A Week In Work - Hours Here and There.

Following on from my last blog post, there hasn't actually been a whole day in which I have sat down and worked on the box continuously. I haven't been very well, which is par for the course for me, but even less well than usual as I have chronic bronchitis. I also finally was diagnosed as going through the menopause this week so it has been a bit up and down as far as health has gone.

I managed to do 4 hours on the box on Friday of last week and 2 on Sunday of this week though. On Monday I did about three hours and on Tuesday only about 2. A final 2 hours today (Wednesday) and the beading part of the box is finished! So up to this part of the process I have already spent approximately 41 hours on the box. It isn't finished yet, however, because the final processes also take not only time to make, but drying time in between processes, although I do not count the drying times in the final count.

So without further ado, here is the beaded box so far!

Front of the box

Right side of the box if facing towards it.

Left side of the box if facing towards it.

Beading on the back of the box.

The final processes to get the box ready to go into the shop are all about tidying up the loose ends. As you can see from the picture on the back there is still a lot of bare box left and that looks unprofessional. The thing that needs doing next is that my hubby and business partner will sand down the drawers and drawer frames a bit to ensure a perfect fit even after painting and varnishing. That done, I will be painting every part of the box that you can still see wood on, except the base, in a design that will look like the branches of the tree. Once the paint is dry, the varnishing starts and every part of the box except the base needs at least 2 if not 3 coats of varnish to protect it. That done I will stick a large square of green felt to the base and when it is dry I will trim it to size so it looks nice and tidy.

In between each of the coats of paint and varnish, the piece needs to be left to dry for several hours, or overnight, but because there are many parts to this I can work on different bits and then leave them to dry whilst working on other bits. 

For example, I can paint the base coat on the inside and outer edges of each drawer one at a time and then leave them to dry whilst I paint the back with its base coat. But it is still going to take several more days to finish, with large periods of time when I cannot work on it because too much of it is wet.

So what do I do next then, whilst these drying periods are happening?

Decide what I will be working on next of course! More about that in the next post.

Meantime have a lovely day and enjoy many

Bright Blessings.

Nici xxx