I Haven't Been Totally Idle

For a few years I have been into the steampunk thing. Not really active or anything. Just mostly a fan of the style.

That sort of thing takes time and money. Neither of which is in real big supply right now.

What I wanted was a hat rack. I collect hats and I have quite a few.

So I set about designing something along the steampunk style. Just to see what I could come up with. And when I had something I thought I liked, I headed out to the shop to see what materials I had on hand.

It turned out that I had several chunks of 3/8" pvc plastic left over from a sign that had gotten broken in a tornado.

So I laid my patterns out and set to cutting. And cutting, and cutting, and cutting....

Holy smokes, that was alot of cutting. Did it all with the jigsaw, as it was too big to get under the scroll saw with.

Made the thing in three separate pieces and ran 3" bolts through the top of each gear to hang the hats on. Painted the whole thing a golden yellow then misted on some gold metallic to give it kind of a sheen. Painted all of the outside edges black and then hand painted an 1/8" black stripe around each edge.

I could tell, right from the get-go that it had been close to ten years since I had held a paintbrush in my hands. Shaky shaky.

It turned out a little more cartoonish than I had imagined, but it wasn't bad. Had room for about fifteen of my hats.
Of course the problem now is that I have more hats still not hung on pegs. Probably about the same number again if I gathered them all in one place.

But I do have two more chunks of wall that need something on them. And I do still have a bit more pvc left down in the shop.....

I might make a couple more pieces or come up with something different.

Who knows?

So for those of you who think just because I'm neither blogging nor working on my weekends that I'm just lazing about swilling cheap wine and cavorting with nymphs......

Well, sometimes I wish.