1/19/13 - We've decided to Exhibit at this year's Morristown Home Show. We have been frantic for a month building an awesome display out of stained cherry and steel for our corner location. Be sure to stop by Friday. January 25-27 and check us out. We'll bringing all our newest award winning signs that you can see up close and personal. Be sure to catch our carving demonstration. See you there!
JUST LIKE NEW
If you are local, you may have noticed that our sign has been missing for a while. Well the poor old girl was 7 years old and beginning to show her age when Hurricane Sandy came around and tossed the poor girl around. She bravely made it through the storm in one piece but had a few more dents and scratches as a result. well we decided it was time a little R&R (Restoration and Renovation). We repaired all the dents and scratches, repainted the white surfaces, reguilded the gold letters with the best gold leaf available imported from Italy and 23.75K pure. For the blue background we decided to upgrade the old girl with an old fashioned technique call smalts. Smalts is crushed glass imported from Germany which when applied to a sign gives it a beautiful sparkling appearance. 100 years ago, it was the background of the boards to cover the boards defects, extend the life of the sign and give it the beautiful spartling appearance. Win, Win Win. It came out so nice I think I will be using this technique for more signs in the future. Come by and take a look!
USSC CONVENTION
If you could not get ahold of us last week it was because we were attending the annual Sign Convention in Atlantic City New Jersey. For 3 days we get to meet old friends, mentors and talented sign artists from across the country. We also get a chance to be updated on the latest trends, techniques and equipment out there. It was also our great privilege as well to pick up a Best of Show and 1st Place Awards for Dimensional Sign Wall Mounted, really a great honor.
MEET OUR NEW MASCOT
5/21/12 - His name is Lewis and he is flying high in #30 doing his part to get out the word and bring in some new business. I thought we needed to do a little advertising and Lewis was just small enough to get the job done. He made his first appearance at last weekends Morristown Home Show but can be seen now flying around our showroom, come in and take a look!!!
We're Back Baby!
It has been a very rough two weeks. Hurricane Sandy hit us hard. We were without power for a week with fallen trees and power lines everywhere. Shops closed and gas rationing made it difficult just to stay warm, fed and dry. Finally yesterday, we were reconnected to the internet and for the first time were able to see some of the devastation in other parts of our area even harder hit. There is still a lot of cleanup to be done, but are hearts go out to those who have lost homes or are still without basic services.
Every Cloud has silver lining. Or in my case a shimmering smatz lining. Our sign out front was damaged when the hanging sign with our internet address came loose on one side in Hurricane Sandy's 80 mph winds. As a result the main sign was dented and scratched and the hanging signs below were scratched beyond repair. Rather than just repair the sign we have decided to give it an upgrade with a technique I saw widely used in Colorado during a recent workshop I attended there. Smatz or Osmalto is an old world technique for decorating the background of signs using crashed glass. it is not only beautiful and shimmering but was used by our predecessors to extend the life of a sign and cover some of the imperfections normally found in sign panels before the age of power tools.