What I've Been Working On This Spring
Warning, there follows a large collection of pictures of my completed work from this term. Feel free to skip over there - it's pretty much the equivalent of looking at someone else's baby pictures. On the other hand, if you have any japanned objects that need restoring...
This is a copper milk jug from Jersey or Guernsey - they used to deliver milk to houses in these, and use them on the table as well. There are a lot around that were made to sell to tourists, but I think this one is original. There was a huge dent in one side that I beat out. Polishing tarnished copper instantly makes it look a hundred times better as well.
This is the copper kettle I bought with nothing wrong with it, and then had to drop down the stairs, so that I had something to fix in class.
This is my favourite job from this year. Its a little japanned mirror from the early 20th century, probably English. There was a revival in this sort of chinoiserie decoration around the 1910s-1920s, using the techniques from the 1700s that we learned last year, but in a slightly different style. I'm especially proud of how this turned out, although I couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing. Most of the original raided areas had fallen off, and had been very clumsily "restored" using what looked like blobs of Polyfilla and some sort of waxy paint, perhaps even crayon. Reconstruction of the decoration was difficult, because so much of the original had gone, so I made up some of it from photos of other examples.
This is a copper milk jug from Jersey or Guernsey - they used to deliver milk to houses in these, and use them on the table as well. There are a lot around that were made to sell to tourists, but I think this one is original. There was a huge dent in one side that I beat out. Polishing tarnished copper instantly makes it look a hundred times better as well.
This is the copper kettle I bought with nothing wrong with it, and then had to drop down the stairs, so that I had something to fix in class.
This is my favourite job from this year. Its a little japanned mirror from the early 20th century, probably English. There was a revival in this sort of chinoiserie decoration around the 1910s-1920s, using the techniques from the 1700s that we learned last year, but in a slightly different style. I'm especially proud of how this turned out, although I couldn't get a good picture of the whole thing. Most of the original raided areas had fallen off, and had been very clumsily "restored" using what looked like blobs of Polyfilla and some sort of waxy paint, perhaps even crayon. Reconstruction of the decoration was difficult, because so much of the original had gone, so I made up some of it from photos of other examples.