By Geoff Smith - Lethbridge News Now

Three-dimensional creations emerging from north Lethbridge shop

Jan 28, 2018 | 4:30 AM

LETHBRIDGE – It started out with mouldings for stucco installations. Now, a Lethbridge firm finds itself giving a makeover to the Vauxhall potato mascots.

In the years in between, Mosaic Industries has created everything from doghouses to train replicas, dinosaurs to three-dimensional cartoon characters, and intricate 3-D signs and wall hangings.

“You don’t know where it goes sometimes, it just takes you and leads you along the path,” president Alan Epp said about the growth of the company. Epp explained as new types of machines came on the market, they “tweak your interest… We mostly got started in town with word of mouth, doing some signage.”

The most notable sign Mosaic has created is the replica locomotive that greets visitors to the Garry Station subdivision, as well as the smaller signs throughout the neighbourhood. Epp said the idea was to duplicate the actual vintage locomotive that sits near the former train station downtown. The replica was constructed in four pieces, then bolted together.

Most of their products, including cartoon characters and decorative gargoyles, are made from foam. Epp said in many cases they use computer models that are available online. For others, they can use a 3D scanner on a physical model. Machines then sculpt the basic shape in smaller pieces, which are glued together.

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“We can do half of it on the CNC, and then the rest is the undercuts are all carved, touched up. It’s fun,” Epp said, adding they hire outside workers to help. “Lots of people don’t know how to carve with the foam, but it’s actually very easy and forgiving. Because if you wreck it, you can just glue some more foam on and carve again.”

Finally, the objects are coated in polyurethane, primed, and painted. Epp said the train took three months to complete. A more recent project was the interactive irrigation display outside the Galt Museum, which took around one and a half months.

Work on Sammy and Samantha Spud, the fibreglass statues that normally live in Vauxhall, involves sanding and repainting. Epp said they did a similar restoration job on Pinto MacBean, the Bow Island mascot, but that work had to be done on-site.

Despite the role computers play in the process, Epp said a lot of thinking and planning is required as well.

“There’s lots of sitting every morning, discussing, hey, how are we going to get this part of it, is this going to work,” he explained. “So, we put it together, a lot, and then take it apart, get it all in foam. And then you start carving it to the final stage, once you figured out, okay, that’ll work. And then, along five more steps, it’ll still work, and keep going.”

What skills are required?

“Patience, and a little bit of artistry. Most of the time, it’s trial and error.”