My friend, Jennifer Auby Rosenblad stopped by my shop today and told me about pay cuts that began hurting state employed nurses on this Island almost 2 years ago and asked me if I could help.

She explained when other state employees were given furlough days and able to work their second jobs, nurses were given none.  They reported to work as usual but with a 5% pay cut.  Some things just aren’t fair.  But keep reading, it gets even worse.

In addition, Jennifer told me they were promised a return to their previous wages after two years. Now, word is there will be a continuation of 5% pay cuts, no cost of living supplement and increases of insurance premiums.   What is even sadder is that our nurses at Maui Memorial Medical Center are already paid a wage far below what is considered average.  State nurses must pay for their insurance while nurses at Kaiser, Queens and Straub hospitals all provide 90-100% coverage for their nurses and their families.  She said she fears nurses on Maui will no longer have any reason to stay on Maui and will begin leaving in droves.

Since striking would harm the patients, it is not an option. Instead, a sign waving campaign to raise awareness  and public support is slated for next week Monday and Thursday.  The nurses are asking for exemption from this latest round of cuts and asking for the public’s help to write letters to Governor Abercrombie on their behalf.   Upon hearing of this inequity in wages for such a dedicated and unselfish employment sector, I was happy to donate my time & provide all materials below my cost, to help Jennifer and all the other State employed nurses to fight for fair wages!

I have begun to work on a presentation to outline some of these changes, and will refine and update this presentation as the new laws take shape in the coming months through the various tests of legal interpretation, practical application and actual enforcement.

Below is a rough draft of the presentation, filmed at a trial reading with a small group, and used to refine my presentation for future talks. The video cuts out somewhat abruptly, but it is very near the end at that point.

The logo art for Island Froyo was given to us by the client’s designer and we soon made appropriate adjustments as to make readability/visibility easier as well as making it easier to produce using our router.  Once the logistics were worked out, we cut the lettering.  Most of the letters were cut in reverse (face-down) so we could also pre-drill the stud holes in the backs of the letters during routing.

The three circular shapes (two “o” letters and the dot of an “i”) were cut face-up because they also had secondary dimensional grooves cut in the faces; the stud holes on these were hand drilled.  Before the letters could be painted, they were washed and rough edges were slightly sanded.

Before painting the sides and backs on the letters the designated burgundy color, we rolled out transfer tape down on the table, sticky-side up.  This insured that the letters would not move during painting, which was applied via spray gun.  After a few light but even coats, the backs and sides were painted and the letters could be flipped over where rolling the fronts could be done. 

The design called for three different colors, yellow, orange and green and, again after multiple even coats, the front surfaces were complete with the exception of the aforementioned grooves in the circular shapes.  These shapes were masked-off and the same burgundy color was applied to the grooves with a spray can, as opposed to traditional spray gun.

Before installation we made pre-install template that could be used for making accurate holes in the concrete wall that correspond with the stud holes drilled in the backs of our letters.  Taking a piece of scrap wood that fit the dimensions of our fully arranged lettering and a pen plot stencil of the full-size lettering we drilled the holes through both the stencil and the wood template so installation would be simpler, especially since we needed to rent a boom-lift to reach the section of the wall where the letters would be going.  After making the template, we were off to install.

The morning we set off to the other side of the island for our install it was raining considerably.  The boom had been placed there the previous day and we did everything we could to set up in the rain short of getting on the lift with the letters and then we waited for the rain to stop.  Shortly after sunrise, the rain did stop and we proceeded with the installation.

After we got used to the maneuvering abilities of our boom, we easily arranged ourselves safely but effectively in front of our wall to begin to lightly clean the wall, set our template and drill our holes into concrete.  Once the template was set and the holes drilled, setting the studs into each letter (while on the ground) and adhering the already set studs into the concrete wall was the easiest part of the job, except for the part where we were twenty feet above the ground in a metal basket.

The last portion of the job was actually completed a week or later with the designing and creation of a blade sign that had to be recreated to match the styles of the existing blade signs in front of the other stores in the mall complex.  This was sandblasted redwood and later stained with a deep red sealant and the upraised letters painted white.

The original sign was sandblasted out of wood and decades old when the request came in to design and develop a new sign based on the old one’s layout.  The logo and fonts themselves were recreated and ideas were sorted on the construction of the sign, whether it be carved out of HDU on our CNC Router or maybe assembled in pieces, etc.  Finally it was decided to make the sign out of cut acrylic and a bamboo mat, along with 3/4″ MDO board.

With the router files programmed to cut the lettering in three different levels, the dimensionality of the sign was created.

First, we bonded the letters together, which were cut in three separate heights.  We used a specialty agent specifically for bonding acrylic to other acrylic which was very strong once it cured.  After, the letters were primed and painted with spray paint designed to stick to plastics.  Before the letters were attached to anything, a vinyl mask was cut to stick on the surface that will be readied for the letters to give the writing arrangement and placing.

Meanwhile in assembly, we bonded the bamboo mat, sealed at this point, with the acrylic backing and let  it dry.  Once the adhesive was dry, we mounted the bamboo/acrylic sheet to a 3/4″ MDO board, painted to match client-specified color, using the same acrylic-to-non-acrylic adhesive used previously for attaching the bamboo to the acrylic.  After that bond set, we sealed the bamboo a second time and set on the vinyl mask for the letters once the sealant cured.

The letters were painted using a plastic-specific spray paint for the lower portions and the sides but the tops of the letters were painted with a metallic gold which was brushed on.  The bamboo graphic was brush and spray painted two shades of green.  Once the painted acrylic pieces dried they were bonded to the bamboo.

After the acrylics lettering and graphics were bonded to the bamboo mat, the vinyl masking was removed before the adhesive fully set.

To assure the bamboo matting was secure on the acrylic, we added a handful of small brass screws to the corners of each side, which also added an extra visual effect to the sign.

For the last step, for the client to install the sign, we drilled holes in the top of both sections of sign and attached sign hooks and S-hooks, which work more than well enough for a sign of approximately forty pounds.

We were involved in the Fat Boy Burger sign from designing and tweaking the logo to discovering fabrication possibilities and its installation; start to finish.  The main logo sign was made out digital-printed and laminated vinyl attached to 1-1/2-inch foam, painted white and stud-mounted to concrete.  In addition to the exterior logo sign, we designed the Fat Boy Burger menu and made it out of ¾-inch MDO board with digital-printed and laminated vinyl attached also.­