Family Keepsake

1785 Views 11 Replies 9 Participants Last post by Gaffboat, 9 mo ago

Gaffboat

Discussion Starter · Apr 27, 2022

Every personal project has a story. This one began when my brother-in-law, as a young Navy man, spent a winter in Antarctica. He sent his mother a T-shirt while stationed in that frozen wasteland, and she wore it until little was left. My wife recently found the remaining scrap of T-shirt, which was just the front panel.

With both her father and grandmother passed, I duplicated the T-shirt design to make a little home decor sign for our niece as a remembrance of both her father and grandmother.

I photographed the T-shirt scrap and traced the image in Adobe Illustrator. The resulting vector image was transferred to the CNC and v-carved in some HDU leftover from another project.

A flat sign, like the T-shirt, would probably suffice. But that isn't how my brain works. A dimensional sign seemed much more appropriate and more fun to make.

It was quicker to cut the dimensional snow effect out of more HDU and 1/4" MDF on the scroll saw rather than try to design something for the CNC. Plus, it made it easier to paint the snow in separate pieces. The MDF and HDU were glued up in layers. Then Apoxie, a 2-part epoxy sculpting medium, was used to add snow wrapping around the sides on the top and bottom.

Once painted, everything was assembled, and the snow elements glued in place. The result is a simple dimensional sign to help keep the family memories alive.

Musical instrument Guitar accessory Wood Yellow String instrument

Facial tissue Household supply Wood Toilet paper Electric blue

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Reactions: 5

1 - 12 of 12 Posts

John Smith_

· #2 · Apr 27, 2022

very nicely done !!
I had a shipmate that wintered-over there 72-73 and didn't have anything good to say about it LOL.
very nice tribute to the family.

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difalkner

· #3 · Apr 28, 2022

Another great job and project, Oliver! You always do such nice work.

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old55

· #4 · Apr 28, 2022

Great job Ollie.

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jw2170

· #5 · Apr 29, 2022

Never fail to amaze, Oliver...

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MEBCWD

· #6 · Apr 30, 2022

Another great project with a technique that can be used on other projects. Of course, we always know if it is one of your projects it will be a great one and provide us with new techniques.

Well Done!

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bryansong

· #7 · Apr 30, 2022

That’s very nice Oliver, it looks really good.
That reminds me, I joined the US Navy on my 18th birthday in 1973 but I don’t have anything left except my basic training yearbook. That shirt was well preserved and now it lives on. Again, nice work.

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papasombre

· #8 · May 4, 2022

Excellent Professor Henry, as usual.

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DesertRatTom

· #9 · 9 mo ago

I missed this first time around. What a nice and thoughtful project. Just out of curiosity, could you reverse the image, carve a little deeper, and use it block print an image on a shirt? I think that would be cool. Prof. Henry Custom Safari T-shirts. With the Professor;s image on it, I think it could be fun. Work out a deal with a CNC maker, your books and a T shirt with every CNC.

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Gaffboat

Discussion Starter · #10 · 9 mo ago

DesertRatTom said:
I missed this first time around. What a nice and thoughtful project. Just out of curiosity, could you reverse the image, carve a little deeper, and use it block print an image on a shirt? I think that would be cool. Prof. Henry Custom Safari T-shirts. With the Professor;s image on it, I think it could be fun. Work out a deal with a CNC maker, your books and a T shirt with every CNC.

You could carve the image with the text and penguin raised from the surface and make some sort of block print for a t-shirt. I went down another path, used the same file to cut the image on a Cricut machine, and made a heat-transfer vinyl t-shirt for our niece. Now she has a t-shirt that is a reproduction of the original. Next Wave Automation (maker of the Shark CNC) and I had a brief conversation about using one of the books, but they couldn't find an easy way since the books are on-demand printed by Amazon.

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DesertRatTom

· #11 · 9 mo ago

Gaffboat said:
You could carve the image with the text and penguin raised from the surface and make some sort of block print for a t-shirt. I went down another path, used the same file to cut the image on a Cricut machine, and made a heat-transfer vinyl t-shirt for our niece. Now she has a t-shirt that is a reproduction of the original. Next Wave Automation (maker of the Shark CNC) and I had a brief conversation about using one of the books, but they couldn't find an easy way since the books are on-demand printed by Amazon.

If you have the original files and photographs, it should be easy to put a special edition together and have it printed and perfect bound just for them. Look into it, that could open some really interesting revenue sources for you. And at some point they could offer a special machine bearing the Professor Henry name. Of course they'd have to give you one of the perfect ones so the Professor could endorse it.

Tell me a little more about the Amazon print on demand cost/payoff. I've been thinking about converting some my management material into a book form.

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Gaffboat

Discussion Starter · #12 · 9 mo ago

DesertRatTom said:
If you have the original files and photographs, it should be easy to put a special edition together and have it printed and perfect bound just for them. Look into it, that could open some really interesting revenue sources for you. And at some point they could offer a special machine bearing the Professor Henry name. Of course they'd have to give you one of the perfect ones so the Professor could endorse it.

Tell me a little more about the Amazon print on demand cost/payoff. I've been thinking about converting some my management material into a book form.

I sent you a PM with full details.

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