Life Après Ski

This month Lynda and her team decided to run a campaign to coincide with the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. As with all of her campaigns, she needed the right decor to set the mood for the Call Centre. The initial decision was to reprint some of the Vancouver 2010 posters, but this posed a challenge as the beams in the Call Centre are fairly narrow. I threw an idea into the mix of having skis done up in "Team DHL" colors and they seemed to like the idea a lot and how soon could I do??? Well I had not really planned on doing this myself, but the challenge was inviting and I set about the task of converting a bunch of old skis into wall art.

First task. Run around like a headless chicken to a total of 5 Goodwill stores to get 10 pairs of skis. Get them home, open up all the bindings and  sand it down with progressive grades of sandpaper. The skis were fairly dinged but what can you expect for CAD 10.00 a pair......

The skis were then painted in Rustoleum's Marigold which I had painted the CS First shield that I had made for Lynda in June of 2009. The paint gave me the most problems with some of the skis blistering and some not adhering at all. But I got through it and in the end they came out pretty well.

I had got DHL logos done on kiss cut stickers and they were laid on as soon as the paint had dried.

Next it was time to put the bindings back on and a small hook on the rear for hanging.

Here are skis all lined up and ready to be transported to DHL

We went over to DHL this evening and hung them up on the beams.

So you see.... there is Life Après Ski!!!!

CS First

As part of the R&R (Rewards & Recognition not Rest & Recreation) program at Lynda's place of work, the winner of the CS First Campaign will be given a special chair to use for a month. Lynda wanted to dress up the chair a bit to highlight the importance of the winner. There were plans to print out CS First on Self Adhesive paper which would then be affixed to the back of the chair!!!!! Sorry. Not in my lifetime.

This is what I came up with. I conceptualised a shield which obviously stood for a winning - and then the letters C & S entwined around a 1. I used Open Office 'Draw' to create the 1, C & S and I downloaded a simple shield pattern from the net. I used Poster Razor to blow up the Shield and the 1. The C & S were printed as they were.

This is the mock up that I made to show Lynda.

And here is the final product. I made the entire unit from material that I had lying around the house. The Shield is cut from 1/4" Birch Veneered MDF and the C, S & 1 are cut from 1/8" hardboard. I cut them using my new Craftsman Scroll Saw that I scored off Craigslist. The last time I used a Scroll Saw was when I resurrected, renewed & repaired a unit that my first employer Bosco had found. I then proceeded to cut 250 house profiles out of aluminium that he plated and used as give-aways at his wedding.

The colors were corporate colors where Lynda works and the black was chosen as it grounds everything else. I had a bit of an incident with the red and the black as they bubbled when I lay on the 4th coat. I then re sanded down to bare wood and repainted. Sometimes things just do not work to plan.

An angle shot showing the relief of the letters. I used 5 minute rapid set two component epoxy to affix the letters to each other and then finally to the shield.

The chair with the shield affixed to the rear. I used plate hangers that I glued to the rear of the shield. The bottom point is held to the chair with industrial Velcro (which is incidentally made in Brampton!!!)

"1" too Many!!!

Lynda's call centre had recently completed one year at the new place just across the road. To celebrate the day, we (I) cut 15" high "1" from 1/8 hardboard, sanded the cut edges and painted them a metallic red. These were then placed on every pillar in the Call Centre and they looked good!!!!

My Most Eggciting Project Yet!!!

Where do you get an egg holder with a 90 egg capacity? Not in your refrigerator for sure!!!

This is in response to Lynda's need to display eggs that her staff will be decorating for an Easter competition. As with everything that we do, we decided to stretch the limits on this project and made the biggest egg stand that the shelving cabinets could accommodate.

It measures 90 inches long, has three steps and is affixed with labels for the participants names to be written.

I would've liked it to be in a darker stain, but keeping with the theme of Easter and freshness, I decided to apply a clear varnish instead.

I constructed this from pine boards using 3 pcs. of 1x4x8', 2 pcs. of 1x2x8' and 2 pcs. of 1x2x6' as risers. I used a 1.25" Forstner bit to bore the holes which are 3" apart. The 3" came from the label size and worked in my favour as 90" was equally divisible by 3"

I assembled the unit using screws and completed the entire task along with the sanding, the 3 coats of varnish and the sanding between coats in two days. It took me two and a half hours to affix the individual labels in a perfect line - a task I completed by midnight last night.

Drilling the holes outdoors with the Forstner Bit

Assembled

Varnished & Labelled

Close-up showing details

Stuff that I've done Part V

Last spring Lynda had embarked on a project for her office. The project was essentially to scrapbook all of their events and have it displayed in their Foyer for all to peruse. Lynda needed a lectern to hold the book, but we were using Martha Stewart's largest Scrapbook which measures 18" high x 36" wide when open. All the lecterns that are commercially available were sized to hold a sheet of paper or at the most an open folder. This would no way do to hold open this album.

Add to that a non-existent budget and the job was mine. Like I ever had a choice!!!!!!!

I decided to make the unit out of project grade Pine for the base and the top surface. The legs are Newel Posts that are normally installed at the top and bottom of stair runs. I cut the Newels at an angle, cut radius' out of the bases as a design element, added a rest for the top plank, and rails for mounting. Dad did the final staining and it now sits at the DHL Brampton Call Centre.

The Newel Posts attached to the base.

Completely assembled and being tested for stability on a carpeted surface

From the Front

The Lectern holding the open Scrapbook