Tea Candle Tower

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I got this idea from 'Isa of Gond' from the Hirst Arts message board. It was the Wednesday before Mother's Day and building something like this would be perfect for my wife. Unfortunately I didn't have the turret mold yet - it was (luckily) already in the mail after I happened to order that one the day before. Bruce, holding true to the previous excellent shipment times, got the molds here on Thursday. Starting at 5:30PM I made the first casting of the mold. I cranked up the dehumidifier and turned on the oscillating fan to try to speed along the drying process. Finally around Midnight I had all of the castings I needed (8) to build the candle holder. I needed eight castings since I wanted a half-height row and you only get one section per casting. By 1:30AM on Friday I had everything glued together. With fan and humidifier still humming I went off to bed.

The next day was quite busy so I didn't get a chance to get to the tower until about 11:30PM. A base coat of gray and black was applied, dried in front of the fan, and then covered with a drybrush coat. After a few more minutes of drying a light coat of gray was applied and painting was done around 1:00AM. A piece of felt was glued to the bottom of the tower to prevent scratching of furniture.

Saturday morning and all that was left was to give it a clear coat of sealant. Saturday was also a very busy day out of the house and we didn't get back home until about 1:00AM Sunday morning.

I didn't want to wait any longer to give the present so I ran down stairs, lit the candle, and presented the Tea Candle Tower to my wife. She loves it - thanks Isa for the idea!

Pictures

There wasn't much time to take pictures of the assembly process, but it was pretty straight forward.

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