Coral sketch

Coral chair making of

I finally got the inspiration to continue my masking tape experiments thanks to a material course we had in school. I also had a broken chair in my living room waiting for me to fix it so I thought this was the perfect chance to make it into a whole new object. The chair and the costume are something I wish to get properly photographed in the near future but in the mean time I'll present you the making of pictures.

This is the original chair.

And this is what I brougth to our final exhibition.

I think I spent about 20 hours with this chair project and the coral vest. It took a lot less time than I thought it would. Most of the time I was rolling and painting tape. It was actually quite fun and if I had more time I'd make more of it. Here are some pictures of the process.

First I sanded the whole thing and gave it a rough look. I also shred the fabric a bit around the edges of the seat. After sanding I gave it a very light wash of gray paint and varnish. Then glued a shreaded net to make a base for the tape corals.

Dremel is my new favorite tool. I used a set of small grinding tools to carve holes and cuts on the chair. Added some dark patina and and other layer of grey paint. Gave it a light sanding after that.

Then I spent couple of days just rolling the tape. I think I used at least two rolls for these. So that's about 100 m of tape. Should have had even more variation with the sizes. Making the smallest pieces took a lot of time but the bigger rolls don't really look that good in close up.

Painting these things proved to be a challenge. I didn't have access to the perfect shade of spray so I had to sink all of the pieces into paint in order to get the color inside the tubes. After a day of  drying I sprayed a thin coat of white to make highlights.

Finally I glued the stuff on the chair. Should have had more of it and in much smaller scale to get the look I really wanted. But as we all know there are only 24 hours in a day.

Stay tuned for the photoshoot!