church sign

I have been working on the wood sign for our church.

Miriam, my beloved passed wife, made the sign in 1984. She designed it and did the intricate cutting of the rubber mats and made sure it got to and from the monument shop that did the sandblasting. I did the wood work.

(She used a rubber mat from the people who do cemetery monuments. She would cut the mat revealing what she wanted to be sand blasted. The sand blasted from a “gun” would cut into the wood making the relief she wanted.  She would go to their shop and decide if the cutting was deep enough for her design. When it satisfied her I’d load it on my VW pickup and haul it back to my shop. This process was repeated 3 or 4 times.)

The sign is a 4 by 8 foot oval. It has a sheet of 3/4 inch thick exterior plywood in the center, sheathed on both sides with 2 by 6 Redwood planks. Dry it weighs about 200#. Damp it weighed a LOT more.

About 10 years ago, I took the sign down and repaired the edges that were the most vulnerable to the weather. I used fiberglass resin, filler and paint. But it took on more weather, and irrigation water, than I expected and the back of the sign looked really bad. So a couple weeks ago I (with permission) stole the sign and brought it to my shop. I did use the word I, but it took three of us to load it onto my pickup.

Mostly I am working on the back side. I have stripped the paint and resin, have let it sit in the sun for a couple weeks to dry it out and Friday the fiberglass cloth and resin went on.  Today I will apply another coat or two or resin. Tomorrow I’ll start painting. Between coats of everything is sanding, lots of sanding.

This was a work of love on the part of Miriam. She worked so hard on the design and execution (and this was before she went to art school).

As I worked my head spun with memories.