Deck Staining, Squared

After my last update a few weeks ago, I got started with my plan for staining the deck.

I wanted to have some color, and decided to give this space something in common with our basement flooring.

With that decision made, I picked out two solid stains to match up with the redwood color I used on the fence. I tried out my colors in the raised areas first.

With those parts done in solid colors, I could see how the three colors would work together, and I decided to go for it. I figured the space was big enough to allow me to make two foot squares (if I had gone with one-foot squares, I would have gone crazy with all the taping).

I started out in what I considered the middle of the deck and began laying out the lines. from there I used a 12-inch metal painting blade to keep the paint within the boarders.  About half way in, I made a "mistake."  Can you spot it?

She Who Must Be Obeyed is a quilter, and she reminded me that traditionally, many quilters would purposely introduce a "mistake" into their work so as not to be perfect.  So, that's my story too, and I'm sticking  to it.

I knew going in that it would take a lot of effort to deal with the visible edges of each board, and that took the most time as I squeezed the brush into the cracks between boards and worked to get complete coverage without getting spots of one color where another color is supposed to be.  I think the end result was worth it.

 It worked pretty well, but I've got some touch up to do yet.

Gone Welding: Now I'm Back!

Well hello there!  Apologies for being away the past couple of months.  Let me catch you up on what's been going on:

I just completed a sculptural welding class.  That's my main excuse for a lack of recent posts.  I'm really glad I took the class, and I do have some show and tell in the form of a couple of projects.

The first thing I learned while welding with an oxy-acetelyne torch is you can very easily burn through the metal you are trying to weld!  I wanted to make a danish-stylized wire sculpture of a fish similar to this one I found online, but I kept messing up.

So I changed  direction and decided to start by welding thicker metal - rebar to be precise.  That led me to doing some searches for examples of rebar art, and I ended up with a salmon.  I printed out a photo, traced it onto graph paper, then enlarged it on some construction paper.

Here's the finished piece.  What I learned: bending rebar takes some real muscle!  And it is very easy to burn through rebar with a torch.

I had enough time left in my 9-week class to do another project, so I drew up some plans for a tiki guy based on a photo I found of a vintage surfing trophy.

With a 1:1 drawing I could then start cutting and bending the pieces to make the sculpture.

I realized that my original drawing would need some modifications so I lengthened the base so it would push into the ground for display outside.  This project was destined for a friend's garden, and the letters incorporated into the head also needed to change as it was supposed to be AFFP. (The initials for a scholarly book about to be published by my friend's husband, an anthropologist who appreciates tiki art).

And here's the final.

The first few pieces of this also were welded with an oxy-acetelyne torch, but I finished it up with an electric welder (MIG).  Using a MIG welder seems a bit easier and faster, sort of like working with a very hot "glue gun."  Once again I found myself deviating somewhat from the drawing.  I'm pretty happy with the result, despite some imperfections.

So anyway, I bought a MIG welder and the tools I need to weld at home.  I'm stoked to start doing some repairs on some metal pieces I have that have broken welds, and I want to make some more art and eventually try my hand at some mid-century style shelves and chairs, and also play around some with another hobby of mine, old bicycles.  Stay tuned!

In other news, if you usually read this blog with Google Reader, HEADS UP!  You should know by now that sometimes Google giveth and Google taketh away.  And the Google master plan now calls for Google Reader to go away permanently at the end of June (2013).  So, I want to offer up a couple of ways to continue keeping up with Uncle Atom.

I will continue this blog, so you can always find me at www.uncleatom.com  or atomicuncle.blogspot.com.  If you are like me and you follow many other blogs, there are other blog readers which can import all your Google blog links, but I think you have to act pretty fast, i.e., before the end of June.  Two that I use are Reeder, and Feedly.

You can also follow me at:

Facebook

Twitter (@Uncle_Atom)

and now Instagram

I'm looking forward to working on some new and ongoing projects this summer, including the big dig/backyard patio; some welding ideas that I've got percolating; and probably some more projects, vintage finds, and maybe a road trip posting or two.

