Meanwhile...

I have spoken to Ben out at coolneon.com and placed my order for enough EL wire to make prototypes of the three sizes of rings in the GALAXY project, so now we wait.

In the meantime, I have another project to keep me busy. I was puttering about the labyrinth when I was reminded that this guy was looking pretty roughed up:

He’s one of those stamped-metal garden decorations you can find at any reasonably cheesy gift shop or home decor store. I was thinking I had picked him up in Key West, which would have been in 2009, but others seem to think he came from the southwest. No matter: he needs a brush-up.

First remove the paint:

It took several applications of paint remover followed by wire brushing.

Finally as clean as I need it to be.

I discovered a cool “Color Shift” spray paint, which for “best effect” needed to be applied over a black background.

Finally, the lizard with its base coat all done, along with some of the colors I’m looking at for decoration. I need a black, I think, and I definitely need some tiny brushes.

Next: Decoration