Big, Bold and Beautiful

Finally done

This is one of my favorite styles of mirror - nothing subtle about this, and you can imagine this on the wall in a large Greek Revival house.

I purchased this several years ago, and due to the size (26" wide, 46" high), it was immediately disassembled and placed in storage. As my workshop seems to be shrinking, when I finally had some space during the past year it came out of hiding for its makeover.

Little concern is given to eventual repair or dis-assembly when things are made, so dismantling was a bit of a challenge.

Since these massive corner ornaments projected out from the frame they were quite susceptible to damage, particularly when the mirror must have left the wall and was placed on the floor.

Corners suffered

Most of original leaf detail was gone

 As usual, molds were taken from surviving elements in order to cast replacements. The leave ornaments were gessoed, then water-gilded.

Replacements

With leaf and "turrets" corners are very three dimensional

When putting mirrors back together, I try to use screws instead of nails, just in case it needs to be taken apart again.

Back in place

Once the lion's share of work was done, it was occupying a corner of the workshop awaiting final re-assembly. That last step was this week's accomplishment.

There was only a small piece of the original backboard available, I used a piece of birch plywood to create a new backboard. While the originals functioned as dust covers and protection for glass, plywood replacements also offer additional structural support.

Installing mirror plates