Plugging Along

Well, I had hoped to be far enough along on Friday afternoon that I could take the weekend off. My definition of “far enough”? The waterfall had to be glued on so it would have all weekend to cure. Sigh…..twas not to be.

I did get some done though. The dark fabric from the seat was folded around to the bottom of the chair so it was secure. Unfortunately, this meant I then had to paint it white because I was planning to cover the bottom of the seat with print outs of the actual score of “Water Music” and it was printed on silk chiffon from ColorPlus Fabrics (sadly, no longer in business due to mis-management) and was therefore, semi-transparent so the brown needed to be white. I had painted it Wednesday so it was ready to go on Thursday.

Naked chair bottom with brown fabric painted white. Ready for next layer.

First of the sheet music glued down with Mod Podge.

Then I put the chair up on the table and started fighting with glueing on the ivy. The glue I planned to use was not satisfactory so I ran out to Lowe’s and picked up two other kinds of glue that were supposed to be ok for fabric, plastic, etc. and the one was supposed to be virtually “instant.” Well, it wasn’t. And it didn’t like the plastic of the vines so I resorted to glueing some of the leaves down instead. That worked much better. As I was gluing them I realized that some of the white paint had bled onto the black of the legs as I was putting another coat of sealer on the legs so now I had to repaint that….meant I couldn’t finish the vines. But I did get some of the individual leaves glued on to the inner spindles on the top.

Glueing ivy on legs...

Glueing leaves on spindles...stones are also glued on.

As you can see, there are also small stones glued to the chair. PITA. I had purchased some glue that was for use with smooth objects. It was so darned thick I could barely squeeze it out of the tube. I finally gave up and poured the stones into a cup and then poured in the hard finish Mod Podge, mixed it up and then put the stones on. Of course, once they were on I had to quit for the day to let them set…..

Now, I need an opinion here. Here is a shot with a little frog….

Pool in place with little frog....the frog is not glued on. Still debating.

Is he too cutsy or do you think he works??

Friday was more sealing, etc. The stones were the last thing I did Friday.

Saturday I headed in to town. It was a great day for this as it was in the low 40’s F (4 C) so I could open windows. This was important as I was using an acetone based, fabric glue and did NOT want to be breathing the fumes. I had planned on being out of there by noon. Well, we know how my planning goes. I had stopped at the little hardware store in my town and purchased 2 “C” clamps because I was not going to sit and hold the waterfall in place as the glue took hold. Using those clamps and a piece of flat acrylic bar I had for hanging small quilts worked like a charm. I let each section I glued sit for 20 minutes before moving on to the next section. After I got the first part glued I decided to take a break and go down to my car for a smoke (yes, yes, I know….please, no lectures). This was to prove to be almost a disastrous decision.

I have my studio key and car clicker on a lanyard that I wear around my neck when I am at the studio. I keep the door to the studio locked when I am not in there because we are not in the best neighborhood. However, our building is locked after hours and on weekends and you need a clicker to get in. My clicker is on my other key ring that I had left in my purse in the studio. Ooops. So I’m thinking I’m royally screwed. There were very few people in the building. I knew there was a guy on my floor (the second) but he was in the new office sanding the floors. I had NO idea how to get his attention. I went to the entry door I always use and, yes, it was locked. Peeking in the window there was NO ONE in sight. Drat. I went around to the side door that goes into the stair well and, oh yeah! it was open! I climbed up the 2 flights only to remember the doors from the stairwell into the hall have the same lock. I started pounding on the door not really thinking anyone would hear. And then the miracle. Three women opened the door! I don’t know how they got into the building but they were trying to get to the MRC Studio on the 1st floor. I thanked them profusely and took them to the elevator and sent them down…..YES! I was back in my studio and back to work. I finished glueing on the waterfall and was out the door only an hour later than I had planned.

The chair with everything except the waterfall and the last of the vines in place.

Glueing on the waterfall

Waterfall completely glued with the pool in place. The pool is not glued down yet.

One last thing to do before I left. I glued the rest of the sheet music to the back of the waterfall.

Sheet music glued to back of chair center and edges of waterfall.

This will be trimmed on Monday and then sealed again. The back “stone” fabric will then be attached to the top, hiding the top of the waterfall. I have also made “boulders” out of fabric, stuffing them with polyester fiber fill and sealing them with Mod Podge. I brought them home with me so I could add layers of sealer over the weekend. They kind of look like boulders, or potatoes…..Anyway, they will be attached at the top to help hide the top of the waterfall and a couple where the waterfall joins the pool. Then just the rest of the ivy and the tree leaves at the top of the outer spindles and I’m done. Hopefully it will all be dry by Friday when the photographer comes….

Boulders/ potatoes.....

2 Responses to “Plugging Along”

  1. Francine Boudreau says:

    Very nice Teri. The little frog look cute…an added touch. My opinion is to leave it there. It’s cute.

  2. Wow! You have gone to a tremendous amount of trouble here! It’s certainly going to look impressive.

Leave a Reply