HAROLD ANGEL

My first entry. Is it the most difficult? Setting up the blog sure took me long enough!

But I want to introduce the first of the Coffee Pot People, not the first to be made, just the first to land here, and chosen at random. Meet Harold:

He doesn’t sing loudly, but Harold loves Christmas carols! And I’m sure you can guess what his favorite holiday is, whether it snows or not.

Harold started with a halo from the Rebuilding Center, but I haven’t had the heart to tell him that, since that isn’t exactly the traditional way angels earn them. And the halo had a prior life as a towel holder. We won't tell him that, either.

His blue coffee pot body was purchased, lidless, at a garage sale. Those wings are made from two pancake turners and a whisk (Value Village), trimmed out with garden edging (yard sale) and pipe cleaners (estate sale).

His lower body/feet used to be a light fixture (Rebuilding Center), but I put old fuses where the light bulbs would have gone.

His eyebrows came out of my jewelry box (no, nothing is sacred!) and his eyes are marbles set in the little cups tea candles come in, with wire eyelashes.

One of the things I'm asked most often is how I hold all the parts together. When I started, I tried a variety of glues and epoxies, but none of them held up out in the weather. Now I bolt everything. Some Coffee Pot People take a lot more figuring than others, though, and occasionally I've even had to resort to bolts coupled with glue, or even concrete. The concrete comes into play if I need a way to be sure the item won't move, and bolting it doesn't seem strong enough.

I'd love to be able to weld the pieces, but most old coffee pots are aluminum, and while it isn't impossible to weld aluminum, it's not very easy. It's a skill I look forward to acquiring.