Tuesday, June 9, 2015

sometimes I wonder if I even know what I'm doing




I'm a little disgusted with myself right now. I spent the day yesterday messing around with oil paints on the little peach flower sculpture trying to lighten it up but I eventually cleaned it all off since it just wasn't looking the way I had it in my head to look. So, new idea. I would just use a bit darker pink and paint the stamens so they would stand out better and then a dot of yellow on the ends which I intended to do all along since I didn't think I could get a tiny bit of yellow frit to stay in place during casting.


That worked well enough so I set it aside and started on the peach wood top. It needed a little sanding, which I did, and since I didn't want to stain it or seal it, I figured I would do a hand rubbed finish. Before I did that though, I wanted to see how all the pieces looked together since I have not ever put them all together before. So I balanced the box on the upside down cast bronze peach pit feet, put the wood top on top and the flower sculpture on top of that and as I held the cast peach inlay piece against the front of the box, the whole thing teetered over and I snatched the box with one hand and the flower sculpture with the other before it hit the table and in the process smeared the paint.

Well, fine. Be that way. I put it aside to touch up later.

Next I rubbed lemon oil on the wood, for that hand rubbed finish, and I knew it would darken it some but was not prepared for how much the oil actually did darken the wood which is still a pretty piece of wood with nice grain and now the sculpture does not stand out from the wood the way it did prior to the lemon oil.


Sheesh! Am I ever satisfied?

Well, satisfied or not, I'm done with this piece. It's time to move on. Now as soon as the adhesive I ordered arrives, I can put it all together.

So, did I ever tell y'all what I plan to fill the peach box with after I finally get it finished?





13 comments:

  1. Have you ever run into one of those old timers who could carve a little basket from a peach pit? Just saying...

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  2. i was afraid you had dropped it! smeared paint is so much better! laughed at the pits! perfect!

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  3. You don't know what you are doing...that is where the creativity is: on the edge of uncertainty.

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  4. You may be a bit disgusted with yourself but I am delighted with your box, the flower, and how it all will look together.

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  5. " Sheesh! Am I ever satisfied?" It's fuckin gorgeous.

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  6. You need to walk away from it for a bit, let your brain cool off so you can see it with fresh eyes. It's lovely, and the wood will settle down as the oil works in. I like the direction of this one, even though you think it's the pits.

    Heh-heh...

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  7. You were tired and needed a break. Accidents always happen when you are trying the last bit of something. I agree with you that the dark wood does take away from the beauty of the glass. But, I could never accomplish anything half this lovely, so who am I to comment?

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  8. It's hard to tell what finish you get with oils.

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  9. sometimes we all run up against a project that has a mind of it's own. "better to tame the beast than loose one"......runaway glass not withstanding. I think it is gorgeous.

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  10. Hm, what’s the problem? You may not be 100% happy with the outcome and you may have encountered the sod’s law phenomenon (if something can you wrong, it will) but the piece looks very pretty to me.

    But then what do I know. Are you a perfectionist, by any chance?

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  11. I cannot wait to see what it's going to look like!! And I love the idea of filling it with pits. Terrific.

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I opened my big mouth, now it's your turn.