Pottery Shop Dressed and Ready to Party!

The pottery shop and studio is 99% finished. As in real life, there is always some tweaking to be done. Here is the Shadyside Potter as she stands today. (Click on the photos for a larger view.) The driveway has been completed, stepping stones made from terracotta air dry clay have been installed, the turf has been roughed up to show some wear from foot traffic, and tea leaves and coffee grounds now masquerade as dirt and mulch.
     The kiln still has a bit of a shine after several sprayed coats of matte-finish artist's medium. I've accepted that it is what it is and won't fiddle with it any more.

I discovered that there is a subtle difference in the shade and texture of tea leaves. Earl Grey has a slightly larger cut and is lighter in color than English Breakfast tea. Coffee grounds are more granular and are much darker than either of the teas. I used Earl Grey for the mulch around the stepping stones, coffee grounds for mulch under the bushes and trees, and a combination of the two teas with a touch of coffee grounds next to the driveway. For the path between the door and the kiln, I scraped off some of the grass and sprinkled a mix of all three mulches to indicate some footworn spots.

On the shop side of the building, there is less going on. After this photo was taken, I added a couple more pots on the ground next to the porch. The stepping stones here are also made from terracotta air dry clay. (Note to self: that bit of stone wall is crying out for a ceramic wall sculpture.)

The photo in the next picture was the inspiration for the driveway. I went to Walmart and bought two dozen eggs just for the cartons; the grocery store we usually use offers only plastic foam trays. The arrow is pointing to an inscription in the stepping stone. While the clay was wet, I used a pin to scratch KB 2013 into it. :) 

     The tea leaves, coffee grounds and loose turf were sprinkled onto diluted white glue that was brushed on the base. The top layers didn't touch the glue and had a tendency to blow around. I hit them with a good dose of hair spray, which keeps them in place while remaining invisible. Another part of the 1% tweaking that needs to be done is aging the stepping stones. They look uncomfortably new. 

Inside the shop, I added some posters and signs for a bit of color. I copied them from the internet and printed them on matte-finish photo paper.

I see two more spaces for ceramic wall art -- above the door and below the shelf.  I like this shot because it shows the skylight in the studio area.

One sign is posted in the studio. It reads: Keep Calm and Throw Something. This photo shows the back of the garage doors, which are perfectly flat. I faked the boards and cross bars by drawing them with a woodburning tool and doing a bit of shading with the paint to mimic the front sides.

Okay, so maybe the pottery is closer to 95% than 99% complete. There is still the potter himself or herself to make. Stay tuned!

Pottery Shop Landscaping Challenges

Before we get to the landscaping, thought you'd like to see this project as it's coming together. The roof of the pottery shop has been removed in these photos; it's made to be removed for easy viewing. In the background is the Beacon Hill. The general contractor is wondering when I'll get over there. This was supposed to be the winter of the Beacon Hill, but the pottery shop hollered louder.

The kiln is finished but for one step. Do you see the slight glare on the curved of the kiln? I painted the kiln with satin finish polyacrylic. Mistake. Kiln bricks are not supposed to be glazed. I've tried to dull the finish with washes of gray and ivory acrylic. It helps a little but not enough. I'm not sure what the step will be, so I'm moving on to the landscaping while I ponder. One thought is to powder some gray or black chalk or charcoal and gently rub it on with a fingertip. Actually, that's the only thought at the moment. Suggestions welcome!

There are some challenges with the landscaping. The lovely grass sheets have to be cut and fitted around the building and kiln. The sheets have a directional grain. The grain doesn't always run in the direction it should, which results in obvious breaks between sections. Not realistic at all. If you look at the strip to the left of the garage door you'll see what I mean.

Also, I haven't figured out how I'm going to make the driveway and walkway to the steps. I don't like the painted stone-finish paint. Another issue is the too-clean lines between grass and man made areas. The pads by the doors are bits of a plastic foam egg carton. They look like concrete pads that might lead to strips of concrete with grass between. 

One thought is to make some stones from left over terra cotta air dry clay, paint them gray and then put some white on as if they've been whitewashed, and line the driveway edges with them. I have some crumbles of green/brown flocking/foliage materials that can be put between them. If you click the next photo to enlarge, you can see a bit of the crumbly material close to the right side of the garage door. It blends well with the grass.

I had three of the oblong bushes like the one in front of the porch but needed smaller ones near the corner of the building. I cut one of the oblongs in two and glued some of the crumbles on the raw edges. I like the result.  I've saved some used coffee grounds and tea leaves for dirt and mulch. That's what is in the containers in the foreground.

