Since it’s been raining all day and I’m cooped up inside (except when I’m outside experiencing this delicious weather), I decided to finally sit down and work on an art project.
I’ve been experimenting with placement of mirrors up here because they represent interesting ways of doing art while literally blending in with the environment, being as how they reflect it.
A few weeks ago, a specific project came to mind and I’ve been collecting supplies: 300 3 inch by 3 inch mirror tiles, baling wire, epoxy cement, and pivot ring clasps.
The idea was to epoxy together 2 mirror tiles back-to-back, with a straight length of baling wire between them, bent into hooks at the ends.
Then connect the double sided mirror tiles together into a hanging chain, with each tile able to spin independently with the breeze.
I was of course imagining the effect of several dozen of these long strings of mirrors hanging in our forest or bunched in various ways to simulate waterfalls, and so on and so forth.
So the object today was to make a string of 10 double sided mirror tiles.
This presented a couple of production challenges, for instance, baling wire comes in rolls and would need to be straightened out, then there was the need to add shims to even out the space inside the back to back mirror tiles so they lay flat when pressed back-to-back.
Because this was my first attempt, it took over an hour to get the wire cut to the right size, straightened out, hooks curled at the end, and flat round wire shims made.
When all the wire was cut and straightened, the wire and tiles were set up on the coffee table ready to have the epoxy applied, then the wire assembled and and the tiles pressed together. Everything needed to be set up and ready at hand because the epoxy set time is 30 minutes.
Ugh. I really hate working with epoxy. It is impossible to keep from getting on one’s hands and smeared on everything. Mental note to self: get some boxes of surgical gloves for next time.
When the race against the setting epoxy was done, I had 10 double sided mirror tiles with coffee cups sitting on them to keep them pressed together and a bit of a mess to clean up.
When the epoxy had cured enough for them to be handled, I hooked them together.
Okay. That was a crap ton of work.
Also, the finished chain of 10 mirrors weighs about 6 or 8 pounds, good thing the baling wire is stout and the ring pivots heavy duty.
In conclusion, this was a wildly successful prototype. I’ve already come up with an idea for a little wood and nail “loom” to build to make the measuring, straightening and hook making of the bailing wire easier next time.
All systems go. We’ll let the epoxy cure for 24 hours and if the wind and rain dies down, hang it up and put it through its paces.
Cabin on a hill 