Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Table: The Maiden Voyage

That's right. I had to whip out some fabric and lay a hurt on it:
table view

Up until the birth of my print table, I'd been doing this kind of thing on 4' x 8' sheets of foam insulation. Getting the pins to stay in was problem A. Keeping the sheet from bowing while stretching fabric taut made me absolutely crazy. So, imagine my delight when the pins stayed where I pinned them---without sinking into the surface or popping out at the worst possible time---and the fabric stretched like a dream.

I put the last pin in and broke into a fit of geek-snort laughter. What is that? Well have you seen the commercial for identity theft that ends with the line, '...my Girl robot,'? A nasal-y, throaty 'hee, hrr, hee', interjected with well placed snorts. That's geek-snort laughter. And tonight, I was giddy with it.

Now, what's going on with the fabric? It called for a little corn dextrin resist, so I broke out my trusty:
skillet
...and whomped up a batch of hot dextrin. It's lumpy, I know. But can you really expect me to use a seive in a moment of evil genius? No! Thank goodness there was one T-pin left over. It served well as a squeeze bottle unclogger.

Now I'm waiting for the dextrin to dry. After that, there will be a layer of dye, some drying, followed by more dextrin and dye. It's fabulous in my head. Let's see if it ends up that way.

One last view of the design:
top view

Until tomorrow....
Funky C.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's one humongous table -- hooray. Or maybe, I Want One...... June

Debra said...

I am so jealous!! (well, except I can't imagine where I would store this...). But I want it!

And the design is way cool, too.

Deborah Boschert said...

this is so exciting. I can hardly wait to see the COLOR! "my girl robot..." I know exactly what you mean!

Gerrie said...

I am so jealous of the table. I am quaking with anticipation to see the results of you work!!

Greg Arnett said...

Okay, this is the head elf.

I see a lot of comments on the table and felt the whole truth needs to be told.

The constuction process actually started much earlier. So, for everyone's own process here is how it goes:

#1 15 months before: the garage must be heated

#2 12 months before: kick husband's woodshop out of the basement into said garage

#3 (Optional step-but how we did it) Fill said basement with STUFF (it helps if your grandma is moving out of her home)

#4 Pressure husband, or other elf, to build the table

#5 Spend Labor Day weekend (and honestly only about $100 of lumber) pre-building table

#6 Clean out said basement

Then proceed with assembly as Cathy has described...