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Another new guy from western NY

C

cparker

New Member
Hi all. My name is Charlie. Nickname is yardbird. I work at a university in the IT department. Just something to do for a paycheck so I can afford the things I REALLY like to do. :)

I've been an artist all my life. Painting, sculpture, and more recently got back into woodworking. I was carving rocks (Brazilian soapstone, alabaster, serpentine... soft rocks) before and that led me back into wood carving. Did relief carving on furniture for a friend of mine back about 30 years ago or so. Got interested again because another guy I know creates and restores old carousel horses (and tigers and ducks and whatever goes round-and-round)

I recently "discovered" HDU and I love the stuff. It's a carver's dream! :) Haven't done much with it yet as my workshop isn't heated. The new one that gets built in the fall of this year will be (finally).

Not looking to "take over the world" making signs, but thought it might be something interesting to do in my retirement, which is coming up fast.... not fast ENOUGH... but fast. Maybe house number signs with a bit of artwork. Or smallish signs for other purposes. I know there's a guy not far from me that has a sign business and does bigger commercial stuff. I went and visited his sign yesterday. Yeah... his sign. I went and looked at it, felt it, knocked on it, examined it. :) And my wife doesn't even think I'm nuts.

I'm also looking at HDU for other things. The techniques used in sign making with HDU can be applied to other sculptural pursuits with it. This could be fun and something enjoyable to do in my retirement with the *possibility* of maybe picking up a few bucks here and there to support the cost of materials. :)

AND... in case you haven't noticed... I ain't real shy and I tend to ramble on. So that's enough for now. I hope to read and learn and hopefully make a few nice signs.
 
S

SignTech

Guest
Welcome from PA .......... originally from Rochester, NY .... will be back up someday. How's Buffalo these days?
 
C

cparker

New Member
It's really kinda funny (in an odd and twisted way maybe) to see people from my area in here. :)

I almost bought a sign business many, many (and did I mention... MANY) years ago. I spoke to the guy that was selling it and we had a nice talk. Someone else had beat me to the sale, but the seller told me after we had talked for an hour or so that he wished he had sold it to me instead.

I'm really glad that I had the ability to see the compliment in that.

My wife is the one that suggested I take a look at making some signs as a way to "actually use all that shop equipment for something other than building more shop equipment" ... hehehe...

She said, "You might want to take a look around and see who your competition is."

I said, "What competition? I'm not competing. I'm RETIRING! I'm just looking for something worthwhile to do while I wait for YOU to retire! It's not like we need the money."

So that's kinda where I sit. I'll be in a position to do what I LIKE to do. And if it makes a few dollars, fine. But I'm certainly not going to call myself "in competition" with a *REAL* sign maker.

I think most of the sign makers feel the same way about their craft as I do about art work. LOTS of people can paint, or make things out of clay. That doesn't make them an artist. I'm more a jack-of-all-media and master-of-only-a-couple.

:D
 
C

cparker

New Member
Oh... and thanks for all the nice welcomes. I've been reading a lot of posts and looking at a lot of your stuff. a LOT of you are artists... AND craftsmen. Feels good just be here. :)
 
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