JmCco

[Art-Deco]

For some mysterious reason I decided to make a model of an old monogram sign made of pressed steel which I removed from an elevator door around 1975. The sign is low relief but interesting intertwining of the letters, so I thought a much deeper relief would lend itself to some interesting treatment with various relief heighs, shadows and cutouts. I think a textured background, smooth letters will do best, haven't decided on the texture yet, maybe a ball peened, or wood notched tool marks.

I decided to go with full size, making the monogram end up about 15-16" square on an 18" background which will shrink a little. I used course red clay as I have two boxes of it I need to get rid of before it's too stiff to use.

The original panel which I had framed and painted back in the 70s:

Setting up the model with the lettering outlines inscribed on the clay for reference:

I will probably make the letters quite raised, 3/4" or even more.

The monogram is: J M Mc Co. which was the James McCreary Co. department store dating back to the 1880s.

[tobias]

I think I would take some artistic licence there and redraw the j. It seems very straight and the round is of center at the bottom. If you gave the stem a bit of an S curve you could still have it pass through the middle and then the bottom of the monogram would be more symmetrical.

[Art-Deco]

What I DID wind up having to do is modify a couple of spots where M overlaps and then immediately underlaps the two Cs, in higher relief I found it didn't work well to do that unless I wanted to greatly distort the letters as though they were flexible like fabric, you raise up one to allow the other to go under and then that rise creates a similar issue at another junction.

Funny how that didn't appear to be an issue at all on the flatter design, but adding the relief created a new unanticipated effect I'll have to play around with to solve how I want it to look. I don't want "floppy" letters and was hoping to keep them "rigid" and flat.

I left off here last night after just rough placing the rest on the lines I drew:

Yes, the J presents and odd all-crowded-to-the-left look, but J is J and the letter doesn't have a nice balance like T does, the right leg of M needs to be lower, it actually appears to be a little higher than the left leg even in the original steel stamping.

[Art-Deco]

I have the model finished, except for the final cleanup, straightening and sharpening edges etc.
There really isn't a way to have the letters go under and over each other like this without "bending" to do it, or else make the letters extremely deep or "stepped" ratehr than bending, but they are already about 1/2" high.

I had initially thought it might work but raising one letter much higher to make it flatter and then to go over another lower letter next to it without "bending" down to do it doesn't work, so as it dries and firms up a bit more this weekend I'll be tidying up the surfaces and edges and getting them smoother in the bending curves as well.
It was an interesting conversion from 2D to 3D and presents some interesting problems in 3D form you don't have in the 2D form.