Form Follows Function: A Revision

"Bad easel, go sit in the corner!" -yours truly

After some intense painting, the base of the spider easel failed me. So, yet again, I had to fix the problem. This time there was no messing around; no thinking about extravagant fantasies of how it could look pretty; no speculation on what might work for the precise functions I need my easel to do.

The problem with the base was that it was too narrow to steadily hold the upper half straight. In a frustration during a late night painting session, I kicked the front base off and used my old easel the rest of the night.

I searched through my supplies to see if I had any extra wood to use. There was one unmade canvass stretcher. For a moment I thought of taking the stretcher apart and fiddling with it to make something pretty, yet functional; however, being behind on my painting schedule already, I hammered that onto the base fit to the front.

New Front Base of Easel

Then I took the wood that was the base of the front, the same piece I had kicked off in frustration, and attached that, along with the original base for the back, to the back leg. This was also to remedy the structural problem.

New Back Base of Easel

Back in the beginning of my intense painting session, before the base failed me, I tried using the tilted head to hold my largest canvass, but it was unstable. Although the original intent in keeping the face was to give it some attitude, I need this to be functional. So another amendment I made was to straighten out the spider face to make it able to hold larger canvasses. This is reinforced with a spare screw from the hinge kit I purchased. I also fixed one of the fangs that I thought might easily fall off.

Spider face revision

I am now out of nails and only have a few spare screws left. If this creation happens to need any more repairs, I just may send it to a nice farm and start again.

Revised Spider Easel

Today I used it to hold my largest canvass and so far it worked. After I decided I'd keep these amendments, I painted the new wood but kept some small things as reminders, like the word "CROOKED" in pencil on the back (when it is no longer crooked) and unpainted holes around the new screws, of the long, long process.

Crooked note on back of easel

Of course, new paint drips will happen periodically from projects, but that will happen as I paint more.

It was a chair. It was a spider. It was crooked. It was a faulty easel. It is fixed, for now.

PS. Don't forget to wear protective gloves.