I rarely say no to something I haven’t done, and doing a garbage art sign was exactly this. I said ‘yes’ before I even thought about it.
It’s a good thing, as if I gave it more than 3 minutes of inner debate, I probably would have declined. And that would have been a shame.
Saying this was completely different is definitely an understatement. It wasn’t one piece, it was 7 different pieces, even though 2 of them were the same character. Ling Uan, or The Fat Monkey in English, is a long established restaurant here on Koh Lanta. The menu boasts Western, Thai and Fusion delights, a slew of creatively named pizzas and burgers, that are the best of anywhere on the planet.
No wonder I said Yes to the Dress, I mean Sign, before I gave it any thought. I love a challenge!
First I had to plan it out to make sure it would fit in the allotted space. There were 7 pieces with space between them and between the 2 words. My goodness, I didn’t have to do this before. It wasn’t difficult, and kinda fun. First challenge handled.
Then I had to make a base guide to ensure the pieces were all the same size. So I sketched blocks on a big piece of wood. And started to build.
The ‘a’ was first as it was small with a whole in the middle. Then the ‘n’. I tackled the ‘L’ and kept going.
The “L’ and the ‘U’ were fun as they were big, and the ‘g’ was really fun as it was big and curled under another character.
I used a mix of lighter colours, and even used some that had no colour so the inside lights that went on at night would shine super brightly.
Even the ‘I’ was fun as it was in two parts. How big to make the ‘dot’ I asked myself. ‘As big as I can’ was my answer.
Once all the letters were built, I put them in the garden and had a good look at them. I totally loved how it looked.
And it was time for the ‘resident electrician’ to do his magic. Well, after I helped order the pieces on Amazon. Oh ya, we got the parts in North America to make sure they worked.
Then I stayed out of it as I know absolutely nothing about wiring, soldering, LED strips, and even less about transformers, soldering, and not getting electrocuted in the process.
Oh yes, it all had to be waterproof as the sign would be exposed 24/7, 365 days a year, through the hot, hotter, and the rainy seasons here on Koh Lanta.
And then it was done. It looked wonderful lite up on the deck.
The original Fat Monkey came over to check it all out. And he loved it. So off it went on the tuk-tuk to its forever home. It was too long to fit in his truck, and hanging out the back and flopping around wasn’t really a good idea.
If you pass by Ling Uan, you can’t miss the sign, especially at night as it really lights up the street.
I’m told you can see it from space. The Aliens up there must wonder about all my garbage art pieces as they view earth to plan their invasion.
It’s all good!
