Post #435239 by Tipsy McStagger on Thu, Feb 19, 2009 7:48 PM

greetings all-

just wanted to share progress on one of my side projects that coincides with the sign replicas i have been making......it's an idea i have been kickin around for sometime now and have finally managed to forge ahead with it. It all started when my girlfriend was tellin me about a dream she had about being in a salvation army store and finding a barrel full of sticks with carved tikis on the ends of them.......a little bulb went off and i said sounds like giant swizzle sticks!...and thus a new project series was born......basically, i want to make giant replicas of vintage swizzles as well as create new ones (or custom ones for personal bars), not exactly true to actual swizzles but ones of my own creation.....like the example below which is half finished..... Aku Aku didn't have a cool swizzle in actuality...so i took liberties and made a new design......this one i made out of MDF particle board.....keeps it lightweight and sturdy....I also plan to experiment with ones out of colored acrylic for a very real looking swizzle and ones that are made out of regular wood and stained - just to get a feel for different looks that i can acheive with these.......They will be able to hang on walls both vertical and horizontal.....the same hooks on the back will enable one to hang them from the ceiling by thin cable so that a viewer can look up and see the sticks facing down at them.....these will work great in small places like above windows and alongside doors or any other place that is hard to fill with just the right tiki decor (especially if the wooden tiki spoon and fork is your only option). On this particular one i am going to keep the colors down to 2 shades of red....dark for the base and outlines and light for the flat surfaces....this swizzle is about 5 ft long.....sizes will vary but will all be about the same scale,,,,the tiki or whatever the main icon happens to be on these will be removable via screws so that i can ship these in a shorter package if need be....I'm hoping to pitch this idea to a few bars.....i think a few of these would look cool behind a bar mounted on a wall or even have a bunch floating off the ceiling......(hey ben, does frankies need a giant swizzle or 2 for their new bar ??).. :)

anyway- enough yappin on my part.....here's the pics!!!

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2011-06-26 18:00 ]

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2011-08-06 16:34 ]

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2012-01-19 19:38 ]

[ Edited by: Tipsy McStagger 2017-07-08 05:38 ]