I made it to Wednesday

Yes, I know today is Friday. But Wednesday, last Wednesday, was the drop dead day. The day I swore I'd have my totally, voluntarily, all ready submitted my project and received my grade, superfluous Advanced Finishing Techniques sampler project completed, so I could have it entered into the Student Showcase at the San Diego County Fair. Why? I don't know. I really liked the class. The first class in the woodworking program where mistakes were easy to correct. The promise of transformation, making things look different than they started. The class is different than most of the woodworking program, and I wanted people to see that. Its really  more of a faux finishing class than anything. I loved it. I didn't take any pictures of the sample projects done during class, other than the faux marble from the last post, but I have a few of my sampler, the one in the fair.

I chose an old toy box that the boys no longer need. Here are the before pictures;

The box, minus the bottom

the lid, minus the padding and cover that made it look like a treasure chest.

I think it all came from Ikea, a long time ago. I put primer over the paint, and faux-ed away. I made faux wood grain on top, then a faux marquetry over that. Sort of a double faux. Now the top looks like this;

And I did stenciling and embossed stenciling and antiquing and gilding and faux wood burl and faux malachite. But I didn't take any pictures. Once the fair is all done,  the box will come back home and hold spinning stash. I don't know what took me so long to figure that part out.

Now that project is done, I've time for others. Planting some pots with decorative things. Working on the lawn, which I put off last year because I wasn't sure we'd be allowed to keep watering it. Washing the last hand spun project, 113 grams and 202 meters,

refinishing the Pocket Wheel treadles and drive wheel. The sanded oil finish just didn't hold up to all the use, so I've cleaned (with Murphys oil soap) and shellacked the surfaces to seal the oil in, and am in the middle of applying several coats of a wipe-on polyurethane finish. It should hold up much better. Next up is, besides more yard work, recovering an ottoman. The original fabric is disintegrating before my eyes. There's always something else to work on, here.