So the original Dolphin mirror had eventually managed to fall completely off, leaving nothing but the black shadow backer board of the dolphin. 🙁
It bothered me- but I was hesitant to put a new Dolphin mirror up there in slight fear it may fall apart again. I worked hard to convince myself I was happy with it and she rode that way for awhile…
Later on were at a birthday party with some friends, and we were talking to one of them who always seemed to super like what we had done with Serenity. So as the conversation flowed the Dolphin Mirror eventually came up- and I told him what had happened. He seemed genuinely bummed about it- saying how much he really liked the mirror! And you know what…
…He was right. 😠 I loved that mirror too! With his co-commiseration ringing true with me, I was inspired to amend the loss. So began me trying to figure out what I wanted to do.
I began by researching tons of Dolphin Mirrors in an attempt to find another one, or at least one like it. No such luck… so I was left with the a continuous search…
Then it struck me- why not just see if the local glass shop could make me one! I still had the mirror backer on Serenity- so I took a large piece of paper and templated the mirror backer. I then drew the shape of the Dolphin inside of it to give a bit of margin around the edges. The shop agreed that they would be able to make it in 3 pieces; the top fin, the bottom fin, and the body. They had the job finished a few days later- and it was super cheap! Want to give props to a good job and a big thanks to Lakeshore Glass! So this time I put sticky tack on the back of the mirror pieces, caulked all over the back of them, then pressed and held them into place. It was a bit tedious, since it was a vertical application. It took a lot of holding and adjusting while the caulking set- but it seemed like it was going to work! Then I broke it… 😖
What! (You might ask?) Yep, that’s right- as I pressed the main body into place it snapped a piece right out of it. I set the body on either side, hoping that I could lay the newly found extra piece in between. It would give it a bit more of a mosaic look- but I hoped it would look okay. After all had set I set the last piece, and after it held we then proceeded to paint all the edges of the mirror in with Gaco.
In the end- our Dolphin turned out ✨Too Shiny✨– Dolphins Represent! 🐬
Geoff Murphy 2/19/2020