Another challenge is how to indicate wear. The grass would be worn in paths from the driveway to the door and from the door to the kiln. Stepping stones? Indicate matted grass with glue & stain brownish? Or? Again, suggestions welcome!

Back to head scratching!

Hallowe'en Decorations

No better ideas came to me in the night, so today I hooked up the ghost lights with cloth-wrapped wires. Two tiny holes between shingles worked fine. A dab of paint camouflaged the tiny bit of wire that showed.

Click on the photos to see details, like the spider to the right of the attic window. The little pumpkins on the garland and stacked by the suit of armor are putka pods. I bought a whole bag of them for $1 some years ago. They are seed pods from an Australian tree -- Glochidion ferdinandi --  commonly known as the cheese tree. The squiggly lines on the porch posts don't stand out as much as they did at first. I had fun filling the window boxes. Found some pale black-eyed susans, each with a black leaf, in the box of landscaping material that have just the right dead air about them. 

The ghost lights reached all around the porch and across the front of the second level, with one little guy nipping around the corner. The big witch is hot glued onto the roof.

The chimney side took the longest to do. The vines are made of lycopodium. The twisted stems added to the atmosphere, and the greenery help to camouflage the wires as the ghosts climbed from the porch to the upper story. I think the plastic figures -- the skeleton in the window box, bug on the chimney just below the roof -- are meant to glow in the dark. They haven't been in bright light long enough to test the theory. Their translucency adds to the spookiness.

On the back (open side), the edges of the walls & ceiling/floor need to be capped with a U-channel, and the opening at ground level needs to be closed up some way. There's that to do and a bit more decorating outside. I've made that the next priority, although truth be told, I'd rather be working on the inside.

White Orchid Mushrooms Growing

Today I spent in the dark basement, growing mushrooms! The characteristic white dots were added to the red roof, and tiny mushrooms were planted around the house. To give an idea of scale, the pink foam is one inch thick. The stems and caps are made of Fimo polyclay. The stems are translucent with a smidge of flesh mixed in; the caps are red with sparkles. I formed the caps over the ends of a couple of paint brushes and baked stems and caps separately. After they cooled, I glued them together and used the tip of a toothpick to put tiny dots of 3D "puff" paint on them.

They add just the right amount of color to landscaping.

This side of the house looks a bit bare. Not sure what will go here, but it needs something.

The bay window side seems to be finished.

A little visitor came to the back of the house. It's hard to believe he's a button. Too cute!

The White Orchid garden grows

I spent several hours today on the landscaping, adding flowers and several kinds of greenery. In addition to the base paint, there are patches of model railroad turf, dry moss, and model railroad lichen. In combination, they give the effect of a forest floor.The yellow and purple flowers started out as white flowers cut from real life size artificial flower stems. They got a makeover with two or three shades of craft paint just blobbed on. Plain white just didn't cut the mustard. They're not planted in formal beds but just grow willy-nilly.

I like the way the mushroom looks. I want to make some smaller ones out of polyclay to tuck in here and there to bring in more red color.

As a change from the messy greenery, I put together a birdhouse kit I've had for some time. I like the natural colors, so I didn't paint it as suggested in the kit's directions. I painted the pole brown and I think I'll darken the scalloped edge a little; it looks too new. I may have to glue some moss on the roof, too.

Across the back I put a couple kinds of moss. I may add a few surprises there later on.

White Orchid landscaping

As I typed the title for this entry, I realized I'd started out numbering the White Orchid entries. I don't know why. It's another example of how I over-engineer projects ... lol.

Today I worked on the landscaping. I'm trying to do this with stuff I have on hand. Luckily, there are lots of items left from prior projects. I have no idea where the pine tree came from, but it works well on one side of the door. The mushroom on the other side of the porch is a glass Christmas ornament. I took the hanger part off and used the Dremel ever so gently to remove the glass stub on the top. I glued a circle from the paper punch over the hole. When it dries, I'll glue the mushroom in; in this photo it's leaning.

The base was painted to simulate the bricks, rocks, grass, and dirt. Old tea leaves were glued on for the dirt, and the moss/grass is model railroad greenery. There's a lot of detail work to be done. If you click on the pictures, you can see the small plants on the pine tree side.

In the second photo you can see a bit of fencing left over from the houseboat. I hadn't planned to put a fence there, but it looks good, so it will stay.

