Brettso Crafty

This is not my project, but thought I would share it anyways. This is Brett's project that he had finished a few days ago. What is it, you ask? It's a trophy for his upcoming golf tournament that he had co-organized with a fellow from the ICBC driver examination department (I don't know what the real term is called). Actually, the tournament is today!

Brett's work (Drive Wise Driving School) and all the other driving schools in the Victoria area, as well as the driving examiners from ICBC have come together to have a friendly golf tournament. Instructors versus the examiners! So Brett thought it would be fun to have a trophy to hand out at the end. I don't really know the deets as to whether or not if this will be given to the company or to the individual, or whether it will be given to the best or the worst player. All I know is that Brett is determined to bring this bad boy home to the Drive Wise office.

The trophy didn't come out exactly as Brett had envisioned it. He had originally wanted to affix the car to a real trophy base but after much research and visits to stores that sell the bases, he discovered that they are sold at quite a hefty price and didn't want to shell out the $100+ out of his own wallet. He also didn't have the time or the work space to make his own so he had to resort to finding something somewhat usable in the thrift stores. This is the result of his thriftiness:

He found the toy car on a Saturday, where this elderly man spreads out his goods on the sidewalk next to the James Bay market. It's really a remote control toy car that's broken and didn't come with the remote, and the guy had wanted $5 for it. Being in between students and rarely carrying any cash, Brett only had $2 in his pocket and managed to convince the guy to sell it to him for that price. Sold! Brett then spray painted the car gold and using the Dremel drill that I gave him for Christmas (yay! He's using it!!) drilled a hole in the windshield and glued the golf ball in there. After a few days of searching, he finally found fake bullet hole stickers at a joke shop and attached it around the ball.

Next up, he printed out a little RoadSense Learner sign (it's mandatory for all new drivers in Canada to affix this to the back of their vehicle) and glued it to an actual magnet, since the real signs are magnets. I'm not sure why he went through all that trouble, since he glued it to the back of the car anyways. But then again, it's all in the details, right?

It took Brett, weeks to figure out what to do for a base (seriously) and had almost scraped the whole project when he kept coming up with nothing. He finally settled for this wooden lamp base, which he had ripped out the electrical cord and innards and sawed off the top at a 45° angle. A trip to the Do-It Centre later and he had a piece of wood that he spray painted black and diligently painted in the white lines. Do you know what this is? A parking space! He deliberately painted the lines closer than usual, I guess everyone at the tournament will know that it's a tribute to the ICBC office, where the parking spaces are much smaller and people always have a hard time parking right between the lines. To top it all off, Brett drilled the car onto the wooden parking spot a little crookedly (remember, they deal with new drivers!). Et voilà! The trophy for the first annual Victoria area instructors vs examiners golf tournament!!

If Brett had the moola and the time, he thought a little engraved plaque would've completed the entire thing. But alas, he had neither to spare.

Even though the trophy didn't come out exactly the way he had planned, Brett is still pretty darn proud of this project. And I'm proud that he had turned his vision into a reality. Brett is even more so proud that he had actually followed through on it, cause as he puts it he's "all ideas, no substance to back the shit up." I beg to differ. He may not be an arts and crafts kind of guy, but when he gets an idea for a short film in head that idea definitely becomes a reality. I mean, Mr.P was a result of one of his ideas.

So there you go. A first glimpse at a crafty Brett!