Shorty Core gets her party dress on, or how to make your clay bricks red

While building Shorty, we presoaked our bricks in warm water before mortaring them; after all, it was November!
We made the mistake of also using that bucket of warm water to rinse our hands. Heck, it was nice warm water.
There is no shortage of hot water here... we could have / should have just had a second bucket for rinsing hands...  
But there's no sense in worrying about it after the fact. Live and learn, but don't do it again.

Shorty is beautiful no matter what dress she is wearing.
But Liz and I really wanted her a deep brick-red.
I sat with a scrubby sponge and hot, soapy water, trying to get the grey to lift out from the brick... it helped a little bit.
I tried steel brushes, steel wool, hand sanding, and I finally brought in a 4" grinder with a sanding wheel...
I was allowed one brick sanded before Liz put the kibosh on trashing her house!  Enough of that Shit, is how I heard it...
It did work, but... not in this house, mister.
I suggested maybe a two-person team, with one using the sander and the other running the vacuum cleaner... A raised eyebrow with the "look" told me that it wasn't flying...
I resigned myself to continuing with soap and water.

When Liz stands up from her spot on the couch, she reaches out and places her hand on the top corner brick.
She joked at how her fingerprints were getting embedded in the brick.
And then I looked at that brick, I admit that I was checking to see if the clay mortar was going to crack...
Nope, appropriately done, clay mortar holds just fine unless you hit it.

But I did see that the oil from her hand had turned the brick a beautiful deep brick red!!!
OH MY, this is just what we wanted... now how do we get Liz to touch every brick???
Hmm, I may as well ask about how to get my piggies to fly...
After some time spent pondering the dilemma, I came up with a plan... OH NO
Here, hold my Yerba mate tea and watch this!

I brought a small bowl with a bit of olive oil in it, and a microfiber towel.
I started with a brick on the backside. The bricks were apx 100-140F at the time.
Oh Yeah, with hardly any liquid, I barely touch the brick, and it transforms from a dull grey-reddish color to the deep brick red I wanted!
I leave it to sit overnight, nothing changes!   It still has the color I want, and there is no oiliness or smell.
I move to a visible section of brick and slowly apply the oil-damped microfiber. You want no liquid at all, or it will run right off the brick and soak into the clay mortar!
Luckily, it is clay mortar, with a bit of fingernail scratching, and it is as good as new again.
I'm also avoiding any excess oil at all, as getting a rancid smell was also a concern.

I slowly applied the oil over several days, watching for any detrimental effects.
After a week, I had completed the entire visible portions of her bell.
Several more weeks have gone by now, and I am very happy to report 100% complete success!!!
No color loss at all!
No smell at all!
No oily surface
A beautiful, rich, deep red brick color remains!

As I worked, it was a magical transformation!
Shorty changed from her grey potato sack and put on a Red Party Dress!
Wow, she looked great before and is now the Miss USA of the Dragon crowd!




 

Form may follow function for many folks but not so in this case... Thomas the Dragonmeister proves that form and function can go hand in hand.

Shortie sure is a cutie! Perhaps a little red lipstick on the air intake to go with the party dress...

Being an accomplice in this endeavor, I must confess that the muddy water was mostly my fault.

Over the many days of brick laying Shorty, she never showed any signs of being dull or drab until a day or so after she was lit and the bricks were able to start drying out. - This was when she showed us her true colours. It was like watching her age right before our eyes. All the beauty treatments given to her just weren't cutting it..... But she's just a young girl! How could this be?
This made me deeply ponder my own life. Like all of us, as we age, there are certain things we can only control to a certain point before we just give in and accept our impermanence.
We'll just learn to love her as she is and let her beauty be more than skin deep.
After all,  keeping Tom & Liz warm and cozy 24/7 is a beautiful thing.

However, as you already know, Thomas (with Liz's help) has found the fountain of youth and has demonstrated the power of their magic elixir with wonderous results.
Nice recovery Thomas!
My hands have been washed clean so to speak.
Guess now (in this case), beauty can be enjoyed both inswardly and outwardly with great pleasure.

As confirmed by a 7 year-old last weekend, 100% sure no doubt, a fire breathing dragon should be a nice deep red.

Luckily your wife did not allow you to use the angle grinder inside the house!

A beauty she is!

Bye the way, where I live the best quality bricks are more yellow-brownish then red, but I also like the red colour a lot.

Vermelha, my fiery little red dragoness, heartily approves!