What Now?

What Now?

I moved back home to San Francisco last month and have been searching for jobs, unpacking, reorganizing my room, cleaning up, etc. Now that Ace is done, what are my next lion projects? I’ve actually been thinking about it throughout these past few weeks and narrowed it down to three projects, but I’m not sure which I’ll be doing first and when I’ll be starting them.

1. Buddha Head Restoration – My friend gave me this Buddha head in 2006. I forgot where he obtained it, but it was in terrible shape. I promptly started the project but never got around to finishing it.

When I first got it, the outside was poorly covered with many layers of brown paper bag material, resulting in a really rough surface. The paint job was also really sloppy.

The Buddha’s head when I first got it.

As I started tearing off the outside layers, the original mask was revealed. It seems to be a young Buddha head, but I’m not entirely sure. What shocked me the most was the “feature” on the forehead! 😯 I wonder what happened! I started pasting newspaper on the inside and outside to prevent anymore plaster from cracking off and making a mess.

Had a lobotomy?

To fix the hole, I blew up a balloon and stuck it inside the head so there was a template of the contour. I pasted more newspaper over the balloon to patch the hole and popped the balloon afterward. Plaster was spread all over the surface. I started sanding but never got around to finishing it. Here is how it looks right now:

Where the project currently stands.

A bit freaky, ey?

2. Baby Lion Restoration – My girlfriend has a baby lion just sitting around in her house. It was her childhood toy, although she doesn’t remember playing with it at all. It looks used, but the condition is still pretty good for its age. We’re planning to restore it completely and give it a lavender/blue-colored theme.

My girlfriend’s baby lion.

3. Lion Brothers Project – Probably the most ambitious project so far. The project will consist of rebuilding a frame that completely lacks the mouth area and building a frame from scratch. For the rebuild, most of the frame is still in pretty good condition, but the mouth area was completely destroyed and practically nonexistent. I already took the frame off the base rim to reattach the handlebars. After rebuilding the frame, I will use it as a template to build another frame from scratch. It will start from a salvaged aluminum base rim that I acquired.

The two rims being prepped.

This frame needs a completely new mouth!

Updates soon!