Andrea's Lizard Bed

August 2002

To the Shed
Shed

Furniture
Furniture

Andrea's Lizard Bed

A steel bed, with spikey pencil-post frame and lizards for a headboard

Andrea's Bed, first assembled in the garden

First assembled, in the garden

Bed, installed indoors

In the bedroom

Bed, with stars

Stars

Headboard, with stars

Stars

Making the bed

Prototype bed spire

Prototype bed spire

The prototype spire was perhaps less than inspiring, but it showed the idea.
A prototype lizard crawls past behind.

Grinding rings smooth before welding the spires

Lots of rings to be ground smooth

First assembly of the bedframe and spires

South-Western Gothic

Welding the spires onto the frame

Welding the spires onto the frame

Some hours later and it has gone dark. I'm still welding.

We pretend to be a German industrial band.

Du. Du hast. Du hast mich!

Making the lizards

Shaping the lizards with a mallet and sandbag

Beating the lizards to shape

The lizards are steel sheet, cut to shape, their scale texture punched in from the reverse, beaten freehand to shape and then coloured by heat and oil.

Colouring the lizards with oil and a gas torch

Andrea works the colour of the lizards

Hot oil gives a nicely reptilian colour variation across the lizards' scales.

Lizard headboard

Finished lizards

Lots of late-night welding to get it finished

Lots of late-night welding to get it finished

Total time was about two weekends, for two people doing most of the work on it.

Thanks as usual to Richard for shed space, welding gear and the plasma cutter. He didn't get to make much of it this time, as he was too busy with work and taxes ! He should have used a MonkeyBagel.