1 - 4 November 2002 

Harvey Signs & Graphics Ltd 

Ashburton 

New Zealand

Apart from picking up a few ideas and supporting John's event, both Jeff and I made some good friends out of attending and we are both going to try and get to the Cairns meet to celebrate their tenth anniversary next year.

As will be seen from this report, Jeff changed a few things for his Ashburton event and the weekend was all the better for it.

I travelled down with Letterheads regulars Chris Field and Alan Clarke, meeting up in Christchurch with Damien Gormly from Wilson Signs and meeting John Jordan from his flight in from Australia.  Having hired a 'Ronnie-the-Rental' we stacked it to the gunwales before making a quick stop in Christchurch first to pick up the Letterheads polo shirts and then we headed South with just a brief stop to take in the marvels of the 'Cookie Time' signage, and product, a wee way out of Christchurch.

On arriving in Ashburton we first headed to the motel to check in before looking for Jeff's place.  On finding his workshop all hands set to work erecting the marquee where all the stone carving and 'messy' work was to take place.  Already on the scene were Leicester Fifield from Geraldine Signs and Clyde Cook from AFM Ltd.  After reading the assembly instructions the marquee went up with few problems.  To save making huge holes in the tarmac driveway we elected to tie the structure to various poles and buildings, etc., so as the Canterbury wind wouldn't take off with it overnight.

Two of the ideas that Jeff bought back from Oz were the construction of a small 'A' frame bench for project work and a rack to hold the ten pieces of glass that would form the basis of the gold leaf instruction that John Jordan would be conducting.  Why re-invent the wheel?  These were good ideas and the event was all the better for their use!

Thursday night was spent readying the workshop, tidying the showroom and becoming acquainted with the layout and its features, the most notable of these being the 'toilets-for-Africa' gents washroom as Jeff's sign shop used to be the local telephone exchange building. 

We were also welcoming new arrivals to 'sunny' Ashburton before we all headed off for a meal on main street where a certain staff member received the odd ribbing from those present.  (Jeff's wife, Ann-Marie worked there!)

Friday dawned sunny albeit a little windy and after a motel brekky we headed down to Jeff's place about a kilometre or so down the road.  Throughout the morning a steady stream of arrivals found their way to Jeff's, with the notable exception of Warren Cox and Corina Blackwood from Miller Studios in Dunedin who seemed bent on travelling all the way to Christchurch for some reason.  (They probably realised they were headed in the wrong direction when they passed the Gerald Horton Signs convoy travelling in the opposite direction!)  Gerald had had two new apprentices, Blair Guthrie and Rebecca Rich, join his company after he had sent in the six registrations for staff so the number crept up to eight from the Rangiora based company with Woody Smith, Mathew Horton, Hayden Bunn, Levi Charlesworth, Shaun White and Gerald himself.  However Auckland took the top spot for attendances with nine making the trip South.

One of the pleasing aspects of this event was the number of first time attendees.  These included the likes of Dave Andrews from Sign Images in Blenheim, Greg Lee from All About Signs in Timaru, Bruce Clearwater from Clearwater Signs, Rob Miller from Grant Elliotte Signworld, and Jared Waldron from Everett Studios, all from Invercargill, Gus Nisbet from Lake Hawea, Dean Johnstone and Bruce Greig from JBFX in Christchurch, Keith Ellis from Osmand Signs, Dennis Ah-Yek from Field Sign Company, both from Auckland, Mark Larsen from Larsen's Art 'n' Sign Studio in Kaipoi, Alex Burnett from The Old Sign Shop in Nelson, Mike Vankestenen from Fine Signs in Wellington and joining John Jordan from Australia were Peter Fitzgerald from Artcraft Signs in Canberra and 'Dragstrip' (don't ask!) Vicky from Queensland.

