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Bethune Signs’ Fence Sign Provides Classy Touch for Animal-Rescue Farm

Husband-and-wife operation benefits

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Mike Bethune is proprietor of Bethune Signs (Thonotosassa, FL), and is a 25-year, sign-industry veteran.

As a business owner working in a small town, I must be ready to seize any job opportunity. An unusual job arose when Sylvia Martinez, who runs an animal-rescue shelter, with her husband, James, asked me to fabricate a 3-D sign for their facility’s electronic gate. She had been referred by a friend who’d ordered a carved piece to give as a Christmas gift.

Sylvia told me approximately 98% of the animals they take in classify as “rescued.” That means the animals’ owners either no longer want them, or have encountered financial hardships. They shelter dogs, cats, birds, horses, donkeys and other domestic and farm animals.

A divine touch
Sylvia invited me to tour the property and gain a sense of the operation’s scope. La Finca de San Francisco de Assisi, which means “The Farm of St. Francis of Assisi” in Spanish, sprawls over 10 acres, and currently cares for 34 animals. The Martinezes self-fund their entire operation and seek no assistance. Still, the couple wanted to improve the facility’s public profile; what better way to boost your organizational image than with a good sign?

Sylvia wanted to incorporate the shelter’s namesake, St. Francis of Assisi, the legendary, 12th-Century Italian friar who rejected his wealthy upbringing to serve the poor – and a well-known lover of animals – into the sign’s logo. He’s now recognized in the Catholic church as the patron saint of animals and ecology. I endorsed her idea for the sign to depict St. Francis, surrounded by an assemblage of the type of animals the facility houses.

I researched images of St. Francis online, and found one that I thought would produce a loving image on the panel. I sketched St. Francis’ figure by hand, and fashioned the letters using CorelDRAW® software.

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Production
I carved and sandblasted the sign from a 5 x 10-ft. slab of 15-lb. Sign•Foam® HDU. Wood doesn’t hold up nearly as well in our humid climate; I only use it if a customer demands it.

To prep for blasting, I set a pattern using a Master TC3000 cutting plotter. I only sandblasted to provide some depth as a starting point for carving the figures. I covered the face with Intertape Polymer’s Anchor Stencil 226 sandblast mask, and blasted with Dupont’s Starblast abrasive and a Smith 100 air compressor at 80-100 psi for a few minutes.

After having dusted off the surface, I began carving the panel. I use both a Dremel tool and various chisels. I use the chisels to make the broad, deep cuts for more pronounced features, and the Dremel tool to create texture on finer elements, such as eyes, trees and hair. It’s much faster to do detail work this way than to try to be painstakingly precise with a chisel.

After I sanded down the panel’s surface to smooth out its details, I prepped the panel for painting with water-based primer. Water-based-coating formulations have improved so much that they’re sufficient even for facing Florida’s very hot, humid weather.

Next, I painted with several layers of copper-colored 1Shot® lettering enamels — Sylvia requested this color, and I think the finish also enhances the panel’s many fine details. I painted the panel with several Mack brushes. I added in a little black to darken the paint, and added thinner, which I then wiped off. This left a darker shade in deeper parts of the panel. I didn’t clearcoat the panel; I thought a bright sheen wouldn’t look right on it.

At the gate
I bonded the HDU panel to a ½-in.-thick layer of plywood with two-part epoxy to give it structural heft for installation. To secure it to the gate, and give it better security against wind and rain, I installed U-bolts to secure the gate to the panel.

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Sylvia loved the completed sign. This was one of the more challenging carved signs I’ve ever made; I’ve produced bigger ones, but none that had this many detailed subjects. But, for such a great cause, I was proud to handle such a challenging job.

Equipment and Materials

Coatings: Water-based primer, from such manufacturers as Kilz (Imperial, MO), (866) 977-3711 or www.kilz.com; 1Shot lettering enamel, from One Shot LLC (Chicago), (773) 646-2778 or www.1shot.com
Plotter: Master TC3000 vinyl plotter, from Master Warehouse (Orlando), (877) 893-3729 or www.masterwarehouse.com
Sandblasting: Smith 100 large air compressor, from Air-Equip Direct (South Bend, IN), (219) 324-0481 or www.smithcompressors.com
Software: CorelDRAW software, from Corel Corp. (Ottawa, ON, Canada), www.corel.com  
Stencil: Anchor 226 sandblasting stencil, from such suppliers as Midwest Sign & Screen Supply Co. (St. Paul, MN), (800) 328-6592 or www.midwestsign.com
Substrate: Fifteen-lb. HDU, from Sign Arts Products (Laguna Hills, CA), (800) 338-4030 or www.signfoam.com, or Coastal Enterprises (Orange, CA), (800) 845-0745 or www.precisionboard.com
Tools: Dremel tool, saws, chisels and sanders, available at home-improvement or building-supply stores
 

More about Mike
A 27-year veteran of handcarved- and sandblasted-sign fabrication, Mike Bethune founded Bethune Signs Inc. in the Tampa area in 1990. He learned sandblasting and engraving at the tombstone and monument foundry where his father worked, but, after having worked at a different monument fabricator, he opted to become a signmaker.

His portfolio includes signs for numerous doctors and attorneys, state and county parks, the Florida Aquarium, MacDill AFB, the Tampa Zoo and numerous residential developments. He also served as a judge for the 2011 International Sign Contest (see ST, April 2011, page 63). He moved to his current shop in Thonotosassa, a Tampa suburb, in 2001.

His “calling card” is his shop vehicle, a Chevrolet HHR that’s outfitted with a 3-D sculpture of a sleeping man that’s secured to both rear side panels. A larger version was attached to his former mode of transportation, a 1954 panel truck.

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“People would freeze on the sidewalk, wondering if that was a real guy dozing on the side of the truck,” he said.

For more information, visit www.bethunesigns.com
 

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