One of the many unusual projects I have on the go at the moment is to paint a rather large swan logo on the till counter in the restaurant of the Swan at Tetsworth. This is a new and slightly scary experience for me, as I'm not really an experienced sign painter, although I have done some pretty large works of art in the past using acrylic. After a couple of test runs it was apparent that acrylic wasn't going to cut it for this job so I used some signwriting enamel that I had bought having taken part in some of Joby Carter's online signwriting classes last year. The image of a swan, with a Duke’s coronet that’s attached to a heavy gold chain around its neck, is commonly found in Buckinghamshire. This element of the emblem is particularly confusing, as the swan is associated with being a free, wild bird. The history of the emblem has been much debated and has been described as ‘lost in a confusion of medieval romance, a joke and the sovereign’s appetite.’
Whatever the reason for the poor swan in his shackles, it's quite a striking logo and one that has been associated with this establishment for many years, so in keeping with tradition I have pretty much copied the original logo for the pub and antique centre (but fixed his beak). It's 99% done now, but I might pop back and coat it with clear varnish as I'd like to think it will be swanning around for a while yet.
