TITULAR TROPHY COMPLETE!!!

Erik, the Chef at Little Bird, and the TITULARITY TROPHY. Erik is well deserving to be awarded for his undying efforts to keep it Titular in the kitchen!

Here is the trophy in its completion (yay!). Re-casting the hand with metal re-invorcement in the thumb was the way to go. By recommendation from Wood Shop Eric, I drilled into the base of the wrist and glued a threaded bolt with JB weld into the drilled hole (yes, to my surprise drilling into plaster was easy and didn't shatter the hand. Also I chose the JB weld but if I was to do it again I would use gorilla glue). To attach the hand to the plaque, I drilled through the front where I wanted the hand to go, then used a router to drill out the space for the nut to fit (insert technical wood shop term for this cut here, you can see this cut in the last picture of the back side of the plaque). To achieve the gold look to the hand originally I was hoping to gold leaf it, but getting gold leaf into the tiny crevices proved almost impossible. So I use Montana Gold spray paint and applied nearly 12 layers. NOTE: It is really important to try and apply very thin layers at a time and allow each layer to dry before applying the next. Otherwise, if you apply too thick

of a layer, the surface will dry and the paint underneath will remain soft/wet.

To make the wood plaque I purchased the wood at Michaels (the first attempt I cut my own from a found piece of wood and discovered it was a difficult type of wood to carve into). I purchased some NIJI carving tools at Art Media for 12/15 dollars which are rad, I'll definitely be using these again. I stenciled the text onto the board and carved out the letters with the carving tool. I ended up using a dremmel to clean up the letters after carving. Next, I wood burned the text to give it that black color. Then, I stained the board and finished it with a semi-gloss sealant. Lastly, I attached the hand to the board with a nut and socket wrench and voilà!

This project had it's challenges but I learned a lot through the process and ended up being very pleased with the final product! As was Erik who received the Titularity

Award! To present the award I came into the restaurant on a day I didn't work while everyone was on the line prepping and getting ready for dinner. I asked Erik for, "A moment of his time" which he later told me is usually follow by, "I will be leaving" or, "I need an extended amount of time off", but instead I handed him a plaque with a golden hand on it. To say the least he was shocked and very happy and gave me three hugs. BE TITULAR!

-Lindsey