The first step in creating carved art is sourcing raw wood. In the case of Outdoor Custom Wood Signs, one doesn't look to lumberyards, specialty wood shops, or online retailers. Nor is it a search for high-quality wood like maple, cherry, or walnut. Consider the size and type of timber needed based on your artistic vision and the specific requirements of your carving project. Selecting the suitable wood is crucial as it will influence the final outcome of your carved art piece. 

Selecting the correct type of wood for your project is crucial to preparing wood for carving. Certain woods, like basswood or pine, are softer and ideal for beginners. Others, like oak or walnut, are harder and more suited for detailed carving, but not if the intent is to locate the project outdoors. After choosing, the wood must be cut into the desired size and shape using tools like saws and woodworking machines. Precision is critical following intricate carving process during this stage to ensure the wood is ready for the intricate carving process that follows.

Designing carved art involves sketching the design onto the wood, carefully carving out the intricate details with specialized tools, and adding finishing touches for a polished look. The design process requires creativity, precision, and patience to bring the vision to life on the raw wood material.

Carving wood requires specific tools like chisels, gouges, and mallets, which help shape the wood accurately. Important techniques for wood carving include chip carving, relief carving, and whittling. Chip carving involves cutting small chips from the wood's surface to create intricate designs, relief carving involves carving figures in a flat panel of wood, and whittling involves shaping a piece of wood with a knife. Learning these techniques and practicing with the right tools are essential for creating detailed and beautiful carved wood art.

During the detailed carving process, skilled craftsmen use various tools like chisels and gouges to meticulously shape the raw wood into intricate designs. They start by outlining the design on the wood and then carefully remove excess material, creating depth and texture. This process requires precision and patience to bring out the beauty of the wood grain and achieve the desired intricacy in the final carved art piece.

Once the wood carving is complete, the process of smoothening and adding finishing touches begins. This involves sanding the wood to remove any rough edges and create a smooth surface for the final touches. Staining or painting the wood may also be done at this stage to enhance its appearance and protect it from damage. Polishing the wood gives it a shiny and refined look, bringing out the beauty of the intricate carvings.

When adding intricate details to a piece of wood, skilled artisans use specialized tools like small chisels and carving knives. These tools allow them to create fine lines, curves, and textures on the wood surface with precision. The process requires patience and a steady hand to bring out the desired design. It's a meticulous craft that transforms plain wood into a work of art, showcasing the artisan's creativity and expertise.

Precision in carving is crucial to achieve intricate details and a refined final product. It requires careful attention to detail and accuracy in every cut and stroke. Even a small mistake can drastically alter the final outcome. Precision not only ensures the beauty and quality of the carved art but also reflects the skill and craftsmanship of the artist. Each precise movement contributes to the overall aesthetic appeal and determines the success of the carving process.

Drying and curing the carved wood is a crucial step in the process to ensure the wood is stable and ready for long-lasting beauty.

• Drying: After the carving is complete, the wood needs to dry slowly and evenly to prevent cracking or warping.
  
• Curing: Once dried, the wood is cured to remove any remaining moisture and strengthen its structure. This process can take several weeks to ensure the wood is fully ready for finishing touches.

To display and preserve your carved wood art, it's essential to keep it away from direct sunlight and extreme temperatures to prevent fading and warping. Consider placing the artwork in a location with stable humidity levels to maintain its integrity. Use a soft, dry cloth to gently dust the piece regularly and avoid using harsh cleaning products that could damage the wood. If you need to clean it more thoroughly, lightly dampen the cloth with water. To showcase your carved wood art, choose a spot that allows it to be the focal point of the room and complements its aesthetic.

This is a recent customer's request for one of our Lodge Rustic Engraved Signs. It's our Classic Formula for Lodge, Cabin, Lake Home, and Ranch. The name area is generous and boldly Front & Center. This one was large. When over 14" tall, we craft them from 1-1/2" thick Western Red Cedar laminated strips for sheer outdoor ruggedness. You can read more about this style of carved wood sign at 

http://www.cedarsign.com/LODGE-CABIN-RUSTIC-SIGN-p/lodg.htm

Here's a Good Sign

The most essential purpose of a sign is to deliver a message. It takes much more than throwing a bunch of letters on a panel and hoping folks will see it. A completed sign is really a composition. Whether it’s reasonable depends on four critical factors: Balance, Rhythm, Oneness, and Harmony.

