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Phil Hudson
Phil Hudson
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Figurehead HMS Constance
Figurehead HMS Constance
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Figurehead HMS Queen Charlotte
Figurehead HMS Queen Charlotte
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Phil Hudson
Phil Hudson
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Quarter Badge from HMS Lord Wardron
Quarter Badge from HMS Lord Wardron
All in a Day's Work - Phil Hudson
The Deep Blue Sign Company appeared in Dartmouth almost ten years ago when Phil, the owner, decided to fulfil his lifetime ambition to move to Dartmouth from Foxhouse, a small village in Derbyshire. He had known the town for most of his life having had relations in Kingswear who were happy to see him during school holidays.
The company, whose primary work is shop fascias which it supplies all over the country, has also diversified to sign writing on vehicles and boats. In fact, signs of any description are made in many different materials. A great many of the shops in Dartmouth now have Phil’s signs – the Wheelhouse, Skippers, Flair, Chadwick’s Finance, The Spinning Wheel, Sails, Taylors, Dart Gallery, White Sails, The Harbour Bookshop, The Spice Bazaar, Taj Mahal …..the list just goes on and on.
The skills needed change with the medium chosen. Phil might be working with perspex, computer cut vinyls, foamex, aluminium just about anything that signage requires. They have the latest technology in wide format digital printing which means they can produce photographic signage the size of a building if required. ‘You have to be versatile to compete but the developments in digital printing have made a huge difference to us’ states Phil, ‘Its opened up great possibilities.’ At the other end of the spectrum Phil can still be required to pick up a brush and a marl stick to hand paint a sign, which is what a lot of the older fisherman require being traditionalists. Phil says he has put more names on boats sitting on the Dart than he really cares to remember from the big super yachts to small rowing boats. Only the day before he had been hanging upside down over the transom of a boat on the river. ‘It was really was quite rough and it wasn’t a pleasant experience!’
The company runs with four staff, all having their own particular specialisations and is located in Collingwood Road, Townstal near the Rib Eye boat company for whom Phil does a lot of work. This includes the lettering on their boats & their promotional material and exhibition stands for the Boat Shows they attend. ‘It is great to have such a good working relationship with another Dartmouth company,’ says Phil.
Years ago Phil became interested in wood carving and studied with a wood carver near Portsmouth. “I just loved it,” admitted Phil. Opportunities have occasionally come along where he has been able to use it in his work and recently he and his colleague Richard Hunter, who is a leading world authority on naval ships figureheads and maritime history, have landed the contract to restore several important artefacts that represent a great naval tradition. Phil explains, ‘We strike up an extremely good partnership. Richard enjoys the final fine touches of paintwork and I enjoy the carving. Of course the restoration starts with stripping off the many layers of paint, usually at least a quarter of an inch thick, that has been put on over perhaps 200 years. Sometimes it is only the paint holding it together! It isn’t until you have stripped off the paint that you find out the true condition of it which, I have to say, is usually pretty shocking. You just have to keep cutting back and cutting back some more, until eventually you find some solid wood. Then following details from Richard’s archives I am able to carve replacement wood to the original detail. After this is completed we then have to paint it back up using the original colours and gold leaf is also used a lot.’
The present commission is to restore two figureheads from HMS Queen Charlotte and HMS Constance both presently in Portsmouth and the Quarter Badge from HMS Lord Wardron 1865-1886 which Phil is working on in Dartmouth. When By the Dart viewed the work in progress and witnessed the crumbling wood it was hard to believe that restoration would be possible let alone in just six weeks which is when the Navy wants it back! When pushed Phil confessed, ‘It is lots of work, especially on top of running my main business but it’s enjoyable and so different from just doing signs. But you have got to absolutely love it to do it really. The beauty of working on the carvings is the sense of history you’re working with and you think about the people who originally made it. Richard and I have the honour of reproducing and preserving what men created 200 years ago and I’m always aware of that – you don’t want to slip with the chisel! That’s a fair bit of pressure and responsibility to get it right and you want to save it for many more generations to come.’
First published April 2009 By the Dart