A Guide to the Curious: Sandblasted Signs
When we first opened our sign company, Sign-A-Rama Downtown at our original location on East Main, it was a compact place where we learned how to make the most of our space and share it with signs. One of our earliest projects, and one of our lingering favorites, was our first sandblasted sign face.
We were making a sign for Stan's Fish Shop -- I sold it because I had lunch there and left my card with a note for the owner -- she called to let me know she needed a duplicate of her existing sandblasted sign! I didn't know yet how to make one, but I knew my sign-company friends would help me out. Sure enough, they did!
First, in choosing the material for sandblasting you need to figure out the final look. In this case, the client wanted a 'driftwood' appearance -- the visibility of the grain of the wood, as though the result of years of wear and tear. Additonally, it would be outdoors for years to come, so it needed to be made from something weather-resistant. We made the obvious choice of redwood -- lightweight, durable, and readily available in custom sized panels made from sandwiched planks.
Next, we finalized the design wtih the client -- easy to do since we were matching an existing -- and we applied what is called "sand mask" -- an adhesive, rubbery film, to any areas we wanted protected from the abrasion. Whereever we left off the sand mask, the blasted would eat away at the panel, leaving behind exposed grainy areas.
 We are lucky to have a fast, easy, and reliable source of sandblasting here in Louisville -- ARC -- and so we cart the panel, all masked up, to them and they call us within a day or so to pick it up. ARC is a mess, as you can imagine, as they sand blast all kinds of projects and materials. It's dusty, noisy, and a little bit away, but they are great to work with. They've blasted literally hundreds of signs for us, with no complaints!! They even will take direction on how deep we want the material cut and they really pay attention to details.
Once it's blasted, it comes back to be cleaned up and prepped for finishing. We use a very high quality outdoor paint for sealing and priming -- which we do on all sides to help prevent warping. Once it is prepped, we start with color. We use sign makers paint -- One Shot is our brand of choice - as the colors are incredibly durable, super glossy and easy to apply and mix.
Keith and I decide to work over a couple evening to get this done, as doing the work during the day would simply put a total halt to our daily work flow. We grab a couple beers and get to work duplicating and matching colors and details on the Fish sign to try to match it exactly. It was challenging, but fun, and we learned a lot on this project!
Once it had it's first coat, that dried overnight and we finished up the second night. It was ready for install within a day or so and the client was absolutley delighted! We ended up doing several jobs for this fish shop, which we are proud of since they have the BEST fish in the city of Louisville!
We love doing these hands-on kinds of projects for clients -- it's rewarding and creates a completely unqiue sign, just like the good old days!
As a footnote, it was a few years later that a met a local artist and got to know her over lunch. Somehow the subject of that Fish sign came up, and she said "I'm the one that painted the original!" I told her how hard we worked to match her style, which she just loved! Small World!!!
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