Work has continued on my 6′ high Elko, NV, Centennial cowboy boot for Great Basin College (GBC). I added the white letters on top of the previously green letters on the left side of the boot, as shown above. The green lettering didn’t show up well on the green background, so I carefully applied the white lettering over the green letters.
I then added a second clock tower decal with adjacent white letters on the right side of the boot’s foot, as shown below.
I noticed along the way that nowhere in the overall design of the boot did it say the current year, on which Elko’s centennial and the 50-year anniversary of GBC are based. I therefore added the year 2017 in white letters on the heel of the boot. This also makes the words “ELKO 100” more meaningful, as they could otherwise possibly be construed as having some other meaning, such as “this is the 100th boot made in Elko, not the 99th.”
GBC donated all the lettering, decals, and boot plate to the boot project, for which I am very grateful, as this significantly reduced my project expenses and made application of these elements to the boot much easier.
GBC had some beautiful commemorative medallions made to honor GBC’s 50th anniversary this year, so GBC President Mark Curtis provided me with two of them to position in brass bezels at the base of each boot pull. The medallions were slightly too large for the bezels, so President Curtis expertly ground down their back sides to fit the bezels. He also drilled center holes in the bezels and provided flat-head screws and a drill bit for their attachment to the boot. I glued on and screwed in the bezels, and then glued the medallions in place with an industrial strength 2-part epoxy glue.
The 50th anniversary side of the medallion is displayed on the Student Life side of the boot, as shown below.
The other side of the medallion features the GBC seal, which I positioned on the Academic Departments side of the boot at the base of the boot pull.
All of my work on the boot was then complete, so I packaged it up for delivery to Elko Body Shop today.
The GBC building and grounds crew delivered it to the body shop in Elko, where my nephew, Brandon Keller, arranged for and oversaw the application of three automotive clear coats to the boot by the shop owner and one of his painters. These layers were required for the project so it will be protected from the elements in its future outdoor location. My heartfelt thanks go to Brandon and Elko Body Shop for donating their time, expertise, labor, and material to this project. They did a terrific job, and I would highly recommend their work.
The GBC building and grounds crew then picked up the boot at the body shop and delivered it to the GBC campus. The boot is temporarily housed in the foyer of the Greenhaw Technical Arts Building until a cement slab is poured for it in its futured outdoor location on campus.
I was on hand for the delivery so I could see the finished piece and take a few pictures of it, although it was hard to get good shots of it in such tight quarters. GBC President Mark Curtis admires the finished boot in the picture below.
I love how shiny the clear coat made the entire boot, tying the lettering and colors together. Before the clear coat was applied, the gold and green areas were matte finished, and the lettering, decals, and aluminum tape diamonds were shiny. Now the boot looks unified, complete, and very well protected.
President Curtis and his wife, Margaret, also showed Brandon and me today where the boot will be placed on campus.
Later this month, a cement slab will be poured in the center of the above triangle so the boot may be mounted on it. In this location, the boot will be seen (and I hope admired) not only by pedestrians walking by it, but also by those driving by the college on a nearby road. Brandon Keller, President Curtis, and Margaret Curtis are shown in the picture above. My thanks go to them all and the GBC building and grounds crew for their help with this project and their encouragement of me during its progress.
The deadline for the boot’s completion is April 1, 2017, so I am delighted to have finished and delivered it well before that date so it may be in its final home on schedule. I will post pictures of it there when the installation is complete.
For more information about this project, see my blog posts for Stage 1 and Stage 2.
