Scavenger Chic

The Eclipse and a Spindle Frame

• By Joan
• August 22, 2017
• 8 Comments

Have you ever wondered what would a scavenger/ upcycler use for solar eclipse sun glasses when said scavenger did not plan ahead and buy the specialty glasses.  Well yesterday I found out.  This scavenger would first try to pile a bunch of sunglasses together…6 to be exact and take a look thru those.  That plan actually worked pretty well, but it was kind of hard to keep them all lined up.  And, not to take a chance on burned retinas, which doesn’t sound too nice, we only glanced at the sun for a second at a time.

Plan B (there is always a plan B) was to stack photo slides together and look thru those…6 per eye to be exact.  If you looked thru the slides with no sun, all you could see was black.  With the slides, the sun was a dull red.  Even though we only had a 80% eclipse, it was an awesome sight to behold.

You now have until  the next solar eclipse, 2024, to find a stack of grandmas old slides or buy the glasses.

A couple years ago my brother was cleaning out his storage locker and brought me a bunch of architectural salvage treasures.  Among the haul were a stack of spindles.  At the time, I asked my brother if he had any upcycling ideas  for  the spindles.  His idea … a spindle frame.  A great idea, even if I am 2 years late.

Make sure you keep reading until the end of the post for the rest of my spindle projects.

For this project I’m only using 2 of the spindles sliced in half lengthwise.   The inside frame is an inexpensive, very plain,  RIBBA frame from IKEA  which all sit on top of a scrap piece of plywood.

Cut the spindles so that they are centered around the frame and mark the plywood for cutting.

Sand the edges of the spindles to soften the cut line.

Center and trace around the frame onto the plywood.

Cut out the center frame with a jigsaw and attach the spindles to the plywood.  I used wood glue and nailed from the back.

An additional frame of pallet wood hides the rough edges of the plywood.

Set the IKEA frame into the opening.  I used scrap wood (a ruler) stapled into the frame and the plywood to hold the frame in place.

My plywood was really rough but some paintable caulk fills in all the gaps.

Paint as desired.  This is white chalk paint with a little distressing on the spindles and around the frame.

I still have a bunch of spindles and I welcome any and all thoughts, suggestions and brainstorming on what the heck to do with them all.

Have a great week, stay inspired.

Shared at Talk of the Town, Salvaged Junk Projects,

Metamorphosis Monday, Wow us Wednesday,

SPINDLES