Today I'm working on a top for my table... I've been working on a top for this table for more than eleven years. When the table first entered my life, it was in very sorry shape. The top was badly worn with peeling paint. It was clear too, from its many dints and bangs, that it had seen some hard times, but I liked its lines. I was sure, it could still be beautiful and functional...so I started to work.
The first thing I did was to sand the top to remove the peeling paint. There was nothing I could do about the dints and bangs, so I let them be. Anyway it felt good to reinforce the idea that things didn't have to be machine made perfect to be beautiful... After all I've been banged and scared and, and, and...too... so I wasn't machine made perfect either...
The next step was to coat the legs and top with fresh paint. I chose black as my base color. It would provide an appropriate background for a picture of dark brown hands making a drum, which I glued down as a centerpiece. To reinforce the "primitive" feel of the picture, I did a zig-zag design in gold paint around the edge of the table. The design work done, I needed to make it functional.
I needed a surface I could work on... This is where I ran into difficulties. I wanted something to go on top of the paint and picture which would give a hard, durable surface, without impairing the visibility of the design. Water based Varathane seemed like my best option, so I put down layer after layer after layer... I started with a gloss exterior, but this wasn't hard enough, so I sanded this down and started fresh with gloss interior... This gave a nice, mirror like finish, but seemed to scratch if I so much as looked at it. I downgraded to a semi-gloss which wasn't quite so prone to show scratches. It still scratched badly, but I didn't know what else to do. I considered covering the whole top with glass. This I felt was too expensive, too heavy, too prone to breakage and intolerant of temperature change so I couldn't rest anything hot there. Plexiglass wasn't quite as heavy, but it wasn't as clear either and the other difficulties remained. Consequently I discarded both of these as possibilities.
Unable to find a solution which improved on the semi-gloss Varathane I'd used, I decided to leave the top as it was and use a smaller Masonite piece with soft felt feet, to cover a little less than half the table. This piece was small enough to leave my design visible and although it was also black, it was more rough and ready and not as smooth, so it didn't show scratches so badly... When I needed a functional work space, I did what I needed to do on this piece. However, it was less than half a table top and often I found I really needed a larger surface. I needed the whole table top as a functional work space... What could I do???
After eleven years it was clear that my use for a beautiful looking table was less than my need for a functional work space. As a result, I decided what I wanted to do was to create something similar to the half-sized piece I'd done, but which would cover the whole table. I wanted a larger piece which could be easily removed for the few occasions when the original design could be displayed and something less durable, but beautiful would be appropriate. However, I wasn't that pleased with the half sized piece I'd done, I wanted to try something different...
After a lot of thought I decided a cork surface would look nice, not show scratches, be washable and not be sensitive to heat. I got two pieces of cork which when joined together would cover the entire top of the table. Joining them wasn't super easy, but with some burlap, some ribbon, some paint, some glue and a lot of ingenuity I managed something acceptable. I'd originally thought I'd coat this too with the water based Varathane, so I used this on the back to test it. NOT GOOD! It was too shiny and destroyed the look of the cork, However, as I still needed something to protect the surface and make it easy to wash, I decided to try oiling the "good" side instead of using the Varathane. It was a very different surface to oil. I needed to use much more oil than I have with wood and it was very difficult to buff, but in the end I managed to get rid of the excess oil and I had a washable surface which still looked like cork. To keep the cork firmly in place, I used an additional, separate layer of rubber-like fabric on top of the table under the cork... At last I had a full sized top for my table!
It was OK, but not great. Even after a year the cork didn't lie really flat. With the rubber underneath it didn't slide around, but a glass set on it was very prone to tip. It was clear, I needed to add another flatter layer to which the cork could be glued. I thought of Masonite, but this would be quite heavy and as the table has rounded corners I'd have to get help cutting it. This was going to be difficult...
However, I realized I have LOTS of cardboard. It's light weight and I can cut it to shape myself, so I decided to use this as my base. Today I started working on this new layer. On top of the cardboard base, I'll add some layers of paper mâché. I've done other smaller pieces with similar materials and have ended up with something surprisingly hard and quite flat. For the final layer of paper mâché I plan to use paper from gardening and seed catalogues whose pictures give wonderful color which I can augment with some paint, to create an interesting abstract. I hope... To protect it, I've just discovered a spray for artwork which looks like it will clearly show the colors of my design, but be washable too, without adding any extra shine. I can use either this or a satin Varathane. Right now I'm leaving this choice open. I'll see how I feel when I finish the paper mâché work... In any case, once this paper mâché/cardboard layer has been glued to the cork, the cork should lie flat and I hope to have three options for my table: the original design when a fragile surface is acceptable and for a true working surface I should be able to use either the abstract paper mâché design for times when a hard working surface is needed or the cork if a softer one will do... I hope so, but we'll have to wait to see... Maybe future modifications or amendments will still be required...
An Update: When I started, I thought I would use pictures from seed catalogues for the paper mâché work and I started doing it this way, but ended up doing something MUCH more interesting using old engagement calendars. However, this NEVER made it to my table top... You can see it on my 7th post about my paper mache art...
For several years I made do with the cork top I'd made, but I wasn't really satisfied with it even though it did eventually lie down flat. At some point, I no longer remember when, I decided to try the cork top without the rubber fabric underneath... WELL.. a surprise was in store for me... The rubber had permanently etched the Varathane, so my table no longer had a mirror like finish. I was upset at first and tried to smooth it out a little with some very fine sandpaper... It looked better after this, so I've left it this way. Then in July of 2023, when I was evicted from my old apartment (pursuant to a court order against my landlord for his lack of building repair and maintenance) and moved to my new one (which is SO MUCH nicer) I decided the nicer space really required the design to show, so I removed the cork top entirely, added a black rubber cutting mat (which is VERY useful for doing my art projects) to the half of the table I use most and left the other half open so the design of the hands making the drum is clearly visible... and I'm now content with the resulting finish on the Varathane. It works just FINE!!! Getting here though, has certainly been a LONG process with a winding, twisting trail full of ups and downs.
So often I find, beginnings are just a place from which to start and are not what is really meant to BE... Creative paths seem to seldom have straight lines; leading directly from conceptual idea to finished product. Frequently they are winding, twisting, curving trails; which once embarked on, take me in surprising, unexpected directions...