this is the Saturday Morning Home Repair Blog where the Dailykos community gets together to talk about all things construction and repair. Our genial and expert staff stand ready to aid you on your every problem
OK The truth is I haven’t done much the last month, besides go to Oahu and Maui and lie around on the beach (first things first)
This is the closest thing Ive done to home improvement in a while: lamp restoration. Ive been finally working on Butch and have got him all recast. Butch is the plaster statue/lamp Ive been restoring. Its been sitting in my garage for 5 years, right where I left it when it and Bertha, his girlfriend, were given to me. I fixed up Bertha already---just had to touch up some paint and new electrical-- and she now sits in my living room. Theyre about 52” tall, counting the shade
So I had to recast ¾ of the base and complete resculpt the right boot, putting in steel reinforcement and replacing the electrical conduit which had been broken off. This was interesting to me because I haven’t done Plaster of Paris casting since I was a Webelo (oh yes I was dammit) (The Few! The Proud! The Webelos!) I poured the base and then I kinda just put a big blob of PoP on the right foot and then sculpted away everything that didn’t look like a boot, mostly with chisels and sandpaper. Primed it, put a new electrical socket and harp on top of his head for the lampshade. (can’t see it in the pic, its like Bertha’s) I’m still looking for matching lampshades for these, the one Bertha has is a one-off..
I still have to paint Butch and then go back and touch up Bertha a little, googling says acrylics are best. The detail in these are fantastic, you can even see the stitching in their jeans. Been interesting and a challenge fixing these but they go with our decor which is Western-pioneersy. General agreement on the intertube says acrylics are the best paint. Thats the next step.
What are you working on?
(Once again the pics posted haphazardly. Live with it, I put numbers)
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