I thought I would stay with the same wood that I used for my table as I knew how it worked and what it would and wouldn't do. I decided to make two mirrors of differing sizes. This is what I came up with;
The one on top is called "El Flaco" (The Skinny) and the other one is called "Limpio" (Clean).
El Flaco is 150cm x 35cm and is intended to be a lean to mirror for someone to use to get dressed with or to put in their hall. It has a nice mahogany grain and is finished with a Linseed oil. This finish helps the frame stand up to knock and pumps much better than it would cope with nothing on it at all. It has a low gloss to it so it doesn't detract to much from the actual mirror. Here's a couple more pics;
As for "Limpio" I just wanted to make a plain no fuss mirror that would appeal to everyone so again using mahogany I selected a piece with a cross cut grain and made a much smaller mirror. This one is about 120x 40 and the frame has no routed edges or anything fancy about it. Again, it is finished with Linseed oil and this time I gave it a coat on Antique wax first, this helped make the finish much darker while increasing the frames durability. (I like this one alot)
The grain really gives this piece a great look, kind of anitiquey but very strong looking. And now time for what is clearly going to be a regular feature...............
Mistakes/Lessons
1) Routing is hard! When I was routing out the back of the mirror to lay the glass in I found that its really difficult to control the router. It has I mind of its own and could actually be the devil in a mechanical disguise.
2) Doing 90 degree joins instead of 45 degree joins saves a lot of time and alot of braincells.
3) You have to rub down any wood finished with Linseed oil regularly for the first week as it seeps out and leaves a sticky texture if you don't.
4) I need a staple gun to put nails in to hold the glass in place
5) Glass for a mirror is super expensive!
1 comment:
Keep up the good work.
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