The Rose Screen
I worked on this for Days. Little Sleep, rushed deadlines, hurried voices, late night staining party with pizzas brought in from Costco… The Whole 9 yards, or well in this case four and half feet of Maple.
I’ve been buried in the hustle and bustle of preparing for one of the biggest shows I’ve had the chance to attend. And Not Big in the size sense, though it is. But in the significance.
Nearly 14 years ago at the same show no less, PAX East. I’m not at liberty to say why or how, but I can say at the time I was impressed with what was on offer from the TTRPG Community. My friends in attendance with me were shocked, because they were in Game Design and Development Majors in College, but somehow it was the Woodworker who walked away with a job offer from a company at a show in their industry.
After that I steeped myself in Fantasy, Mythology, and Folklore. I soaked up what I began to call “Pulp Culture” and got involved where and however I could with creators and those doing what I wanted to do most.
Eventually I started streaming, picked up Charity Streaming and had a content creator get involved last year for a Charity I care a lot about. The Jimmy Fund. The PR and Fundraising arm of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute. They saved a good friend, and I remember the day I got fed up with not having an outlet to direct my emotions towards, when I decided to do my best to get better at Streaming.
The Third year of consistently doing Charity Streams, I managed to recruit Diana of the Rose, a TTRPG influencer and AP Podcaster. Diana really stepped up to help with my efforts for raising money for the Jimmy Fund. My Team that year broke records for the amounts we’d raised in years past, EASILY, all in two nights thanks to Diana’s stream.
Something had to be done. Something amazing. A Heroic Reward for a Heroic Effort and outstanding good deed.
I started thinking about how to do something really Nice for Diana, like truly and honestly amazing. And then I saw her viral video on Tiktok about a screen she had made years ago, and thought back to prior DM screens I’d done for other AP podcasts and charitable efforts.
Bingo.
“A true hero isn’t measured by the size of their strength, but by the strength of their heart.”
Constantly through this project I thought to myself of the scene in Disney’s Hercules where the title hero holds up a small doll of himself and says “I’m an action figure!!” desperately to the statue of Zeus. Squeezing it as he says it and staring past the biceps that unfurl with each constriction of the little doll, to search Zeus’ face for fatherly approval.
I’ve always loved that movie. I’ve always loved Herc. He was my exemplar in what a good Hero is. But something threw alarm bells at me. I needed to keep in mind, that doing this for My own glory was wrong.
Pride is OK, but doing something solely for the benefit of glory and fame is not. After seeing others build platforms and careers focused around giving back, I’ve always wrestled with not just making amazing things in collaboration with other artists and creatives, but also answering the question “How do I use this to do tangible Good in the world?”
I was doing this because the Glory of receiving something like this would inspire others to do glorious deeds. Not because I want people to throw money at me for a DM screen. (I mean in full honesty that’s nice, but it’s not the foundational reason I do what I do)
I told Diana about why, and doing good, letting her know that;
“This is because you’ve done something, whether you know it or not that is heroic in it’s own right, and you’ve made your platform so others will see you doing these deeds and be inspired by them, I want to encourage you to encourage others”
With that in mind, I took to making this screen everything I thought Diana’s branding was, enlisting Honey Potts Arts, and the Bulletproofturtleman to assist with Layout. Potts finalizing the designs and colors in bold greens, golds, desaturated browns, tans and vibrant jewel tone purples and blues.. It was glorious.
It was time to set about the woodworking. ( See Above, from top left, Jointing the boards used, planing the board flat, cutting the maple to length, working at the saw for the rip cuts, jointing the board for glue joints, glue ups in process, and finally sanding the glue off.)
Now.. That’s all well and good, and while I’m at Makerworks, I know I can handle nearly anything and everything that the shop throws at me. However, I needed a fantastic artist to work on the vision I had for this screen, and not one, but two good artist friends stepped up to assist.
The Bulletproofturtleman, While he would be a more hands off role, in creating the layout, was invaluable in his advice and guidance towards the style and language I needed to communicate with the wonderful artist who did step up. The first two images above are the communications between us, from my communication of what the idea of the screen panels would be, to BPTM’s refinement. The next step was finding an artist to execute on his layout, and that would take a phenomenal talent, in the form of a Bee-Tuber with a Fantasy Webcomic.
Honey Potts Art.
Potts, was instrumental in creating the colored sketches and laser files, and as someone who was experienced with laser engraving, knew EXACTLY what was needed from the files for the desired end results.
Over the course of a few months, they created stunning illustrations that ended up informing the build.
Potts was one of the teammates that ended up being remote, as they couldn’t just swing by the shop, because of their locale, and VTubers, you know they love their privacy. The updates I got from Potts however were stunning drawings showing an enthusiasm and grasp of the project like none I had seen. They remixed BPTM’s layout ever so slightly and used the real estate gained to pay homage to his initial sketches and concepts.
I’m lucky to count both as friends, and with this project I’d take all the help I could get. It was a Herculean task after all.
With the art firmly in hand, and knowing that Potts had it on lock, I turned my attention back to readying the panels for engraving. That meant they needed to stand on their own, and have any last minute sanding done, immediately, so they could spend the time in the laser without any complications and not have to touch any machine processes again, for fear of risking the engraving getting marked or destroyed.
