The Perfect Storm

Alice In Wonderland by Cate

Here we are, in the middle of a lovely long weekend. Well, I am anyway. You might have to go to work tomorrow, but I don't, for it is this lady's birthday (close enough to the date, anyway)....

 

Her Royal Highness Queen Victoria

Yes, it is the Victoria Day long weekend. A few great things happened this weekend for me - first, I was privileged to be included in the celebration of Member Cate's 25th wedding anniversary. A fine time was had by all, with inspired decorations,  good food, coffee that was brewed by the deity of your choice,  live music, and dancing. Lots of dancing. Did I mention dancing? I danced for hours - not my fault, they kept belting out really good songs (and by really good songs, I mean the ones I like).  My ribs hurt, my voice is gone, but all in all, a great time was had - I think Vickie (she likes her friends to call her Vickie) would be proud of the time spent yesterday in the celebration of a wonderous milestone on this, her birthday (or close enough). 

Other things that went right in my weekend - the season finale to Doctor Who, and the "sorta" conclusion to the current story arc - some are not a fan of Clara, or of the current Doctor, but I think they are brilliant, and I was happy with the resolution, not so much that it is 6 months until the next episode - long suffering Whovian that I am. Also, Star Trek came out this weekend - well, the sequel reboot that changes the time line so maybe we can give certain boy wonders a miss (you know who you are, Mr. Crusher...). I swear, I didn't know what way to turn, someone was DEFINITELY peeking at my Christmas list this week. 


Anyway, today was a catch up day - I wouldn't have gone out at all had I not run out of coffee supplies. I am still amazingly awake, which is interesting given the very few hours of sleep I had, but still - awake and productive. 

 As you recall, I have been working on my Washtub Cottage, designed by Fiona Broadfoot in the UK. I left off having finished my floors and my ceiling last time. Today it was time to work on my first floor partition.  The above are two parts of the same wall - they will be glued together in due course,  and inserted into the house later on.

The first step today was to prepare thin strips of medium card, with the goal of framing the doorways. I cut up an old birthday card, which of course is a "free" source of this weight paper, and it means also it won't either end up in a landfill somewhere or stored in my house in some dark corner, where they tend to breed and eventually attract "Hoarders" camera crews.

The strips are arranged upside down, so I could get a better shot. As the downside of a greeting card is the paint-resistant coating they keep insisting on adding for the look of the thing, I use the shiny side as my gluing surface, to save me many many coats of paint later on. 

While the glue dried on the door frames above, I began the process of making doors. The Washtub has 2 interior doors that are hinged (see below) , and two that are Tromp-l'oeil (French for fakey McFakerson from Fakesville Fakeavania). The above represents two doors, however - you will see why later on.

 Again, the trims are a clever mock up of paper. I cut out all my pieces first, as to keep a continuity in placement.

The door, put together with the decorative trim. From this picture, I can see a few ways that this could have been improved, but then again a cottage is expected to be a little "well-loved" and quaint. 

The door frames and doors all painted, just before they are dry-brushed to perfection. Or...at least to mine. 

A test fit of the door, and also the character of the walls has been added. I imagine I will be an expert in dry brush techniques by the end of this project. It does add a certain charm and character, however, so well-worth the effort. 

These doors are propped open between the rooms, and they do have a hinge attachment to ensure they stay that way.  Fiona (she doesn't know we are on a first name basis yet) has suggested a piece of acetate, but I would suspect anything that was thin enough, but flexible enough, would do. I have used strips of leather  in 1:12 scale as hinges in the past, and as long as you don't have any relative or what have you being unnecessarily rough with the door, this hinge method works as well as any. I have seen fabric hinges as well. The two door pieces are glued together with the hinge twixt the two. Eventually the other end of the hinge is sandwiched between the two partition wall pieces, as below. 

Here is the door, propped happily open, with a peak into the kitchen. Certainly it is starting to shape up. 

With the doors hung happily in the first floor door jamb, thoughts turn lovingly to the outer shell. These pieces are painted with a base coat, and "dirtied up" with the dry brush method once again. 

All painted up and ready to start building a house! I used my partition as a guide as to how mucky I wanted my walls, and so I had a uniform patina. 

The second floor will be inserted into the house at the pencil marks. Fiona does show them being added later, but I thought it wiser to draw the marks before hand, so I had a more accurate line. It is also a good idea to glue fiddly bits in while you still have decent access to the interior walls, and there will just be less tears all around.

The first step in assembly was to glue the back wall to the floor, preferably in some sort of gluing jig (i.e. a box). I see that I will have to paint the sides of the floor at some point, but that can happen in last looks. I have painted the groove as well, and when I finalize the partition, I am planning on putting a small piece of wood in to the space created from the absence of door between rooms so that there isn't a gaping cavern for cottage dwellers to leap every time they need to go get something out of the fridge. It was recommended that a small box - or other squaring up jig - be used. I found a box (okay, I emptied a box) and put it into service. This box has strange sides, and they weren't that even, so I put smaller boxes in to act as holds. I do have a gluing jig but it is too short for what I needed today.

Up goes the first wall! I have a bit of an issue with directionality, so this I say with all conviction - make sure that your walls are facing the right way when you glue them. It is often said "measure twice, cut once". Well, look at the picture, have it in front of you as a double check, and hopefully your treacherous left brain won't switch things maliciously on you while your right brain is off picking daisies. Happily I followed my own advice for a change. 

Up goes the second wall! I do love these laser cut houses, they are a joy to glue because everything is ramrod straight right from the box, and that makes for less tears and less holes in your drywall from when you toss a wibbley wobbley wreck at the wall.  I would say true story there, just as a comedic device,  but I also don't want the landlord thinking I actually *do* such dastardly things, so I will let you fill in your own joke and I will cue the laugh track...

Awesome. As I now have to wait for glue to cure (and I didn't even know it was sick), I am stuck for a bit. Too bad, I was flying along today. I did note that the partition is a little too tall - as you recall, I had some issues with not being told what height to make it in the first place. I guess I may have been a weensy bit out, but as it is matboard, it is a lot easier fix than if it was wood. 

As it is becoming traditional, I leave you with a tutorial on how to do something clever - this video shows you how to re-invent a piece of inexpensive furniture with reupholstering , but it is also handy to see how mini upholstering is done - enjoy!

 
Hope all have a wonderful Victoria Day - or Monday, whatever the case may be - and I will be back soon,  my royal lovelies!