how did we get here???
i sent off my observation document this morning so i’m free and i got brave, so here we go with the first test bits of bonnie’s spa rehab!
first i did the easy part: while the milk paint remover was curing, i put murphy’s on the estonian flyer.
estonia in 1943 was not a happy place, and yet someone made this bobbin that year. did they have sheep of their own to turn into fabric? they hadn’t eaten them? perhaps for a flax wheel, then?
it wasn’t all that dirty, really, just a spray and a short soak, then a hit with an old toothbrush (i keep old toothbrushes on the sponge rack in the dishwasher, do you? that way i always have a clean one handy.)
going to leave the bobbin at this stage until can bring home some pipe cleaners tomorrow, since i’ll need to clean out the inside, too, before using the tung oil.
i had put two scoops (see scoop?) of water in the glass dish and then just one little scoop of the milk paint remover powder. when i came back and stirred it up after curing, it made enough to do the whole moa, both maidens and the pin!
they’re sitting now. i’m spritzing them with water every so often to keep it all happening. just about time to go check on them, as a matter of fact…
they’d dried out pretty much, so i spritzed them again,
and scraped a bit off with a pairing knife, just to check.
it’s working!
turned ‘em all over and re-spritzed pretty heavily. it’s been about 15 minutes, so i guess it’s just about time to go put on my gloves and see what we’ve got…
re-spritz and a scrape with the back of the paring knife, some minimal work with the blue nylon kitchen scrubby, and look how much came off already!
even the recalcitrant screw and the front leather came out ! (the recessed back one is also pegged, possibly with leather, i don’t know, and will need some more dedicated pushing.) i doubt it will take more than one more go round with a toothbrush—maybe some floss?—to get the rest off! i think there may well have been traces of red and black underneath, since the goop on my yellow gloves was, at times a shade of dark mauve rather than the glubby blue. but the whole operation to this point, including this post, can’t have taken two hours! this will be a doable (continual) weekend project, after all! yay!
it’s noon: time for day three of jazz fest on wwoz!:)
what great progress you've made in a short time! love that the products are working as they are supposed to. i'm watching your progress closely, because i may milk paint sunny.
ReplyDelete