Extra Long Post for Christmas

This is an extra long post packed with photos to you dear readers. As I will not have time to write before Christmas, take it as Christmas post J

In the last weeks I made a big improvement on the salon de thé. First I was scared to death to start the exterior painting, but I could not skip this step and leave it white... So collected myself and started to paint. I applied two thin layers of basic limestone colour (a mixture of cafe cream and matt white).

 then the „artistic” work started: I had to apply several layers of different aged and/or damp limestone shades, even dirty ones. For these layers I thinned the paint mixtures with water. All in all I used 7 different shades to get the correct effect.

I decided to paint the back wall really aged and damp, as it is usual when the building wasn’t renovated outside, but certainly did not want to repeat it on the front facade, it will not match well with the luxurious interior. Therefore the front got an average limestone look with smaller damp patches and some dirt at the feet.

Finally I took some „simulation” photos today, though the end result will not look like this. The floor will be white marble with tiny black squares, the walls covered with white and golden wood panels decorated with pink toile de jouy wallpaper and an ornate ceiling decorated with golden patterns. The golden décor will reflect the light of the wall sconces and the crystal chandelier. Mouth-watering extraordinary cakes will fill the marble counter, each windowsill will be decorated with a macaron topiaries and macaron tower, which will allow the guests to see the park, but will protect them from the visitors’ stares.

Dear Readers, I wish you merry Christmas, I hope you will return in 2012!

Orsi

Further Improvements

I wasn't lost :) just spent my days with pretty hard work during the last 3 weeks and now I can show you the latest improvements of my salon de thé. Until this I worked only on the flat walls, as the front facade will be joined to the "body" later with hinges. Working on the back wall was totally different experience and now I realized how big house this will be....
During the last weeks I worked on the back and side walls. As I mentioned earlier the back wall will get the same design as the front facade. I built it from cardboard and balsa and I have my 2 cents again: if you worked with balsa, I'm sure you realized how hard to glue the balsa to any other material, as it starts to curve at the moment the glue meets its surface. This time I didn't want to go through on this nightmare again and decided to varnish the balsa first with waterbased varnish originally used on wooden furniture. And IT DID THE TRICK!!! The balsa became sturdier and I could cut it and glued very easy. My last tasks on the outside before I will start the painting is making the decorative railings and the stuccos on the back wall. I hope I can start the painting procedure before Christmas. Fingers crossed. Probably I will do it between baking cookies or preparing some Christmas stuff.

Back wall - cardboard and balsa cut and glued



Covered with liquid wood and painted with gesso

See you soon,
have a great week,
Orsi

M A Facade

I wish I could post earlier.... but I didn't have any time to deal with miniatures, I did some pre-Christmas clean-up in my flat and put together a lifesize chest of drawers which came from the blue-yellow Swedish shop (aka Ikea). As its total weight is 75 kgs (12 stones) it was a real challenge :)

But finally on this week I finished the stuccos on the salon de thé's facade and happy to post some photos about them. It was annoying to make the tiny grapes, I did not even count how many small balls needed to create them..... 1 stucco has 13 fruits, with 25-30 balls each, so we can count 300 balls per stucco, which is altogether 1200 small balls.... no wonder it took 6 hours to make one...

In the upcoming weeks I will spend my time with building up the back, left and right side and leave the stuccos for a while. And can I tell you something? I won't miss them. Though I'm happy with them it was PIA to make them. Now I'm eagerly waiting to finish the outer walls and paint them to a rich, aged limestone colour.

See you soon,

Orsi

Those Stuccos.....

I spent the entire last week with making the stuccos and I'm really tired of it. I didn't want to make a mold, but I really didn't think it is so time consuming to make 8 stuccos.... Worst of it these are only the middle sections, more hard work will come, but now I have to concentrate another project: the 1st Wien Miniature Festival. I have to make some new items (some Halloween items and shabby chic furniture what I like so much). I will post them later, when it will be finished.
So, back to the stuccos: you can ask why 8? There is only 4 windows... Yes, on the front. But I decided to repeat the pattern on the back too. I can't just make a simple wall, the French architecture is far more sophisticated than that, so I wanted something extra. Here are some photos about them:

The window frames are almost completely ready 

Certainly this is not the final colour, I made them from clay and will paint it to limestone colour. 

I will be back soon with some Halloween and shabby chic item :)

Have a nice autumn,

Orsi



Facade Part 2.

This was a long weekend what I spent with hard work. The progress is very slow, as it takes quite a long time to cut the cardboard, saw and sand the wood and balsa. I was able to cut and glue all the cardboard "limestone" decor and wood+balsa+cardboard railing. Today I can start the stucco part with 4 women heads and tonnes of grapes and leaves.
Here are some photos about the current state:

1. How I put the cardboard to imitate limestone

2. All the "cardboard - limestones are glued to the front

3. Look into the future

(I'm quite impatient person and wanted to see how it will look like....)

4. One section of the front is painted with the first layer of gesso

5. Front without stucco

6. It will look something like this

See you soon,

Orsi





Facade

I partially finished the facade. Partially, because the worst part will come now: preparing the stucco decor and the four windows. I spent the last 10 days with building up the different layers of wood and cardboard onto the surface. The photo shows the bigger part (the front is divided into a smaller and a bigger part, as it is 78 cm long and it would be risky to open) with the balsa layers.

Probably now you think that the balsa is too soft to use in this kind of project and you are right. But this time I used a new solution called liquid wood. I used a Hungarian brand and it came out really  well. I applied it in two layers (0,2 mm thick/layer) which gave sturdiness to the balsa. With this product I could spare the several layers of gesso and was far more easier to sand than the gesso to get a smooth surface. But you must wear face mask and glasses during the sanding, as it has very fine powder.
I built up several layers of cardboard and wood but more to come before I will be able to move to the stuccos:

You see the marks and lines on this photo, where I will glue more cardboard decoration to simulate limestone.

Over all I'm so happy with the liquid wood that I will use it when I will need tackle, uneven wall in the future as without sanding it is perfect for this purpose too. It is definitely cheaper than gesso and thick enough to work with a painter's knife instead of brush.

See you soon,

Orsi