Nature triumphs!

Nature always wins out.

I recently (in fact, today..!) came across  something special.  A forgotten custom design I was creating for one of our ZeroDots was rediscovered during a rearrangement of my studio. It was, at the time, an interesting idea gone very bad. I had spent about 12 hours working on the design, cuttting/applying masks and laying the silver leaf. When it came time to remove the masking film lots of silver came off along with the mask, fairly well ruining the whole thing. I could have started over but I was so disgusted by my failure, I just cursed and threw it on a shelf. Actually before doing so I did take some sandpaper to it in an attempt to give it a weathered, industrial look but the result was crap, really.

Fast forward to about 10 months later (in fact, today..!) and my rediscovery. In 10 months Nature had decided to take care of this ugly duckling which was (eventually) found piled behind another pile of unwanteds. It kissed the silver with a beautiful patina that brought the design to life. Beautiful rust tones, merging into steel blues sliding into bright yellows. I absolutely love the happy result of my neglect. Couldn’t have done nearly as well myself! I am planning to finish it with similarly weathered hardware and maybe do a few rough passes with a chain or hammer to give it a nice industrial finish.

If some of the motifs look familiar, I borrowed rather heavily from the Chanin Building, an Art Deco marvel, in New York City.

Top view (click to enlarge).