A good sign must be “pleasing” to the eye for Balance. It is the weight distribution that is considered first. It’s not necessarily done symmetrically; instead, a well-balanced sign composition is optically effective and has stability of sorts in the arrangement of the copy concerning each of the other elements. A lot is involved in this judgment for the competent sign writer – the amount of copy, any illustrations or supporting images, letter styles, and what the sign is supposed to do; advertise, sell, welcome, etc. 

Also, how far will the sign be viewed from, and how fast will the viewer travel, if at all. When the customer brings the sign writer copy that looks like a newspaper ad and doesn’t allow any freedom for the professional to edit, believing every word is essential, there is often no hope for achieving a balance in the sign’s layout. Rhythm is what many signs lack due to the sign writer’s judgment in selecting too many letter styles in the same work. Aesthetically speaking, most signs look best when only one or two fonts are incorporated. Modest font variations can often be introduced to reduce rhythm interference when bringing impact and interest; however, too many lettering styles on one sign are visually distressing. 

Oneness is when signs have several groups of copies or messages, and the viewer’s eye smoothly follows the flow of the message from the primary message to the secondary and finally onto the most subordinate. It can be achieved or enhanced by dividing the three messages and creating emphasis using reverse panels, bolding, and other emphasis techniques. 

Harmony is nothing more than incorporating the first three elements with discipline – balance, rhythm, and oneness. Without being sensitive to copy grouping, letter styles, and things like coloring, no harmonious layout will be achieved. A perfect example of this is the use of borders. Often, borders on signs are entirely unnecessary and only distract the eye instead of supporting a particular letter style. This is especially true when the border is excessively strong or of solid color. In the case of borderless signs, the flow of the graphics, shapes, and lettering styles provides design and unity, balanced with uninterrupted harmony.

In my work with customers at Cedar Sign Company, a retailer of personalized welcome signs carved from Western Red Cedar red, I often see them deliver copy and design expectations that are far from the proof we render for their approval. When folks let us exercise our signed in wood expertise by interpreting balance, rhythm, unity, and harmony with professionalism and style, their welcome signs and family name plaques deliver attractive and compelling compositions.

Top 10 Signs Your Family Is Stressed

10 Conversations often begin with “Put the gun down, and then we can talk.” 

9  The school principal has your number on the speed dial. 

8  The cat is on Valium. 

7  People have trouble understanding your kids because they learn to speak through clenched teeth.

6  You are trying to get your four-year-old to switch to decaffeinated. 

5  The number of jobs held down by family members exceeds the number of family members. 

4  No one has time to wait for microwave TV dinners. 

3  “Family meetings” are often mediated by law enforcement officials. 

2  You must check your kid’s day-timer to see if he can take out the trash. 

1  Maxwell House gives you industrial rates.

Apostrophological Anomalies and the Welcome Sign

Putting your apostrophes in the right places on those ubiquitous carved wooden Welcome Signs is easy once you know the rules. There is no greater motivation than having all those grammatical fuddy-duddies think better of you, either! But, before examining the rules for using apostrophes and how their literary status has earned its reputation, I want to clarify one thing really clear…I’m writing this to be helpful – that’s all. I couldn’t care less if you got your apostrophes wrong. There are many more essential things in life and nature to get on a soap box! Besides, this stuff (and the rules) is not written in granite!

The apostrophe has four primary uses: possession, omission (contractions), plurals, and phrases of time or measure; however, when it comes to knowing how best to create proper identification on Personalized Welcome Signs, we’ll focus on the mystery of the possessive and plurals business only—time and omissions wait for no man! 

