Hypertufa - Part 2 Garden Art

Molds wrapped in plastic to cure.

First half of the sphere.

In my last blog post, I blogged about casting the first half-sphere for making a concrete sphere for garden art.  Since then, I cast the second hemisphere, pretty much as I cast the first one.  Funny story, on this.  As I blogged last time, I had underestimated how much material I would need to fill the mold.  It only came out right because I had added too much water.  I had to add more Portland cement, Pete moss, and Vermiculite in order to make it the right density.  (See Sunday's blog post for the proportions.) Unfortunately, I was more focused on getting the mixture to the right consistency, and was not paying attention to how much more material I added.  So, when I made the mix this time, I did not know exactly how much to mix.  And here in lies the tale.

Stuffed ball nestled in shavings.

It is better to have too much than too little, so I mixed almost twice as much as last time.  It was a bit much.  I filled my half sphere mold, and there was lots of Hypertufa left over.  I did not want to dump it on the property, and my husband would not thank me for making him take a big blob of concrete to the dump, so I ended up doing a little experimenting with some other types of molds.  I had read on the internet that some people used glass globes from light fixtures for making concrete molds and that others had cut open children's balls and filled them with the hypertufa.  Here was my opportunity to try them out.

As it happened, we replace the front porch light at the cabin on our trip the week before.  I had brought the glass globe home to put in the pile to donate to the thrift shop.  So it became a mold.  I sprayed it with cooking spray and filled it with hypertufa.  The problem with this type of mold is that you can only use it once.  You have to break up the glass to unmold the object.  This is really only cost effective if you happen to have the globe or can find one at a thrift store.  Then the mold was put into a plastic bag and left to set up.  Put the glass in a heavy construction type trash bag before breaking it to contain the glass.  Wear heavy gloves and eye protection too when you are ready to remove the mold.

I also had a child's ball.  I cut that open and filled it with hypertufa.  Instructions on the internet said to nestle the ball in sand to keep it from deforming.  The bottom will flatten out if left on a hard surface.  I did not have any sand, but I did have a bucket of wood shavings.  (My husband had saved them from some project.  He keeps them in a bucket and when we want to start a fire in the fireplace, he wraps a couple of handfuls of the shavings in a piece of newspaper and uses it as kindling.  It works.)  Anyway, there was this bucket of wood shavings and I had a ball filled with hypertufa wrapped up in a plastic bag, so it seemed like it was the best thing that was available for supporting the ball.  So that was what I used as a support.  People posting on the internet have reported mixed results with this technique.  Some people have had good results, others have reported that their balls ended up being some weird spheroid shape.  I'll let you know what happens on this. 

I still had some hypertufa left after all this.  I pulled a plastic container out of recycle and filled it.  As I was filling it I realized that this would be difficult to unmold, because it had ridges in it.  I don't know how it will turn out.  It may work, or it may not. 

There was still some hypertufa left, so I decided I would just roll it into balls by hand.  I knew that they would flatten on the bottom because I had nothing soft to seat them while they set up.  In this case I am okay with that.  I want to use them for experimenting with enamel glass paints that are heat set in the oven.  I have a small toaster oven that is dedicated to my craft projects.  However, my big spheres are too large for the toaster oven.  Before I invested in a dedicated roasting oven, I thought it would be worthwhile to try out a few small painted balls in the toaster oven to see if it was going to work.  The paints heat at 200 degrees (Fahrenheit) to set the enamel.  I have used this method on some of my concrete stepping stones and the paint has lasted outside for years.  I guess some of them ha, butve been out at least nine years.  The red paint is just now starting to fade a little, but the other colors are still bright.  My concern here is that the hypertufa has Pete moss in it.  I don't think it will ignite at that low of a temperature, but there is that potential.  This is definitely an outside project with a fire extinguisher handy.  The small flattened balls will allow me to experiment using my existing toaster oven.  If it works, everyone gets a painted paper weight for a gift this year. 

For now, everything is in the shed.  It has been raining heavily for much of the week.  The first photo shows the molds shoved into an open space in the shed.  (Probably the only open space in the shed.)  The second photo is the same photo of the half sphere I showed last week, just to remind everyone what I am aiming for with this project.  The third photo is the child's ball stuffed with Hypertufa.  It will be sealed in plastic as well.  Next post I will show the unmolded items and let you know how the different molds worked.  If I have enough time, I will have the whole sphere cemented together.

While all this has been going on, I have mulled over the problem with the house taking up too much space on the diorama.  I think I have a solution now.  I am waiting to get back into my studio and get to work on it.  I only have to dig it out from a ton of boxes that have been shoved in while we are doing the home repairs.  Soon.

