Warning: Contains Graphic Assemblage Talk.
Today I'm suffering in Art Studio Mayhem because my assemblage keeps falling apart. People actually think assemblage artists just throw junk together without proper thought. That's not really the case. Sometimes sculptures are years in the making until we find just the right parts. I for one had a vision of Bottle Girl Z before she was Bottle Girl Z. This vision occurred from the time I found her head.
Finding the Head
She was in a box of trash at a flea market I went to. I mean at first glance I knew she was vintage, but her one leg had been eaten and marred up by a dog and therefore her whole self just discarded into the trash. I thought such an awful fate for a pretty face. Not to mention she would clog up a landfill and rot forever. That is when I knew just what to do. I took her home and soon I was sounding like a queen from King Arthur Days, "Off with her head..."
Decapitation Emancipation
I put her one leg and arms in a parts container, and had her cute little head sitting in my pile of things staring at me. Now I just needed the proper body.
A Year Later
Out of the blue, someone I used to work for gave me a box of old super cool vintage amber glass bottles. Now generally speaking at first I wondered what on earth would I do with them? He knows I sell things on Etsy, so he thought I could make some cake. Truth be told, there's not a lot of money in old bottles. These were sitting in his wife's mom's attic and looked like old apothecary bottles. As I dug through, I thought, Eureka! I found a bottle and filled it with special parts unknown, to make her innards and veins. I dropped in a heart and made her whole again. I found her original arms and trimmed them up and tried to glue them onto the sides.
Glue Mayhem
No such luck.Gluing plastic to glass is a no-no. I tried everything from super glue to E6000, which has held most things in my home together quite successfully. It wasn't happening, the arms would fall off and the glass itself is somewhat curved. Making it quite impossible for me unless I could get it within a millimeter by trimming it at just the proper angle but I'm not geometrical whiz so that's not happening. I figured I'd find a workaround.
I then mounted her arms onto some metal brackets, and tried to glue the metal to the glass. Sheesh. Ain't happening. I literally watched as her arm slid down, down, down. Now she's a bit off center. The one bracket actually spun around on me and half way mounted to the glass. The glue was running off the glass and down the sides and then I made the mistake of trying to grab it. Enter the finger stuck to glass stuck to bracket mayhem.
Punished
Bottle Girl Z was plucking my last nerve. I had her sitting around for awhile until I could find a glue that actually HELD. I took her to work with me and thought maybe I'd find something around my husband's shop to hold her together. Unfortunately the liquid nails was not clear so that was out. No sooner than I grimaced hubby hands me the tiniest tube of "Super Glue". Not a well known brand, not Krazy Glue, but a small tube none the less. I just shook my head and said "Ain't Gonna Happen."
Husband Gloats
Two seconds later my husband is scraping the old glue off the metal bracket, dropping two magic drops on each bracket and has her back together. I was in shock. It held! (Just to be cunning, I then found some old ticket memorabilia and made a paper crutch just in case the thing would try to fall off later. Consider this my quality assurance test!)
I'm happy to say Bottle Girl Z is whole again, but the mayhem with glue has made her a darn mess. I now have to sand her messed up glue down off the glass with fine grit sandpaper, and coat her with a light brushing of clear coat to make her shiny after I rough her all up. Poor Bottle Girl Z, she's been though hell and back and cheated death more than once. After hours working on Bottle Girl Z she will eventually end up on someone's desk, in their home, or in a case at a museum and somewhere there I will be smiling knowing she's found her forever home.
Update: Find glue here.
☻
More daily dilemmas will be posted here:
If you think that's bad, watch me trying to :
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