We were approached by the Inverell RSL to produce a memorial plaque for the Battle of Lone Pine at Gallipoli. What made this job special was the fact that we were to make the plaques from the timber from a seedling of the original Lone Pine of Gallipoli.
The story goes…” Two brothers, Benjamin and Mark Smith from Inverell, NSW were involved in the capture of the Lone Pine positions. Mark was killed in the action. Benjamin, a Lance Corporal, noticed that the Turks had been using the branches of a Lone Pine tree to cover their trenches. He saw that trees had been destroyed in the battle and it is probable that his thoughts went home to his mother who was well known for her “green thumbs”. He plucked one of the cones from the destroyed tree and sent it to her. Benjamin’s twin brother, Bert also enlisted in the 1st AIF. The mother planted three seeds shed by the cone and like the story of the three boys, two trees lived and one died. In 1930 Mrs McMullen, the boys’ mother sent one of the trees to Inverell where the boys had lived, the second tree was sent to Canberra for the opening of the War Memorial. The Duke of Gloucester planted the tree on 24th October, 1934 dedicated to the memory of Mrs McMullen’s son, Mark and other sons who fell at Lone Pine. The timber used in this plaque is from the original Lone Pine seedling. The tree was felled in 2007 due to safety concerns.”
So our joiner, Rex, milled down the slabs of pine from the Lone pine seedling and put together this large timber plaque. We then designed the the plaque using images and maps from the battle of Gallipoli. The plaque was presented to the city of Inverell on Anzac day, The unveiling of the plaque was made by Member for New England, Tony Windsor and Ms Ruth Smith, a niece of the Smith Brothers.
We here at Potato Press are extremely proud to have been a part of this amazing project and we would like to thank Hans and everyone at the Inverell RSL Sub Branch for asking us to be involved with such a memorable job.
More images and stories can be found at the Inverell Times and The National Daily Leader.
These are some menu covers we did for Ryans Bar at the Treasury Casino, Brisbane. All handmade with a leather back and spine, veneered timber front cover and a laser etched logo.
Here is a great project we just finished for the crew out at Movie World. It went up on the wall at the Village Bean cafe inside the park. The sign was made from reclaimed hardwood timber with a rough white wash finish to give a weathered effect. We then laser etched the recycled timber with a deep burn to get great contrast. The finished product turned out great and looked fantastic on the wall of the cafe.
We were contacted by Surfing Queensland to design and produce the trophies for the Burleigh Breaka Pro. So what we came up with was a large slab of hardwood with an image of Burleigh etched into it. We then mounted the laser cut letters and logos off the wooden base with a piece of clear acrylic. The etched image sat nicely in the background and the hardwood base gave the trophy a nice solid feel.
The guys got some good waves for the event and burleigh hill was packed with spectators. A huge congratulations to Owen Wright and Sally Fitzgibbons for taking out first place in the Mens and Womens events.
We were approached by Pearson Education to create some oversized scrabble pieces made from wood. The pieces ended up being about 200mm high and 100mm deep. Each piece was Laser Etched and paint filled and then individually cut out by our Joiner, Rex. We ended up doing a few sets of the whole alphabet. It was quite a large job, but it turned out really nice and Pearson Education were stoked with the final product!
The lovely people from Lu Lu Lemon Athletica contacted us to create an art piece for their store at Carindale. The brief was a hampton’s style beach theme which incorporated the brands imagery and some of their key phrases. We also had to design it so that the staff can interchange the images and phrases with ease. So the final product was a combination of wood and whitewash, laser cut white mdf and reverse applied acrylic prints. Both the printed acrylics and laser cut lettering are mounted with stainless steel standoffs which are easily changed and replaced. The guys were very happy with the final product and it looked great in the store.
We did this great project with the Gold Coast Arts Centre for their subscription season promotion. We produced a whole bunch of laser cut and laser etched pins. The laser cut badges were cut from a white washed timber ply. We also made a couple of large laser etched and laser cut signs from the same white washed timber. They both turned out amazing!
This is a presentation folder we did for Smart Abode. It was made from a white washed ply with a white leather spine. The front had a Laser Etch into the wooden cover and the back page had a paper laser etch. Nice little job that turned out great.
This was a project for Element Eden as a custom Point of Sale installation. We have done a few skateboards in our time, but we really liked doing these one because of the different colours and effects that the laser produced.
We are very lucky here at Potato Press to be able to work with some extremely talented people. One of those said people is Laura Strange, a Designer and Artists coming out of Brisbane. She approached us to create some custom artworks and jewellery pieces for some upcoming shows she was exhibiting in. We put together an amazing layered laser cut black and white acrylic piece along with some wooden laser cut shapes, which she then incorporated with hand painted watercolours to create a unique artwork. We also cut out a bunch of her geometric shapes from both acrylic and wood, which she has turned into limited edition jewellery. Laura has also been collaborating with Claudio Kirac and the Art-Work Agency to do some amazing things.
Do yourself a favour and check out more of Laura’s work over HERE
We were approached by the Treasury Casino to do a reserved sign for their Kitchen Restaurant. We sourced some New Guinea rosewood and got them cut down to a prism. We then laser etched the logos into the wood and colour filled the RESERVED word with white. The finished product turned out great and the guys at Kitchen were stoked.