This week Bill stained and varnished all the new baseboard and trim.  I cannot remember if I had blogged earlier that we found mold behind the paneling in the closets.  We had to tear all of that out, treat for mold, and put in new drywall.  He also painted the closets both bedrooms.  When I have not been helping Bill, I have started cleaning the upstairs, starting with the kitchen.  I am on a mission to get rid of some of the excess stuff we have collected while I am cleaning.  I set a rule that I had to take one item to either donate or trash out of each shelf, cabinet, or closet.  I am allowed to throw out more than that, but at least one thing has to go.  I have three bags to go to donate out of the kitchen alone.  Being that this is a destruction/construction clean up as well as Spring cleaning, I am cleaning everything.  Walls, ceiling, windows, blinds, curtains, counters, cabinets, and floor.  Today I am working downstairs.  I have to get the concrete dust washed off the den walls and floor so that room will be ready to paint. 

The cleaning has been kind of a wacky process.  I had to clean the large bedroom first, so we could move everything out of the den.  Although the room is ready for painting, we did not want to paint and then store all the furniture in there because some furniture would be leaning up against the walls.  However, the room had to be cleaned before we moved all the furniture in there.  So that room was cleaned and furniture moved in.  Today I am cleaning the den and hall so they can be painted.  Once they are painted, we will be laying the new flooring in there.  There was no new concrete in that part of the house, so we can go ahead and get that down.  Then the den furniture will be put in place.  Sooner or later, the bedrooms will be painted.  The last thing to go in will be the new laminate in both bedrooms.  We have to wait until the concrete cures before we can put the new flooring down.  I think we will be testing the concrete in another week or two to see if it is dry enough.  The end is not quite in sight yet
, but getting all the concrete dust cleaned up is a big step in getting everything else done.  I am hoping to have the entire house cleaned from top to bottom by the time we get the downstairs finished.  Then you won't be able to pry me out of my studio.  I can't wait to get back to work on my art.

Hypertufa Spheres

Hypertufa half-sphere.

We are still recovering from the plumbing disaster, so I haven't been in my studio.  However, the plumbing disaster has spurred a craft project in a new area: Hypertufa.   I have had an interest in working with the stuff for a while, but had not done so because I would have had to purchase some concrete working items.  Hypertufa (pronounced hyper too fuh)  is a mixture that is similar to concrete, but much lighter.  It is made from a mixture of Portland cement, Pete moss, and Vermiculite or Perlite.  It dries as hard as concrete and is frequently used in making garden ornaments and planters.

Same item, just flipped over.

Field 4-27-2014

How I came to be working on this project in the middle of a disaster recovery is a bit of a story.  I have been wanting to work on a paper mache' project in my studio for some time and was not having much success with the way I was working on it, so I decided to purchase a spherical mold.  I found a half-sphere mold for concrete on sale online at Lowes.  At about the time that I purchased the mold, we had to purchase a concrete mixing tub because we were replacing concrete where they had jack hammered up the floor across two closets, the master bedroom, and the laundry room of our home to repair a plumbing problem.  While we were purchasing the concrete and mixing trough, Bill asked if I wanted to purchase the items we would need for the hypertufa.  So I said sure.  And that is how things got started on this project in the middle of all our home repair project.  It was a diversion to keep us occupied while waiting for the concrete to dry.  Watching concrete dry is akin to watching paint dry, only worse.  It takes about twenty-eight days of curing before we can put down the new laminate flooring.

Field 4-13-2014

I'm documenting my experiences with hypertufa in case anyone is interested in using it to make some garden spheres.  Here is a three question test to see if you really are interested enough in the project to make it worthwhile to go to all the expense.  1.  Would you enjoy vigorously hoeing in your garden while wearing a face mask and eye protection? 2. Do you have a tolerance for garden tools that do not wash completely clean?  3.  How much weight can you lift?  If the first two answers are no and the third answer is not a lot of weight, you might want to hit the reject button on this project now.  If you are still interested, read on.

The Portland cement comes in 90 pound bags.  The Pete Moss is pretty heavy as well.  The vermiculite or perlite is not heavy.  You can probably  have someone load it at the store, but plan on how you can deal with it once you get home.  My husband moved it for me.  My Plan B was to roll it from the edge of the van into a wheelbarrow.  My Plan C was using a bucket and shovel.  You also need to plan on what to do with the rest of the cement, because you are only going to use a small portion of the bag to make a sphere.  The cement comes in a plastic coated bag.  Once you open it, humidity will start to harden it.  We used to buy laundry detergent in forty pound buckets.  We saved the buckets, because you never know when you will need a giant bucket.  I lined some buckets with plastic trash bags, filled them with the remainder of the cement, tied off the bags, and sealed the container with it's tightly fitting lid.    It was either that, or buy a whole lot of concrete molds.

