Thursday, February 26, 2009

Help! For A Broken Angel

While delivering some pieces that I made for a local Gift Shop I saw this angel in the trash. You will note that the angels hands are missing. The angel is about 24 inches tall and is resin cast. The hands were broken in shipment, and could not be found. So the shop put her in the trash. I prefer to call my actions an "angel rescue" rather than "dumpster diving". My first plan was to carve some hands and finish them to match the piece. But hands are very difficult to carve, and I was afraid that I would not do a good enough job.

What I do is to make a connection between the two wrists. Over this connection I'll drape a piece of fabric that has been dipped in starch. The idea is to drape and fold the fabric so that it dries and looks like the angel is holding and looking at a quilt. This will necessitate experimenting with some fabric. I am thinking about assembling a quilt piece and staining/dyeing it to kind of match the finish of the angel; and starch and drape it in front of the angel.

Maybe someone out there has a suggestion. Don't be afraid to leave me a comment.

9 comments:

diy said...

No I can n't come up with a better alternative. Maybe the draped cloth could have an offering, food, fruit that sort of thing?

free indeed said...

I don't have an suggestions either, but what a great idea you came up with! I doubt I would have been so clever to come up with a way to fix that angel....Good Job!

Holee said...

There is a product called Stiffey that you can buy at Michaels for $2.99. You soak the fabric in it, wring it out saving the liquid for re-use, mold the fabric how you want it and it will turn all stiff in exactly that position. I recommend using a clear spray on, non-yellowing polyurethane to protect your creation. It will also make it easier to clean.

A home made method is to mix Elmer's glue and water. 2/3 glue to 1/3 water, but it doesn't make the fabric quite as stiff as the Stiffey product does.

You can glue a peg in the one hollow arm to support the quilt.

Holee said...

Here's a new product by crayola. You could just draw the quilt with makers and they shape the paper over her hands.
http://www.crayola.com/products/splash/educator/shaper_paper/index.cfm

Tom H said...

Great ideas! Perhaps the original hands did hold some sort of offering. I think the commercial porduct will be a lot better than starch...

Holee said...

Your doll swap button:

At the top of the flickr DG page, click on the addy at the top and then right click to save it.

Go back to where you put the button photo to edit. Where it asks for the htt..thingy, delete the htt that is already there...then just click and paste the addy from the DG site and save. This should fix your button.

I had the same problem you had and didn't realize that when I pasted I then had 2 http: and that's why it wouldn't work.

Tom H said...

Thanks Holee, I got it fixed up so it works. I had to remove the www in the flickr address. I find it amazing how much there is to learn about the internet, and how little I know. Thanks again.

lrmart said...

I think the quilt idea is good and holee mentioned the stiffing product I would had suggested. My only suggestion would be to antique the quilt by tea dying it...

Lisa

Donna said...

Sounds like all your ideas are just perfect, so have nothing to add except waiting to see it finished.