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It's day two of the class, and we'll end up spending almost 10 hours (including lunch) at task! First up this morning
is putting up the walls. It looks like a real house now. Two tips is to
use a higher quality yellow glue (pictured) and to use bamboo skewers to
reinforce the corner joints. |
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Time to put up the timber. We used the Pro-Bond Wood Glue (Elmer's Contractor's Glue) and a little tape to hold
it in place. |
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Boris is hard at work again making wattle for the exterior of the house. We used thin balsa wood and some heavy
stock paper cut into thin strips - and crazy glue to hold the whole thing together. |
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Boris has certainly earned his ale! Thankfully he's not been drinking on the worksite... |
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The first wall of "stucco", made by using Creative Paperclay. |
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Here are the main tools we will be using with the paperclay to cut, texturize, smooth, as well as lay out brick
and stone mortar lines.
The brush on the bottom I used for almost all of my stippling/texturizing. I stippled my stucco interior walls
(and later will use it for exterior walls). I also stippled any stone or bricks I made with it as well (often several
times to create new layers of marks).
The grey plastic wedge as well as the small wood utensil laying on top of it I used for almost all of my brick
laying out and for the fireplace - the edges of the wood utensil are the same size as my brickwork, and the edges
of the grey wedge are the average size of the stonework on the fireplace. This helped to lend a uniform look to
my stonework by using the same tool in the same area when "laying out" any stones/bricks.
The dowel with a point at the end was great for cleaning out mortar lines and redefining the shapes of the stone/bricks. |
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The cast resin fireplace has been slipped into place and a 3/8 inch slab of paperclay has been used to create a
hearth. The upper wall is being laid with paperclay to start the process of creating a wall of stone to surround
the fireplace. |
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Close-up of the finished paperclay surround. It will be left to dry overnight and tomorrow we will be painting
(I hope!) the stones. I was looking for something that was somewhat formal but still had a rough hewn look. This
type of stone cut is called Herodian.
Note that the stone formation does not go into the area reserved for the lintel and mantel. It is filled in with
paperclay - but will be cut out later in order to install the lintel and mantel (see Day 4). |
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A front shot of the stone surround. I used a harder bristled paintbrush for stippling (but not a metal stippler). |
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The end of the day. The day honestly just flew by, I can't hardly say which part of the day was my favorite. The
paperclay was initially daunting, but as soon as I figured out it was just play-doh for adults, I got into the
swing of things. If the paperclay started getting too stiff (drying out), I just dipped my fingers in water and
reconstituted the corner/stone/area I was working on. |