Hello from the Big Easy

I'm in New Orleans for a conference this week, and on my first day here yesterday I managed to do a little exploring along Magazine Street, home to a lot of antique and artsy shops. I spent a little time talking to the proprietor of a new vintage modern store called Loisel. Vic, the owner, previously was co-owner of Neophobia. Lots of great furniture and lighting and accessories there. All I left with, though, was this wooden tiki mug.

Mr. Modtomic has blogged before about the Magazine Antique Mall, but sadly I didn't see much in the way of mid century there, except for a lot of tiki mugs and glassware, but I thought the pricing on everything in that place was generally steep. Maybe there's been some vendor turnover since Mr. M was last there.

I tried to stop in at Peaches, another vintage mod store on Magazine Street, but the owner was making a delivery and it was locked up.  Looking through the window I could see some nice lamps, chairs, and tables.

I also found some LPs at a couple of other stops.

These two will be great for my record wall next Christmas - the Col. Sanders album must have been a KFC giveaway back in the 1960s, and this Brenda Lee album is one I hadn't seen. Saw lots of others too, but I don't want to haul a ton of things home on the plane, so I was kinda picky. My other purchases were these four LPs for $15 - I think the Honey West album alone made this a good deal.  I've never seen an episode of that show - I'll have to try and find it.

Sorry I don't have more pics, but I was hurrying to cover a lot of ground on foot (no rental car).

Don't forget, if you haven't already entered the Uncle's lamp and magazine rack giveaway, there's still time.

A few recent finds; a road trip to Hershey, and more

Man am I behind with my blog posts!  Yes, the Uncle has been busy, but that's a lame excuse, so let me try to catch you up a little.

I enjoyed my work-related trip to LA last month, but I had no rental car and very little free time during the day.  I did manage to visit one cool architectural salvage store - Olde Good Things - within walking distance of the LA Convention Center.  Some great old big heavy stuff there, from sculptures to furniture to weird stuff, and sadly I didn't have my good camera with me.  All I bought were a consonant and a vowel which I used to finish spelling out my daughter's name on her bedroom wall.  But, I learned they have a 100,000 square foot salvage warehouse near Wilkes Barre, PA, so I may be road-tripping up there for a visit some day.

Our group did get out our last night there - I persuaded the guys to attend the Lebowski Fest at the Cal Bowl bowling center.  Lots of great people there in costumes relating to one of my favorite movies, the Big Lebowski.  Unfortunately, I forgot my camera and my iPhone battery charger, so all I got was this one crappy photo.  If you're interested in the Lebowski costumes, just search for Lebowski Fest and you'll find tons.

Uncle Atom is in the back wearing an atomic bowling shirt and holding a bowling pin mug full o' white russian.  Mmm, mmm!  We had a blast but had to cut things short after bowling just two games because we all had early flights home the next day.

In my last post on the two new metal lawn chairs I'm restoring, I mentioned I would be posting about a road trip to pick up an oven.  Sorry I still don't have the pics to do that post, so please be patient.

However, I did make my annual pilgrimage to Hershey, PA, for the annual Antique Automobile Club of America Fall swap meet and show.

 I shot - photos of lots of great cars for sale and some really beautiful cars in the Saturday-only show field.  A couple of my favorites were a pair of Chrysler-produced station wagons, including this sweet 1961 with a rear-facing third seat in the back and lots of goodies inside.  Here are a few shots of other car interiors - hang with me, these are cool!

It's a shame that car companies don't give us beautiful interiors any more, but thankfully there are some old beauties that have been preserved for us to ooooh and ahhhh at!

No one would ever use this infant's car seat/launch pad today, but isn't it cool that someone preserved this?  It even matches the interior!

 Here's a link to the rest of my Hershey pics.

I thought I should also do an update on some recent finds, so here we go:

Tiki mug - my collection is doing well, I'm up to 7 different tiki mugs now.

Pair of starburst juice glasses - these are etched, I wish I had found more than two!

A set of eight "old fashioned" glasses @ 50 cents each!

They fit perfectly in our rolling bar - now I need to find three matching shot glasses to fill in the open spaces in the bar.  Yup, I know I haven't shown you all that bar yet.  I'll make that a future post.

