80, Front Door, part 11, (the last!). Leadlights, part two.

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In order to speed up the cutting of the pieces of glass for the borders, I set up the simple jig, seen in the above photo. It worked very simply and was able to produce very accurate cuts. When it came to the curved pieces, needed for the arc on the tops of the upper panels, the ruler was exchanged for the red bar shown. The difference in the curvature of the inner and outer radius's required was barely perceptible and the right hand side of the bar was filed to their average. The pieces only needed trimming to length and virtually no clean up of the edges was required, as I achieved an accuracy of about 0.2mm.

My soldering was far from perfect, but I was very happy with the results nonetheless. The joints looked very lumpy and obvious, but after completing the puttying and polishing, as seen on the left hand panel above, they became very inconspicuous.

The puttying was a horrible, messy job, but the results were speaking for themselves. I found that I had to wait a few days after doing the first side, before tackling the other. This was to allow the putty to harden sufficiently and prevent it from being forced back out.

Jumping back to the start of this part of the project, much deliberation was carried out when selecting the glass colours. In the above photo, I set up this mock up using pieces of glass that we already had. I felt that the overall look may turn out to be too dark and gaudy, so opted to source some paler shades for the lighter colours.

The almost completed entry!, only a bit of touching up of the paintwork on the glass beadings to be done.
As happy as I am with the finished product, with hindsight I regret the decision to lighten the colours. They looked very nice on the work bench, but when installed and with backlighting, to me they appear very wishy washy against the rondels and red borders. They are not actually as bad as they appear in this picture though, the best I have been able to take so far.

78, Front Door, part 9, Painting.

In preparation for the painting and to avoid trying to mask the stone around the complex shapes, I slipped sheets of 'greaseproof' paper between the frame and the limestone. The curved 'Ovolo' moulding, to trim the head was left off and painted before it was fitted.
A coat of primer was then applied, grey behind the darker colours and white for the remainder.

With all surfaces needing at least 3 topcoats, it was a long drawn out process. The intricacy of the detail and amount of cutting in meant that I was unable to use anything larger than artists brushes for most of the work.

Difficulty in neatly priming the door with it in situ had me remove it and it spent some considerable time on stools as the details were picked out.

Unforeseen and not noticed until the second glossy topcoat, was the machining marks in the timber. Prior to painting, the wood felt silky smooth and it seemed that minimal sanding was required. Much elbow grease was expended and a lot of sandpaper was clogged, trying to rectify the problem. The above photo was taken afterwards, the corrugations in the light green, closer to and within the frieze still bearing testament to my ignorance.

In an effort to simplify the painting, I had one trial of the use of masking tape. For this purpose I purchased the best quality tape available from the local 'Bunnings' store, but as expected, from all my previous experiences with the stuff, it was a waste of effort. Despite the most meticulous care in positioning it and ensuring that the edges were firmly pressed down, much 'bleeding' still occurred. To increase the frustration, in a couple of spots, some of the underlying paint also lifted when the tape was removed. From then on, a steady, (of sorts!), hand was used for all the 'cutting in'.

The finished product, it was a huge relief to complete the last brushstrokes!.
I am very happy with the result and are in 2 minds as to whether to highlight some more detail. I had intentions of colouring the rings on the columns red, but fear it may be too much. For now I'll just leave it as is until I have completed and installed the leadlights.
The colours used are; Deep Bronze Green, Deep Indian Red, Eau De Nil, (Light Green) and Eggshell, a Haymes colour.

77, Front Door, part 8, Modillions.

The 'Modillions', the carved brackets sitting on the capitals, supporting the 'Corona', ultimately proved to be one of the biggest sources of frustration on the project. I had left them till last, partly because they were in the 'too hard' basket and partly because they would need to be made to fit in the remaining gap.
Early in the piece, I had selected some bits of Jarrah, from which to shape them. I had cut the rough profile out on the bandsaw and had them sitting around in my way for some time, before final dimensions could be ascertained.

The plan was to emulate the foliage pattern on the originals on the 'Foynes' frame. It was quite pleasing to the eye and looked relatively easy to carve. As I was to learn, appearances can be deceiving.

I rounded up my old 'budget' set of carving chisels, which were scattered around the limestone cutting shed. The kids, before discovering computers, had been using them to shape some of my offcuts. Having been left in the open sided shed, they had grown a fair amount of surface rust, which took some work to remove, before they could be resharpened.
To say I was a bit disappointed with my initial results would be quite an understatement. After many hours of shaping and reshaping, the above picture shows the result. I could only describe it as looking like tongues, sitting on some 'pointy bits'!.
I conceded defeat and opted to get someone else, skilled in this field, to make them for me. Over the following week or so, many hours were then spent on the phone, talking to all my local contacts and clubs, attempting to find someone willing. My efforts proved futile, all the known woodcarvers in the area, bar one, were not interested in doing commission work, it was all only for hobby. The one exception, unfortunately, was on the verge of heading overseas. He was willing to assist on his return, but that was to be a couple of months away.
Much advice was also received, suggesting I search the demolition yards in an effort to locate "something suitable". This I felt would be a waste of time and didn't even bother, given the profile required and the need for them to be the correct size.
As the brackets were all that was needed to complete the frame, ready for painting, it was back to me to complete them. I was able to obtain some guidance from one of the more notable Geelong woodcarvers. His two main recommendations were; "Get some better carving timber" and "Get some better chisels"!, so these I done!.
I sourced a piece of Jelatong from which I cut the blanks and paid a visit to Carba-tec, where I parted with a couple of hundred dollars and departed with a small selection of Pfiel chisels!.

A decision was also made to individualise the carving with something a bit more recognisable. The obvious choice, given the motif on the door, was the Oak leaves. I shrank them to a suitable size and layered them sufficiently to fill the space. The inside of the cove, although lightly carved on the originals, I opted to leave plain, for reasons I'll mention in a later post!.

After much deliberation and consultation, I chose to follow on with the Oak theme and the relief carving on the sides contained a pair of acorns. More complex and detailed designs were toyed with, but I felt they would look too busy. Too much detail would be superfluous anyway, as it would tend to be flattened with the paint.

Completion of the Modillions took a quite a while to achieve. I had to force myself to find time to work on them, being rather lethargic after not being being able to farm this project out. It was a huge relief when they were done. Although being rather insignificant, they proved to be the most difficult part of the frame.
For extra insurance and piece of mind, I gave them a good soaking in some timber preservative, as Jelatong does not have a good durability rating.
With their placement, the colouring in could start!....