Today I spent most of the day fighting with wet paint not drying on the carousel cat I've been working on. I painted an area yesterday, and today it was still wet, in spite of being left in a 90 degree room for an hour last night. The ambient temperature is about 64 1/2 degrees, and One Shot Lettering Enamel doesn't like to dry if it's under 65. Which means...major frustration.
I tried anyway today to get some work done, but when I put black next to pale blue they feathered together at the edge, no good. You just can't let wet paint touch a different wet color - they run almost every time. Nothing I can do but wait, only I need to get this job done because another is in queue, and I doubt they'll be ok with why I have to make them wait (it's a background wall for the Gene Winfield exhibit for Autorama, not a job that can be put on hold, really, since the shows are coming up soon). No pressure or anything, noooo. Gah!
Both jobs were scheduled for me to do in October, and both were put back by both clients, causing this current dilema of mine. I can't do both at the same time, and I contracted to do both. I'm a bit screwed here, but I hope to be able to get the cat done and have enough time to do the exhibit wall in a timely fashion so they're happy with the delivery time. No idea as of yet when they *really* need it to be done, I'm hoping I can finish it the last week of November.
Anyway, back to the carousel cat and air temperature problem:
We decided to put the carousel cat into the drying room at 150F and cooling, hopefully it won't cool to 70F for a few hours, allowing the paint to harden enough I can sand where I need to, and wipe off over it tomorrow when I retouch, and when I paint next to those areas. I probably should have just gone home today and waited four or more days for the paint to dry and gone back, only I can't wait, the other job won't wait. Rock and a hard place, but forcing it is just creating more problems and more work. I just dont' know. I'm frustrated, and tired. I hope the oven treatment works and tomorrow goes more smoothly. We'll see I guess.
Some days are better than others. This wasn't one of them, paint wise. Happens. Meh.
Where to start? Winters have usually been my rest period since I usually don't get a lot of work then. There aren't any art fairs, or car shows, not a lot of weddings, it's just basically an historically slow period for me. Not this winter! I was asked to do some restoration lettering and striping at The Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village in Dearborn Michigan on a tender tank that used to be owned by Henry Ford. What's a tender tank you ask? I didn't know what one was, either, until it was explained to me. It's the train car right behind the locomotive that holds water. In this case, 18,000 gallons of water. Apparently Henry Ford used to like to drive a real, full sized train around for fun. Now it's at the museum and after ten years of restoration work, it was ready to have the finishing touches put on it. I was lucky enough to have been in the right place at the right time, as well as having the necessary skills, to be asked to do this incredible job:...
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