Tuesday, November 10, 2009

SUNBURST mirror

I have seen a lot of Sunburst mirrors around lately, and thought I would give it a try.
  My inspiration mirror is from Ballard Designs 
Ballard Designs Sunburst Mirror

 If any of you are crazy enough to try this, I will attempt to explain the method to my madness! I really should have paid more attention in math. It all starts with a 35 inch paper circle. This took me a while and then I started folding and folding and folding until I got what I liked. You will have 72 different wedges. I then found a mirror at Target for 10 bucks and based everything on it's size. I centered the mirror on the paper circle and used it as a pattern.
I used scraps out of my garage so in all this project cost me about 15 dollars, but tons of my precious time!:) I also hit the scrap bins at Home Depot for some thin plywood. The mirror's top wood was extra (paneling?) scraps in my garage. I cut with my jigsaw two halves to make a circle and then marked three inch increments around the circle. I then realized I needed to make each wedge smaller, down to
1 1/2 inch marks.

After numbering, I cut it all up. I numbered because I can't cut straight and knew that I would have to put it back together like a puzzle for the pieces to look decent.

I used wood glue and quickly spaced them out evenly around the mirror as my guide. When you cut with a saw you lose some of your wood, so your left with some gaps. Just space evenly, I remembered from building a pinewood derby car for my son that they use two pieces of card stock glued together to space the wheels. This actually worked really well spacing the pieces. Later, I filled in with wood filler to slightly fill gaps.

I backed the overlaying frame with a full piece of thin plywood. I used heavy duty glue and some make-shift clamping :) to make sure it was flat. I also primed it all.

I don't have a picture of the paint. I actually made a few mistakes and it led to this color. I wanted the mirror to be silver, but the wood was so crummy it didn't look very nice and sleek. So, I decided to distress the wood and add some brown antiquing glaze.
Surprisingly, it came out looking very similar to the color of Ballard Design's mirror. Distressing also hid my many imperfections and lack of quality wood. I believe Ballard's mirror is made of Mango wood.

16 comments:

Steph said...

that's fantastic!!! you did a great job! i still want to see the picture of the stuff for the bazaar...

Nobody Puts Mama In A Corner! said...

You did a great job! What a beautiful mirror!! You could sell these you know!!
Mama Holli

rtgaffney said...

Whoa! I am so impressed with your math skills alone. Amazing!!

Destination Seaborn said...

Wow...that looks great! I've been wanting that mirror too and thought of making it with wood shims. Great idea!

Anonymous said...

Now THAT'S impressive! Can't tell which is the Ballard and which is yours. Great job!

pk @ Room Remix

Patti @ Pandoras Box said...

Absolutely a fantastic job...can't tell the difference! Thanks for sharing

Ann said...

Your mirror is wonderful! I love it

Sandy and Joe/rhubarb reign said...

Wow! That is fantastic -- it looks wonderful. And I'm amazed by your ingenuity -- and the use of tools!! I always try to get someone else to do that part. Thanks for your nice comment on our blog. The chandelier parts came in a box lot -- part of a group of things we bought from another dealer. Come see us again! xo

Jill said...

Good for you! I think it looks great. Our saying around here is, "Good enough for who it's for!"
I tried to make a teepee once for my kids--burlap, sewing pockets for the poles, etc. Need to figure out the angles to evenly space it all on a circle. NEVER did get it done, AND I thought I was good at math. I'm impressed with your job.

autumn said...

oh my gosh!
i have totally been wanting that mirror! i can't believe how sneaky you are to have figured out how to build it. you guys are gonna have to make me one. (paid ,of course!)
:)

Leigh of Tales from Bloggeritaville said...

GIRRRRRRL! You amaze me!!!!!! Thats amazing!Thank you for linking up to Thrifty Thursday this week, and as always thank you for being a friend in Bloggeritaville.
Leigh
Tales from Bloggeritaville
www.lbratina.blogspot.com

Jane@Little House of Projects said...

Wow this is impressive! And it's gorgeous! I can't imagine seeing that in a catalog and trying to recreate it. Great job!

Anonymous said...

Gor.GEOUS!

Mel said...

Phenomenal! A lot of work but the resulting mirror is undeniably beautiful.

Jen V. said...

This looks just like the Ballard version!!! Awesome job!!!!!

Kristin said...

Identical to Ballard Design's version. You did a wonderful job! I attempted to recreate it also,
http://adeterminedeffort.blogspot.com/

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