There are a couple of hypertufa recipes out there.  The basic recipe is one part of each: Portland cement, Pete Moss, and either Vermiculite, or Perlite.  The other commonly used recipe is one part of the cement to 1.5 parts of the other two ingredients.  Some people just use water to mix it.  Others use a mixture of water and acrylic ad mix.  Some people add polyester or nylon concrete fibers, but most people say they aren't necessary.  That is a distillation of most of what is on the internet about hypertufa.

Aside from the recipe, a trough, and some tools to mix with, there are a few other things you will need.    Unless you have a workshop dedicated to mixing cement or plaster, you will need to do this outside.  A dust mask and eye protection are essential.  Portland cement is a very fine powder.  It is going into the air while you are measuring it and dumping it into the mixing trough; the slightest breeze will send it wafting up into the air. You will need some waterproof gloves.  Thin latex or vinyl gloves rip easily, so I recommend something like the rubber gloves available in the cleaning section, such as Playtex gloves.  You will also need a release agent for the mold.  Many web sites recommend the original Pam cooking spray.  I used it and it works great.  (A word to the wise:  In some other craft projects I have read that the crafter had used an off brand cooking spray and had not had good results.  The binding agents vary between cooking sprays.  While it may not matter in cooking, it does seem to have an effect on craft projects.)  You also need a board cut to the size of the outer perimeter of your mold, and some plastic trash bags.  So armed with this information, we set about on our hypertufa experiment.

I did not have a plywood board that I could cut to size to cover the mold while it was being flipped over (more on that in a minute).   So rather than purchase a whole sheet of plywood when I only needed a small piece of one, I made a board out of multiple layers of cardboard layered across the grain.  Laying them crosswise to each other added strength.  This cardboard came from a heavy moving box used for packing dinner wear.   The edges of the stack were taped with duct tape, and then the whole thing was covered in duct tape.  I slipped this support into a plastic bag to help keep it dry and tied it off.  Plastic was needed not only to keep the support dry, but also because Hypertufa will not stick to the plastic.  This support worked as well as a board, and was lighter than a board. 

First off, I measured the volume of the half-sphere mold. It held eighteen cups of water.  So I thought I would have the amount figured out of what I needed in materials.  Wrong!  The moss and vermiculite have a lot of air space between the granules.  When the liquid was added it collapsed the air spaces and the volume decreased.  Secondly,  the space between not enough water and too much water is just a hair.  You have to mix in a little liquid with the cement mixture, move it around with a hoe to mix it, then add more water until it is just right.  Of course on my last water addition it was a case of "oops, too much".  So I added more material in each proportion until I no longer had a soggy mud.  As it turned out, it ended up working out that I had just enough to fill the mold once I added the extra material.   For the record, mixing hypertufa is almost as strenuous as mixing concrete.  The material is slightly lighter, but mixing hypertufa is a lot of work.  I was sore the next day.

The mold was sprayed with the Pam Original cooking spray and filled with the hypertufa mix.  The cardboard support with the plastic bag over it was placed on top of the mold, and the mold was flipped over.  (You flip the mold so that you can remove it the next day without disturbing it too much.  It also gives you a flat bottom when you are mortaring the halves  together.)  Then this whole setup was slipped inside of another plastic trash bag, tied off and left for 24 hours.  After twenty-four hours, I removed the mold.  It slipped off easily.   Then the ball is left inside the sealed plastic trash bag for a week.  After that, it can be set outside to dry the rest of the way.   It takes a long time for these half spheres to dry completely.  It is still very wet, even though it has been outside for a week.

In theory, once you removed the mold, you would cast the second mold they next day.  However, we were going out of town, so I could not cast the other one until after we came home.  I did not buy two molds, because of the cost.  The mold I purchased as $29.95 and free shipping.  It is a sturdy hard plastic mold.  I also found a less expensive silicone mold for $15.00, but by the time you paid the shipping costs, bought sand to support the mold and a container to hold the sand, you probably spent close to the same amount.  Anyway, once both pieces are cast and dry, you put them together with thin set mortar mix.  I'll blog more on that once I get that far.

I feel I should also mention the clean up, because that is a lot of work as well.  The concrete we used to patch the floor washed out of the mixing trough much better than the hypertufa.  It may be that the trough was smooth initially, but after it gets nicks and scratches from the mixing implements, things change.  The vermiculite from the hypertufa got into those scratches, and vigorous scrubbing would not remove it all.  We finally settled for getting it as clean as we could.  The concrete also dried on the tools to a certain extent.  The crevices around the handles will never be the same.

