how many days??

An ocean of blue mylar for Visa!

The coach is coming to town for the Wells Fargo float.

The Long Life pavilion is on the float and out of our way in the shop!

A crown welded and painted. What else can we do?

Hey lets run a hundred feet of pricey led lighting on the crown. Dude that's sooo cool.

A touch of blue.

A roof being built for the Visa float.

A wall of money being laid up for Visa.

A dragon waiting for a lofty perch.

A dragon fan waiting for mounting to it's float.

A few more corrections and we paint this baby.

Painting in great detail a Bank of the West logo.

12 days

Well it is now Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year. There will be no break for the crew as that darn clock does not stop for a romantic dinner or a New Years party. Alli fed everyone heart chocolate so it seemed festive.

Mystery grafics just came in . Do any of our venders have something that cost less then a thousand?

tigers for McDonalds please. these cute toys are rearing to go.

Ramps for Southwest Airlines' Money Lord being boxed up today.

roof rafters for Bank of America's pavilion. We put it together and then took it apart to paint.

Oh boy,sometimes Dave should just hit himself in the head with a hammer! He claims this simple design is needed for the Southwest Airlines float. There be a lot of cutting over the next few days.

That simple patern for Southwest Airlines is now being jigsawed out.

Other patterns for the long life pavilion.

Our pavilion is getting primed for a showcoat.

The pavilion roof has a roof !

A little waste left over from cutting coin blanks. How did we get them so perfect ?

Stephanie using a template to carve the coin designs.

A nice traditional Chinese coin layout.

Coins galore. We only need a few hundred.

A crane is waiting to be finished.

Rox ,a new shop person, said she be glad to make a couple of planes and whipped up two beauties. She cut the side off to allow some one to wiggle inside by hollowing the waste out.

Almost ready for flight. Getting prep for a nice tough finish.

A shot across the line reveals the decks are growing and filling out.

15 days

It Vegas ,Baby. Not really,this is a test pattern for the fan float.

The long life pavilion finally gets the shop master's steely gaze. Those are the pillars now just the sides ,roof and a bat or two.

The deck is started for Comcast.

Our sponsor sent a very heavy plane for our baby to hold so we are reinforcing it's little arm. She is begining to get that beautiful finish our shop is famous for but it burned out three builders in the process.

Sadie and Jamie gossiping while painting bright little tigers

Alli is making a bus!

Alright our little Phoenix is looking pretty smooth so it is test on the float and then paint!

Nice legs ! Dave cut the body off to ease the finish work and it will be rejoined magically to it's legs.

"Just throw up a few cranes" they said . As you can see nothing is simple at this level of art. We had to carve a birds body,then weld some legs just right, then channel those legs into the body,add some counter balance weight and a reinforcement bar inside the body , carve a neck and head ,then sand, coat with a paintable surface, prime and paint to throw it up on a float as soon as we figure out a mounting system.

Some terra cotta warriors stand guard on a float. They left their heads rolling on the floor.

Miguel and Dave holding up a panel on the fan.

Dave is roughing out his little tea house

A glitter pattern by pro Alli for a fan.

Alli whipped up a clever stencil system to make the pattern for the fan.

Tigers galore ! A bright new deck painted for the Comcast float.

The Chinese Chamber of Comerce float is sailing along in rich colors.