Turning a Toad into a Diamond is not as hard as it may sound! And so you say What?! What?!
Another " in need of dire repair" flea market find was this wonderful old pier mirror. I happened upon, in a dusty old thrift store waaay in the back. And believe me, after all the hard work I put into restoring this beauty it gives me pleasure and pride to gaze into it's clouded old mirror!
At first glance it truly looked beyond help, covered in cob webs most of it's original ornate decoration was barely holding on by a thread. Or should I say wire, as that is what the structural frame for the decoration was built on.
The cherubs were damaged, many roses, leaves and fruit were completely missing.
There were large gaps on the corners and joints. A fairly hopeless cause! But I love a good challenge and had such a desire to bring it back to it's original greatness!
I set about restoring it, I created more roses and ornament, making molds from some of the few remaining ones and taking castings then from the "newly" created molds. Sanding and filing down edges to create graceful and fluid curves.
Filled the spaces in the frame moldings, reshaped and re-sculpted areas that needed more definition.
I needed to recreate a gold colored paint that would mimic the actual antique finish and have the same rich "aged" luster as it once had. You see I only wanted to repaint the areas of repair so as to retain as much of the original paint as possible.
And so after many long hours, lots of water putty, elbow grease, iced tea, cinnamon gum and two Dremel Drills later( I burned out the motors)! Gosh, I am beginning to notice a pattern here, I have quite a bad history with "motors", I mean the whole pumpkin pulp in the garbage disposal thing! Any way,
I have it now gently leaning against the living room wall, content in the thought that I do not own it, but am only it's caretaker for a period of time and someone else after me will be able to enjoy and make use of it too.
