A Painter's Smock

This weekend I was reminded of a project I completed years ago - probably 30 years ago or so - back when our two daughters were young and heading off to school. They needed painting smock and I decided to make them each a special one designed and crafted by me. I saved those smocks and gifted them to my daughters as presents at their first baby showers back when they became parents. Yesterday was the birthday party of one four year old granddaughter and we gave her the Melissa and Doug easel because (in her words), "I just HAVE TO paint!" My daughter brought out the smock made for her about 30 years ago.

Handmade gifts tend to create special memories!

Taylor's Titanic

We all know that Santa brings presents to good boys and girls on Christmas morning  - but in our family we also give gifts to each other. I knew my grandson Taylor was fascinated by the Titanic. He knows more about the Titanic than most adults never mind other 5 year olds. If you inquire, he'll tell you all he knows about it, and then continue onto the USS Arizona, and Captain Sully landing in the Hudson. He loves a good transportation disaster.  I decided to build him a Titanic like no other as his Christmas present from his Zee Zee (me ) and his Papa.

She is about 34 inches long and does float although there isn't much space left for Taylor in the bathtub!

This project was mainly mine as David was working to get his sculptures out, but he generally allowed me to work in his shop and several of the trickier tasks plus wonderful advice were all his.

This blog post is not meant to be a tutorial although if you want to build your own Titanic, it will help show you how we did it. This is more as a story for Taylor so he can see how his Titanic was built.

I started with a Google search of Titanic images. I knew I would need to simplify but I wanted the toy to have the essence of the Titanic. Working on the computer, in Illustrator, and at full scale, I drew up my plan. I had also reviewed my wood supply and knew what thicknesses of wood I could use. I made the hull from stacked 3/4" pine and the cabin stack is from 5/8" pine with routed edges.

I printed out the top view and glued that to the stack of pine which I had stacked and screwed together. The hull is four layers of pine.

I added another level and the bow and stern for the raised deck areas. Working on a band saw, I cut the outside contour.

I then shaped the stern on the band saw.

I spent a good amount of time hand shaping the hull using a belt sander. The sides were tapered and the bow and stern were sculpted.

After much sanding, I unscrewed the hull and decided how I would cut out the center of the middle layers. I knew if this boat was to stay upright it would need to hollow and ballast would need to be added. This Titanic has no keel on the bottom because it is a toy to be played with on the floor or in a tub. The bottom had to be flat. David and I knew we would need to experiment with ballast to make this ship float! Step one was hollowing out the hull. 

I cut out the center of the hull and screwed the layers back together. Meanwhile, David was helping with the upper decks. The upper decks are 3 more stacks of pine, each slightly smaller than the previous.

David routed the edge to create the over-hang at each level.

One of the important identifying features of the Titanic is the slant of the four smoke stacks. David created a jig on the drill press and drilled the holes for the stacks made from dowels.

Here is the Titanic with all basic construction completed. The hull is still only screwed together because we need to have float tests and determine how much weight needs to be added to the hull.

We wrapped the hull in plastic and tried the first float test. We started with just the hull and were thrilled because it floated!

We then added the upper decks and it was no longer stable. It wanted to tip over although still floated.

Back in the shop we started adding ballast to make the bottom heavier. We place a couple of brass rods in the hull and determined how much it would take to keep the boat upright. We then cut the brass rod into brass slugs and drilled holes into the hull bottom on the inside. Right up the center of this ship is a row of brass slugs.

After this step we again wrapped the ship in plastic and tried another float test. The Titanic continued to float and this time didn't capsize, but she was listing to one side. We added a series of smaller brass weight to the port side to offset the list. Once we had her floating well, we glued all the weights in place.

At some point I also made the life boats. Each was shaped using a belt sander from a small 1/2" dowel. All are held in place with a small dowel. The life boats can be lifted off and floated as well.

We had an additional series of float tests. We had to wrap the hull in plastic because the wood was still raw without finish. It would soak up the water.

Once the Titanic was floating well, it was time to glue her hull together. It all came apart and glue was added between all layers. The layers were placed together and the entire hull was clamped tight and allowed to dry. We had hollowed out the upper decks and glued those on as well.

Looking good.

We determined the angle of the smoke stacks to add the fore and aft masts. I took a little artistic license here and made these masts much heavier than on the original in hopes they would stand up to play.

Here she is with the masts added and all the smoke stacks glued in place.

I then moved the Titanic to the "paint shop".  She was going to need many, many coats of paint and be allowed to dry between each. I set her up in a location for painting.

