Hi Folks,
I haven’t done anything like this since my fish but here’s a picture of a sailboat I did this week. I have another item planned for higher up on the wall. I post pics of that later.
Cheers!
“When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.” ~ Henny Youngman
This time-tested installation method for flangeless windows ensures smooth operation and provides air, water, and vapor control.
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Replies
Beautiful, Roger.....
Thanks, Pi,
I'm trying to add a little "curb appeal" to a little ranch house on Cape Cod. Eventually I hope to "hang out my single" so to speak and try to do this as a sideline."When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
roger , i hate you , but i'm gonna steal it anyways ......keep 'em commingMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Mike, my man,
Here's the picture I went from to do the sailboat. You don't remember but you gave me a lot of tips on how to accelerate shingling when I first got started. If you ever want to collaborate on a shingle sculpture just let me know! Fun stuff!
Roger"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
Hey Crash,
Too cool. I love the look you achieved. Works great, looks great, just right on the scale, what can I say but GREAT!!
I wondered how you figured out how to layout, cut, and place all the pieces, then you go and show how it was done. A great example of " keep it simple". Of course after you do the planing you have to have the skills to get it mounted right.
How did you attach the real small pieces? Also how did you do the hull of the boat? Also how did you cut the wave pattern on the shingles to get that nice smooth even pattern?
I've never worked with shingles before so if you answer please don't assume I know squat about roofing and shingling. I'm good at commercial interior finish out, doors, hardware, high end residential finish and trim, but except for using A grade shingles for shims I truly don't know beans about how to do a beautiful shingle job like yours.
Cork in Chicago
Thanks, Cork! I used a combination of red and white cedar to make the contrast. Each layer on the sails has red cedar shingles covered by white cedar with about 3/8 inch of the red showing on the edge.
I used the grid on the picture that I posted before to transfer the shapes to the wall by marking the places where the curves intersected the grid. Then I eyeballed the shape on the shingles and used a handheld scroll saw to cut them. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera with me while I was making it so I don't have any pictures of it partially done. But below is a picture of how I cut the shingles for the sails. I did it that way to make sure that it would shed rain. I nailed each row of shingles just above where the next row would so just like you normally nail shingles. The two small pieces of sail at the top are face-nailed.
As for the waves, I cut them on a rainy day. I laid a bunch of shingles along a wall and drew the shapes by hand. Then I laid a six-foot level over the first row as a straight edge, laid more shingles, and drew more waves a little off-set of the first row. Then I did the next and the next, etc. and then cut them all with my scroll saw."When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
Thanks, you answered my question on how you cut the shingles......Way cool......
Cool--Thanks
Now I get how you did it, knew there had to be more to it than just slapping it up and glueing it.
Cork in Chicago
Cool stuff, as always Roger! I'm so jealous of you working up there on the Cape!
I think you should do a Porsche 911 on the side of your garage...except you have a ....961??? 944S??? Trying to remember.... either way, it would be "truth in advertising!"
Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
. Eventually I hope to "hang out my single" so to speak and try to do this as a sideline.
You know that could be frowned upon in some situations.
Oh man, laughed so hard I had to slap the desk on that one.you mean you guys actually get paid for this stuff???
Roger,
It's been too long since you;ve posted pics. Great job.
Was it you that did the "whale tail" porch roof a few years ago? If so, please post those pics again and totaly blow all the new guys on this forum away.
Thanks, Mongo. I appreciate your remembering! Here's the whale's tail and the striped bass. I'm always happy to have an excuse to post them!
Jake, I loooove working on the Cape! It's a 944 Turbo S. It's been off the track for way too long!
I'm working on one more shingle sculpture. I shoudl have it finished by the weekend!
Cheers!"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
Would love to share my reaction but how do you post a slack jawed blank stare?Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
Awesome work! Have you ever thought of writing a 'how to' book on shingle sculpture for us novices? Maybe have a half dozen or so examples with photos after each 'layer' and then instructions on how to create your own desighns.
Thanks wrecked and reinvent.
I wrote an article that I submitted to FHB on how to do the shingle sculptures but they had recentl;y published something that was different but close enough that they didn't want to do another. I'll see if I can find it and will post parts of it. There are a few tricky parts that would be hard to explain in a row-by-row process. In some cases (like the fish) you end up with many overlapping layers and have to be feathered out toward the edges. But I've been taking pictures of the one I'm currently doing so I'll post all of those pics step-by-step pics. "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
wow.
wow.
wow.
you must have quite alot of patience
crash that is just some of the finest examples of shingling i have ever seen. could you explain on the whale fluke on how much of an overhang from the fascia. actually let me try to better ask this . what is the substructure along the eve line . i first saw this a couple of years ago , and it has some what baffled me a bit. care to let any secrets come our way . thanks bear"expectations are premeditated resentments"
Roger
Your work is fantastic! They look great.
