Blackout Sign Helps Customers Flock to San Marcos Antique Store

Jay Gordon is co-owner of Blackout Sign (San Marcos, TX).

Equipment and Materials
Coatings: Lettering enamels, from 1Shot, a Matthews Paint (Delaware, OH) brand, (800) 323-6593 or www.1shot.com; Black, blockout paint, from PPG (Pittsburgh), (412) 434-3131 or www.ppg.com; Goldleaf, size and gilding brush, from Letterhead Sign Supply (Petaluma, CA), (800) 531-3359 or www.letterheadsignsupply.com; Iwata airbrush, from Iwata Medea Inc. (Portland, OR), (503) 253-7309 or www.iwata-medea.com; HVLP gun, available at paint-supply or home-improvement stores; fitch brushes, from Andrew Mack & Son Brush Co. (Jonesville, MI), (517) 849-9272 or www.mackbrush.com
Neon: Luminous tubing, from Tecnolux (Brooklyn, NY), (718) 369-3900 or www.tecnolux.com; electronic, 12,000V transformers, from Allanson (Toronto), (800) 668-9162 or www.allanson.com; core-and-coil, 7,500V transformers, from West Coast Custom Designs LLC (Phoenix), (480) 820-9517 or www.wccdusa.com; PK housings, from FMS Sign Products (Minneapolis), (800) 769-6366 or www.brillite.com; neon-tube bending, by Big Dog Neon (Lockhart, TX), (512) 376-6860 or www.bigdogneon.com
Tape: Transfer tape, from such vendors as 3M Industrial Adhesives and Tapes (St. Paul, MN), http://solutions.3m.com/wps/portal/3M/en_US/Adhesives/Tapes/
Welding: Millermatic 252 single-phase MIG welder, from Miller Electric Mfg. Co. (Appleton, WI), (920) 734-9821 or www.millerwelds.com; aluminum sheet and steel angle and tubing, from metal- and industrial-supply stores

A cool thing about projects we handle is meeting the interesting people who ask us to build their signs. We enjoy digging a little deeper and getting to know their tastes and interests. We learn a lot during this process; often, the most important thing is the client’s reasoning behind their business’ name. San Marcos, approximately 30 miles from Austin, is a laid-back town, with a dynamic mixture of fun shops, that’s blessed with a beautiful, spring-fed river that runs through downtown. It’s also home to Texas State Univ., a rapidly growing school with more than 35,000 students. The lively mix of college students, professionals and quirky “San Martians” exudes a creative vibe and a climate favorable to unique sign work.

A cool customer
We particularly enjoyed meeting Katinka Pinka, a jewelry designer, seamstress and antique dealer who also owns Bower Bird Antiques & Curiosities (www.curiousbowerbird.com). Her business is located in an early-1900s, two-story building in downtown San Marcos. A self-proclaimed “cool junk collector”, she’s very adept at recognizing relics and giving them a second chance for discovery. Research after our first meeting elucidated the store’s name. The actual bower bird makes elaborate nests and decorates them with colorful found objects in hopes of attracting a mate.

So, I created a rough sketch with pencil and paper of a sign that would reflect this bird’s quirky personality, her shop’s vintage vibe and the historic building. Gabe Hedrick, Blackout’s one-man design team, cleaned up the rough sketch following more research on this crafty bird, and created scaled shop art to use as our template for shop drawings and neon patterns. Pinka wanted the sign to be slightly distressed – appropriate for a shop that sells vintage trinkets. We settled on a double-sided, 5 x 3-ft. (the maximum city codes allow), projecting, vintage-looking sign with multi-colored neon, handpainted metal and goldleaf – with a nest, of course.

Hatching the bird
After having transferred the pattern with carbon paper, we cut the 0.063-in.-thick faces with a jigsaw. Next, we welded the sign’s steel, 2 x 2-in., angle frame and 1 x 2 tubing. We MIG-welded the components together with a Millermatic 252 single-phase welder.

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We painted the face with a corrosion-resistant, epoxy primer. We formed the 0.040-in.-thick, aluminum returns by hand and riveted them to the faces. Next, we ran the returns through our well-worn Ruoff notcher, a punch press with an adjustable, automatic feed, and then bent them into a U shape on our manual brake. Jason Mathis crafted the “nest” out of ¼-in.-diameter, aluminum rod and made mounting brackets for it.

