Coffee Table Mk 2

This table came from my grandmother, it was given to me probably 40 years ago, i've dragged it around the country never really figuring how to use it properly, it was originally table height but the only thing you could do was to put it in the corner of a room with a pot plant on it - not really my style, but you know how one clings on to things that were precious to others 😥. 

A couple of months ago I decided to saw the legs down to make it coffee table height, this worked fine though I still ended up sticking it in the corner of a room. 

The acquisition of the pyrography machine & detail sander spurred me on to turn the table into a piece of art.

Its hexagonal shape made it fairly easy to measure out shapes and segment. 

I pencilled the detail in then burnt over the designs with the pyrography machine.  I decided to leave some wood showing and paint the segments I wanted bright & colourful with a white undercoat.

I really enjoy the painting part of the whole process, just like 'colouring in' really.

Then it was just a case of re-burning some of the edges i'd slapped paint on, varnish it and "bob's yer uncle"!!!

Pyrography Poker

Once on a mission, I'm impatient and impulsive, and though this poker is excellent for wood without any sort of grain & perhaps a novice. It's not ideal for the deep grooves I wanted to achieve. 

Antex Craft - Pyro Master

Another reason it wasn't the best buy for me is that I want to change tips constantly and the instructions say to leave it to cool down between changes. I think this is something to do with the thread on the tips that screw into the hot end of the poker. Maybe the copper tip & the steel end cool at different temperatures...I did find that the tip loosened as the gadget heated up so I was constantly having to use pliers to tighten it. Which kinda contradicts the instructions not to change tips while hot! 

I also have slightly bent my favourite tip!

So, i'm saving up for something like this, it has 2 pens and apparently there are ways to make your own tips.

Eleoption 220V 50W Gourd Wood Crafts Tool Kit Multifunction Laser Pyrography Machine

Hall Table

A friend gave me an old hall table, it had been living in a shed for about four years. Time to upcycle again.

Trying to remove the 'pretend' leather top was pretty grim. After much faffing about with knives, sanders and copious swearing. I Google'd for a solution,

A STEAM IRON

What a dream,,. it slid off the top with ease, the iron was a bit stained but cleaned up and was good for it's original purpose. 

If I had to do this again i'd put a damp cloth between 

the iron and the table top.

After drawing the design on the top with pencil, rulers and various sized plates. I burnt grooves into the patterns. The top of the table was originally stained dark so I had to paint a white-ish undercoat.

I then painted the patterns and motif with Acrylic paint, tidied up the burned grooves with my pyrography machine, then slapped some varnish on.

The wording on the top is "The good thing about tables is they turn" which, after i'd burnt the wording in I realised that this table could never turn....😏

Coffee Table Mk 1

So, this old utility coffee table was destined to go to the tip, I decided that rather than just dump it I could have a play, i'd seen some furniture on Pinterest by a company called 'Sticks', very colourful & fun, so thought i'd give it a try.

Firstly, I had to buy a sander, I chose a little Black & Decker Detail Sander and bought it from Amazon. I also had to buy a electric Pyrography Poker so I went for one of the cheapest, Antex Craft - Pyro Master  , a decision I am beginning to regret...but more about that in a later post when I do a review.

After lightly sanding the top of the table, I used plates & rulers to mark our boundaries for the different sections of the design, drew a few pictures, including a couple of my two dogs, Tilly the terrier & Bronwyn the collie, then went over the pencil lines with the hot poker. I then just filled in the outlines with acrylic paint & then varnished it.
I love it, probably because it's the first thing I did...