Busy, busy, busy.

Yesterday, I started building a new work table for the back yard, based on old farm kitchen tables that I’d seen at antique places. Simple, sturdy construction. I would have finished it yesterday but I ran out of screws halfway through putting the top on.

Not to worry: ran out to Home Depot this morning, picked up some super cool weather-proof screws and actually replaced those I put in yesterday, then finished the table. Here it is in situ, waiting to start its first project:

It’s rather clean looking, if I do say so myself.

First project: patching the omphalic bowl. You see the bowl on the table. You also see a small piece of plywood and a pane of glass.

The idea was that I would put alumnium foil on the bottom of the bowl to keep the epoxy from running all the way through and out the bottom. The problem is that the bottom of the bowl is not flat, but concave.

Solution? A pile of sand on the plywood:

That way, the foil will be pressed up against the bottom of the bowl. That too is why I had the piece of plywood there.

Here are my tools assembled:

The two cans of JC-11 marine epoxy component; plastic spoons for scooping equal portions of the epoxy; spreaders for mixing and spreading the goop; a pane of glass for the mixing. Just at the edge of the photo is a can of denatured alcohol for cleaning.

Here’s the bowl half patched, or rather, completely patched and half cleaned. I was a little concerned when the whole bottom of the bowl looked like the goopy mess on the right. But I began wiping with paper towels soaked in denatured alcohol, and eventually I ended up with:

This is only the first application of epoxy. It will cure overnight, and tomorrow afternoon I will apply a second coat.

I am thinking that I could gold leaf the epoxy: a gleaming hieroglyphic swirling around a dark pool, flowing like lava out through the center of the universe.