Drying Pains and Jump Ropes

Sorry for not posting last Sunday. I didn't honestly have much for artwork to discuss or showcase for this week, unless it was on the backlog of projects that I'm trying to clear off.  For last week, I was assembling together a set of beaded jump ropes.  Having saved aside several beads from one of those wooden beaded car seat covers when its' plastic strings broke, I had finally decided on what to use those beads for.

As if counting the number of beads, natural and dark brown, wasn't a pain (there were 1,028 altogether by the way), I also had to drill-funnel each one of them to make their holes consistently the same size. That took a few days, along with a couple of power drill's battery recharges and several breaks for my sore hands (this was a while ago before I was working on the Halloween Decor; OK, ok, last time I'll talk about it until next year or when I make any progress on the scarecrow dolls).  Luckily I didn't need to coat any of them with polyurethane.

As you can see, I needed to keep count aside from memory.

After that prep-work, I've done a bit of division math to figure out a pattern for the beads. A ratio of 1:4 for all the beads and 1:5 for the main body of beads (e.g.-@00000-) excluding the pattern for the end sections. Since I don't know where I could get some cheap plastic cord/string, I decided on using jute crafting rope. The cut ends would be a pain to string all those beads so some clear scotch tape was wrapped around them like aglets, plus it kept them from unravelling. I didn't know how long the rope would need to be for stringing on all the beads; it surprisingly took over 70 feet of rope, providing I had to split up some of twine strands to make the rope fit thru the beads' holes and sewn & weave the connecting ends with sewing machine thread. With both the weight of all the beads and the exceeded length, it was decided to make 2 long jump ropes (both about 25 feet) and 1 single-user jump rope.

The pattern plan for the ends and main sections

Now what was left was the handles.  The best I had around were a couple of green painted natural bamboo poles. Natural bamboo grows like hallow column blocks, plus very resilient against bending/snapping so it was a good choice to use.  I needed to saw 6 pieces (fixed any peel-off splinters with glue later) and drill out the inner knot "walls" to make it possible for the rope to go thru. After doing that was painting polyurethane on them. I had some leftover Minmax Polyshades (Wood Stain + Polyurethane) from a past project with art stand displays, applying it onto the bamboo handles after sanding off the old paint and any other rough spots.
I goofed on one important step with it; even if the polyurethane had dried to the touch, it isn't solidly harden yet and I kept getting fingerprints and rope fibres imprinted on the handles' finish.  Polyurethane, depending on its thickness of the coating, usually takes hours for each coat (this time, about 8 hours) to fully dry and harden with little tackiness. Painstakingly annoying but that's the price for a good quality work. I fixed those goofs by sanding down the first coatings and repainted them, allowing them to fully dry this time.

My drying setup for the bamboo handles

So after the handles have been finished, I've just threaded the rope ends thru them and knotted both ends.  This was one of those projects to use up old materials though I did had to buy the ropes at Dollarama, not much more than $7. I'm thinking on what to do with them now, either gift them to someone or donate them; I already have my own jump ropes. With Christmas coming, that's one opportunity to do that.

Wooden Rooster

If anyone can remember back about 2 years ago, I've posted up here about a wooden structure that I've painted.  A wooden bird with a lobster cage-like body that I've found while out walking in my neighbourhood. It took a while to finish as I used oil paints and they have among the longest drying times of paints, especially red oil paint with linseed oil.

Well, I've finally completed another side project that I started a long while ago that's similar.  There was a wooden chicken standee that's been stashed in the family basement for a long time. Can't remember how we got it, from an auction out by Colborne, ON maybe.  I can remember that the turnoff from the HWY 401 was by the Big Apple venue where they got a giant apple building attraction.  Anyways, back to the bird...

I've rediscover it while cleaning up our storage in the basement.  With the idea of us of having that eventual rummage sale (soon maybe), I thought that decorating this wooden chicken standee would help fetch a better price.  I washed and sanded the standee down and after allowing it to dry out, primed and treated it with double-boiled linseed oil (I still have that bottle of it that I bought years ago for sculpture classes, nearly empty now).

 Next, much like how you would lightly paint-wash a canvas, laying out your composition, I painted in where I want the base colours to be. It started as completely white all over except the base, then once that dried in a few days, carefully painted red the comb (the crown on top) and side wattles.

It took a long time waiting for the paint to dry with each session I did. Been over a year in fact.  I was painting in layers and had to wait for the paint to not smear around, getting muddy with the new paint layers.  I masked off areas with masking tape to help keep the edges clean, especially with the wattles, wings and base. Sometimes I would put the standee aside for several weeks when I did other things.  For layering after the white undercoat, I went with an orange head and hackle, dark green chest and hock, dark blue saddle feathers, yellow beak and feet and mahogany wings.

After those layers dried, I added the highlights and gradients with a feathery texture.  For the base, I used a small tin of Minwax PolyShades (it's a stain & protective polyurethane varnish for wooden furniture and works).  Polyurethane is a new medium for me but I've gotten the hang of it. I had to use some on another job with revarnishing the top of our coffee table. Multiple absences of placemats and coasters plus cigarette burns from Dad's smoking.

Lastly with finishing touches, I glued it two decorative domed-cap nails for its eyes and sprayed on a couple coats of clear varnish all over the rooster.  I wanted to avoid washing linseed oil as a protective coat as my goose started to look a bit too yellowish.  The rooster is proudly standing on my bedside table for now.  I might store it back in the basement beside the Canadian Goose later.

As much as beautifully the rooster turned out in the end like the goose, I don't want to get into painting any new wooden structures.  With having more time for exterior ventures like employment opportunities, I'm going to get more into my professional line of work.  However I hate leaving things on the back burner of my mind, having started these things to have something to keep busy with while nursing my Dad throughout the day and wanting now to clear them off to push myself forward onto new things.

I think this was the last side project I had in the works.  Now it just making promos for freelancing and getting through my Udemy classes. Also some reading books that I've been meaning to get to.