In Magazine
You’ve probably heard it said many times, “one man’s trash, is another man’s treasure.” I love to frequent local thrift stores looking through the items people have decided to part with but not throw away.
Humans can be very good at accumulating stuff. Sooner or later, for one reason or another, we face the truth that there is a little bit of a hoarder in all of us. There finally comes a time when we are forced to use it or lose it.
Sometimes I find an object is a treasure as it is, but other times I’m certain the object could be used in another way. I especially love the unusual items at thrift stores that nobody seems to be able to figure out. The sales people often set those types of items in the back just for me, because they know what I like.
One time, while waiting in line to be checked out at a thrift store, a lady behind me asked me, “What the heck is that thing you’re buying?” I replied, “I don’t know, but I don’t have one.”
I remember a specific time in fourth grade. I was 10 years old, and I discovered a rose-tinted rock protruding from the ground of the North Dallas school yard, where more 200 children played two times a day.
It took me the morning and afternoon recess, as well as two more hours after school, to get the rock out of the ground. It was a perfect six-pointed rose colored quartz crystal. To me, it was like find the Hope diamond. I was sure that I had struck it rich, richer than Jed Clampett.
Soon after I collected the stone, I let a smooth-talking sixth-grader con me
pencil out of the rolled-up spire. Repeat this process to at least three magazines. You should end up with 200 or 300 spires (rolled pages). This will probably be more than you will need.
Now, all that’s left to do is hot glue the spires to the disk of wood. Glue the first round of spires in a circle around the edge of the disk. Let about one-third of the spire hang beyond the edge of the disk and about two-thirds on the disk.
The diameter of the spires and wooden disk is close to 30 inches. Once you have made a complete circle, repeat the process, but make the next round about two inches inward from the outer tips of the spires and glue them right on top of the first circle. Make one more round of spires moving inward by about another two inches. You may need to trim a little off one end of the spires of your final circle. Do it on the end toward the middle of the project.
To complete the star-burst mirror (or clock) you will simply center your mirror or clock on top of the spires. Use one or two wood screws going inward from the back. Obviously, if your mirror or clock is not wooden on the back, glue a small piece of wood to the back to receive the wood screw. The only thing left to do is attach hardware on the very back of the project to hang it on the wall. I prefer small hinged hangers, which utilize a small screw for stability.
It is completely optional to paint the star-burst spires, but you need to do so before you attach your mirror or clock, and it is best to use spray paint. Avoid over saturating the spires with paint. The many colors that will show after you have rolled the pages up can be very interesting.
You can also control the look by the color scheme of the pages you select and of course the side you choose to reveal. Experiment with the process, because you may even discover other ways to use the spires.
I wanted to spray this project with gold paint to match the frame on my mirror. However, my wife, Ann Nell, liked the look of the many colors of print on the pages. This project was a joint effort. I worked on attaching the pieces, and she did all the rolling and gluing of the 300 pages, so I guess she wins in terms of work load. Wives always win!
