Trike Bling

As I began to tell you in the last post, I am working on some new artsy/craftsy things.  My good friend Phil is teaching me his skills so I can make things for my trike like he has made for his Harley Davidson motorcycle.  It really is lots of work but the end product is pretty cool.  First, you have to decide what it is you are going to make....  not as easy as it might seem, haha.  Then you have to draw it out (for me, very hard, for Phil, fairly easy in most cases) and make it into a template so you can transfer it to the aluminum. Next, you take a Jigsaw and cut it out.  Now the work begins!  You need some good files which you use to file the raw edges to smooth, then sand them to make them shiny. Now you start sanding the smooth surface.  What grade of sand paper you use depends on the condition the aluminum, if it has bad scratches you need to start with a more coarse grit, while if it's in fairly good condition you can start with finer.  You sand... and sand.... and sand some more, all by hand, until it is very smooth and free of any scratches or imperfections. Now you are ready to start polishing the aluminum until it shines like a mirror, again a very time consuming undertaking.  Wow, it sure is worth all the work though, when you put it on the trike and see it shining, knowing you made it yourself.  Also, it's pretty cool when people come up and 'oooh, ahhhh, and WOW' over the work you've done.

 Photo 1 & 2 - The feather is being cut out of the sheet of aluminum:

Photo 3 - Phil is filing the raw edges with a tiny round file:

Photo 4 - One feather is all done, including a spine engraved onto it.  The bottom feather has been sanded and is ready for the polishing:

Photo 5 - Both feathers are now all shiny and nearly ready to be applied to the trike. All that needed done in this photo was to engrave the spine on the second feather and to redo the engraving on the first feather.

I don't have a photo available with them on the trike. Must still be in my camera and I will have to move it to the computer.  These both went onto my gas tank and look beautiful.

With my laptop battery about to die and me not home to plug in, I will have to share more of this 'bling' later. What do you think so far??