Right now, I have one half-sphere setting outside, and the other half-sphere ready to come out of the mold.  I will blog more on my hypertufa sphere once I get it put together.  I want to do some more reading to see if anyone has posted on if or how long they let the pieces cure before they mortar them together.

Today's blog also has a photo for my field project.  I did not take a picture last week because I was out of town.  I am also posting the previous picture so you can see how much difference there has been in two weeks.  So far the farmer has not plowed the field.  The neighborhood is speculating as to whether he is waiting until the frost date, leaving the field fallow, or just not planting anything because he has put the field up for sale.  Time will tell.

Cabin Trip

We have been working so hard on getting the house repaired after the plumbing disaster that we were really worn out.  We decided to take a trip up to the cabin to "rest".  I don't think you could say that what we did was resting, but at least it was different work.  The first trip in the spring is a lot of cleanup.  The cabin needs cleaning, the yard needs to be raked and cleared of downed wood, and wood needs splitting.  So we did not exactly rest, but it was at least a break from the construction work we are doing on the house.  From time to time we took a break and sat on the porch.

We also started to put furring strips on the ceiling
because we wanted to add a bead board ceiling on the next trip.  However, a laser level showed us that the ceiling was so uneven that it was not going to work.  The problem is that the ceiling is not level across the room.  As Bill put it, some of the furring strips would have to be 2 by 4s.  (This would leave a big gap between the old ceiling and the new ceiling, which could be a haven for mice and other critters.)  We spent the better part of the day trying to figure out how to make it work, from building a casing over the existing beam to make it look even, to different configurations of the paneling.  We finally determined that the only way to make it look right would be to gut the whole building and start over.  We aren't going to go to that much trouble, although we are at a point that this was still do-able.  We just aren't willing to go to that much work, because jacking up the walls as should have been done when that beam went in would wreck the upstairs plaster, which is in good shape at the moment.  So we have decided to leave things as they are and plaster and paint the ceiling instead.  I am rather disappointed, but Bill was practically giddy at not having to put up a new ceiling. 


Although there was no snow while we were up there, it had been snow covered as lately as two weekends ago.  A wintry mix had been forecast within the previous week.  This weekend, it was below freezing at night, but in the upper fifties (Fahrenheit) during the day.  The wind was very gusty, so it felt quite chilly.  Porch sitting was done bundled up in jackets and hats. 

The trees are still bare in the mountains, although the forsythia is beginning to bloom.  Daffodils were out as well.   The spring run off has begun, and water is pouring down the mountain.  What starts as a rushing stream this high up becomes a raging torrent down below.  It is truly an awesome sight to see the amount of water that is pouring off this mountain.  We have had a lot of snow and rain this year, and the water is very high. 

Up there it is still winter.  Down below, spring is well underway.  It is amazing to drive down the mountain and watch spring arrive with the changes in elevation.   We went from bare trees to full spring in about an hour.  It was such a beautiful day.  All the flowering trees were out and everything was dozens of shades of green.  We decided that we would take the scenic by-way route home rather than join the throng on the Interstate.  It was a great choice.  There was barely any traffic on it, and it was a beautiful ride through the countryside.

Once we returned home, it was obvious that no elves had come in and completed the construction for us, so we are back at work on repairing our house.  My husband took the week off, and we are planning a full week of construction work.  Since we returned on Sunday, we have removed the paneling that was in the closets, treated the area with a spray to kill mold, put up new drywall, and added the first coat of drywall mud on the joints.  Today we are sanding then adding the second coat of mud.  After that, we will probably start moving some of the furniture around so we can get started on priming and painting in the den.  You would think that we were approaching the end of this, but there is still a lot to be done.  All the rooms need painting, and the flooring still needs to be laid.  The floor is the hold-up here because the concrete needs to be cured before the flooring goes down.  We have to keep moving the furniture from room to room to get the other work done.

There has been a craft project I have been up to this week, but I will blog about it on Sunday.  It is 8:15 am and Bill is impatiently waiting for me to finish this post so we can get to work.
 

No Post Due to Holiday

Sorry, due to it being to a holiday weekend, I am not posting this weekend.

Mosaic Gazing Balls

Iridescent glass.

Regular readers know that I am going through a major plumbing problem at my home.  A pipe rusted out underneath the concrete slab and the concrete slab was jack hammered up to reach the pipe.  Since I blogged on Sunday, I haven't been in my studio at all.  For the last few days, I have been scrubbing down the walls and floor of the master bedroom to get the concrete dust off of them so we can paint.  I think the paint is two shades lighter now that the walls have been cleaned.  Since I did not have anything new to offer, I thought I'd put up pictures of some of my homemade gazing balls.  At least they are seasonal. 