Doug
Love your stuff Roger!!! I`m dying to give it a shot myself.
How`d you get started? I mean....you had to get some practice somewhere before someone was willing to pay you to do it. I`m thinking of building a shed in my own yard and attempting a sculpture thats not terribly intricate this summer.....this way, if I find out I`m no good at it, no one but the wife is any the wiser.
PS. I`ll be up the Cape in August for a couple weeks....I`d love to do a drive by on one the the projects....any chance of getting an adress(email of course)? You planning on attending Rhodefest?J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
JD,
Sorry for missing your posting. I'm in Eastham and I'm in the book. Call or send email before you come out in August and I'd be happy to show you the fish!
Roger"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
Cool....will do.
Again, great work!J. D. Reynolds
Home Improvements
"DO IT RIGHT, DO IT ONCE"
You know, in the seven years since this forum started, there have only been two times that I have called my wife over to take a look at something that has been posted.
The second time was today, to look at your work.
The first time? Well, that was the first time you posted these same pics.
Bravo, my friend!
OK, Roger....when exactly were you last on the track?? Hmmmmm???
And secondly, next time you do a job up past Chatam, you call me. I'm pretty handy with a broom, and we can talk P cars! I'll even bring tools and coffee!Jake Gulick
[email protected]
CarriageHouse Design
Black Rock, CT
Thanks, everyone! I'm overwhelmed by the response! I'll post the article I wrote on shingle scuptures in a few posts. Here's the first part:
My wife and I first thought about creating a “shingle mural†a number of years ago when we saw a picture of a goose in shingles in an old homebuilding magazine. The idea was in the back of our minds when we finally had the opportunity to make our own creation on the addition to our Cape Cod home.
The elevation drawings for our garage showed a rather large blank area above the doors that just didn’t feel “right.†After tossing around a few ideas on how to fill the space we converged on the idea of making a picture in shingles. Being an avid fisherman, I half-jokingly suggested a striped bass, which is by far the sporting fish of choice on Cape Cod. My wife, being an involuntary fishing widow during striper season, surprised me by saying that she thought it was a great idea.
The first step was to find a picture of a striped bass to serve as a model for the shingle mural. That was accomplished by searching through ads and articles in some of my old fishing magazines. By looking at several samples it was possible to find a picture that distilled the essence of what makes a striper look like a striper and yet wasn’t overly complicated. The next trick was to figure out how to get the image from the piece of paper onto the wall.
That was done using an age-old artist’s trick for painting large wall murals. Basically, it starts with a smaller version of the image drawn on paper. A scaling technique is then used to project a larger version of the image onto the wall.
The scaling technique involves drawing a grid over the smaller picture and a similar grid with larger “cells†on the wall. The next step is to locate where distinctive features on the smaller picture, such as a defining curve, intersect the grid and then mark the wall grid in the corresponding locations. The image on the wall can then be completed by “connecting the dots†to match the features on the drawing. For a shingle mural, you can draw the same features on shingles, cut them with a scroll saw, and then nail them onto the wall in the right places.
The sizes of the cells on the picture and on the wall are determined by how large the projected image will be. Consider a simple example of a 5-inch wide by 4-inch high picture that is to be projected onto a wall as a 10-feet by 8-feet image. The smaller picture can be covered with a 10 x 10 grid that has half-inch by half-inch cells.
For a shingle mural, it makes sense to select a grid size on the wall that corresponds to the weather exposure of each row of shingles, nominally 5 inches. We decided that we wanted the finished fish mural to be 10 feet wide by 4 feet high. In inches, of course, that would be 120 inches wide by 48 inches high. Dividing those dimensions by the 5-inch cell size meant that I needed a grid that was 24 cells wide and 10 cells high.
Armed with that information, I scanned the striper picture into my computer to enlarge it to a more workable size and used a drawing program to lay out a grid that was 24 cells wide and 10 cells high. Each of the horizontal and vertical lines was numbered to make it easier to transfer the points. (You don’t really need a computer. The grid can be drawn directly on a picture by hand.)
"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
...continued...
After printing a copy of the “gridded†fish, it was time to start working on the wall of the garage. Shingles were installed in the usual manner up to the height where the fish would be started. The next step was to locate the center of the wall and draw the first vertical grid line using a 4-foot level. The other vertical lines were added at 5-inch increments to the left and right. The horizontal lines were snapped at the normal 5-inch row heights.
The striper was built row by row from the bottom up. The intersections of the fish’s primary curves with the grid on the drawing were transferred to the corresponding locations on the wall and the shapes were drawn by hand between the dots through the time-honored process of “eye-balling it.†A shingle of the appropriate type (red or white cedar) was held in place and the curves were hand drawn on the shingle to match the pattern on the wall. The shingle was then carefully cut using a hand-held scroll saw and nailed in place. Red cedar was used for the darker areas to contrast with white cedar for the lighter areas.
