Torc About Lucky 2022 Part 3

 Torc About Lucky 2022 Part 3

Finally the Horse Shoe is Dry and looking splendid

Horse Shoe Back Finished

 

The Back of the Horse Shoe is still a little rougher than I would like. However unless I completed Scraped off the Paint where the Carrier Bag had made its impression it wasn’t going to get any better.

Horse Shoe Front Finished

 

The Front of the Horse Shoe came out lovely. Any defects are in the actual Shoe not the Spraying. This is because of course it is a used Horse Shoe.

Celtic Arghh

 I simply had to have a play. Now I had my Torc I decided to take some photographs with it on.

Celtic Grr

 

It took quite some time to Braid all my hair.

Celtic Norm

 

I found some very old Eyeshadow and a Blue Eyeliner to do the Make-Up.

Celtic Collar

 

I have moved my hair back a bit so you can have a better look at the Torc Collar. Obviously real Torcs usually weren’t made from Horse Shoes. They also often had animals on the Ends.

That might be something I may add but for now I am happy. Torc about Lucky it came out alright.

Torc About Lucky 2022 Part 2

 Torc About Lucky 2022 Part 2

I have finished the cleaning which in the end included using not only the tools but also ‘The Pink Stuff’, Wire Wool and a lot of Elbow Grease

Ford Aztec

 

I got a Can of Car Spray from the shop. Since I wanted a Brown/Gold colour to resemble an old Torc Necklace I chose the colour Ford Aztec.

Horse Shoe Sprayed Back

 

I put some paper down and started Spraying. It seemed to cover reasonably well.

Horse Shoe Sprayed Front

 

I then proceeded to Spray the Front of the Horse Shoe.

Not Fully Covered

 

After waiting 24 Hours for it to dry I noticed it hadn’t fully covered so had to give it another Spray.

Disaster Respray.

 I dropped a Clanger. The Carrier Bag had been blown by the wind and partly Stuck to the Shoe. I therefore had to Bite the Bullet and Respray. This time to be on the Safe side I decided to Spray directly with it place on the Shelf.

I added a Board to warn folks not to touch it.

Torc About Lucky 2022

 Torc About Lucky 2022

Back in 2018 my friend was kind enough to take me to the National Coal Mining Museum.

My Friend Finn

 It was Finn’s 10^th Birthday. He is a beautiful Clydesdale Horse.

Finn’s Shoe

 

During a visit to the Blacksmith I was given one of Finn’s old Shoes.

7 Inch Long

 

It is hard to properly gauge the size so I thought I would get out the measuring tape and from Top to Bottom it was 7 Inches Long.

7 Inch Wide

 

Since it is a Curved object I thought I would Measure it at its Widest point. Unbelievably it is as Wide as it was Long.

5 Inch Heel

 

Lastly I Measured across at the Bottom. Finn’s Heel was 2 Inches Less at 5 Inches.

Horse Shoe Tools

 

An idea is brewing in my brain. How at first I needed to get my Tools to clean the Horse Shoe.

Apologies for the layout, Not sure what happened.

Bamboo No Bargain 2022 Part 3

 Bamboo No Bargain 2022 Part 3

I wanted the Dish to be as resilient as possible so I gave all parts about 4 Coats of Varnish

Slot into Holder

 

My next job was to put the Grill and Holder back together. I Slotted the Grill into the Holder.

Add Glue

 

I carefully Added Glue to the Top Edges. I had to make sure that the Grill was in the Centre as I didn’t want to Glue that as well.

Place Top

 

I then Placed the Top part on the Glue and left it to dry.

Slide in Vertical

 

When I had taken them apart I hadn’t realised that I had removed different Edges. Therefore I had to repeat the process only this time I was Sliding in the Grill Vertically.

Bamboo Ready

 

Bamboo Dishes Ready for use. I have to say that so far my endeavours have paid off and as yet no Mould has reappeared.

 

Bamboo No Bargain 2022 Part 2

 Bamboo No Bargain 2022 Part 2

Now was time to start Sanding.

