good friend Pete Payne of Canadian Sign Crafters. A personal story that goes with it and the all the other fine Atkinson plates you guys did back then.
Had long admired the book which i found as a reprint in ,85 or 86. Had been working away in my shop without ever subscribing to any trade mags or even concidered going to a letterhead meet and no real contact with the sign community. Loved the plate and had many notes on colour and even a few samples of things like tuscan red. Then one day a supplier (Glantz) called and asked if I,d be interested in buying a pile of his signs of times issues for very little....said sure and upon inspection there were all these wonderful plates!!! of course i was blown away to discover all these ppl with similar interests....and whom had just gone ahead and done these things over...on glass no less (long admired sign of excellence). At that time i was also very close to giving the sign business up after 10 or 15 years. So....yup ...Beautiful piece and played a HUGE part in my current love of the craft! Thanx a heap for showing off a bit! ;=)
Mike Jackson - Speaking of ColorsHi Doug,
My plate described Tuscan Red as one of the colors. I looked all around trying to find a color reference for it. The best I could find seemed to indicate it was a reddish burnt sienna, which I used. Interestingly, when we bought the Steven Parrish estate, there were a couple of old tubes of Tuscan Red oil paints in the box. It was pretty darned close to what we mixed up for the project. The #45 plate was for a muslin banner, of all things. ST was never really clear whether we were to use the specified substrate, so we opted to do it in glass and gold. I think quite a few people did that in later pieces, too.
Thanks for the nice words,
Mike Jackson
I have a book called "The Coast Manual" from around 1907 or so. Just inside the front cover, there is a page containing a bunch of color chips...actual color splotches and not printed litho interpretations. They are numbered to reflect some of the colors used on the plates inside. Anyway, the colors are BRIGHT, DEEP, and RICH in sharp contrast to many of the sign code do-gooders around the country that like to use muted colors in their codes. They were probably Japan colors or pigments, and of course, they had to mix the paint up using the techniques of the day. No One Shot cans back then! Maybe I can scan that page someday.
Mike Jackson
Mike Jackson - Larry White's Test Piece
CAUTION: READ ALL SAFETY LITERATURE AND INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING ANY SORT OF HYDROFLOURIC ACID!
This is a photo Larry White sent to show as an example of his Tempera Resist. You can read more about the details in Larry's post from about a week ago. Tempera paint is applied in cross hatched and diagonals in this example prior to the acid bath. The acid eats into the glass in the open areas immediately, but gradually dissolves the tempera to begin eating away in those areas, too.
CAUTION: READ ALL SAFETY LITERATURE AND INSTRUCTIONS BEFORE USING ANY SORT OF HYDROFLOURIC ACID!
Denver Chapter of the Letterheads