At the most basic level, if you need to make a possessive, turn the phrase around and make it an "of the..." phrase. For example, the man’s hat = the hat of the man, or three days' trip = trip of three days. Once it’s been determined that you need to make a possessive, here are the rules to create one: add 's to the singular form of the word (even if it ends in -s), like the neighbor’s car or Louis's hat. Adds to the plural forms that do not end in –s, like the children's toys and the moose’s whistle. Add the ' to the end of plural nouns that end in –s, like houses' decks and three dogs’ tails. Add the 's to the end of compound words like my mother-in-law's comments. Finally, add the 's to the last compound nouns to show joint possession of an object like Thom & Elaine’s house.

And, of course, a few exceptions (as shocked as I am sure you are!): Some words sound awkward when an apostrophe 's' is added, like Jesus's disciples, so the accepted form is to just use the 's' apostrophe: Jesus' disciples. Interestingly, this only applies to Biblical or historical significance names, e.g., Jesus, Moses, Ramses…Moses' followers, Ramses' pyramid. Still, others don't have a clutsy sound, like the princess's bed. Just be consistent! 

Although it may be worth noting that some “experts will say something like, “…words ending with an s present a problem. There are two valid options in this case. It is either Jesus' teaching or Jesus's teaching. Elegance would seem to preclude the latter….”See what I mean about being consistent! The confusion arises when the apostrophe is used with a plural noun – The vipers’ den…more than one snake in that den, so the s’ – the den of the vipers! Generally speaking, if there's one owner, add an apostrophe and then 's,' and if there are two or more owners, add 's,' then add an apostrophe. For words that form their plural by changing internal letters (instead of adding 's'), like the children’s table…it’s already plural – we don’t pile it on! It’s the same with words people, women…and so on. When using names that end in S, you follow the same rules as with any other name and add apostrophe S: Thomas’s car. 

Plural names also follow the same rules: Thomases’ house (add -es to names that end in S to indicate plural form). You generally let your ear be your guide for anyone whose name ends in S. If Lars's house sounds awkward, feel free to omit the final S. The only rule in this case is that you must (MUST) be consistent. You can't have Lars' two-car garage other than Lars's property. 

On a Welcome Sign – it’s just not going to happen! This whole business of apostropheological anomalies (I can’t believe I used that again!) stirs passionately among some folks, and there have been whole sub-cultures formed to lobby for the universal observance of the mystery of the apostrophe. I am not of that belief set; I’m just a sign guy; however, I'm pretty sensitive about getting these things right. All you really have to ask yourself is, “Does my sign refer to the object it’s attached to, Larson’s Cabin?” And then, is it the whole gang’s cabin? Either way, I don’t think it’s grammatical. It's “Apostrophological!” 

Good Wood - My Person Favorite

The tree that never had to fight for sun, sky, air, and light stood out in the open plain and always got its share of rain. It never became a forest king but lived and died a scrubby thing. The man who never had to toil to gain and farm his patch of soil, Who never had to win his share of sun, sky, light, and air, never became a manly man. But he lived and died as he began. Good timber does not grow quickly; the stronger the wind, the more vigorous the trees; the further the sky, the greater the length; the more the storm, the more the strength. Suitable timbers grow in trees and men by sun and cold, rain and snow. Where thickest lies the forest growth. We find the patriarchs of both. And they hold counsel with the stars whose broken branches show the scars of many winds and much strife. This is the common law of life. 

Sterling W. Sill, Making the Most of Yourself

Images Enhance Carved Wood Signs

Custom Wood Signs as Personalized Welcome Signs reveal much about your business, home, cabin, camp, lodge, or RV. Aside from telling customers, visitors, and friends who you are, it will tell them a little about the business, your personality, and your sentiments. 

