The street gets done

Today  I enjoyed myself.  I played with clay!  Yes, I do like playing with clay, because this job was different from the roof tiles.  This part is the more creative work that I like.  I have started paving the street and the footpath.  However, before I could start on it I had to place a doorstep in the door opening, because, when I changed my mind I had to cut the door shorter to accommodate the floor inside and the pavers outside.  Oh, and I showed a picture of me working on the scroll saw yesterday, but I of course had to cut the base too.  This I didn't do on the scroll saw, but on another one of my you beaut machines: the table saw:

And, yes, I do use the push sticks.  Ten fingers may seem a lot, but I still want to hang on to all of them!
This machine I've had since October last year, but hadn't really used it until yesterday.  Stage fright probably, but I am over that now.

Anyway I needed a doorstep which I created from a few tongue depressers.  Nothing fancy.  Stained them and glued them in:

As you can see, I will have a lot of cleaning to do before we open the shop.  Paving is such a dirty job. ;-)  By the way, the hole in the floor is to accommodate the stairs when I get to do the interior.

I really shouldn't have started with this picture, because it gives the game away.  Ah well, on to the next pictures quickly then.

The paving is done in stages.  First a layer of paperclay onto the glue covered surface and then the pavers are indented with a special tool: a cut off credit card!

Then comes the tricky bit.  I have to wait till the clay is dry enough so it doesn't pull, but also not too dry, because then it's too late to do anything at all.  I got it right today:

The pavers are nicely carved out and can now dry.  This is the foot path. Next come the cobble stones for the street at a slightly lower level:

I started of with a tiny bit, but wasn't happy, so off they went into the bin.  Start again.  This time I was happy enough and finished the whole lot.  All you do for starters is just glue little balls of clay onto the surface and wait till the clay is dry.  Then comes the hard bit, but I'll leave that for next time.  I am going to be patient and start thinking about the interior.  I have a feeling there will also be a lot of flower and plant making....

One more thing.  While I was reading through earlier posts to look up something I came upon my one time building inspector.  Remember her? 

Well, unfortunately I've had to do without her since last December.  There were multiple problems with her and we have had to put her to sleep.  I still miss her every day, but I know she's much happier where she is now.  That makes it less hard, but only just.  She was in her own way a cute little thing.

See you next time.