Up-Cycling

Sometime ago, I showed a close friend of our family some pictures of a bicycle I painted for my sister and later that night he sent me this mail...

"please share the photos of your effort-

want to send to ... (his daughters)-

send also the pics of the details of the handle bar etc- if you explain the art it would add more value- like the guide at Belur temple!!"

...which led to a rather detailed email that inspired this post.

Initially, my sister just wanted me to paint the cycle because my father, who passed away 17 yrs ago, had bought it for her. This was her first and only adult sized bike. It is one of the few things she is attached to and took with her after she got married. But due to disuse, the cycle was beginning to rust. In fact, if we want to make the cycle usable now, we will have to change the rims as parts of it has rusted. So she came up with the bright idea to have it repainted so she can keep it as a piece of art, maybe with the plants she has upstairs.

The project started some months ago when I took the cycle to their terrace, got the wheels removed and sanded out most of the rust. But because of bad weather (scorching sun and a little rain) not much work got done there and we put the project on the back burner. Finally, we brought the cycle back to my house, gave it a base coat and kept it in a room in the back yard.

I started off with painting it, but ran out of paints in the middle, misplaced my paint brushes, then mildly injured my hand. The project took a nose dive. There was no hurry to get it done. Suddenly, one day, I was bursting with the mood to paint and in the last few weeks, the momentum just picked up - just in time for my sister's wedding anniversary.

The front mudguard was the first to be done as it was easy to dismantle. I tried removing the back wheel, but realised it needed a lot more re-assembly and decide to leave it assembled while painting. Instead of painting each part separately, I just wrapped some parts in paper while I sprayed the others. The back mudguard was the last part to be done as there were so many things that had to be covered to paint it. 

The designs were chosen to be simple and subtle since the colours contrast quite vividly. Therefore, I used green on green, blue on blue/blue-green and a darker orange that looks subtle under a yellow bulb, but contrasts well in sunlight or tube light/white light.

The seat was made to look completely different, even in terms of the design style, as if the cycle wasn't kitschy enough. 

The handlebar with the bell lent itself well to look like a snail in a garden and the grips already had a skeletal look built into it, so fish bones worked themselves in easily.

I tried to keep as many of the original fittings intact, including all the reflectors. The only new addition was the seat cover, as my sister misplaced the old one (after the project started and it was given into her keeping). She however thinks her husband may be the culprit :-D. I don't think the poor bloke knows he's the fall guy.

There is a whole other story about what happened the night we wanted to surprise them with the gift, but we'll keep that for another day.

It the end, it turned out much better than we imagined and my sister and brother-in-law were thrilled to have it. Yay!