Cleaning up

Once my backboard was printed and fitted to the foam board, I decided that the gold foam surrounding my object would not fit neatly within the cut out square, leaving a bumpy, unprofesional finish. For a more clean cut display, I made the decision to remove the foam completely from the backing, leaving a black painted space surrounding the object. This ties the board together as black is used to back the image of another Kingfisher hair piece I chose to use. The space for the object was masked off using a cut out that I drew slightly larger and simpler than the laser cut tests for the backplate. While this area was to remain gold, I sprayed the surrounding boarder with black, matt paint. Once this had dried, I secured the object in position with strong, double sided tape to make sure that it is secure but removable without damage to the object.

Prior to attaching the replica to the backboard, I noticed how some areas had attracted dust or dirt into the glue. To get rid off some of this excess, I brushed on boiling water to re-melt the glue where it had been applied too thickly. I could then use another brush to bring some of the glue off, finishing with paper towel to absorb the excess moisture. The effect of doing this meant that the colouring in the kingfisher feathers could be brought out to a greater intensity while areas of clumped glue where removed completely.