There are many important factors to consider when planning your sign's appearance. The font is an influential factor in determining how the text will appear. Text in one font can deliver a different message altogether than the exact text of another font choice. Font choice alone can deliver formality, whimsy, rusticity, and hundreds of themes, such as Western, Cartoon, Sailing, Hunting, Fishing, etc. The size of your sign can also make a difference, but the larger it is, the more it will cost. This is because it will take more materials to build it and, therefore, more labor. Often, larger signs require laminating many cedar members of greater thickness to create a plaque large enough to make a solid and stable sign panel. It’s not unlike a bowling alley or a chopping block. Those elements, however, aren’t the only ones that should be considered when planning to have a custom personalized outdoor welcome sign commissioned.

Choosing to place an image on your sign can significantly increase the sign's visibility and the aesthetic interest of potential customers, friends, and viewers. Sometimes, the image will grab a person’s attention before the actual words even come into view, thus making that person want to read the words because they were captivated by the picture they just saw. This is why you might consider adding an image to your carved wood sign.

Images also have a compelling impact on the message on your sign. One picture can make an exciting message even more convincing. An appropriate image, properly incorporated into a carved wood sign, can actually serve as a demonstration of who you are and what your sentiments intend, profoundly supplementing the message with something that will show the viewer as well as tell them. This visual leverage will enhance your sign and your message in a positive way.

While adding an image or multiple images will raise the cost with distinct predictability, it is always worth the investment. The higher price is due to the increased carving time and complexity necessary to engrave images into cedar sign panels. The costs will vary, depending on what you want on your sign, how large the image is, and how complex the image is to carve. A simple image will obviously be the least expensive, while a complex image will require more work and added cost. The most costly option is custom-designed, original art unique to the message, the owner, and the carving artist’s repertoire. Here, graphics can be added according to your specifications, imagination, or inspiration.

No matter which option you choose, remember that your sign will last you a long, long time, so you will see a return on your investment. It’s all about attracting attention, customers, and visitors. Images often make or break a fantastic sign. And that, after all, is the whole point of the investment 

Carved Custom Wood Signs Deliver Class

If you are looking for a compelling Welcome Sign that will distinguish yours from all the others you’ve seen, you should consider a custom made wooden sign. Whether you are running a Country Inn, a Lodge with rustic cabins, old family General Store; or, simply a Lake Cabin, second home or RV Camping Site…a custom carved wood sign will provide you that special distinction that will set you apart from others around you. It will also make a statement for those who visit your business, arrive at your home or extend a Howdy to those other campers at the sites you frequent. 

Everything about your Welcome Sign speaks volumes about you and your uniqueness. Because there are hundreds, indeed thousands, of fonts and varieties, a powerfully designed wooden sign becomes a composition. For instance, a simple font is often used to deliberately convey a rustic look. A different, even simple font choice of the same text will profoundly change the balance and harmony of the sign. The right font can determine the overall look, which, in turn, can serve to make the message on the sign more appealing. 

Remember, your overall goal is to grab the attention of potential customers, quests, visitors or neighbors and give them something to remember. Since your sign will likely be one of the first aspects of your business or abode they will see, the way it appears is a crucial part of customer attraction, personification and identification. The message itself is just as important as the look, as it will make a statement to the viewer - receiver - target. You want them to continue coming back; to tell others about your style; to express your warmth, personality and affections; so be sure it is something they will be likely to remember: the more distinctive the better. It may even serve to define you; or, at the very least, something about who you are and what you have that’s unique - so choose your words carefully. 

If you are still determining the sign's look, consult the person who will create it. Collaborating directly with the sign design artist is the most powerful tool for customizing or tailoring the right message, balance, and harmony. Once you have established exactly what you are going for, (sometimes you just don’t know what you are looking for but know it when you see it) you will have an easier time deciding just how it should look. There are many designs that can help present your message. The one you choose should compliment the message on your sign. If the message is simple and rustic, go for that type of design. If you are going for something more complex, there are designs available to fit those types of signs as well. 

It’s all in the presentation. Avoid vendors who have a page of images you may select from. Or, a page of fonts you must use. Or worse, how many letters per line that you are restricted to. It requires a great deal more than counting letters on a fixed shaped and sized panel and then hoping folks will notice your message. I love Western Red Cedar and have been using this amazing and legendary material for over 40 years in construction and my art of carving personalized outdoor welcome signs. Find us at www.cedarsign.com where we've been hand carving personalized cedar outdoor signs since 1965?

