Monday, June 07, 2010

Excuse Me, Do You Have The Time???


Last winter my Bloglandian sister Renate and I sent each other a bit of stash. It was kinda a stash exchange. She sent a bit of German "junque" and I sent her a bit of Mexican "junque" In my stash Renate sent a couple of awesome old pocket watch cases and some old analog faces. Ever since then I have had the itch to see if I could make some watch face coasters with them. Now I noticed everywhere you look numbers, letters, watch faces and all things graphic are used to decorate with. 

**Since LW has grounded me to the rocking chair in my little art corner...** Oh yeah he did!! Well actually I have to admit it was for my own good. Since the other day while out walking the old side walks in the historical part of town, grace here kinda messed up her knee. Well it's not really my fault. The town is built against the Sierra Madre foothills so that the streets are a bit hillie. When the old part of town was built, the way they dealt with possible street flooding was to raise the sidewalks. 
But you only have to do that where it floods. So you figure out what and where floods from the rainy season's run off from the mountains on one side of town.
Then you decide where & what will flood when we have high tides and tropical storms, since the other side of the city runs down to the ocean.
When you have that figured out then you do a bit of measuring to see how high the water comes Then when you have all that extremely scientific information you raise only the parts of the sidewalks in those areas so that they are just a hair above the maximum flood level.
 Sounds like a perfect solution on paper but in reality it's a bit more complicated. Well if you are at an intersection and the north side of the side walk floods more then the south side of the side walk ofcourse you only raise the north side. Are you catching on here. At any given intersection all four corners can easily be at different heights. Okay back to the fat knee. I went to step off the curb at an intersection and silly me I forgot to look down instead of straight ahead. So I judged the side walk height I was stepping down from to be the height the one across the street. Fatal move. Everyone knows that you always look down at the sidewalk you are walking on never straight ahead to the sidewalk you are aiming for!! :) So I stepped off the curb anticipating where the curb should have been BUT it was a bit (about 10inches) lower. :(
My left knee absorbed the impact of 130+- lbs by hyper-extending a tidge. Ouch. Results are a fat knee and me confined to my rocker, with ice and pain med. 

Wow if I didn't get way off course here **... Since LW has grounded me to the rocking chair in my little art corner... ** I decided it would be a good time (hee hee.. get it?? time-watches oh forget it!) to experiment a bit with Renate's watch faces.
So I scanned the faces onto the computer then sized and printed them off onto nice thick clip art weight paper.
       
I have some nice heavy self adhesive clear laminating plastic, I put over the faces. A bit of resin on the edges to seal them. Then Super 77 (spray adhesive) black felt to the blank side. 
 

I think they turned out pretty darn cool myself. Now to test drive them to make sure we don't have to tweak them a bit. Hmmm I think I'll give this set to Jackie D to make sure they work as coaster not just look good. I'm wondering if maybe the next set I try using some thin cork board instead of the felt. What do you guys think???
Okay I'm throwing in the towel, calling it quits, yelling uncle! Between our local DHL cutting in and out all day and Blogger's usual malarkey, and being a bit wonky from pain meds it has taken all day + to get this one little post written. I'll show you the  necklace I finished in the next post. Maybe my patience will be a bit thicker or DHL&blogger will behave!! SO until next time I wish you an audacious art filled day no matter where in the world you are.  p;)

7 comments:

stregata said...

The coasters are sensational! You clever girl!!!
Hoping your knee gets better soon - sending get-better-real-quick wishes!!

Miss Muggins said...

Poor Auntie Pattie. I had a good visual of the incident through your story! Sounds like an enforced rest was rather timely! Love the coasters too, and how your very clever, creative brain ticks!

Diane said...

Pattie...These are the most clever idea! You did a great job, but you are right, I think as a layer of thin cork board ought to work perfect =)
Really, this is so cool!!
And, I hope your knee recovers quickly. It is not good to be laid up too long....

SummersStudio said...

I love the coasters and I think the felt is a very nice alternative to the more expensive cork solution. Sorry about the knee but I can completely see how it would happen. Rest, rest, rest.

Riki Schumacher said...

LOVE the coasters! So sorry to hear about your pour knee. Don't do that again! Hugs, Riki

Mollye said...

These are amazing and what work you went to!

LuLu Kellogg said...

Eeeeeeeeeek! Sorry about your knee but at least you didn't show your underpants!

Love the coasters!!

LS♥

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