Dumb

Sometimes I do really dumb stuff. Like today for example. I bought this platter on ebay months ago. When I bought it, it was painted ugly tacky gold and had lime green and cream colored flowers painted all over it. Ick. I knew it had potential though, just look at that pierced decorative edge! I spent HOURS huffing lacquer thinner (I know, I'm bad, but I just kept thinking 2 more minutes...) to strip all those coats of horrible kitchy paint off. I wish I had taken a "before" picture to show you. Then I religiously spritzed the platter with water every hour or so when I was at the studio FOR WEEKS trying to get it to rust. I wanted a rusty color background for a silhouette wall piece idea I have. Well, things take FOREVER to rust in Arizona. Forever. Anyway, some of the know-it-all sculpture grad guys told me to just spray it with Muriatic Acid, but I was too lazy to go out and buy it so I just kept spritzing it with water hoping for the perfect rustiness. Today I decided I was happy with the rust. It looked so pretty. So, I thought it would be a GREAT idea to spray the platter with a varnish coat to make it permanent. BAD IDEA. All it did was turn my beautiful rusty platter into a dark shiny brown mess. So then I had to spend forever burning OFF the acrylic varnish that I meticulously coated ON (and probably filling the studio with some really nasty fumes). Some days I swear are just worthless. I accomplished nothing at the studio today. Except maybe a good dose of humility. Duh. And, now I have to re-rust my platter. Fooey. Lets hope tomorrow is more productive!

And, if this post sounds negative, its not, I'm just sharing a valuable learning experience with you. ALWAYS test first. I know that. I have learned that lesson a million times! Apparently I needed to learn it once more!