Transparent stained glass.

I have not forgotten that I had blogged that I would show some other ways to make the base for the gazing balls.  (A reader had written in with a question about what else could be used because she was having trouble finding an old bowling ball.)  With the exception of the painted ball, the base used for the balls are bowling balls.  For the painted ball, I made a paper mache' ball that was covered in concrete.  It was a fun project, but more work than most people would want to go to in order to make a ball.  I need to wait until the temperature is a little warmer before I can get to work on other ball forms.  Although it is mid-April, we still have very chilly nights and I need some warmer weather before I can do anything

Glass gems.

with that.  A freeze warning was issued last night
and it was below freezing when I woke up this
morning.  

As a recap for the mosaic gazing balls, I obtained an old bowling ball by requesting one on Freecycle.  In case you aren't familiar with Freecycle (freecycle.org), it is a network of local groups that put items up for donation free to a good home.  Go to the main home page to sign up for a group in your area.  There is no charge to join, but you do have to put up an item for donation before you can request an item. 

Painted concrete.

Once you have donated an item, then you can put a request for something you need.  If someone has what you want, and is willing to give it away, arrangements are made between you and the other person as to how you will pick up the item.  In my case, I requested used bowling balls.  I received four balls from one person.  Just a note for caution:  most of these meetings go without a hitch, but there have been a few cases where things did not go well one way or another.  If possible, make a plan to meet the person somewhere other than your home.  (The website recommends this also.)

Anyway, once I obtained the bowling balls, I plugged the finger holes with Silicone II glue.  Then they were wrapped in a shiny waterproof plumber's tape.  This  adds a layer of waterproofing and the reflective surface of the tape bounces the light back up through the glass giving the ball a nice glow.  Next the bits of glass are glued on using the Silicone II glue.  After that the ball is grouted and then sealed with a concrete sealer. 

You can use glass gems (rounded blobs of glass) or you can use cut stained glass.  Each type of glass has its advantages and disadvantages.  The advantages of the glass gems are that they have no sharp edges and the rounded shape tends to reflect the light nicely in a way that flat glass does not.  The disadvantage of glass gems is that the rounded shape means that they can not be set as close together as I would like and the balls have an overall lumpy look to the them.  The advantages of stained glass are the variety of colors and the ability to cut various shapes that allow for making designs and using the grout lines as part of the pattern.  If you plan to use stained glass, iridescent glass or diachronic glass work best.  Transparent stained glass tends to look flat compared to the other types of glass.  The disadvantage of using stained glass is that it may have sharp edges, especially if you cut the glass yourself.  The sharp edges can be dealt with by placing the tiles in a plastic container and giving them a couple of minutes of vigorous shaking.  Even then, it is worthwhile to use an abundance of caution when dealing with cut glass.  

I cut my own glass, but if you do not have the equipment for that, you can purchase pre-cut tiles.  The cut tiles tend to be expensive though.  It is generally much less expensive to order them online in larger quantities than to purchase the small bags at the craft store.  Sometimes you can find good deals on the glass gems at a Dollar Store or stores of a similar marketing plan.

For comparison, I am putting up three different types of balls.  The blue ball is made with iridescent stained glass.  The ball with the stripes (which is a spiral if you look at it from the top) is made with transparent stained glass.  The ball with the blue and green glass is made with glass gems.  The last picture is my painted concrete ball.  I don't have an outside picture of that ball yet because it is still too cold to put the balls outside.  Soon!  The painted ball is an experiment.  I am hoping that the paint will last outside on the concrete ball.  I had good success with painted stepping stones, but that was using bake in the oven glass paints.  That paint has held up outside for years.  (See my blog posts on painted stepping stones for details.)  This paint is acrylic.  I'll let you know how this paint holds up. 

One last word on the gazing balls.  The grouted balls should be brought in during freezing weather.  Water that manages to infiltrate the ball could freeze and cause the ball to crack.  Some posts on the internet have stated that they have left the balls out all year and have not had a problem with freezing and cracking.  Other internet posts have said that leaving the balls in direct sunlight could cause them to crack.  That has not been my experience.  My gazing balls are out in full sun all summer with no problems.  The only time I had a gazing ball crack, it fell over during a storm.  The soft ground in the garden was so soaked that the stand fell over.  The ball sat on the ground and soaked up water.  It cracked after that, though I don't know if the ball cracked because of the (relatively short) fall or because it soaked up water from sitting on the ground.   