At 18 inches by 13 inches, each panel was no slouch, and attaching via hardware would only add to the weight of the panels, but I also needed something secure enough that I knew and trusted.
I turned to Steel.
More specifically, 3/8ths steel rods I cut to the needed length, paired with high powered magnets to hold the panels upright, yet in a way that they could be pivoted and adjusted. I had to take the time to set my depth on a hand drill, and with a careful hand, found myself looking at an upright set of panels… and then realized that it’s wingspan was somewhere in the range of 4 and half feet… That took some layout to consider how future accessories would attach, and how everything goes together, but eventually, I got the magnets arranged, for both the back and the edges.
The home stretch was here. It was going to be a marathon run to finish, and we only had time to sprint. The engravings came out beautifully, and very much accurate to the drawing, but I still had progress to make. And this is where having friends came in incredibly clutch.
This is when Ross showed up.
Ross took to the project like a fish to water. While the engravings were running and I was doing my best to keep to sanding so the panels could continue their march towards completion, Ross sat down with the largest pack of colored markers I’ve ever seen and created something that was everything BUT the L he was holding. The color guide Ross made served as our north star, taking Potts’ artwork and turning into a paint by numbers, he carefully matched each individual ITEM on the screen to a shade and hue, made note of the number and kept working away. Two days later, we sat for 15 hours with markers and pizza, and knocked out the largest “selective stain” I’ve ever seen anyone attempt, and probably will ever do in my career.
For those of you not in the know, I’ve worked for more tabletop craft company’s than most individuals. Or With them at least. I met my friend Ross here during my time at Dogmight games, and he was one of the better stain and colorists we had on the team to work with inks and in the spray booth. This time around, Ross was helping with this project exactly because of those skills. I let Ross take the reins in directing what needed to happen with the stain, and while I raised some questions, I had ZERO complaints. Ross knew what he was doing and did it well. If you look at the photo you can even see, he’d take to having multiple markers at the ready to speed up his coloring.
After We laid out the color, we had one last sprint to make. and while it was getting close, it was going to be in my wheelhouse.
Spray Lacquer.
In a panic, I asked the clerk at Rockler the first thing Tuesday Morning whether or not they had any spray can lacquer available, in both sanding sealer, and gloss top coat.. I flew out Wednesday Morning, and with less than 24 hours, I was feeling the crunch. The screen was stained, I had gotten two containers of acrylic paint for one final touch, and I was behind the 8 ball… I needed to be able to spray some form of Nitro or finish on this screen, and it wasn’t looking good… Along came Jack.
Jack, has always been a buddy of mine, and another friend from my time at Dogmight. In fact I bought Jack’s truck off him, the 2014 Dodge Ram Express I call “Iron Bue” for 5 grand below book during the Pandemic. Jack sold me it. It was one of the greatest mercies Jack has ever done for me.
That aside, Jack is always working on Cars, Trucks and Bikes in his two car garage out in semi-rural Michigan. and when I called he answered, saying “Yes Of course you can use it for the day, get your butt over here Bud” So I hit the corner store, bought Jack a case of Fitzgerald Porter, and made my way to his garage after the Rockler rep sold me on a Wagner Enthusiast level HVLP Spray system, two cans of General Finishes water based, and a pop-tent that would let me finish the screen without concern of Overspray.
Me and Jack had a hell of an afternoon, and as Jack is apt to do, he had a trick for me up his sleeve that nearly made me cry with gratitude.
See, Not only did Jack open his garage, he had a small bottle of “Gun-Blue” tucked away in his machinist’s chest. He cracked out the acetone, and some other small tools and performed the magic trick of coating the steel in a corrosion resistant layer of a beautiful blue-gray-black patina.
Diana’s Screen had it’s pillars, it’s absolutely glorious and now rust-resistant pillars.
While Jack busied himself with that, I had taken the time to spray base coat, and wipe “Iridescent Carbon” Acrylic paint into the engravings and crevices of Diana’s Screen, and the color “stuck”.
You see, when you spray a base coat on a wooden piece and seal it from being porous, you also make it resistant to acrylic finishes. so, as I wiped and squeegeed away the excess, all that was left in the grooves was a beautiful, shimmering, black-silver that made all the panels pop.
I sprayed the final coats as Jack finished the gun-blue treatment, and as the screen dried, cleaned up Jack’s garage. It was time to pack it to fly to Boston. The crunch was over, I could present it at PAX East…
Finally.
The Final Look before the flight.
Now because of the life of a social media content creator is a crazy one, I had to wait the entire weekend of PAX East to be able to present this, on Sunday at 2pm in the Jimmy Fund booth.
To say this was a nerve wracking weekend would have been an understatement, but luckily I again had my community around me, and just as excited for the reveal as I was.
Diana’s reaction was nothing short of gracious and appreciative.
For those wondering what her personality is like, it’s exactly what you get on the tin. I haven’t seen her as fake or disingenuous, ever.
So her gratitude had me tearing up, somewhat.
We recorded her reaction, and honestly, You’ll have to watch for both her video and my own on the screen. I personally can’t wait.
There’s more there, but for now, I need to leave you all with this.
Look at the pictures, the process and the write up, and go make something wonderful, and do good in your communities.
For now I have a BTS Video to edit and get out the door.