Selecting the Doormat

The options

 

 

The favourites

 



Another Coat

Applying the First Coat of Paint

We applied our first coat of paint to the wood today. We spent a while carefully choosing tape which we trusted enough not to allow the paint to bleed through. After taping up the edges we applied the first coat with paintbrushes. For the next coat we are keen to use rollers as we believe this will give us a more even finish. In the meanwhile we will sand down the paint after this coat to ensure it is smooth.



Sewing the Cushions

I brought along my mother's sewing machine today and we sewed a couple of cushions- the lips and circular sandwich seem to be the easiest at this stage. We bought some rope to form the rib of the band cushion. At this stage the band cushion trial was quite unsuccessful as the hole left for the rope to be pushed through was ever-so-slightly too narrow, which meant the rope was only able to be pushed in about 10cm before becoming too difficult.

Test

With an almost-complete cushion, two sets of door handles and a strip of grass, we laid out all the parts to mock-up a first see-saw. Although it is hard to get a proper idea with the scrap-wood pivot at this stage, all seems to be going together nicely at the moment. Once we get a completed pivot we will be able to try it out properly without fear of the pivot falling over. Our cushions do need some serious plumping up, but I'm sure this will be fixed when we replace the stuffing with actual wool as opposed to a plastic bag.

Cutting Down the Astro Turf

We managed to get a good price for 3m of astro turf. Sewing together scrap pieces would have been too time consuming for us anyway. This bought piece we cut into three lengths, which will sit under each see-saw. The astro turf is a very interesting material for us to use, as it is an artificial interior expression of something associated with the exterior. Cutting it into strips also has made it look rather pristine and controlled. Hopefully the green of the fake grass will be an effective contrast to the white of the gallery, as well as providing further protection to the gallery floor. Possibly the rubber could be concealed by the fake grass, or we could cut into the grass to hold the rubber pieces in place. At this stage we are a little concerned about the fact that it could fray at the edges we have cut, and thus become quite messy. When we have the time we will need to make sure that we sew down the sides to hold everything in place.

Cutting out the Patterns