Back to Work on the White Orchid

Two months! That's a long time to go without minis, but I've been keeping in touch via the Greenleaf Dollhouse Forum for vicarious mini fixes. The garden has been keeping me busy, and the first two weeks in August, Lloyd and I were in the Czech Republic. It has been a busy summer! These ceramic pieces are souvenirs from the Czech Republic. They are decorated in the traditional Southern Bohemia manner. They will go into the Pierce, which insists it is going to be a Bohemian inn with a bar and restaurant. I'm looking forward to making mini roast pork and dumplings with sauerkraut.
But I'm getting ahead of myself. The garden is semi dormant, and my craft area has been screaming for attention, so this afternoon I descended to do a little cleanup -- or so I thought. I almost hate to post these photos, but you really need to see how it deteriorated while sitting unused.

Oh ... see the Van Buren box? A cousin presented me with it when we went to visit in July. She'd bought it for her daughter years ago but never got around to building it. I think this one will be made and donated to a charity, but that's a way down the line. The current project is the White Orchid, which ought to be finished in jig time. After I got everything cleaned up, somewhat sorted and put away, I worked on the base. It is glued to a lazy susan, so the house will turn easily. Because it has battery pack lights, no need to worry about a cord getting tangled.

The base is a sheet of foamcore board with a layer of contractor's foam with rounded edges. A couple scraps of the foam form the berms on either side of the porch. I covered all of it with a thin layer of wallboard mud. For a while I was thinking it would be a snow scene, but I think it will be a summery forest setting for better contrast with the white of the building. When the mud dries, I'll give it a coat of gesso, and then paint in some rocks and the brick walkway by the stairs. I have some train layout greenery and lycopodium and other bits of greenery and flowers I can use. I may make some tiny mushrooms, too.

It's good to be back in the mini workshop!

By the way, if you'd like to see some photos from our trip, check the blog here.

Lighting Challenges

I want lights in the White Orchid, but I don't want to have to tether it to a cord, so I got some of those battery-operated lights sold in floral departments. They're used to add sparkle to flower arrangements. There are 10 lights, hooked up octopus style to two AA batteries. After thinking about it for a very long time, I finally decided to put the battery pack outside, run five lights for the ground floor under the floor, and pop them up through the floor.

I wasn't sure how the lights would work on the upper floor. I don't even know what lights I want to have up there, in the living quarters. I figured I could run the wires up the backside of the oven wall and worry about the rest later. Today was the day to do it, after I made the pink contractor's foam base.

The top photo shows the battery pack outside. The second photo shows a cover I made to go over the battery pack. The house is in the woods, so the landscaping will be some nice rich earth, pebbles, lichen, shade-loving flowers, etc. After working on all of this for hours, I didn't like it. It was too awkward.

So, I changed my mind and put the battery pack inside!

The downstairs lights will run under the floor and the upstairs lights ... well, the wires will run up that slanted channel, but I'm not sure where they'll go from there. I may run them along the ceiling instead of running them all the way upstairs.

In order to be able to work the little lever on the battery pack to turn the lights on and off, I had to do some surgery on the oven wall. Now the bottom steps and the end of the unit are glued together and can slide out of the way for access to the lever. The entire oven wall will remain unattached, so it can pivot out when the batteries need to be changed, but it won't have to be moved to operate the lights.

I thought this was a good time to stop working. I'm going to have to lengthen the wires on several of the lights before I go any further with this.

Creole Cottage 6: The Fountain

Just a short post today to show you how I made the base for the fountain. It's a piece of packaging, the kind that's usually hard to open and gets thrown away. I don't remember what was in this, but it looked to me to be the perfect shape for a base.



I glued the resin fountain on the base and covered it with a thin layer of wallboard mud (aka joint compound), then used acrylic paint and pastels to age it.

Creole Cottage 5: Landscaping begins

The front garden an important part of this project, so I built a base from plywood with an edge around it, like a tray, and fitted a piece of contractor's foam into it. I painted the whole thing with black gesso as a base. When it dried, I used paperclay to lay a brick walkway.

The paperclay was painted and aged with pastels and washes, and bits of green "moss" were glued between the bricks. The moss is used by model railroaders in their layouts.

The dirt is dried, used coffee grounds. The white "oyster shells" are crushed eggshells. My family got awfully tired of eating eggs while I worked on this part of the project. Under the house, where it wouldn't be seen easily, I daubed white paint. The fencing is made from pieces of contractor's foam with purchased plastic "wrought iron" fencing.

This is an overhead view of the base with some of the plants and a couple of trees. With the foam base, it was easy to poke the greenery into the ground. I pulled it back out, dipped it in glue, and pushed it back in. You can see the bare spots where the brick pillars from the house go. I decided not to glue the house in place to facilitate moving it.

More plants will be added, but you get the general idea of how the garden grows. :)