Inner Sanded

 

I had to Sand very hard to try and get the Mould off. It took several attempts to get the majority of it off. I also had to push a Grip through the Holes to get rid of bits of loose Bamboo.

X Sanded

 

After Sanding the Inside I started on the Outside. This took a long time as I realised I had pressed too hard with the Pencil. The X even after lots of Sanding still showed through.

Get Varnish

 

I found my tin of Varnish. Unfortunately it was quite old and before I could even attempt any Varnishing I was going to have to give it a good stir to get rid of the lumps.

I decided to start with the Grills. This meant very careful Brushing as I didn’t want excess to Drip to the other side.

First Inner Varnish

 

I Varnished all of the Inner side of both Bamboo Dishes. I had to let them dry before I could move on.

Hold to Varnish

 

I found the best way to Varnish the Outside was to hold it with my fingers on the Inside of the Corners. That way I could do the Sides at the same time.

First Outer Varnish

 

I finished the First Coat of the Varnish on the Outer side. I also turned the Grills over and did those. In the photograph above you can see part of the Grill Holder.

I had realised that I had made a mistake when Gluing. Consequently I had to break it apart again.

Bamboo No Bargain 2022

 Bamboo No Bargain 2022

After constant nagging from my boyfriend I decided to by some new Soap Dishes. He was complaining about lack of Drainage. This is an irony that I was to see later.

Bamboo Mould

 

First of all they arrived Broken. I hadn’t decided to make a project of it at that point. I had bought 2 Soap Dishes. They were not as I thought a complete set with Top Bottom and Grill Centre. I naturally complained.

I was refunded but thought rather than try ordering again I merely Glued the parts back together. The Grill is not shown in the photograph.

More Mould

 

Even though I had repaired them I hadn’t realised that they hadn’t been treated. Therefore Mould had started to build up event though it was only a day or two of usage.

New Drill Set

 

Realising that these Dishes not only were not treated but also had no Drainage holes my boyfriend couldn’t wait to play with my new Drill Set and add some.

Five Spots

 

After a quick wipe down. We got a Pencil and Measure and drew Five Spots to indicate where to Drill. It reminded us of a side of a Dice (yes puritans Dice not Die because we did both Bottoms)

Drilled Holes

 

My boyfriend did the Drilling. Using the Smallest Drill Bit he could he Drilled carefully into the Bamboo. We could always widen them later if need be.

Drilled Holes Inside

 

The Drilling cause the Bamboo on the Inside to pucker. This would be sorted by the Sanding. This was my next job after another wipe to get rid of excess dust.

Time to throw in the T-owl 2022 Part 4

 Time to throw in the T-owl 2022 Part 4

The reason that I did not fill in all the Feather details is in two parts. First I only want a Template at present. Second I want to cut out some Card and add Colour to the Owl.

Heavy Pencil

 

Using a Pencil I went over the Outline of the Owl. The idea was to imprint the Template onto the Inside so I could use that for the Inner Drawing.

Black Marker

 

To my Horror I found the Imprint had not come through even after several tries. I thought perhaps using a Black Marker would work.

No it didn’t. Therefore my whole idea has been thrown out. I am going to have to have a complete rethink.

One Eye

 

I had spent so much time trying to get the Template to come through I now was running out of time. My friend would be here to pick me up in the morning and it was now coming up to midnight.

I therefore decided to cut my losses. Instead of doing the Card Feathers I was going to have to Draw them on. This meant that the Card would be quite bland to my mind. I hit upon the idea of adding a Googly Eye

UB40

 

This sparked a spot of inspiration. I added an Inner Sheet of Green Paper and glued it down. I quickly wrote a message on to the Paper. You are 40 Today. I filled in all the Letter O’s with the Black Marker. This would form the base.

Eye-Eye

 

I then selected various sizes and added 3 Googly Eyes. I added my personal message on the opposite page.

My friend arrived and I gave her the Card and she loved it. I then explained what it should have been along with the Rough Sketches,

She quite understood. It goes to show that True Friends will accept stuff that isn’t perfect because they recognise the effort that it put in. That is the Real Birthday Gift!