Tags
creating, fountain, gardening, god, gorilla glue, Kokopelli, legend, repurposing, restoration, storytelling, writing, yard
I found this fountain at a yard sale last summer. I paid $5 for it. Why?
I was in the middle of endless reading and research for a masters course/novel project and I daydreamed about having nothing better to do with my time than to fix-up something that had been forgotten.
Plus Kokopelli has his way of charming a lady.
One year later, my Season of Slow arrived.
Kokopelli wasn’t decapitated when I bought him. The gentleman at the yard sale knocked his head off in the process of ‘helping’ me carry the fountain to the car. I thought this to be a rather humourous and ironic way to begin restoring the thing!
You’ll soon realize I’m not an expert in refurbishing or re-purposing. I spent weeks wondering about the best method for re-gluing Kokopelli’s head back onto his shoulders. I needed something strong. I needed something that would bond to the plaster/ceramic/mysterious material from which he was made. I needed something suitable for outdoors. Let me tell you, I felt alone and incompetent in this quest. And not a single person from Canadian Tire, Michaels, or Northwest Landscapers offered any knowledgeable advice. In the end, I took my chances and Gorilla Glue Epoxy worked wonders. It dries clear, tight, and with amazing strength (no, I’m not getting paid for the endorsement).
One of the first steps was to clean and scrub and sand the flaking paint. A test of the pump showed (yay!) it worked, but…
I needed to seal a hole in the base of the pot. I used the cocking we had on-hand for our bath tub.
I sprayed the entire fountain with an outdoor metallic bronze, beginning with the bottom. You can buy the outdoor spray paints at Walmart, Michaels, etc for $9-$12. One spray can was sufficient for the two coats I needed and it was super quick and easy to cover all the oddly textured Styrofoam material on the fountain.
For the places where significant chunks were missing, I used Gorilla Glue Original. I cheated, not knowing what else to do. Gorilla Glue Original is also super strong like the Epoxy, but the Original expands 4x making it ideal to fill in those gaping holes. Plus it dries more slowly, allowing you to shape or form it a little. If you know a proper way to fix the problem shown in the picture above, I’d like to hear it.
I removed the ugly Styrofoam blob on the house and added some colour.
Other than the one can of bronze metallic outdoor spray, I used outdoor paints found in the clay pot section at Michaels. I was fortunate that another customer overheard my questions to the Michaels employee as she was the one who directed me to these lovely paints in the perfect colours.
I welcome your thoughts, comments or questions.
P.S. Kokopelli and I spent a lot of time sharing secrets over the summer. Stayed tuned for news of a short story that sprang from our adventures together.
© Kelly Dycavinu, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Kelly Dycavinu with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.