JULLIAN FRENCH EASEL

A local artist here in Bolton, Brian Hartley, died some years ago and his old Jullian French Easel was passed to his friend and then he passed it on to his son before finally arriving at my door. It was in a right state, so I decided to refurbish it to bring it back to its former glory and give it another 30 years of life hopefully.

 

This sort of project is right up my street. I love to sit in the garage tinkering away, avoiding all those nasty soap-operas that my wife insists on watching for 3 hours a night :-)

First job was to strip the easel down and I was surprised at how many bits and bobs there were in total. If I hadn't taken lots of photos prior to disassembly, it would have been a right puzzle putting it back together, lol. Most of the work involved in the refurb was getting the layers of paint off that had built up over the decades. The area around the lower canvas-carrier was the worst and I couldn't get rid of every last bit of it, for fear of damaging the woodwork, so I had to accept that some faint traces would remain.

After copious amounts of sanding, I treated all the wood to a couple of applications of teak-oil with a lint-free cloth and then put the unit back together again, making sure that all the screws were nice and tight. I added a set of rubber feet at the bottom so the unit wasn't getting damaged when stood on the floor. I also added a couple of brass hooks to hold cleaning pot, rags, etc.  When I'd finished, it felt stiff and strong and like new again! Very pleased with the overall result.

Now to get it dirty again!