Naming Your Cabin or Summer Place with a Custom Wood Sign

Whatever you own, run, or visit, whether it is a lodge, cabin, or summer place, nothing welcomes people in the same way as a Custom Wood Sign does. Nothing beats the look and feel of an old-world style hand-carved wooden sign if you want a personalized welcome sign. This is primarily because you have no limitations with this type of sign. You can make your sign as creative as you can imagine regardless of what message you are trying to get across; whether it is your house number, family name, or a message used to create a decor piece to hang on a wall inside, you can achieve any or all of these things with the help of a carved wooden sign.

Why settle for a practical, standard run-of-the-mill sign for your lodge, cabin, or summer place when you could invest in a handcrafted wooden sign to say much more about your business, home, cabin, camp, and lodge. I say this because you can use this type of sign to convey a lot more than merely who you are or what number your cabin is. You can place text and images on these signs to convey traits about your business or personality. With this in mind, you have to consider the fact that there are so many factors to consider when you are planning how your sign will look. You need to consider font and images and the type of wood you are using for your sign.

Western Red Cedar is the best type of wood that can be used for these signs. Western Red Cedar will last for decades, even in the harshest environments, when this type of wood is finished correctly. This is thanks to the natural resistance to moisture, decay, and insect damage, which makes it an excellent choice for a wooden sign that will be in the line of sun, rain, heat, and cold all year round. It has a natural durability, but it also has a natural beauty, and these two things combined make it perfect for use on a wooden sign.

Going back to the font used on the wooden sign, you need to put a lot of thought into it, as it is the first and most prominent thing people will see. One font can give out a completely different meaning than another, so you need to make sure that the font you use gives out the correct message you want. If you have a bold, stand-out, firmly structured font, then this will give out a serious message that generally informs people. This font is mainly used for warning messages. This helps you understand the sort of font you will want to be looking for. Text, however, isn’t your only option with a wooden sign!

You can place an image on your wooden sign; this can significantly increase your sign's visibility. In fact, in many cases, people are far more likely to notice and develop an interest in your sign if an image is featured on it. In many cases, people will often see this image before they notice its actual text. It is down to reasons you may wish to include an image on your sign. The images on your sign could be anything from an animal to a portrait or object. The main way in which these images are placed on wooden signs is through the use of photographs. If you have a photograph of the image that you want placed on the sign, then this image can be copied and carved into the wood.

So, what else do you have the option of with these signs? Well, the size, of course! The larger it is, the more detail you can include. These larger signs will cost more, but if you need the extra detail, then the extra cost is worth it. So whether you want a welcoming or just a fun message, nothing says it better than a wooden sign, so start picking out your font and images now!

World's Largest Western Red Cedar Tree

 It's called the World Champion Western Red Cedar!

Ready? It's 19.4 feet in diameter, 178 feet tall, and estimated to be 1000 years old!

This Grand Daddy Western Red Cedar is in Washington State. Jefferson County is Section 36, Township 26 North, Range 13 West, W.M. It's located on State School Trust land managed by the Department of Natural Resources. The DNR manages over two million acres of forest land for the trust's benefit. 

These forest stands are harvested, literally like a crop. Older tree stands are replaced by new plantings that are weeded and thinned - These new areas are nurtured no differently than a garden until they can be harvested. The younger trees are typically thinned out around 18 to 20 years of age to be allowed to grow to maturity (well, not like this big fella of 1000 years. Actually, around 75 years, they are harvested again. This entire cycle of managed care and feeding is repeated indefinitely. It is the classic sustained management of a renewable resource. 

This giant cedar is on a very primitive site. There are no facilities available. It is about 4 miles off of Highway 101 at mile marker 170. The road is a single-lane, but there are turnouts. Such a turnout is 200 feet past Big Cedar Spur and the junction of N-1112.

Grab a backpack! Visit the Tree of Life! Give it a Hug!