More about the street and the buckets

Do you reckon it's difficult to think of a suitable title every time you blog?  I do, but.... I'm not really breaking my head over it though. ;-)

Well, this is just a follow up of what I was working on before.  First the street scene.  I have finished the cobble stones and grouted them.  I'm not overly happy, but it will have to do.  The part I'm not happy with is that the clay shrunk more than I had anticipated and the grout was still a bit to white, eventhough I had added some parchment and burnt sienna colours to darken it.  Not enough though after it had dried up.  Wonder if I can still do something with a wash....

To wash in the grout I had to varnish the cobble stones first. This made them darker and a bit too shiny eventhough I used matt varnish. It's not too bad though. We can pretend it had just been raining. :-) Yes, I know, you can see the grout on the pavers' edges. Will have to paint that again. Never a dull day for a miniaturist!


The buckets are finished too now.  Unfortunately they ended up a bit bigger than the one I already had and also I couldn't match the colour, since I didn't paint the smaller one at home.  It's not too bad though.  I might just use the four new ones outside.  I sprayed them silver at first, but that appeared to be too shiny.  Silver Folk Art paint didn't do it for me either, so I went out and bought an expensive spray can for a galvanised zink effect.  I am happier now, but I am still wondering how to get that real 'used' and 'old' effect of zink.  I own a few items myself and when I compare the buckets just don't look right.  Anybody has an idea????

The one in the front is the older one, that I made a few years ago.  The one on the far right has been sprayed with 'zink', the other two are still plain 'silver'.

I have been in search of all the items I could use to decorate and fill my shop and luckily I had quite a few.  First there is this huge bouquet which gets pride of place in the bay window.  An eye catcher for the customers I reckon, and also this beautiful Hibiscus that I am putting out on the pavement:

And that's my update for today.  All I need to do now is to welcome yet another follower.  She's from Finland and her name is Ultsu.  Ultsu likes dreaming, like most of us, and she does it (and more) on: Mini Dreams. I hope you'll enjoy visiting my blog Ultsu and a warm welcome to you.

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.

And steady she goes...

The most boring part has been finished now: the slates on the roof!  I thought I would never see the end of it.  Just been unlucky this time, because I finished the roof on my witch's cottage much quicker (and neater!).  It really doesn't help when you go away on a three months holiday and forget to pack away your paperclay in a sealed plastic bag.  That was one.  Next thing is that this time I didn't have long continueous periods to work and you can tell, every little batch looked different.  Then there were the interruptions: doorbell, phone call...  You come back to your job and notice the dried clay on your work board or dried glue on your roof.  Ah well, it's done now and since paperclay is quite forgiving once it's been painted it still looks half decent.  This is the result of a week's hard work (I have forgotten to take a picture of the roof with just the paperclay done, but at least there is the one of the bay window):

roof on the bay window done

the roof painted and 'gutters' attached and painted

I have decided to paint the window sills green as well

There's even a planter with gereniums



looking through the window



shop doorbell attached

If you, like me, never work to a plan then sometimes you have to make changes, minor or major.  This time a ran into quite a major change which required me to put the whole building on the scroll saw:

shop on the scroll saw

 As I had never planned to use paperclay for this scene I needed to cut off a bit from the base.  The plan is to have a slightly higher footpath next to the building and the street at a slightly lower level.  So I cut off the bit for the street and will glue a new square base underneath the existing one, ending up with two different levels.
It will perhaps become a bit clearer once I can show you the picture of the finished base once the glue is dry.

cutting of the part for the "street"

 Well that's all for now.  I'd wanted to welcome new followers, but it took too long (been neglecting you people for too long, my fault) and it's way past my bed time. 

See you, folks...

Was it really more than half a year?

Yes, it was.  More than half a year ago, seven months and a bit to be precise, I posted on this blog about the cacti I had made.  Not that I haven't done anything in the meantime, but my Florist has been terribly neglected.  So, here I am, back again and I have made a new start.

On my other blog, Marion's Miniatures, you may have read why I haven't done much of late.  Amongst other things I have been overseas for three months, but it was mainly my 'mini' holiday, so I have visited two fairs and have partaken in various workshops.  You can read all about it on that blog if you would like to (and haven't done so yet).

You may have read that I have met Nina from Germany, who is also making a flower shop (or has already finished hers).  Und, ja Nina, Ich habe es versprochenm Ich wurde wieder arbeiten als Ich zurueck war.  I keep promises as you can see   ;-) 

Remember the white brick wall?  It's been painted now



And the side wall too

 Next I will be working on the roof and put on paperclay slates, the same as on my witch's cottage.

That's all for now.  When I next have a bit of time I will have a look at my followers, because I have been neglecting that side of my blog as well.  See you soon....

