Those lumps of wood

This may not make any sense to you because I live with a craftsman who can make lovely furniture. The two lumps of oak that were on my desk on Wednesday are shelves, or more precisely, lifts! They do a particular job of raising up two of my most used items.

I've had it in my mind to do something to them for ages, as they were (as I asked) literally picked out of the offcuts pile, not re-sanded or finished in any other way. I was feeling all organic and naturel in my interior design moment I guess. Anyway, my other love is bone china. The Japanese repair breaks and cracks by mixing glue and gold leaf together and making the fissure obvious. Well, thought I, splits in oak are really no different...

It wasn't my intention to fill the splits...not least because I don't have that many gilding flakes - but to accentuate them and if possible, make them prettier. The old Duo glue once again proved it's worth. I brushed it on..not altogether carefully or sparingly, then tipped on the flakes. At this point I stopped breathing because they go everywhere....
Tamp it down with a stencil brush, brush off the excess. Turn chunk around, repeat. Easy.

There is no good angle to shoot the photos - the snow makes everything too light! But you can see the gold if you concentrate.

And here they are in situ, being shelves. The mirror I've no doubt you understand about instantly, but the jewellery tree? I searched quite long and hard for a plain style tree to hang my most used necklaces upon, twisted chains put me off wearing them. But it really did bug me that the 'tree' wasn't tall enough for the necklaces to actually hang! No idea why. Probably for the same reason that odd lumps of unfinished, slightly gilded lumps of oak cluttering up his house make Mr Dunnit's teeth itch!