First came 3 coats of white primer.

I then used Frog tape and taped off the bottom of the hull. That received 3 coats of shiny red paint.

The taped help create a nice clean line.

I again added more Frog Tape, this time to outline the black areas.

 And the Titanic got 3 coats of black paint.

I loved peeling off the tape because with each added color she looked more beautiful.

The last color added was the ochre of the smoke stacks. I wasn't exactly sure of the color of the smoke stacks because all the original photographs of the Titanic were black and white. The artist's drawings had a variety of yellow and orange shades for the smoke stacks. I choose a yellow orange.

The painting of the windows was time consuming. I made stencils in the Frog Tape using my Silhouette cutting machine. That helped but I also spent hours touching up the edges.

The last coats were 3 coats of polyurethane over all sides. The Titanic rested upside down as I coated the hull.

And here is her maiden voyage, complete with paint!

She then went back to the shop to have her rigging added.

Boxing her for Christmas wrapping was a challenge. Papa made a triangular box just the right size.

And it was waiting for Taylor Christmas morning under the tree along with all the gifts from Santa

Taylor started opening it and peaked in the front. Just from a quick peak of the bow he knew it was the Titanic and had to stop unwrapping to jump up and down with excitement. A little later Christmas morning Taylor showed us that there is plenty of space for both the Titanic and a five year old boy in the tub at the same time.

Merry Christmas, Taylor and Bon Voyage! 

©2015 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy

Sculpture Week • 2014

Success! We again managed to squeeze Sculpture Week into our summer calendar. Sculpture Week is a week during which my husband, David and I put all our other work on hold and devote the entire week to a collaborative outdoor sculpture project. We spend all year collecting ideas and discussing, and then approach the week with a thought and a goal. This year we designed and built 13 totem trees from aluminum flashing......

And we love them! They are simple yet stunning, contemporary yet a natural theme, and inexpensive and easy to create.

So easy that we just kept making them!

The plan is to have groupings of them scattered through our gardens and forest paths and we are still moving them around.

 We loved the individual elements - the curves......

And the materials.

And the photographic possibilities..........

About the process.......

We collect ideas and consider materials for months. We are limited in what we can produce by the tools we have but also by the fact that we want an outdoor sculpture. This piece was inspired by an image that crossed my Pinterest space sometime ago.

It is a small ribbon tree in tablescape size from a Scandinavian website Loppelilla. I loved is simplicity but knew I wanted it large. I saw it in aluminum. We often start the planning by roaming around Home Depot and Lowes looking for material inspiration.  I had seen the rolled aluminum flashing used in roof work and we put the two thoughts together. Along with one of my go-to materials - PVC pipe.

David did some experiments with the possibilities of drilling into the aluminum and discovered that a circle cutter works just fine! He developed a jig for holding the material in place. Meanwhile I created a scale model using paper and a straw (forgot to photograph). I used the disassembled models to get measurements for spacing of holes which we them expanded to fit a 10 ft. actual sculpture.

Below is the first threading of aluminum onto PVC. We learned a few things quickly. 

1. The PVC had been spray painted black, and it got badly damaged by the sliding aluminum. A solution would be needed.

2. The aluminum got droopy if the curves were too long and we would need a solution for that.

3. We loved them.

See the lower droops? We didn't like those.

Solutions:

1. Spray paint: We switched to flat black because we liked it better and we read the can. It said cure time on plastic was much longer - at least 24 hours but best after 5 days. We painted more PVC and waited the 24 hours but then used 4 strips of blue painters tape to protect the PVC as we slid the aluminum into place.

We then peeled the tape off after assembly. The black stayed pristine.

2. We taped some of the droopy limbs to upper ones, liked the shape better, and ordered a supply of specialty stainless steel nuts and bolts to tie the lower branches together.

At certain points during construction the trees were covered with blue spots!

As always, we experimented with alternatives.......

And then went into production.....

Always taking time to celebrate!

And take pictures!

About Sculpture Week:

The first annual "Sculpture Week" occurred in 2009. It was followed by new versions in 2010 and 2011 but in 2012 we were diverted, possibly by a new grand baby. In 2013 we went on a rather extended road trip and missed out on the tradition yet again. We are very pleased to get focused and return to the tradition this year.  Here are a few photos and links to the previous years' creations.

2009 - Trilogy

2010 Flexibility

2013 - Lost Marbles

© 2014 Ashbee Design, Marji Roy