Since the only elements of this shop that are true to life are the name Gelateria Bocelli, its Castiglioncello location, and its pink stucco facade, I was free to design the sign however I liked.
The image transfer process was the same as for the sandwich board sign in my last post. I first created the design in Photoshop, using a free clip art image of an ice cream cone, and then laser-printed it in reverse on the backing of a sheet of printer labels. Next, I cut an oval out of 1/32″ birch aircraft plywood and painted it with two coats of white acrylic paint. After cutting out one of the images, I applied Liquitex acrylic gel medium to the wood and placed the image (printed side down) over the wood, gently smoothing the surface to get rid of bubbles and excess goo. I left it to dry for a couple hours before removing the paper to reveal the image. This one was much more difficult than the transfer for my sandwich board sign—partly because of all the tiny dots in the border, and partly because it’s a double-sided sign. Finally, after a painstaking 31 tries, I managed to get a decent transfer on both sides of the sign.
To make the bracket, I bent a strip of 1/32″ x 1/8″ brass flat bar into an L-shape, filing the ends to round them off. I used 1/64″ x 1/8″ flat bar for the scrollwork and gold jump rings for the hooks.
After drilling holes in the sign and inserting another set of jump rings, I glued the sign above the door.
Gelateria Bocelli is now complete and ready for me to begin adding mini gelato and other accessories. Here is the finished shop with the final addition of the acrylic ceiling panel.