Back from New Zealand and some more 'brick laying' done

Although I have been back from my trip for over a week now, I haven't had much time to update my blogs.  There's always so much else to do...  However, our local group's get-together was last Sunday and I took my florist to do some more brick laying.  It took me the best part of the day and a sore back, but once you start you'll have to finish, especially in the warmer months when the paper clay tends to dry a lot quicker.  So here are the pictures of the side and front of the shop:

Next step is probably the dormer, but I am not too sure yet if I am going to do cladding or add brickwork.  Building structures often don't have brickwork for dormers, because there wouldn't be a base for the bricks to sit on.  If I can't make up my mind I may start on the paving.  Let's keep it a surprise for the moment. :-)

The other additions for the shop can be found on my other blog: Marion's Miniatures, because that's where I have written about my trip to New Zealand.

Additions to this blog however are six new followers that I would like to welcome.  They are:

Cheryl at A Miniature Place,
Allison at Miniature Allsorts (such striking name),
Patty Clark at Mini Babies,
Sylvia at Lotjes Dollshouse (called after her dog, I believe),
Lorraine at Dfly Creations - Dollhouse Miniatures,
and last but not least Maria at Casitas en Miniatura.

As usual I have visited all your blogs (if I haven't done so before) and loved what I saw.  Well worth visiting, all of them.  New mini friends, a warm welcome from

Marion

The brickwork is next

Glad the inside is finished, so I can get on with a different task.  I have now started with the brickwork on the outside as you can see in the picture:

I am not overly happy with the quality of the bricks, but will have to live with it....  In normal circumstances I work with a layer of paperclay which is 3mm thick, but since I decided only afterwards to work with clay I realised too late that my window frames should have been at least 4 or 5 mms thick.  With a flat layer of clay it doesn't matter, but when you have to carve out bricks it makes all the difference. Now my layers was less then 2mm, which is far too thin.  The thickness and therefore the texture of the clay is very important when you do your carving, as is the dryness.  Too wet and you drag your clay, too dry and you can't carve anymore.  In this case I couldn't get the texture right and in most cases I carved right through the layer of clay until I touched the wood.  So, I hope that when it's painted it will look a little bit better then it does now.  I know, it doesn't look too bad, but it's not my standard of work.  :-)

Inside I had to work with the two different clays, because I was running out of the Creative Paperclay and the last packet I had I wanted to keep for the outside walls.  So I had to finish of one wall with the other paperclay.  I am glad I had foreseen the problem with the colours, because it is now apparent that the other clay is more grey then white.  If it's going to worry me when it's all dry I might just put a light coat of paint on top, but I'll wait a while before I take that step.

I am also glad that paperclay is so forgiving.  You can do almost everything with it and repair mistakes.  Now, that is what I call great!  I said last night that I was going to try something different, and I am glad I have been able to make repairs.  I wanted to stencil a nice edge with flowers along the ceiling, but I didn't have the right stencils for it.  Then I thought I'd stencil a bit next to the dormer window on either side.  Well, that didn't quite work.  I think the old paint I have for stencilling has dried out too much, so I got some more paperclay and pasted that over the top, just like when I repair cracks.....

Next picture shows you the other tiles that I have framed so this tile picture can hang on the wall next to the door.  I thought I'd allow myself a picture with flowers in a flower shop.

And all this will have to do for the time being, because tomorrow I am going to pack and take of to New Zealand on Friday.  I am going to the Dollhouse and Miniatures Convention in Auckland with a friend from there and then on to stay with her for a fortnight.  we'll have a great time, I guess, because we'll have a lot to talk about and a lot to mini together.  So, will see you back after the 5th of November.

But, before I go I want to quickly welcome a few more followers (not all new, because with 3 blogs you tend to see well-known names...), but at least new on this blog.  A warm welcome to:

Teresa Martinez at Tiny Ter Miniatures
Natalia at Scarlet Sails Miniatures
Karin at Mini Ramblings and Musings and
rmartedal for whom I cannot detect a link.  If you have one, please let me know and I'll add it on.

That's all for now.  See you around in a few weeks' time

Marion

The inside walls are finished

Today I finished the inside walls.  Glad it's done, because once the walls are in place you have a heck of time to get into the corners.  It's easier when you plan a building, work with foam core (gator board) and clad the walls before you put the lot together, as we did with the witch's cottage.  Never mind, it's done, because where there is a will there is a way....