Once we’d formed the cans, we masked the sign with transfer tape, and transferred the pattern with carbon paper. We cut out the areas intended to receive background color to prepare them for handpainting and airbrushing. We sprayed the background with 1Shot® lettering enamels, which we enhanced with lacquer thinner to improve their spraying. We painted it with an inexpensive HVLP gun and an Iwata gravity-feed airbrush. To help the paint cure, we also added PPG’s MH101 universal hardener. Sometimes, those enamels take forever to dry.

The hardener helps the paint cure overnight instead of requiring days. Just a bottlecap full of the hardener with a quart of paint works wonders and prevents headaches.To provide a matte finish and texture, we painted the bird with automotive-undercarriage, black paint, a PPG product sold in a spray can. This coating functions well as matte-finish, textured paint, prevents reflection and “soaks up” light.

Next, we applied goldleaf to the Bower Bird sign’s lettering. We always use slow size; even in March, Texas can be hot, and these conditions would cause quick size to lose tack quickly. We used 18K surface goldleaf, which we purchased from Letterhead Sign Supply, and applied it with a gilder’s tip brush – the kind you wipe across your hair for natural oil and static electricity. Thanks to Gary Martin for teaching me that trick. We applied the gold “wet” – meaning with heavy size – because we’re trying to recreate the effect of an aging mirror, where the silver on the back has begun to decay. We followed this with an outline of 1Shot robin-egg blue straight from the can.

A bright nest
We outsourced the neon tube-bending to Kirk Tunningsley, the owner of Big Dog Neon in Lockhart, TX. We incorporated various colors of Tecnolux luminous tubing, which ranged in diameter from 10-15mm. We used both penetrating electrodes in PK housings and double-backs in some of the tighter areas.

Next, we dry-mounted the tubing to determine the number of feet of wiring we’d need for each transformer. We like Allanson 12,000V electronic, channel-letter transformers because they are compact, light and self-adjusting. We installed four of them in the sign. For the border, we used core-and-coil 7,500V transformers, which we purchased from West Coast Custom Designs, which stocks several, hard-to-find neon products.
We installed glass PK housings for the lettering, and, for the rest of the glass, we installed double-back tubing with ceramic bushings for the wiring penetration. We’re glad FMS Sign Products still offers these items; we realize that neon has become a lost art for many. We’ve had good luck with our local supplier, Reece Supply Co.’s San Antonio branch, and we also try to stay stocked with special-order items from FMS and West Coast Custom Designs.

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The installation proceeded quickly. Under threatening spring skies, three of us needed approximately four hours to install the sign. We installed a custom-built bracket with 3/8 x 4-in. lag bolts onto the building’s front, and then creatively muscled the sign into place on the bracket. Once this was bolted in place, we installed ¼-in.-diameter, stainless-steel cable and turnbuckles for support.

We also completed a little handlettering on the building with my old Mack Brush Co. fitches and 1Shot. To support the flag-mounted sign and secure it to the roof, we applied NP1 sealant heavily to make the sign as water-resistant as possible. Our coating combination created the distressed look Pinka wanted. Sorry, the exact mixture is proprietary; we can’t give away all our secrets!

Finally, we wired the sign to a previously installed, weatherproof, 20-amp circuit, and hit the switch. The client was excited to showcase the sign to customers. As we loaded up to head back to the shop, I bought two unusual items at Bower Bird – an early-20th-Century fencing panel and a huge steel ring. So, Katinka got some of her money back. I’m not sure what I’ll use them for, but I have a feeling they may yet end up on a sign or project we fabricate. It’s always satisfying to work with a client who shares your creative passion. I wish all jobs could be this fun.

More About Blackout Sign
Jay Gordon, owner of Blackout Signs and Metalworks (San Marcos, TX), is a master fabricator and artist whose diverse background includes offset printing, construction, signpainting, machining, and even stock-car racing and ranch-hand work. His interests are buried “in the past”: hand craftsmanship, design, and art. He primarily plies his trade for unique businesses in San Marcos and throughout Texas, and has shipped signs nationwide. He’s created signage for Lollapalooza, the Austin City Limits Festival and the Fun Fun Fun Fest, among others. He works with his wife, Darcy, and their two Australian shepherds producing signs, sculptures and, in his words, “just plain strange things.”
He’s won several awards in the ST International Sign Contest, which included a second-place finish in the Electric Building Signs category in this year’s April edition for his sign for Jacoby Mercantile, an Austin retail shop and restaurant.
For more information, visit www.blackoutsign.com