On welcoming everyone to Letterheads for 2002, Jeff outlined the various options available for those present.  John Jordan had kindly donated some guitar and petrol tank blanks for project work and these were snaffled up fairly quickly, there was the almost compulsory sponsors beer fridge for Canterbury Draught, the gilding glass which was limited to ten participants, the attendance banner, Oamaru stone carving, river rock sand blasting, airbrushing, and a community project based at the Railway Museum seven or eight kilometers South of the township.

A group of the older hands who enjoy hand lettering while balanced on ladder or sloping roofs headed South while the younger set headed for gold leaf and project work.  A game few headed for the stone and the various tools for carving and shaping and it wasn't too long before the marquee was filled with dust and debris from sanding, grinding, cutting and chiselling of the soft, conformable white stone.

Jeff had a continuous tea, coffee and biscuits on the go so as people could work at their own pace rather than break at pre-determined times.  Lunch of savouries, sandwiches, carrot cake and cream buns arrived in plentiful amount at lunch time with the evening's meal being taken in the workshop when the local pizza delivery company must have though all their Christmases had come at once.  Jeff put on some beers and others (who shall remain nameless) provided themselves with the odd spot of rum and coke.  This saw some people work on into the night while others proceeded to enjoy the atmosphere (and they will remain blameless!), while for others the day had been too long and they fell asleep in Jeff's party room until people started drifting away (read: thrown out!) at about 4am.

Saturday dawned much the same as Friday with the notable exception of some late arrivals due to various alarm clocks either not working or being ignored.  Many out-of-towners took breakfast in a café in town rather than having a repeat of the motel offering, hence the 10am start for many.

Again people headed for project work with a few new items being started.  Dean Lovich from Field Signs in Auckland decided to lop off some of the longer bits of his stone carving fearing a possible breakage in transit and after seeing a few mishaps earlier in the event.  Others started carving more solid forms which were unlikely to break unless really mistreated.

A couple of people, myself included, had a play with the sand blaster, creating the Letterheads logo in chiselled or raised effect which was then painted or airbrushed.  Others headed back out to the museum to continue the early style lettering on the various shop fronts at the museum site.  As a tribute to Ashburton's now retired sign writer, who for some inexplicable reason had trouble centring his work, one of the old style signs was purposely painted off-centre so as a full stop at the end of the text would bring it back into harmony with the surrounding background, a nice touch!

Saturday night saw forty odd people heading to the restaurant just across from Jeff's sign shop.  With corn fed veal steaks to die for on the menu most were pleased with their choice.  Dean Johnstone led the congregated mass in a few well chosen songs just for the hell of it before Jeff made the lucky prize draws from donated goods and services.  Big winners on the night included Damien Gormly, 'Dragstrip' Vicky and Rebecca Rich who all joined John Jordan in a hot air balloon ride over the Canterbury Plains departing at 5am on Sunday morning while sane people were still asleep in their cots.

Sunday was more of the same with projects being finished off.  Alex Burnett showed those present some concrete effects using a quick dry formula that saw the Harvey Signs name emblazoned in concrete on the doorway into the work shop.  After another hearty lunch the pin stripe race track was dusted off for the sword artists to do their best.  Once again quality gave way to speed but plenty of laughs were had en-route.  Chris Field used the day to finish off a project he had started at the Wellington Letterheads meet some eighteen months earlier.  The Kiwi Shoe Polish advertising sign was then aged with some assistance from Alex who provided the right sort of ageing coating.  The last works to be done were the beer fridge and the rock gilding out at the museum which were completed in the days following the event when the wind wasn't such a factor on the rock at the museum and the fridge had a bit more working space around it.

After lunch and before people started drifting away to catch flights home the group photo was taken outside Jeff's sign shop.  At this point Gerald Horton of Horton Signs has put up his hand to stage the next event in Rangiora so get those airfares booked the minute you know what the dates are.

From about 1.30pm those with a distance to travel said their farewells and slowly but surely the Letterheads event for 2002 came to it's logical conclusion.  A big vote of thanks to Jeff and his staff for putting on an awesome weekend.  I can barely wait for Rangiora now!

Brian Fairchild
Committed (non-signwriter) Letterhead.