Create a personalised house sign
There’s no need for your house sign to be dull and boring or just like everyone else’s. If you want a personalised house sign made to your own design, our years of experience can help make your dream come true.
The design of a personalised house sign
Take one example from the many we’ve created down the years. A few weeks ago we were approached by a client who brought a picture drawn by her child. Their house is called Sunrise Cottage and the pencil drawing showed a very striking sunrise. They wanted this made up on stainless steel using several colours.
After some discussion, the colours they settled on were yellow for the sun; yellow and pink for the sun’s rays; and white to outline the tops of the hills behind which the sun is rising. The hills themselves and the rest of the plate were left as plain steel, both to represent the grey of dawn and to let the sunrise shine out in its full glory.
The first thing we have to do when we create a personalised house sign made to your own design is to copy your drawing. We can then can cut the etching mask form this. There has to be an edge of bare metal between each coloured section, to prevent the colours mixing. With this design that wasn’t really a problem. There are only a couple of places where the colours would have touched – but it’s something that has to be considered before the mask is cut.
The process of making a personalised house sign
This picture is cut into the stainless steel plate, so the mask had the design cut out of it. This allows the etchant to reach the metal in the right places. If you want the picture to stand proud, we cut the mask so that the picture is left and the surrounding metal is removed.
The mask was applied to the plate and left to settle before we passed the plate through the etching bath. Stainless steel is so hard it can take several passes through the bath before enough material is removed to finish the picture.
Once the picture was etched, the plate (with the mask still attached) was washed clean, thoroughly dried and warmed before we started painting. The first layer is a special undercoat designed for etched metal. Then one colour was applied and left to dry before we started on the second. This then had to dry before the third could be applied. The plate needs to be warmed before each coat. As you can imagine, with three colours to apply the process took quite a long time.
Once the paint was dry, we removed the mask and checked for any blemishes. If we find any at this point, we have to start the whole process again with a new piece of steel. Needless to say we were very pleased after all that painting to find there were no problems!
All that was left to do was to burnish the edges and polish the front. We then presented it to a very happy family. The client wrote on Facebook that she was “Chuffed to bits with this as is my wee artist!”. If you have a personalised house sign made to your own design by us, we guarantee you’ll feel chuffed to bits too, so come and talk to us today and let us help you make your dream come true.