For a long time I've wanted to have one of those sunburst mirrors, I know it's been a while since they were trendy, but however I still wanted to have one. I love big mirrors, and so I didn't want to buy one of the smaller affordable ones! NOW WAIT: I do not want to post or reblog the DIY tutorials on how to make these with wood shims, I offer an alternative for a specific reason, that I will tell you in just about a moment, so please be patient and read on!
I researched the net, and found so many wonderful DIY tutorials, and most of them were those made of wood shims. Here's a few lovely examples that I really liked:
Now that all sounded so simple, buy the shims, maybe even in 2 different sizes, glue them together, make a huge ring of them, paint in a nice colour, and glue the mirror onto it - ready to hang!! Yep, that's what I thought!
Here comes the problem I encountered: Most of the tutorials and DIY that I read on the net, are from the US, and often I cannot find some specific material needed for the projects here in Germany...And that really makes me mad, because it's the most simple things. For this sunburst mirror project, I wasn't able to find anywhere that kind of wood shims, so thin and very long. Here they only sell very short ones, like an inch or so, they are only used to lay laminate.. So I wanted to see if I can buy them online, the US shims I mean, and they were available via amazon.com, but just the shipping would've cost too much, because I would really need many packages, as I had a huge mirror (about 24" diameter, 60cm). Then I thought to make them myself with the table saw, watched some vids on youtube, looked all pretty clear and simple to me, but I didn't go for it, because we have a really bad table saw, and when I switched it on, it just scared the sh*t out of me... Next idea, why not go to a carpenter, he could professionally make the shims for me, I did, and I felt like he slapped me in the face when he said he would make them at 0,65 cents a piece, I mean it's not like I'm buying professional table legs, wood shims are usually sold like waste or remaining stock. On Amazon.com, there was a package of 56 pcs at 7.36 $, so one shims cost is about 0.13 $..
So here's what I've finally decided to do! I decided to switch on my scroll saw, buy a huuuuge piece of wood, and transfer a sunburst drawing that simulates the wood shim burst scheme onto the wood, and simply saw the whole sun as a whole piece! It was too big for the scroll saw, so I had to make 4 equal pieces of the wood, and then it worked. I'm still working on it, need to paint it and glue the mirror onto it, but I can't wait to post it in the next days... :)
Especially I'm excited because I hope for all the people here in Europe, who also encounter problems to find wood shims, can maybe also use my alternative idea to make your own small or biiiiig sunburst mirror!
Only thing I can reveal at the moment is the drawing that I made in Adobe Illustrator, it's huge, 100x100cm , that's about 40x40". Please don't be irritated by all the numbers , now that I've finished the cutting and sawing part, I realize I made things once again more complicated than they really are, I tend to think that I am a logical person, but doesn't seem so... Here's the preview of the drawing:
I researched the net, and found so many wonderful DIY tutorials, and most of them were those made of wood shims. Here's a few lovely examples that I really liked:
Here comes the problem I encountered: Most of the tutorials and DIY that I read on the net, are from the US, and often I cannot find some specific material needed for the projects here in Germany...And that really makes me mad, because it's the most simple things. For this sunburst mirror project, I wasn't able to find anywhere that kind of wood shims, so thin and very long. Here they only sell very short ones, like an inch or so, they are only used to lay laminate.. So I wanted to see if I can buy them online, the US shims I mean, and they were available via amazon.com, but just the shipping would've cost too much, because I would really need many packages, as I had a huge mirror (about 24" diameter, 60cm). Then I thought to make them myself with the table saw, watched some vids on youtube, looked all pretty clear and simple to me, but I didn't go for it, because we have a really bad table saw, and when I switched it on, it just scared the sh*t out of me... Next idea, why not go to a carpenter, he could professionally make the shims for me, I did, and I felt like he slapped me in the face when he said he would make them at 0,65 cents a piece, I mean it's not like I'm buying professional table legs, wood shims are usually sold like waste or remaining stock. On Amazon.com, there was a package of 56 pcs at 7.36 $, so one shims cost is about 0.13 $..
So here's what I've finally decided to do! I decided to switch on my scroll saw, buy a huuuuge piece of wood, and transfer a sunburst drawing that simulates the wood shim burst scheme onto the wood, and simply saw the whole sun as a whole piece! It was too big for the scroll saw, so I had to make 4 equal pieces of the wood, and then it worked. I'm still working on it, need to paint it and glue the mirror onto it, but I can't wait to post it in the next days... :)
Especially I'm excited because I hope for all the people here in Europe, who also encounter problems to find wood shims, can maybe also use my alternative idea to make your own small or biiiiig sunburst mirror!
Only thing I can reveal at the moment is the drawing that I made in Adobe Illustrator, it's huge, 100x100cm , that's about 40x40". Please don't be irritated by all the numbers , now that I've finished the cutting and sawing part, I realize I made things once again more complicated than they really are, I tend to think that I am a logical person, but doesn't seem so... Here's the preview of the drawing:
Are you interested to see how mine turned out? Would you like to read a post on my blog that describes all the DIY steps for this mirror? Please join my network, and feel free to comment :) Thanks and Enjoy!
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