Angel Transformed

I troll Goodwill for treasures frequently. The thing one has to remember about treasures, is: sometimes they're buried.

This treasure was buried under gold paint. Really ugly gold paint.
At some point in life, someone thought this was either a great gift for that special someone, or someone just couldn't live without it. It was a place to hide a key. Subtle hiding place, eh? I wonder at the logic of it. At some point, they came to their senses and ditched it at Goodwill for the tax deduction.

Enter yours truly. First thought: "Wow. That is truly horrible." I pictured the ancient woman with the 25 cats who bought this thinking it was a subtle butter color, due to her mile-thick cataracts. It actually was in perfect condition before it fell out of my car and onto the driveway. I had to use some Gorilla Glue to put it mostly back together. Oh, well. Saved me work on the aging process.

I started to work on the paint a couple of days ago. I went to Home Depot and grabbed some spray paint and plastic primer and went to town on it. Two layers of primer, a layer of black plastic paint. I didn't like how shiny it turned out, so I trooped back to the store and bought some regular flat black spray paint to knock the gloss down. While I was there, I scored a gallon of exterior flat gray paint in the "oops" section for $5. Whee! I got some play sand to throw over it, too. I figure I'll use the rest for tombstones.

After the spray paint had time to set, I dry brushed they gray on and added a bit of sand. I discovered that technique didn't work very well, so only a bit of sand stuck. Next time I'll put the sand on while the first coat is still wet. Whatever. It'll be dark and no one but I will know, anyway.

So here's the finished project.
I think he'll look fabulous in the graveyard this year, don't you? You can barely see the repair on his wing, and even the ding in his hair makes him look aged. What a great find!