House Made Pieces - House Sign

A customer approached me at Glenbrook Markets wanting a custom family sign for his house, however this was not to be just any house sign. This house sign was required to stand the test of time surviving all the elements so it could be passed along the generations as a family heirloom. Once a basic design brief was provided by the customer, the search for the right slab of timber began. After extensive searching, a beautiful piece of Red Gum was chosen and inspected by the customer who gave it the thumbs up before we all finalised the design together. We spent a couple of hours selecting the right font, size and artwork to create their masterpiece. The design was decided upon with the flair of keeping it simple but something totally meaningful for their family name and history. This process was thoroughly enjoyable as the customers were a real pleasure to deal with. They knew exactly what they were after.
Now the process of prepping the timber began with sanding the face, filling in the cracks with epoxy resin then sanding again. With the live edges of the timber kept, to create a feel of the Australian bush, the final size measured approximately 800mm x 400mm. The timber was placed into the Trotec 360 Flex Laser Machine ready to be laser engraved and the laser carefully positioned, parameters set and then the magic began. The engraving took a total of 2 hours, with several passes being done to ensure the correct depth was achieved to backfill with colour.
After the engraving was completed, the slab was removed, dusted off and prepped for backfill. Three coats of black enamel paint were applied into the engraving and left to dry before the face was sanded with 80,120 and then 240 grit sandpaper to remove any paint that had gone astray and make the slab beautiful and smooth. Because the final product was intended to have a coat of clear tabletop epoxy resin applied, to give it an elegant shine, a thin coat of clear epoxy resin had to be applied to all sides of the timber to seal it, This would prevent the tabletop coat from soaking into the wood and excessive air bubbles being released from the slab. The thin epoxy coat was sanded back using wet and dry sandpaper starting at 240 grit moving up to 4000 grit to ensure a suitable scratch free surface for the clear tabletop epoxy coat to be applied. Once washed off and dried, the final stage was ready to take place after positioning the slab completely level on stands. The clear coat tabletop epoxy was mixed and poured carefully over the entire slab surface, allowing it to flow over the live edge to ensure a full coverage. Any air bubbles that managed to appear were removed with a small handheld butane torch and eventually the sign was left to cure.
 
72 hours later and the sign completely cured (cured after 24 hours however I prefer to leave the epoxy longer before moving it), any areas of the sign requiring tidying up was done and the customer notified that their family heirloom was now ready to take pride of place on the front of their house for all to admire. The customers were extremely happy with the final product and I’m sure many generations to come will also admire their vision.