The
icons of the Pinawa Heritage Sundial are intended
to illustrate the history of the Eastern Manitoba
region as well as important factors which played
a role in the development of the area. At the very
start of the project a meeting was held with
Sheldon Sveinson of Flying Pigment
Design Studio. At that
meeting were Les
Crosthwaite, Roger
Dutton and Carl
Sabanski. The result of
the meeting was the development of the themes for
twelve icons. A series of 12 distinct and
beautiful icons were designed by the artists of
FPDS. These icons are displayed both in the
granite tiles which form part of the base plate
as well as in the gnomon itself.
Les
and Roger played an important role in the design
of the heritage icons by ensuring that they
factually reflected the theme that they were
designed to represent. For some subjects they
provided illustrations from books they had to
assist the artists in the development of
particular icons.
Les
and Roger as well as a third volunteer, Jeff
Long, have
undertaken the task of researching the icon
themes and writing about the significance of each
theme as it pertains to the history and
development of the region. These descriptions
will be used in a pamphlet as well as an
interpretive kiosk.
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In
order to make the granite tiles, Cold Spring
Granite required full scale wood templates of all
the pieces. Fortunately, half of the outer tiles
are mirror reflections of the other half. This
meant only having to make 8 templates instead of
16. However, to reduce their size and weight, two
of the largest tiles were split into two pieces
and added two additional templates. The central
circle, being made of four pieces, required only
one template for its construction. 11 templates
were required for 24 pieces of granite. This was a job
that was definitely not anticipated. But with a
lot of help from Bud
Biddiscombe, we were able
to lay out the outer templates. For these
templates we were fortunate to receive a donation
of 7 sheets of 5/8 inch tongue and groove
chipboard flooring which had been in storage for
over 10 years waiting to be used on this project.
After Bud and I drew the templates on the sheets,
Glenn Honke cut them out
for us. At this point the curves were just cut a
straight lines. To lay out the curves, we used
full scale drawings of the templates. These were
placed on the wood and a portion of the paper
containing the curve was glued to the surface of
the wood. The exposed wood was then spray painted
red. Glenn was then able to create the curves in
the wood template.
The
template required for the circle was made from
3/4 inch plywood by Stan
Kekisk. How he made
it, I don't know. All I know is that the radius
is 5ft., he used a 4ft. x 8ft. sheet of plywood,
and the template is one piece.
This
work was all done in the carpenter's shop at AECL
by Glenn and Stan. We had no idea where and how
this job was going to done but all these men
pitched in to help. Thank you!
When
the granite tiles arrived at Flying Pigment
Design Studio, the job of sandblasting the images
into the granite began. To protect the areas that
were to remain polished, rubber masks had to be
created and applied. The masks were cut with the
aid of a computer controlled cutter. They were
positioned on the granite tiles and
"hammered" into place to ensure that
they were securely attached. After the images
were sandblasted into the granite, these areas
were lightly painted white. The white paint
provides contrast between the polished and
sandblasted areas even when the stone is wet.
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