I was asked what to do with the cracks.  Well, it depends of course on how big your cracks are.  Even though I am not world's biggest expert on paperclay I could probably also say, it depends on what kind of clay you work with.  From my own experience I could say that the depth and the number of cracks appear to be different when working with two different clays.  I don't think weather has a lot to do with it, but it is possible of influence: in warm weather the clay dries faster and dries out faster when working with it, so that could be a reason. However, when working with the paperclay I definitely feel the difference in structure, so I think that might be the biggest reason.  So far I have worked with Creative Clay in cold weather, although we had a heater on in the room, and in warm weather and the cracks are minimal.  When I did 'Scrooge' (with the 'pottery paperclay') it was very cold and the clay dried very slowly, but still the cracks were bigger and there were more of them.  I feel there is a lot more moisture in the latter clay.  Sometimes, however, it also depends on how you combine layers.  If you are a bit short and just move two layers alongside and against each other without smoothing out each layer your chances are that you will have not only cracks, but parts that will curl away.

Now, what to do with them if you have cracks.  I will show you with a few pictures what I do.  I had a crack in the corner where two walls meet (yes, didn't smooth out enough) and a smaller one next to it.  For the crack in the corner I rolled out a 'worm' with wet hands and placed it in the corner from top to bottom, then smoothed it out with my fingers.  I am not a nail biter, so generally my nails get in the way with such a job, but I was lucky that I lost a large part of a nail from my index finger the other day and hence I had a nice smoothing tool. :-)  Where I couldn't even get my finger in the corner I used a plastic smoothing tool to finish it off.  Apologies for the first picture.  It's blurred and I can't take it again, but you get the drift...

For the little crack in the top corner I picked up a little ball of clay with wet fingers, worked it flat and into a not too moist paste and rubbed it carefully into the crack.  The crack was only tiny and didn't need to be filled, but I did it anyway, so that I could show you.  Bye the way, it now shows the wallpaper that I have used for the ceiling.



I figure that when you have bigger cracks you could do the same.  Make the clay into a (very thick) paste and rub it in.  If you have used a stiff brush to texture the walls don't forget to repeat it on your repaired part.  Don't forget the glue either in the corners (like I did!).  I just hope it will hold anyway.

This brings the inside plastering to an end.  The top floor is finished and drying:

I don't know yet what I'll do with the ugly edges, but I am not going to worry about them now.

For further decoration I have something in mind, but I need a sample wall with dry clay to try it out, so once I get that done I'll let you know.

Bye for now

Marion

The floors done (again)

Changing my mind caused indeed a lot more work, but something I gladly did, because I like working with wood.  Next month it will even be better, because then I will have my own table saw.  But for now I can get a lot done with my scroll saw and the disk sander.  The latter has been one of my best buys. You can do a lot of precision work with a disk sander, that's what makes it such a great piece of equipment.  I have used it a lot today to sand all the diagonal parts of the timber floor boards.  If you measure correctly you don't even have to use the attachments to set the angles, which makes it even a lot quicker.

So, what have I done today?  It doesn't look like much, but it took me the best part of the day to glue all the floor boards on the ground floor in place and to cut and glue the floor boards for the first floor.  However, I did say it was fun and it looks great.  The floors look quite light, but I am going to think of a colour that shows the wood mellow with age. 

Did I tell you yesterday that I thought I was going to cheat?  Well, I haven't.  At least, not really.  If I couldn't think of a solution I was going to use balsa.  Now, that is what I call cheating...  :-)  Although, I have used balsa a lot in the past, even to make furniture. However, I discovered some bass wood of equal thickness as the other timber, so I used that.  I still consider it cheating a bit, because now I have used two different kinds of timber.  Not only that, but they don't look alike, nor do they even smell alike!  I got around the problem of the two colours by cutting the planks up here and there and exchange them with the different colours.  Worked a treat!  So, now I have a ground floor of lovely smelling camphor laurel mixed with bass wood.

The first floor is probably done in Tasmanian oak, but I am not too sure about it.  I should keep track, not only of what type of timber I use to make something, but also of the discarded parts, because although I am learning, I can not yet tell the differences most of the time.

Anyway, enough of my chattering.  Here are the pictures:

And now it's Saturday night, nothing worthwhile on tv, so I might get on with it.....

Bye for now

Marion

Changing my mind again

One shouldn't change one's mind too often, it always means more work. :-)

You may recall that the building originally was meant for a workshop at the club, consisting only of a base with two walls.  An inside/outside scene.  The club member who prepared the kits decided to extend it and since I liked the idea I did so too.  One thing lead to another and I ended up with a building complete with roof and dormer window.  Then I decided it was going to be my flower shop.  So far so good, but when you don't plan these things properly you're bound to run into little problems here and there.  Now I want the inside and outside clad with paper clay and also the cobble stones in the street are going to be done in paper clay.  This means that the existing floor is too low. I realised it after the stairs were completed, the floor boards scored and the door frame installed.

