A few months ago I had a vision of a cute little stage, sort of like
the Hatch Shell in Boston, but made of textured metal from an old tin
tile I got from Wendy at Renninger's. I searched for compression rivets
for a long time before finding some fat brass ones at Leid Shoes
& Saddlery right down the road.
For the stage I cut a chunk of wood from the Amish Home Depot. I got
new sharp shears and cut pieces of the tin for the shaped dome ceiling.
Sometimes it felt like I was wrestling a crocodile--my hands were
scratched and bloody for weeks.
I
had saved a hundred small pieces of cherry wood since college and found them in the last box in the farthest
corner of the garage. Cutting them to make the floor tiles was supposed
to be easy, but I had a lot of trouble with a crappy scroll saw I got
at a
flea market last summer. No matter what blade or tension I tried, parts
and pieces of the saw went flying past my face as soon as I turned it on.
My brother Chris meticulously went over every part of it with me and
discovered that a screw in the blade holder had been put in backwards--through the threaded hole first and the smooth hole second, thereby not pinching the blade and letting it vibrate out of the
holder. Despite fixing this, the damn thing still didn't work right so Moe got me a new one at Lowe's!


I
got the metal for the front panel and plaque from the lid of a box
found in Crazy Lizzie's junk barn. I never knew Gorilla Glue needed
water to set because I never thought you had to read directions to use glue. After doing it right, the stuff is ten times better and stronger.
The finials at the sides of the stage are brass screws with clear plastic baubles. I thought they went well with the other materials and framed the stage nicely.