GRAND BLANC TWP, MI -- Like many hockey goalies, the members of the U.S. Olympic hockey team are showing their nation's color in style by stepping onto the ice with custom-painted helmets and masks.

But before those masks land on the ice in Sochi, Russia, for the Winter Olympics, they are in Ray Bishop's Grand Blanc Township workshop.

It's not the first time that Bishop, 41, has painted Olympic masks (the first time was 2002), but that doesn't mean it's gotten any easier.

"I'm very tough on myself," he said. "My wife will say, 'No one is going to see that spot right there.' But I'm going to see it."

Maybe that's why the work hasn't stopped coming since he painted his first National Hockey League mask in 1998. It's also why when he's standing in his workshop and Olympian Jimmy Howard sends him a text message wondering about how his helmet is looking, Bishop has to let him know it's not quite done yet.

But it will be. Bishop is a thorough artist, but he also knows he has a deadline. The Olympics aren't going to wait for him. And so he's got some work to do.

"Hey man, it's Ray," he said, leaving the Olympian a voice message. "It's not done yet but I can send you some shots."

On Tuesday, Jan. 28, Howard's helmet sat on Bishop's bench, covered in white stars and stripes that have yet to be filled in with red. The bald eagle glaring out of the top with a sort of "I-dare-you" expression has yet to have its final colors added, as well as the clear sheen that will make it all pop.

His casual tone with Howard is normal for the job. Bishop gets to know his clients well, and not just the hockey players. He also paints guitars for top name musicians like the members of Theory of a Dead Man and Avril Lavigne.

"The Theory of a Dead Man guys, they're friends now," he said. "And they like hockey."

That's a plus. Bishop, who owns

, paints just about anything you'd want to look cool. Guitars, motorcycles, pianos, cars are all things he's taken his air brush to.

But he's a hockey guy, and helmets are his first love.

He's now lost count of how many NHL masks he's painted, and can barely keep track of how many players he does work for. Sitting in his office, surrounded by signed posters and goalie sticks, he rattles off about 25 names of NHL goalies, among them Ed Belfour, Ty Conklin, and about all the Detroit Red Wings. And plenty of college teams.

But that didn't all happen right away.

It may have all started when he was just a kid and loved to paint. And he didn't just like to paint, but to paint things.

"I would swipe my mom's nail polish, markers, you name it," he said, and use them to put custom paint jobs on Hot Wheels cars and other toys.

Fast forward to 1996, and he was working behind a desk answering phones and was "hating every split second of it."

It was around that time he told his wife, then his fiancee, that he wanted to buy an airbrush, something he'd always wanted. He also bought a book on how to start your own airbrushing business. Then he quit his job.

He started off painting whatever he could and doing what he could to put his name out there. He put fliers all over the place -- especially hockey rinks -- and the first few orders trickled in.

"I look at those first helmets," he said, and paused to laugh. "I'm surprised anyone let me paint anything."

The key to his success, he said, is simple: Never stop working or learning.

To make ends meet, he worked in an auto collision shop painting while doing helmets on the side. One night, he was at a party with the shop's owners and they were watching a Detroit Vipers game. The goalie, Jeff Reese, was wearing a plain, white helmet.

"Everyone was saying, 'Aw, you should try to paint that guy's helmet,'" he said. It sounded like a good idea. He started making phone calls and ended up getting his first professional-level helmet.

That caught the eye of a helmet manufacturer in Port Huron and he started working there. Later, he got his first NHL mask job from Roman Turek when he was with the Dallas Stars.

"Once I got that first NHL helmet, it was just..." he said, and, not sure how to finish the sentence, opened his hands like a gate.

At first, he said he taped any hockey game with one of his helmets. "I've got a box full of VHS tapes somewhere," he said. It's still exciting to see his work on ESPN, he said, but the shock has since worn off.

A custom helmet job costs between $1,000 and $2,000. Not a bad business, but each helmet takes a long time, and Bishop recently went into business with his friend, Matt Carter, to expand what he can do.

Carter and his wife, Lisa, own UnyPOS Manufacturing in Grand Blanc Township, a company that makes LCD screens for hospitals and industrial companies. Carter and Bishop met when coaching a youth baseball team together.

Carter saw potential for Bishop to expand, but at first Bishop wasn't sure.

"A dollar isn't worth a friendship," he said, afraid of ruining his relationship with Carter. "I'm not a money-driven guy."

That's where Carter wanted to step in.

"He wants to paint. That's what he wants to do. He doesn't want to do the business stuff. It hurts his creativity," Carter said. In addition to handling the business side of things, Carter is also looking for ways to expand what Bishop does. Painting a pro helmet is great, but it's one job, one product. Carter is looking into other products that can be mass-produced with Bishop's designs.

T-shirts are one idea. Hockey helmets might be another -- for kids, not just pros.

"Mom and dad don't have the $2,000 to spend on a paint job," Carter said, adding that he's thinking about manufacturing decals or working with manufacturers who can make it easier and cheaper to get designs from the guy who paints Olympic helmets.

For Bishop, who says his biggest problem is "being able to do enough quick enough," that might be a good way to keep business flowing while he works on custom jobs -- and keep him doing what he loves most.

That is, when he's not spending time with his wife and four children or doing the other thing he's done since he was a kid: playing hockey.

So, he must play goalie, right?

"No," he said, laughing. "Heck no."

Scott Atkinson is an entertainment reporter for the Flint Journal and can be reached at (810) 262-0216 or at satkins1@mlive.com. You can also follow Scott on

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