As soon as I can get back into my studio, I will be blogging again on the new diorama.  Sometimes you just have to get through a situation before you can get back to doing the things that you want to do.

 

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 2

First mock up.

At last!  Some time to get back into my studio.  I have missed it so much.  When I start a diorama project, I make up some cardboard mock ups to give me some idea of the scale of things.  I know what I want to do, but I don't always have a good idea of how large objects are in relation to each other.  The card board mock ups help me to understand what I can do on a base of a certain size.

Field 4-13-2014

In this case, I think the house is too large in relation to the base, so it is back to the drawing board.  The problem is that in reducing the size of the house, I will also have to reduce the size of the figures.  As this diorama is supposed to be more about the goblins, I don't want to make them too small.  I need to find a way to keep them the focus of the piece.  Also, as I learned in making the Folk Art Carousel, smaller pieces are really hard to work with.  Working with pieces so small that I needed to use tweezers to place tiny bits of tape or paper was very difficult and uncomfortable.  It may be that I will put a backing piece on the diorama as I did in my diorama called Devil Looking for Trouble in a Small Town.  The backing piece allowed the buildings to be just facades rather than whole buildings.  So, it is back to the drawing board to see what I can work out.

Diorama with building facade.

Today's field picture was taken at 8:30 am.  The temperature was 61 degrees Fahrenheit.  Wind were from the south at 9 miles per hour.  It won't be long before the field is plowed and planted.  There are two other fields nearby.  One has already been planted with hay. That hay is already about a foot high.  The tractor was in the other field getting ready to plow yesterday.  The farmer should be ready to plant this field next.  Last year's crop was corn, so I am guessing that this year soy beans will be planted.  Time will tell.

Repairs are coming along on the basement.  The plumbers were here on Monday.  They had to jack hammer some more of the floor to replace the pipe to re-route the washing machine line.  Bill and I spent yesterday pouring concrete.  The concrete has to cure under plastic for three days, then it can harden the rest of the way without any plastic over it.  We also ordered the new laminate flooring this weekend.  It will be a few more weeks before the flooring can go down because the concrete has to cure before laminate can be laid.  As I have learned, it is not just a number of days, but also a matter of how much moisture is in the concrete.  We have to do a calcium chloride test to determine the amount of moisture, just a meter reading by itself won't do.  If the flooring is put down too soon, it could void the warranty on the flooring or worse yet, ruin the flooring.  Details!

As we are putting in new flooring, we had to do some other repairs as well.  When the original laminate went down, we had oil fired, hot water baseboard heat.  We loved it, but the furnace was old and needed to be replaced.  At the time, the price of oil was sky high and the cost of replacing the heater was outrageous compared to heat pumps.  We ended up opting to purchase a heat pump.  That meant we had some old plumbing and the heat registers still in place.  Now that we are having to lay a new floor, it is time to remove the remnants of the old heating.   So we had to patch in some dry wall.  Which was done earlier in the week.

On top of the dry wall, the rest of the room has a textured wall paper.  It looks like plaster.  This type of wall paper is meant to be painted over, which we had painted white.  You can't tell that the wall is not plastered.  Now that the drywall has been patched and primed, it was time to add the new wall paper.  Of course, when we paint the room will look dingy compared to new white paint, so we will be painting the whole room.  Before we can paint, we have to move all the furniture out of the den.  The furniture from all the rooms downstairs have been placed in that one room while the concrete work was being done in the other rooms.  Before we can do that, we have to let the rest of the concrete dry.  Although we hope we did a good job, it could be that we have to grind down high spots on the concrete.  So at the moment, we have done all that we can do until next weekend.  Except, for priming the wallpaper that we put up yesterday.

This rebuild of the basement is a lot of work, but thankfully, we are in good health and up to the task.  It might not be the best idea for everyone to tackle a rebuild, but we developed the skills to do it over many years of home projects.  It is hard work, but it is worth it. 

Celeste: A Soft Doll

I thought I's show another of my early soft sculpture dolls.  This doll's name is Celeste.  She is a soft doll with a soft sculptured and painted face.  The limbs are jointed at the shoulders and hips by the button and thread method.  I painted her eyes and cheeks with acrylic paints. Due to the button joints, this doll is made for an older child that will not be pulling things apart or putting things in her mouth.

The cheeks are painted as round circles in a manner that reminds me of the Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy dolls I had as a child.  I loved those dolls with their simple faces. They were among my favorite toys.

