You know that feeling you get when you’ve just had a fender bender or have made some irreversible error resulting in damage to something you treasure? A feeling that continuously says “you idiot”. For the past few days this feeling has been all too familiar. In the scope of bad things that happen in life, ruining a table-top is a pretty small thing however it still made me feel awful.
So what happened? I was clean ing the windows, using ammonia. Without thinking I set the ammonia bottle on our oak dining room table. Unknown to me, some ammonia had spilled on the outside of the bottle. I got distracted and came back 15 minutes later to see that the ammonia had eaten through the varnish and it made a dark brown ring on the raw wood. Ugh! Below is a photo after I had been sanding for a while.
Saturday, which was to be dedicated to sewing was instead spent sanding, bleaching the ring with oxalic acid and sanding some more. The next day I stained, then varnished, etc. The color is close but not a permanent solution. Some day soon I’ll need to strip, stain and varnish the entire table top. How many garments could I sew during that time?
The lesson in this is obvious, but what a hard way to learn.
FabriCate & Mira 