Attached are pictures of a recent "prized" project. The movers
dropped this "limited edition" art work. It's a table base and
the shipper was claiming $5,000 plus to find and replace it. We
found some similar items at places like Universal Studios in their
"endangered species store" that went up to $7,500!
The insurer had difficulty in even getting this from the mover.
We spent a couple months of phone calls and e-mails to get the
mover to ship it to us from their Miami warehouse. When it
arrived I see why they had a dozen excuses on why they couldn't
"find it" but had it "somewhere".
It was so bad they were embarrassed. There were also some repairs
done to it that were so terrible it looked like a Van Gogh self
portrait. They either tried themselves or where stuck trying to
get it from another repair firm. Originally this was "lost" and
I'm thinking they tried to get it fixed and when they couldn't
they said it was lost but somehow the shipper was notified it was
broken. I think they said the driver or one of the managers told
them.
It posed an unusual problem in that it is a resin cast unit then
carved. I didn't want to use regular adhesives or epoxies. From
my teenage years I remembered "dope", no, not THAT! It was a glue
I used in model building that dissolved the plastic resins and
actually fused the plastic parts together so the molecules were
actually intertwined in their "strings" and it was ALMOST as if
one continuous piece again. We spent a little time researching
and finally found a glue that did that. (I'll have to get back in
the shop and find the container to give the name, sorry). Anyway,
it worked almost like epoxy too as we could use it for gap filling
and build up to shape and carve.
Two of my techs AND my office manager spent about an hour sorting
and putting together the "puzzle". Then over the next month one
tech joined each piece together and let these sub assemblies sit a
day while he worked on other things. Then he assembled the sub
assemblies in the same manner. When done, he did the fills and
builds. Afterward he used sandpaper, a dremel and some carving
tools to reshape and carve out the sculpture. It was then all
painted with black pre-cat (careful mask of eyes, teeth, tongue,
etc... , then top coated with a matte sheen post cat. The sheen
you see is really from the flash, it's not a gloss finish.
It wasn't as "profitable" as I like but then again, it was mostly
done with "free" time. All in all there's about 15 labor hours in
it. We charged $800.
The insurance company LOVES us and said they will be shipping us
collectible items like this from across the US when they happen
again in the future.
Next one will go a little quicker with what we learned on this
one.
John Polgar
Clearwater, FL