The jointed limbs are sewn through the body of the doll using a long doll maker's needle.  Many people just use a heavy duty thread, but I think dental floss works better.  Dental floss is very strong.  That reminds me of something I read years ago in a magazine.  I think the magazine was Reader's Digest.  It was one of those little articles that they would put at the end of a story if they needed something to fill the page.  The story was that a floss making company found that Alaska purchased more dental floss than anywhere else in the country.  The company sent someone up to Alaska to find out why such a large amount of dental floss was used there because it might be useful in increasing sales in the rest of the country.  They were surprised at the answer, because it had nothing to do with the dental part of things.  The Alaskans were using it to repair their gear, boots, and clothing because the thread was very strong, waterproof, and inexpensive compared to other threads.  So, given that type of use, I decided that it would be an ideal for using on a doll.  It could stand some rough usage.  I felt that it could take some twisting and turning in case a young child ever accidentally got hold of it.

This brings to mind something I would like to say to people who are considering taking up doll making.  When you make a doll for someone, you need to consider how that doll will be used.  Toy dolls are different from Art dolls.  When you make a doll for a young child, the face should be embroidered on, not painted or have button eyes, noses, joints, or decorations.  Buttons can come off.  Young children should only have dolls with joints created with thread alone rather than the button joints used on this doll.  Also, some of the paints could have toxic components.  In theory, there are laws requiring that paints used on toys be free from toxins.  However, as we learned a couple of years ago, imported toys were testing positive for lead and cadmium.  People making dolls at home need to be aware of the potential for toxicity in paints.  Read the ASTM rating on the paints you are using.  Make sure that you are using paints that are safe for toys.

Regular readers know I have been going through a major plumbing problem, so I'll give an update on that situation.  I now have another large trench jack hammered through the concrete slab to reach the pipes of the washing machine this time.   The trench is about twelve feet long.  It goes under the wall and into the room which the slab was previously jack hammered up and the concrete repaired. We will be pouring the concrete to repair the new trench this weekend.  Unfortunately, it will further delay getting the work done in the master bedroom because we have to wait a minimum of 28 days before we can put flooring down on top of the concrete.  However, we are busy working on the other rooms affected, so at least we have something to do other than stare at the mess.  By the time we finish, the entire downstairs, with the exception of the bathroom,
will have been painted and had new flooring put down.  It was not the project we planned to be working on this spring.

At least we are starting to get a grip on the situation.  Now we will mostly be working on weekends.  I'm going to get back into my studio this week no matter what.   I just need to get back to a routine.  Until this happened, I was in my studio working the first thing every morning during the week.  That routine was totally thrown out the window due to the plumbing problem.

Field Project, a Time Crunch, and a Major Plumbing Problem

Field 4-6-2014

Today's field picture was taken this morning at 8:38 am.  The temperature was 45 degrees Fahrenheit and the winds were light and variable.  It was chilly this morning.  When I woke up it was 35 degrees.  It is becoming warmer in the afternoons, and the plants are starting to bloom.  Yards are filled with jewel weed and dandelions.  I expect we will be mowing grass starting next week. 

Jewel Weed

I've been tied up all week again with working with the plumbers and the insurance company on trying to get the house fixed.  Since they had to jack hammer up the floor to fix the pipes that had rusted through underneath the slab, we decided that while the basement was a total wreck that we would have the plumbers come in to fix another plumbing problem.  When the washing machine cycles through, it overflows from the stand pipe.  The gray water box that the pipe is attached to does not work any more. They are going to have to jack hammer up another section of the slab to fix that problem too.  I'm glad that we decided to go ahead and call someone to fix it because to reach the pipe they need to tie into is underneath the slab, and the plumbers will have to jack hammer across the laundry room area into the room which already has the floor torn up in order to reach the pipe. 

Iris coming up.

So in the mien time, the plumbers had checked the septic tank while making a plan on how to fix the washing machine line.  They said that the tank was almost full.  This is bad news because we just had the tank pumped last year.  Tomorrow I have to call to have tank pumped and have a look at the problem.  Normally the tank is only pumped every five years.  I don't know what the problem is, but I can guess that it is going to be expensive to fix. 

Some of the work we are having done, such as the plumbing, really does need a licensed professional to make sure the work is done correctly.  And we had professionals come in to do the plumbing.  Beyond that, you don't need a contractor to repair drywall, paint, and lay flooring.  Most people have a contractor do it because it is easier and quicker than doing the work yourself.  So, I guess I should have seen this coming sooner, but after we got over being intimidated by the hole in the concrete we decided to do the rest of the repair work ourselves.   Hence, I've been in a time crunch all week trying to get things packed up so we can get to work.  Right now it is just all going into boxes.  When we unpack, a lot of stuff is going to the donation pile.  We have collected way too much stuff over the years and we really need to get rid of some of it.

