Great plans - some failure and some success! As we continue to weed out in preparation for downsizing at some point, I came across a couple of empty frames and I just couldn't resist trying to revisit my beach-house window success of a few weeks ago. The first frame I attempted to tackle was a large wooden brown frame with glass (estimate - 20x24 - thereabouts). The glass just could not be removed - hard to explain, but it couldn't. I primed it white and then painted it gold. Gold is not normally a shade that I gravitate to, but at the cottage that we rent on the Cape, all of the pictures are framed in gold, and I'm taken with them every time I see them. So - gold it was. The frame looked (looks) gorgeous, but since I couldn't remove the glass, and since I had not taped it off prior to painting (Lesson #1), I had to scrape the paint from the glass. I would have to say that this was not difficult, but required elbow grease. Here comes Lesson #2. I should have supported the glass underneath (being a frame, the glass did not rest right on the work surface). I was nearly done with the scraping when I pushed just a bit too hard, and the glass shattered. No harm to me or to the frame, but my immediate use of it for a project has been put on hold.
Disappointed, I moved on to the second frame. This one was much smaller (8x18?) and made of black plastic. The glass was easily removed and I primed and painted as before. I loved the transformation from black plastic to lustrous gold.
Now we are on the cusp of Lesson #3! I proceeded as I had for my original beach window, and laid out my arrangement of shells and glass (this time mostly dollar store little rounds of glass - beautiful). After I had the arrangement complete, I glued everything down (see my previous post for glue and resin links), waited overnight, and then began the resin process. As before, I combined the two parts in a dollar store mustard (or ketchup) container. These are perfect for delivering the resin right where you want it to go.
OK - Lesson #3 - make sure that the lid to the mustard container is tightly screwed on! I was partway though delivery when the lid popped off and the resin poured out - half on the glass and half on the work-table surface. Fortunately my work surface was not the dining room table! I do this kind of thing on a large plastic table, and for the most part, it cleans up wonderfully from my projects, including those that go awry! Thank goodness I also had on work clothes - wherever the resin went ultimately became seriously solid!
This mishap had me scurrying and resulted in a much thicker layer of resin that I had used previously. Since the resin had coated the sides and top of the frame, and some of the shells - I had to continue with putting resin on every single surface.
Well, some minor catastrophes aside, I am very pleased with the result. Because of the thick layers of resin, it has a much glossier look that the previous one - and is much heavier!
Every time I do a project, I learn something new - I'm eager to try some more of these beach windows - but I will be a bit wiser the next time!
No comments:
Post a Comment