It was way back in March of 2018 that I designed this crest for the Copper Crown suite of the Hazelnut Inn. Peter had asked me to design it as a stone piece which would be incorporated into the facade of the castle. Ultimately, we went in another direction for that project, but in the last weeks, he decided it would look great over the outdoor fireplace. I routed two pieces with no textures. The first was sculpted as a fully woodgrained piece for over the door inside the suite. This one is sculpted to look like weathered sandstone. It should paint up real nice. Stay tuned…
Henry's parade float design
After much discussion and planning, Henry has settled on the design for his spaceship parade float for next year’s Yarrow Days Celebrations. He was very eager to continue fabrication today, but after a little arm-twisting, he finally agreed we should probably finish the planning before we go too far with the welding of the required structure. He had many ideas to contribute as he art-directed my drawing efforts. There will undoubtedly be some modifications and additions as we proceed. Henry’s overwhelming concern is that we proceed with all haste to get it done on time, while I do my best to gently stretch the project out over the next year. Henry, like his grampa, is convinced it will be the coolest thing we have created to date. It is going to be a whole lot of fun! Stay tuned…
It has begun!
This afternoon, I got the call from Henry that I had been anticipating. It has, after all, already been two long weeks since this year’s successful parade, and it was Saturday, and he knew the shop was empty enough to begin actual construction on next year’s parade float. There was absolutely no time to waste!
As soon as Henry arrived, we dug out an old garden tractor trailer and hooked it to the ride-on lawnmower to tow it into the shop. It didn’t take long for us to unbolt the plywood sides with the power drills and strip the dirty old homemade trailer down to the frame. Henry then measured and helped cut the steel we needed to extend the hitch appropriately, and I welded it into place while he watched with a welding helmet of his own.
Our electric Ryobe riding mower will be pressed into service to act as a ‘spaceport tug’ to tow the sleek craft in the parade. We had a long discussion and planning session about what Henry wanted his spaceship to include. A smoke machine to ‘power‘ the engine (preferably with a remote control in the cockpit) from one end of the parade to the other was a must, along with some powerful lights for the front. The spacecraft will definitely require a loud sound system for jet engine noises, of course, ( with a remote control in the cockpit). We did some online research to determine the specifications and availability of that equipment. We then discussed how high the cockpit needed to be off the ground and searched our storage area for a ‘cockpit’ seat that had been tucked away for a special project. We bolted some steel plates to the bottom of the seat to mount it into the spacecraft.
More steel was measured and cut to begin actual construction. Sadly, at that point, just when meaningful construction had truly begun, his dad arrived to take Henry home. Before Henry left, we quickly created a mockup using some plywood and a shop stool to size up how high the seat would be, and Henry posed for a picture in the ‘cockpit’ of his spacecraft. To be continued very soon…