I don't really mind doing the work.  My husband and I work well together as a team.  Unfortunately, we are in the middle of a floor to ceiling remodel of our cabin.  Before this situation came up at the house, our plan had been to start working up in the mountains this month.  Now our home has to come first and we probably won't start working on the cabin until autumn.  I guess that will push the completion date on that project to next spring.  It is always something. 

 All of these repair problems have put me behind in working on the diorama.  I did get out to purchase some materials, that I will need to build the house for the piece.  I could not decide on the scale of the wood I needed, so I ended up buying two sizes of wooden pieces.  I will have to experiment to see which is going to look best on the size of the house that is to be built.  Hopefully I will have some time this week to get started on things.  That's about all that has happened on my craft work this week.  I can hardly get into my studio with all the boxes stacked up in it.

Researching Dilapiadated Houses for the Diorama

This week I've been looking at images of dilapidated houses.  I'm trying to decide what type of dilapidated house I want to build for the diorama.  What the house looks like will set the tone for the diorama and drive the story.  The choices range from full blown Gothic to a small country dwelling.  A large Gothic structure with gargoyle goblins has a lot of appeal, but it has been done so often as to be a cliche'.  (blog does not allow for accent marks, so did the best I could here.)  I'm more incline to attempt to portray the setting as a normal setting in which horrors are afoot, as in the ghost stories I blogged about earlier.  However, no decision has been made at this point.  All options are open. 

I was looking at images of dilapidated houses to try to get a feel for what I wanted to include as far as how to portray the degeneration of the property:  peeling paint, sagging roof, water damage, etc.  From these images, I could see things that I know will make the building look more realistic.  For example, how the paint stays on better just under the eaves, while the lower part of the building has lost more paint; or how water stains are more extensive at the bottom of a sheet of plywood, and wicks up in streaks.

I was surprised to find that many of the pictures of abandoned homes online were actually mansions from an earlier era.  My husband and I drive through the Virginia countryside a lot.  We see many homes that have been abandoned.   For the most part they are old country farmhouses.  I'd say that it is rare to see an abandoned mansion in this area.  Once in a while we see an old log cabin or log barn.  Frequently all that is left of a building is a stone foundation or a chimney.  Sometimes you can see that a new home has been build on the property and the old house left to fall down on its own.  I'm sure it is expensive to tear down a house, but why live with an eyesore in front of your nice new home? 

I have always wondered about why a house was left to die rather than being repaired.  Did someone die and no one was left to care for the house?  Had all the people moved away because there were no jobs in the area and left the house to fall in disrepair until it was so far gone that it was not worth saving?  Did people have to leave because of a drought and the well ran dry?  If only the house could talk, I'm sure that it would have a story to tell.

I found that many people who posted the images had similar thoughts.  One blogger wrote so eloquently that I wish that I had bookmarked his site so I could link to it.  After going through so many pages of pictures and reading so many blogs, I'm not sure how long it would take me to find it again.   I'd like to quote this blogger, although I can only credit  him as a fellow blogger.  He was blogging about one of the most beautiful abandoned mansions that I could imagine.  He said some thing to the effect that he imagined how "strong and proud they must have felt to have had that home built; ...if only they had had the spirit to pick up a hammer."  I think he portrayed a feeling as best as it could be expressed.  How could such a lovely mansion have just been left to fall to pieces?  I wonder how it is that so many buildings have just been left to rot away.  Could not a single person be found that would love the building enough to fix it up again?  I guess the answer in the long run is that it is just too expensive.  Neighborhoods change or job availability changes and the people move on because they have to, not necessarily because they want to move away.

I've found that this is not just a local phenomenon.  The abandoned property story is an international event not a local one.  From here to the far side of the world, there are abandoned buildings everywhere.  Check out some of the pictures of the abandoned houses around Chernobyl to see something really creepy.  All in all, it is making me wonder how much lead paint, asbestos, and radiation are actually floating around out in the atmosphere.  (To digress for a moment: my husband was reading something about the Chernobyl area the other day:  the radiation from the meltdown had killed off a lot of the bacteria and fungi that normally break down vegetation.  All the wood that has fallen remains there and is not rotting.  There are concerns of what will happen if or when a forest fire should start with all that radioactive material going up in smoke and getting into the atmosphere.)

Lest my blog posts inspire anyone to go out looking at or photographing abandoned houses I thought I should end this blog post with a cautionary tale.  A number of the blog posts I'd read stated that when they drove up to the abandoned house to take photographs that they soon had either the police or property owners drive up and order them off the property.  This would indicate that many of the properties are not as abandoned as they would appear.  There are often eyes close enough to see, or there may be an alarm set up somewhere that sends a message when someone is detected.  Just be aware that this is a possibility.