Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The Tale of Dragon Tale




Dragon Tale is on my studio work table awaiting repair.  She used to look like this:


Initially the wheels were attached with Steel Stick, a wonderful putty-like kind of epoxy.  It worked great for the back wheels, but the front set were trickier and it didn't hold.  I had ordered the set of four faucet handles, which I then rusted. Three of them were the same size, with one slightly larger, the imbalance making it wobbly and harder to attach.  I then tried a kind of super epoxy I had on hand, used for marine repairs that cures underwater.  Hardly necessary, but it just seemed stronger than the usual.  It only worked for a few days.

Fortunately I had learned about J-B Kwik cold weld epoxy and ordered some.  I just have to sandpaper off the other stuff and then give it a try and hope it works.  The upside is this does give me a chance to try the larger wheel facing the back rather than the front and see if I like the angle better that way.

I had initially said:"Dragon Tale makes use of a container for slides. We artists who remember the days of having to take slide photographs of our work, look at it on light boxes and through magnifying loops, and submit slides to enter exhibits are truly dragons. .  This dragon has tales to tell and steadfastly guards that history."  The need for persistent repair and change is also part of this dragon's history. Many times work is unsatisfactory to an artist and needs to be redone again and again;  many times an artist is pleased with work that doesn't sell or isn't juried in. The dragon just keeps rolling along regardless, repairing or changing as necessary.  It's the nature of the beast...











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