Finally, here's a sampling of some great LPs I've found recently - love the cover art on old LPs.  You can pick these up for a song - haha - and they look great hanging on the wall.

I"ve been looking for this Green Hornet / Al Hirt album cover forever, and I scored this cheap even though there were a handful of big LP buyers hovering all over the flea market that day.

Well, that's all for now, have a good week!

Some of today's flea market finds

I had a pretty good day at the monthly Civitan flea market in Arlington today. This time I didn't find any chairs, but I did find a couple more items for the screened tiki porch, a couple of radios, and one or two other goodies.  I won't bore ya with everything I picked up (I need some fodder for future posts!), but here's some of what came home in the Volvo:

Since I usually get there early, when some vendors are still unloading, I thought I'd give you a little taste of what I enjoy so much about an early start - peeking into the car- and truck-loads and trying to be the first to spot something too good not to wait for.  So, here's a shot of my car - see anything in there besides my drycleaning?

How about this:

Maybe this is a little easier:

Any guesses?  It's pretty easy to see that I fed my wrought iron fix a bit more today.

I've seen these planter stands before and always liked them, but this was the first one that wasn't over priced or in rotten shape ($10).

And this is another record storage stand ($15).  I like the details on this.

One of the legs is bent a little so it wobbles, but I think I can fix that, and then I'll give it some paint to freshen it up.

 Too bad it's just a little too tall and not quite wide enough or sturdy enough for our record player.

So, what else was in the back of the wagon?

Well, there was this very cool spherical, space-age Weltron AM/FM 8-track player, and it works! At least, the AM/FM works, and the seller said the 8-track player works, I just haven't tested it yet.

It's dusty, it has a few scuffs and one missing slider knob, but the radio really cranks the tunes, and it looks awesome.  Not a bad buy for $10.

That's only one of two radios I picked up.  This other one was a must have when I spotted it.

It was right on the edge of being too expensive, but for $25, I figured it was still a good buy, especially in this great color.

So, what was lurking in those bags?

Well, the canvas bag was holding about 20 of these U.S. Camera magazines from the early 1950s.  For $10, I got the whole lot, and no extra charge for the musty old magazine smell!  Sid Caesar and Imogene Coca would call this a spectacular deal.

And here's a first - who ever heard of a photography magazine with fiction stories inside?  This one seems to be about a photographer's adventure.

Now if you're mid century eyesight is good, you probably spotted a lamp fixture in that one plastic bag.  You did, right?

Yep, you sure did.  Pretty cool, huh?  Oh, you'd like to see the front too?  OK.

With this purchase, I know that I am on the verge - or precipice - of becoming a TV lamp collector.  I simply could not pass up this zebra for $20.  She Who Must Be Obeyed was not as thrilled as I was with this, so I will have to keep it somewhere eight feet below the first floor of this house.

But wait, there was something black in that plastic bag.  Indeed there was.

Any guesses?

If you said a vintage plastic kid's Zorro hat for $7, you nailed it!

Just one small crease in this, and that's not bad for something I'm guessing is about 50 years old.  I'm not sure, but I may have had one of these as a youngster.  Before I became a Batman fan and then an aspiring Secret Agent, I was a western adventure fan, and the top dude when I was 4 or 5 was Zorro!  

Swish swish swish!!! If you were a bad guy, you knew you were darn lucky to have a Z carved into your shirt but not your chest.

OK, so I mentioned a couple of pickups for the tiki-themed screen porch...

Last year I picked up a small toucan that looks great inside our cat birdcage, and today I picked up his mama.  So far she's pretty ambivalent about her boy's predicament.

I actually got this birdie on my second trip to the flea later in the morning.  I was at home here working on a brick paver project (nope, still no gas tank for the Comet project - darn you ebay seller!) and I needed a break from the heat.  I thought why not go back and see if I missed anything.  And what do you know, I did miss some stuff, including the toucan. I guess it was fate that led me back.

Another second trip pickup was this native mask.  Got a bit of a snarl, doesn't he?

Overall, it was a pretty good day.  Anyone else pick up anything good?