Sunday 27 April 2008

Farm craft 2

Following my fanciful forays into farm pyrography, I thought I should try my wobbly hand at something else. The entrance to the farm is a pair of ugly breeze block and concrete pillars, cracked and weathered, from which a cattle gate hangs, vital for keeping the livestock and dogs in.
Attached attractively to the gate by cable ties is (was) a plastic laminate-on-ply sign asking that people keep the gate closed at all times; well, they can open it to get in and out, of course...
I had promised myself that when the barns were finished, posts of old stone would replace the current stanchions, but as their worst is covered in ivy that might be something that never gets done. Either way, it was about time I sorted out the gate sign and produced a farm sign to match.
So I nicked a couple of slates that had come off the old barn roof and sat and sucked my pencil end whilst I worked out dimensions, spaces, fonts and so on. Hoorah for computers; I printed out various font sizes 'til it looked ok and then started to copy the lettering in pencil before painting them in with the eggshell left in the linhay by the previous owners.
I'm not one for perfection or patience, so it's kind of uneven. But I like it.

9 comments:

Eurodog said...

I like it as well. Looks good.

mountainear said...

It's good. I hope you won't feel insulted if I say it's in the fine tradition of folk art.

KAZ said...

Excellent - all the better for the handcrafted irregularities.
You'd have to pay extra for them

Whispering Walls said...

I like that. You could have added, "Beware of the snakes" and drawn your slow worm

Mopsa said...

Thank you all - much better than what was there before!

Perhaps I should do a beware of the Mopsa dog sign WW!

Whispering Walls said...

The Mopsa dog looks too friendly to bite

Anonymous said...

As I flew passed in busting frustration at the council road workers (I found them, feet up between warm tar spreader and digger, reading the Sun, hardly raising the energy to tell me the road was blocked and would be for some time as they were having lunch) last Friday; and I glimpsed, out of the corner of my eye this wondrous sign - and now I can see it properly in all its finery!

Mopsa said...

She does a great growl and bark though WW.

Paula - the Sun! I should have gone out and swapped it for the Guardian... They have even put the signs in the road so that I can't access the farm unless I get out of the car to move the signs. Can't blame them though for wanting to stretch out a job in a quiet backwater like this - who but us would notice?

Rob Clack said...

Terrific! The formal font says "I mean this" but the hand-painting softens it and says "Please". Perfect.