Now I am going to install a floor with real floor boards, which means that the first step of the stairs will be a bit too low, but I am not going to worry about it.  I didn't like the idea of the door frame disappearing behind the floor boards, so I've cut them shorter:

The paint work, already finished, needs a bit of repairing, but that's no big deal.  I've started on the floor boards, but alas, I didn't work out the measurements correctly and now I am short of wood for the planks.  I'll need to put up my thinking cap to solve the problem, because I cannot remember what kind of timber I used and where it came from in the first place.....  I might have to cheat a bit.  If I do so I will take a picture of the finished work and let you try and find out where I have cheated!!! 

This is the floor so far:

So far I am quite happy with it, considering that almost nothing is square and I had to do a lot of measuring and sanding....

Oh, and I can show you a piccie of the spiral staircase as well.  It worked out fine.  All I need to do now is to think of a suitable colour.  The outfit of the shop is going to be something like shabby chic, so it will need to blend in well.

I am going to wait with placing the staircase until I have done the decorating, because it will only get in the way and will get damaged too if I'm not careful.


Since I have started posting on this blog again I have discovered a number of new followers.  Of course it's time to welcome all of you, so, a warm welcome to

Sonya at Cannellaemelograno
Ana at Mi mundo en rosa
Beatrice at Les Miniatures de Béatrice
Annalisa at Minilisa
Anneke at Pieplyts
Marie at Recréation Miniature
Silvia at Il piccolo ondo di Silvia and
Catherine  at Le monde créatif de Catherine
and I hope you will be entertained as much as I am when I visit your blogs.

Insofar you had a blog I have visited and enjoyed what I saw.  Tori is my dear daughter-in-law who is a wonderful scrapper, but doesn't have time for frivolous things like blogs, what with her family, work and study!

That's all for now.  I should consider housework today and if I'm good possibly a little bit of creativity....

Progress and building inspection

It seems I am getting stuck into it again.  I just needed a bit of help to get on the way, I think.  Hubby helped me further with the spiral stairs.  He seems to know what he's doing.  I still lack that kind of insight. :-)

Anyway, while he was working on the stairs I went to look for something that I could use for the banisters.  I didn't have any spindles, but I remembered I had disgarded the stairs of my Del Prado house.  I went in search and yes, there they were, in a box full of junk.  The parts that is.  I decided that I could use the parts for the spiral stairs. So I set out to cut the parts that would replace the spindles (see picture).

Hubby routered the slots for them to be glued in and I finished it off:

I found a length of electric wire which will do for the top of the banisters, so when the glue is dry tomorrow I will try and finish the stairs properly.  They can be set into place, because the preparations have been done:

Slot in the floor

Receiving hole in the ground floor

As you can see, I have already started on the floor boards.  It's going to be a fairly old building, so a timber floor will do.  So much nicer.  I love wood.  A tiled floor would be rather 'cold' in a flower shop I reckon.

Just as well I was concentrating on doing a good job, because the building inspector arrived unexpectedly:

So far the work has been approved. She's cute, isn't she, this building inspector?  I wish they were all like that. :-)

I haven't planned far ahead, but I have this vague idea of an old building, so I might try and work with paperclay, inside and out.  Therefore I have started painting the door and windows, although I haven't decided on the colour yet.  I will probably look into that tomorrow.  So, this is what I have done so far:

The door already has glass in it, so I am painstakingly painting around the edges. I have a fairly steady hand, so hopefully I can pull that off.  With the door and window frames I haven't been so careful, since the areas around them are going to be covered anyway.

Well, that's all for today.  See you tomorrow for another episode....

Building again

One can't always make plants and flowers.  One needs a building to house them!  So, I have taken up working on my florist again.  My hubby has helped me this morning with electrifying.  Boy, that's the best part of building: seeing everything lit up!  I know the basics of electricity, but hubby, having been an electrician by trade, always has some handy hints, so I am learning as I go.  He instructs, I do the work.  Best way to remember what to do next time when I am trying to do this.

This time I have two downlights in the bay window of the shop and one light in the dormer upstairs.  Since I am using MDF it's very simple, just drill a few holes and with the router create a channel where needed.

Remember these?

They now have the lights in them:

And the dormer:

I don't know what kind of lamp I will have in this little room upstairs, but at least there's light!  Initially I wanted a kind of fluro, but can't get it here, and since I am impatient I am not going to wait till I can get one. ;-)

Downstairs I will make a kind of cupboard in the back of the shop which will house the plug for the lights.  At the moment I have created a temporary connection:

And this is what it looks like from the outside.  I should have probably waited till night time, but will take another picture later on.

My hubby is working on the spiral stairs.  He's started them some 10 years ago, just for fun, but promised he would finish them now so I can use them in the shop.  This is where they were at when I discovered them in my box full of 'junk':

It's not much to look at, but while I am writing this I can hear a lot of noice (scroll saw, sanding disk) from the garage, so I guess I will have something more to show next time...

Okay, dinner time!!!  See you around....