As mentioned in the last post, the 3D printer helped with a recent crafty project I created for the foyer/great room. I spent a few hours scouring various websites trying to find a starburst-style mirror that was actually a mirror and not just a 10 inch reflective surface surrounded by a bunch of bits and bobs. I failed. So then I thought, why not make something?
I remembered that when I revamped the guest room, I removed the silly 12″ honeycomb blinds and replaced them with curtains. I still had the blinds sitting on a shelf in the downstairs room of the studio building. Why not reuse them, I thought? So I found a mirror I thought would work (an Umbra, Grey Hub 24” Round Wall Mirror With Rubber Frame to be exact), and just like that, a plan came together. First I took the blinds apart, and then using some clamps and Agent Smith’s workbench, I cut them into 4″ long segments. Clamps made it pretty easy to get good clean cuts with a sharp blade.
I then painted the short lengths of blinds using the same paint on the walls in the great room. This actually took quite a bit of time, as the material was porous and I had to make sure that the folds didn’t stick to one another as the paint dried.
After more than two coats of paint, I then sculpted the segments with a sharp blade by lopping off angled sections from one side, leaving the other side untouched. While busy painting and cutting, I also had to figure out how to attach all these sections of the old blinds to the mirror’s frame.
That’s when Agent Smith stepped in to assist. Using the 3D printer, he made me a dozen or so strips with short, thin mini-walls a quarter-inch apart. The second image below shows a full print of 8 strips. Then I glued the strips to the frame of the mirror using a good silicone adhesive.
Once the glue cured, I slid the painted blind segments over the little flappy-walls with the straight edge ending flush against the frame of the mirror. Once I had things arranged to my liking, I glued the painted blind bits in place.
It still needed something though. I’d been using a bunch of wooden skewers, the kind used for cooking, when painting long strips of things since you can manipulate the material without getting paint all over your hands. They’re great for working with glues for the same reason. When looking at some of the skewers that were partly covered in paint, I realized that they would be a nice finishing touch, so I painted a bunch more, and once dry, I cut them to varying lengths and glued them between some of the blind cells.
The end result is just as I envisioned: a useful foyer mirror with a bit of pizazz. I’m pretty proud of my handiwork.