As might be expected, drawing the curves on the wall and then on the shingles comes the closest to what might be called “art.†And anyone trying this on a complex pattern should expect to have a few shingles that need to be cut two or three times before they’re perfect. But overall the process is simple enough to be mastered by anyone who is marginally proficient at arts and crafts.
The process of building the fish was sped up a bit by making a pattern for the many fish scales that comprise most of the mid-section. There was no existing “fish scale†pattern that looked quite right so I created my own through trial and error. Producing several hundred copies of the fish scale was easily the most boring part of the project. In contrast, the striper’s head was the most challenging, and the most fun.
So now the secret is out! The process can be applied to almost any image, large or small. Anyone who can connect the dots and paint by numbers can now become a certified shingle Picasso! "When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
Thank you for the information. This is right up my alley.
I might have to try this with stained fiber cement shakes. Restrictions on the new place include an 80% masonry veneer but fiber cement qualifies. I'm thinking I might have to "shake" things up on the shed if nothing else.Kevin Halliburton
"I believe that architecture is a pragmatic art. To become art it must be built on a foundation of necessity." - I.M. Pei -
I really like your style and craftsmanship Roger.
Gabe
Thanks, Slater, Gabe,
One thing I need to do is make that chimney look nicer. My wife says paint it but one of the prople who stopped to chat suggested stucco. I'd be interested in otehr ideas. I guess they make some fake brick/stone sstuff as well."When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
How about boxing it in and sculpting some birds in flight on it?
I'm thinking Keith C would suggest "flame it".
Perhaps tighten up the courses and stimulate brick?Remodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Roger,
I had saved copies of your fish and whale tale when you first posted them, but I lost them when I changed computers. Thanks for posting the pics again, and thanks also for the article. I think it's been long enough since the other article that you should try FHB again to publish this one.
Amy
Thanks, Amy. Maybe we can make "best of breaktime" in FHB... ;-)"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
Hi Folks,
Here are some pictures of this week's sculpture. First is the picture I worked from. I'm not completely happy with the eyes on the final one so I might tweak it a bit.
Cheers!"When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading." ~ Henny Youngman
Great Shingle work - have you done any others?Jim
Hi Jim,
How've you been? I saw the review of your CD in FHB. It was pretty cool that they used the fish as an example. I've gotten a few emails from it. I plan to start doing this as a sideline next year (although I seem to say that every year).
I was on a business trip last week and almost missed your post. This is pretty old thread.
I have one more that I did last summer on my bro-in-law's garage. Here's a picture of the screaming eagle. It's 11 feet wide by 5 feet high.
Take care,
Roger
that is totally awesome!!!!!!How much would you have to charge to do that again?Maybe this has already been discussed, just an idea,I bet you could sell these as kits, do them in your garageas a side business and sell them on the net. Just number allthe pcs. and have good directions, and I believe it would be doable.
Thanks, Butch,
I do plan to do that as a sideline eventually.
It would be tough to do something like the eagle as a kit but I could do that for some of the smaller ones. One guy suggested making it right on the sheathing material and then the customer could put it right up on the side of the building.
I'm hoping to build a workshop in back of my house over the winter and maybe start doing that next Spring or so. But I've been saying that for a few years now... ;-)
but, how much?For the eagle and Something smallerball parkare we talking hundreds or $1,000 and up
Well, based on the amount of time it took for the ones I've done so far they would probably be between $1000 for the sailboat to $3000 for the fish plus materials. So the eagle might be around $2500 or so. The eagle is 11' wide by 5' tall. That's 55 sq ft of art! ;-)
I plan to come up with some smaller designs that would probably start around $150 or so. But I haven't really thought much about pricing yet. And the big ones would be hard to ship. So I don't really know if there's a market out there for this stuff.
hey, dumbazs ! .... what's with the new name ?
did yur 'puter crash and you have trouble getting back in ?Mike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Hey, Mike,
I just thought I'd shorten my name down to one word, sorta like Madonna and Fabio did...
Although my all time favorite name offered by the Breaktimers was "NostraDumbass"... ;-)
roger... a rose by any other name... yur still a peachMike Smith Rhode Island : Design / Build / Repair / Restore
Gee, thanks! I think there are a few in the tavern who would call me something else that's fuzzy... ;-)
"kitten"?
"puppy"?
"bunny"?
roger, check your email through this site.
thanksRemodeling Contractor just outside the Glass City.
Quittin' Time
Roger that is tooo cool!!! Thanks for sharing
Very elegant. Gives new meaning to whatever floats your boat.
Somehow I missed this thread until today. All I can say is "you go, girl". Great work and thanks for showing us. I wanna try one of those, but I'd have to do it on my garage or something.
STOP, DROP, ..............ROCK 'N' ROLL
greencu,
Actually Jim resurected an old thread from Feb 2004. But thanks for the kind words. It actually isn't as hard as it looks. Go for it and let me know if you have any questions!!!