I’m still working on the hanging sign for outside Gelateria Bocelli, but in the meantime, I’ve put together this sandwich board sign for inside the window. The terms “gelato artigianale” and “produzione propria” signify that the gelato is produced in-house from scratch, as opposed to being made from a powdered mix.
My biggest revelation of this entire project so far was learning how to do an image transfer. I started by designing this sign in Photoshop, using two free clip art images. Then, I did some pretty thorough research on image transfer techniques (in other words, watching every video I could find on YouTube). It seems there are numerous methods and variations: using a laser or inkjet printer; printing on copy paper, transparency film, the backing of a sheet of printer labels, or specialized transfer paper; and using as a transfer medium Mod Podge, Polycrylic varnish, or Liquitex acrylic gel medium, among others.
The consensus seemed to be that a laser printer gives the best results, so my husband used the color laser printer at his office to print the image on a sheet of label paper with the labels removed. (It’s important to remember to print the image in reverse!)
For the sign, I cut two rectangles of 1/16″ x 1″ bass wood and painted them white. After cutting out two of the printed images, I applied Liquitex acrylic gel medium to the wood and placed the images (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 of hours before gently peeling the paper off to reveal the image. It’s a tricky technique, and I had to do one of the signs over because the image didn’t transfer cleanly. (The image transfer for my hanging Gelateria Bocelli sign is proving to be much more difficult due to the fine detail in the design. More on that another time.) Finally, to seal the transfer, I used Krylon Matte Finish spray.
To build the sign, I cut four sections of 1/16″ x 1/8″ bass wood for the legs, as well as another small strip for the top. So that each pair of legs would fit together in the point of the sign, I initially used my mini miter box but then had to sand down the angle to create a sharper point. I painted everything white and glued it all together.
For the metal “hinges,” I used small strips of 1/64″ x 1/16″ brass flat bar. I wanted to give the illusion of a rivet or screw, so I cut a couple microscopic snippets of 24-gauge copper wire (I didn’t have any gold) and glued those to the hinges.
Here is the finished sign inside the shop.
