tributesinwood

Ready to Start Painting

I still have a few things to tidy up on the carving portion of this project, but I’m itching to start painting so I thought that I’d put the knives away for a while and pull out the paint brushes next.  Here’s what I’ve accomplished recently…

The lamp stand now has a lampshade made of brass.  I used a .010″ thickness of brass sheet and soldered the one edge to create the open ended cone for the shade.  Brass sometimes isn’t the easiest thing to solder, but I find that if I really burnish the surface up with sandpaper and then use a torch and solder ( rather than a soldering gun ), I can get a pretty good bond.

I also added a bit more interest to the birdcage that I carved by opening up the bottom portion a bit and inserting some copper wire to resemble the cage.  I also soldered a small washer over a short piece of copper wire and with a bit of bending and hammering ended up with a pretty reasonable looking hook.  With a few wrinkles carved into the wood, it’s starting to look like a cloth draped over the cage.

So, prior to some dabbing of paint, this is what it’s looking like.  I’ve added an old-time vacuum cleaner and the little bird that escaped the cage prior to packing.  You won’t be able to tell from this photo, but the cat’s eyes are now less evil thanks to Peggy’s prompting…