Back in 2018 I partially tore my MCL requiring surgery. When I had the appointment set I knew I was going to be out of commission for a while so I decided to focus on picking up new computer skills and wanted to make my own t-shirts so I picked up Affinity Designer and started learning graphic design and the process of heat transfer vinyl (HTV). The opaque style HTV looked good but didn’t seem to last long on shirts, I realized direct to garment (DTG) or embroidery was the way to go for high quality shirts, but those required expensive equipment so I put the idea on the shelf and just focused on graphic design. As my recovery got better I was out cleaning the shed one day and came across some plywood and decided to try heat pressing images to it and since I had an old table saw, I started playing with rectangular plaques and got mixed results as I adjusted temperature, time, and pressure, but I saw the potential.
Once I got the settings down I knew I had to do more and had friends telling me I should get a bandsaw next and make more designs and eventually got myself a Ryobi table top bandsaw and started doing more intricate cuts.
Eventually I had my first commsion project of making plaques with customer’s images, I added the words and then she wanted hooks added to hold her art supplies.
This opened me up to start making accessory and tool holders
Eventually I started having friends and family telling me how I should hit flea markets and start setting up booths at local events, some were great successes, others were a waste of time, but I still had fun doing it and sold hundreds.
While the markets proved they had great feedback and it was a self-sustainable venture, there wasn’t much profit and it was more of a hobby shop, so I played more and started taking them further with epoxy.
Always trying to improve, I picked up an engraver and learned fractal burning as well and started mixed media projects
Here is a gallery of some of more of my work followed by some of my most proud commemorative pieces with descriptions of the inspiration behind them.
A piece I made for my niece on her birthday. I started with a pretty design, cut to shape, then engraved her name and the humming birds, then made the pelican epoxy mold and epoxied over everything to bond it all and seal it.
A gift I made for my sister-in-law’s birthday, they are huge Steeler fans so I made the plaque, used a scroll saw to cut out the diamonds, then filled them in with glittered epoxy to fit the color alignment.
A commemorative piece I made for my wife after her dog “Gizmo” passed. The heart and bone on the upper left have some of his ashes in them.
A friend commissioned me to make something for his girlfriend after her horse passed. He wanted me to inorporate the horse tail somewhere and it was hard to manage. I got my sister in law to braid the horse hair to at least try to make it stay as the epoxy cured, which helped, but I had to constantly adjust as I didn’t want to waste wany.
I put the image with his name in a heart shaped plaque, cut the bottom out and put an epoxy cross in there with some of the hair, then I engraved the “Mama’s best boy” which is what she always called him, then I put some hair in the rose and added it to the plaque, sealing over everything with another layer of epoxy. The remaining hair got placed in a “LOVE” mold and filled in to stand alone wherever she put her shrine.
A little something I made for myself. It has been a lot of work making all these, but a lot of fun as well, I have around 20-30 different types hanging in my house and shops from family photos, to great sayings, to just awesome images.
Below, enjoy the gallery of more of my random plaque creations, and feel free to reach out if you would like something made, they make awesome gifts. Scroll past them for a link to my Youtube channel where you can see how some were created.
