Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
Do scald like molten lead."
-William Shakespeare, King Lear, IV, vii, 46-48
Earlier this month, I mentioned being hard at work on my anniversary gift to Niki. Well, I'm happy to say it's finally complete . . . and just in time!
A little over a year ago, we were lucky enough to pick up a slightly damaged floor-model table at The Brick for $25 (regular price: $499). It was pretty dinged up in places and missing a few assembly screws, but we already had four chairs and the price was definitely right.
More importantly, it was the perfect shape and size for me to begin working on an idea I'd had for some time: add a wooden Lazy Susan from IKEA and paint it all to look like the original 45 rpm record of our wedding song, Ring Of Fire by Johnny Cash.
Earlier this year I painted the chairs black, but once I'd done that it quickly became apparent (so many bumped arms . . .) that we needed something light underneath to contrast against them. After seeing how spiffy King Bill Compton's looked under his table in the last season of True Blood, we grabbed a faux-fur zebra print rug from JYSK to do the job.
It complemented the black chairs, but something was still missing, so once I'd painted the table to match and replaced the missing screws, I added seat cushions to the chairs with some red velvet fabric. Then, to take it a step beyond and bring it all together, I painted an actual "ring of fire" around the side of the table to complete the effect.
The greatest challenge was the Lazy Susan. The size and placement of both the lettering and the centre hole had to be just right or the "label" would look lop-sided while spinning, or worse, just plain bad even when sitting still. I painted a "spindle adapter" in the enlarged centre hole to complete the illusion of a playing record and voilà!The original 45 rpm record label:
The finished Lazy Susan:
But what's a ring, even a ring of fire, without a box to present it in? A little paint on an old cardboard box, some leftover foam cushioning, fabric and vinyl and it all came together perfectly!
And of course, it wouldn't be Halloween without a good scare . . . from beyond the grave!
Happy Halloween everyone! And a very Happy 4th Anniversary to my wife, my love, my muse. I love you, Niki!-DE
holy crap Darryl thats fucking amazing! you rock
ReplyDeletei would look to book an appointment to see the table in person :)
xox
Carly
Thanks Carly!
ReplyDeleteI think an appointment could be arranged . . . plus I can give you a sneak peek at a few other works in progress!
D.