With this story I have scarcely covered myself in glory, I know. So please do not laugh at me.
Long story short. My boss leaves on Monday for Berlin to cover a higher position. I am responsible to organise not only his farewell party and but all that is attached to, especially the gifts (photobook, slideshow, etc.). This kind of bear (symbol of Berlin) is used in our company for awards. Our unit has quit a lot of this awards and so we had the idea to give him one of this so called buddy bears, as a gift. As symbol for his time in this unit, his success and the friendship he built here with us. I had the “honour” to order (complicated as they are made in germany) and decorate it, and collect then all the signatures. It turned out quite colourful and well and yesterday I just wanted to burn the paint on the porcelain. I did paint porcelain very often with my nieces and nephews and this worked always so well, an easy thing to do I thought. What a shock, when looking into the oven,…
The whole bear turned brown, blisters all over, the colouring and design gone. I nearly fainted! And on Monday is the party. No chance to order another bear from Germany.
What was the problem? The bear was not made of porcelain, his heart consists of synthetic raisin and the cover was not china enamel, but kind of lack. Not one second I did think of this. It is as heavy as china, cold as china, and shiny as porcelain.
If you are in such a situation, only family can help. My brother in law is an industrial designer, and he and my sister helped me to remove and sand all that molten lack. A lot of time and work. After several layers of priming and re-sanding, we had a more or less even surface again, and my BIL spray painted it again. Finally I started all over with the design. It did not turn out so nice, like the first time,… but at least it is not a brown bear anymore. Monday morning I have to confess this story to my colleagues and recollect the signatures.
A huge thank you goes to Francesco and Claudia, for helping me.
The picture shows the process from the burned bear to a white one again. Unfortunately I had no pic from the version 1 bear, as I wanted to capture him, after the "burning" process. Haha,...
Something like this, can only happen to me.
Oh, my goodness, I read that story with my heart in my mouth. Poor you! But, I think your final bear looks just wonderful. And how fantastic that you managed to save hiim!
WOW this bear has such an interesting story to go with him on his journey to Berlin. And how wonderful to have help from your family to help restore him to his (almost) former glory. Well done and I'm sure he will be appreciated. :)
Thanks for the follow, apologies for not thanking you earlier.