Making Signs

After last night's lashing of wind and rain the zoo is bathed in beautiful clear sunshine today. But I can't go out and enjoy that yet.. I have the signs to put together. The 21 ID signs that I printed yesterday now need to be made ready to go on show. For display both inside and out the preparation is pretty much the same. Once each paper sign is trimmed to the size required I then encapsulate it in plastic laminate.

We use two thicknesses of laminate, we usefully decribe to ourselves as Thick and Thin. The thicker is basically double the layer of laminate on both sides of the 'sleeve'; outdoor, long term and high 'use' signs get this laminate, which actually covers most signs. Many years ago the Graphics Dept invested in a good quality laminator and this has stood the test of time and use, over and over again, out lasting numerous cheaper models used by other departments.  I have hopes that one day we get to replace the method of using laminate, as it doesn't sit well with me being a relatively high use of plastic.

Once laminated the sign is then trimmed to size again, leaving a small border of laminate. Then certain signs need double sided sticky tape put on the back and once done they are good to go and I can take another little walk around the zoo to replace them with the old, damaged, missing or faded signs.

Some signs are more involved than others, such as the ones we have for the tropical bird house called The Forest of Birds.  The ID signs are presented in a book form and ID's are sandwiched in laminate back to back so that they form the 'pages' of the book. When I laminate these signs I have to leave a border of about 3cms on one side, holes are punched into this border and metal eyelets are hammered into place over these holes to stop them ripping. The sign is then threaded onto the two U-bolts  standing proud on a backing board and the book is done. Today I had 8 of these 'pages' to put together.

I finished all my cutting trimming and banging holes and eyelets in by lunchtime, so this afternoon I can  put them all up.

All signs were put up with no problems, even the Forest of Bird IDs were installed without the usual hassle of awkward nuts not going back onto the U bolts properly. Whilst out I took photo's of the giant squid mural.... there's a slight hitch in the way it has been put  back together, nothing can be done now, it just means there's a lot more work involved in patching it up than was planned.

Whilst I was in the Reptile House I couldn't resist taking this photo.....

Life imitating art, eh?