I went thrifting and found this fox trinket box. The only problem was that it was missing it's tail...oh and the price! It was several dollars. I didn't want to pay that price for a damaged item so I left it behind. I went into the thrift several times and would see it sitting on the shelf but I would pass it by. My thrift store prices item with colored price tags and each week a color tag goes on sale. Eventually the box went on sale and I decided to buy it even with the broken tail.
As you can see there are some very minor chips on it which is not surprising for my thrift store. They receive a lot of damaged items and they are sometimes rough on the merchandise getting it to the shelves. I still bought the box it figuring I would eventually think of someway to fix all the problems.
Here's a close up of the broken tail. The fox box sat on my bedside stand for months while I tried to figure out how to fix it. It really didn't take me long to figure out how I was going to fix it I was just lazy and was looking for the right color chenille stem.
Well I couldn't find an appropriate orange colored chenille stem so I went with white. I then had to figure out how to dye it.
A little side note the box was made in '73 by someone with the initials KMB.
My first choice to color the stem was with food dye. I tried it twice but I had a lot of problems. So I went to my next choice Sharpies! They were a better choice but still not perfect but I made due by using several colors to get the color I wanted.
I ended up with two color choices, a dark red orange and an orange yellow color. Both actually looked good directly next to the fox butt. I debated for awhile on which one to choose, asking people for their opinion. It didn't help because their opinions were split down the middle. I then had to make the choice on my own. I had real world problems here people.
Once the decision was made I dabbed a little E600 glue on the fox's butt and went to work.
I chose the lighter colored tail and shaped it. My color choice was decided because I wanted to get this project completed and it was the first one I grabbed. I actually like it though.
I still need to add something to complete it but it definitely looks better with a tail. I think I could have also used paper clay to make a tail but then I would have had to paint it and it probably would have looked really out of place. I think the soft fuzzy tail makes it interesting. I now have to see how long this fix will last. I'm thinking about adding a button or ribbon on it's butt...do you have any suggestions to hide the wire?
Thanks for stopping by and if you have any suggestions for future posts feel free to leave a comment.
