Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 18 - Miniature Field Stone Foundation

Stone panels added to the house.

I have attached the "field stone" foundation to the small model house.  I used hot glue to attach the foam core panels to the base of the house.  It actually went together quite easily.  Once the panels were in place, a few bits of gravel were hot glued over the exposed ends of the panels.  Paint was applied over the hot glue to cover the glue and suggest the mortar.

Close up of the foundation.

Once the panels were on the house, the mortar looked a little too light against the color of the faded paint on the house.  I used a wash of black paint and water to darken the rocks and mortar to make it look older.  Some of the dark wash settled into the cracks, creating shadowed areas. 

Of course, now the house needs some steps to get to the front door.  The steps will be added after the house is glued to the base of the diorama.  I have more work to do on the house before that happens.  Next I will be working on the tin roof.  Once the roof is on, then the house will be glued to the base and it will be on to another part of the project. 

Gravel glued to panels and painted.

I have already started experimenting on how to make the tin roof.  I know what I want it to look like, but I have to figure out how to manipulate the material to make it look that way.  An old neglected house like this would not have a shiny tin roof.  I want it to look like an old tin roof.  I'll post the experiments in the next blog post or so.  Once I get the look figured out it should not take long to get the roof onto the house.

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 17- Photos- Field Project

Did not work well with my glue.

I am starting the "field stone" foundation for the house.  My first idea on how to make it did not work out very well.  I quickly abandoned it to go for Plan B.  I'm showing you the failed plan in this case because anyone else attempting it might come up with the same idea I did, or some variation of it.  Plan B took longer but yielded a better result.

Glued and painted foundation sections.

First off:  the rocks.  These rocks are actually bits of aquarium gravel.  It was not just a matter of dumping the gravel out of the bag.  The rocks came in different colors and sizes.  Some of it was quartz that had been died red or green.  I had to sort the rocks for size and for color.  I wanted a color pallet of browns, tan, and auburn.  I had to sort through a great many bits of gravel to pick out what I needed.  It was a bit tedious.  I will say that I have gotten some mileage out of this one bag of gravel.  Off the top of my head I can say bits of this gravel have appeared in different ways in at least three projects.   Sometimes I was sorting for size, sometimes for color, and once just as ballast in a project that was not well balanced.   

Field stone foundation will be added to this model.

Field 8-24-2014

So I'll start with what did not work well and why.  I cut a piece of foam core board the length of the house, allowing for how the pieces would be glued together.  The foam core was painted black so that any spots that were not covered with glue or eventually paint would read as shadow.  Around the piece of foam core I built a dam from scrap pieces of foam core.  I covered the sections of the dam with pieces of wax paper.  My thinking was that the wax paper could be peeled off easily where the glue stuck.  That part actually worked.  What did not work was the hot glue and the rocks.  The hot glue dried too quickly.  By the time I had a small section of glue added it was already starting to cool to the point that the rocks would not stick to it well.  They would not stay in place.  I tried working in smaller areas, but was still having a problem.  There is a possibility that this might have worked with a different glue, but I was unsure which glue to use, so I gave up on this plan.  Resin glues would probably my next choice, but some of them yellow over time.  I suppose multi-purpose white glue would have worked, but it would take a relatively long time to set up.

Anyway, my Plan B was essentially to lay down a dot of hot glue and press a stone into it.  The hot glue sets up so quickly that I ended up using the glue gun in my dominant had to lay down the glue and using the other hand to drop the bit of gravel into place and push it down into the glue.  That worked.  Throughout the rest of the project, I only had to go back and re-glue three rocks.  

Once the rocks were in place, another problem cropped up.  The glue was clear, but very reflective.  It was very noticeable.  That was not a major problem as I planned to paint to represent the mortar between the stones.  I used a mixture of white and black paint to make a gray paint color and painted the glue and over the stones.  This was not painted carefully on purpose.  A real stone wall is a rough affair.  The stones are rough.  The mortar is rough.  And the stones are set into the mortar to keep them in place.  Besides, in such a small space there is not way to paint without getting paint on the rocks.  I quickly found that painting over the sides of the rocks helped the rocks look more seated. 

In the photo, it looks a real mess.  This is because it is a close up photo.  As with other art, once you stand back and look at it from a distance, it looks like a stone foundation wall.  Art is generally best viewed at about six feet.  So don't be discouraged.  This is only part of the process.  You will be amazed at what the finished field stone foundation will look like.  Check back on Wednesday.  I hope to have the foundation completed and attached to the building by then.

Today's field photo was taken at about 9:10 this morning.  The temperature was 69 degrees Fahrenheit and winds were from the North East at 7 miles per hour.  Humidity was 84%.  We have had rain on and off for the last two days and the fields were looking much better than they had for the past couple of weeks.

Goblin Halloween Diorama- Part 16

Painted to show peeling paint.

I painted the house of the diorama this week.  It took four coats of paint (not including the 1:12 dilution of black paint painted onto the individual clapboards) to make it look like this.  The reason for the multiple colors is that I'm trying to make the house look old and run down.  A house this old would have been painted a number of times, and they might not always have been the same color.  For this diorama, I want it to look like that spooky house everyone says is haunted.   The first photo shows the house as it stands with the completed paint job.  The second photo shows the house about half-way through the process.

Painted with blue and yellow coats.

 In order to paint a house to look like an old house, you have to think about what happens to an old house.  Paint does not fall off a house evenly.  Some places get more sun and the heat blisters the paint.  There will be damage and rot from water run off.  Mold and mildew will grow on the clapboards causing discoloration.  Boards crack and warp.  Water and mud splash along the base.  I was trying to replicate this on my old house, but it is not meant to be photo real. 

Before the paint.

It was hard to get up the nerve to start putting paint on the house.  Without any paint on it, it looked like an old house that had been abandoned for a very long time.  I did not want the house to look that old because it did not necessarily fit the story line for the diorama.  Anyway, once I got started on the painting it turned out to be a lot of fun.  The technique I used for painting was a dry brush technique.  Dip the brush in paint and then wipe it off on a paper towel until much of the paint is removed.  I used an old sable brush.

For the first coat, I mixed a light gray craft paint with a light tint of blue.  Then I started painting blobs of paint all over the house. I dabbed paint all over covering about a forth of each clapboard.  The main thing is that you want the blobs of paint to be random.  You do not want to have every blob spaced an equal distance apart.

The second coat of paint was the same light gray paint with a couple of drops of straw colored paint to tint it slightly yellow.  More blobs of paint went all over the house, sometime overlapping the previous blobs that were a slightly blue tint.  Each set of blobs covered about one quarter of the surface.  Sometimes they were dots, sometimes I used my finger to smear a blob out.  Or, even use a paper towel to lift some off if I thought there was too much paint on a section.

The third coat of paint was a plain light gray.  On this coat instead of a general blob, I mashed the brush straight down in order to splay the bristles out in all directions.  Once almost all of the paint was out of the brush, I swiped the brush along the length of the clapboard so that there was the barest touch of gray along the length of the board.  I did not worry if some of it did not receive any paint from this brushing.

The final coat was straight white craft paint.  Once again I pounced straight up and down with the brush while I was making the blobs and brushed horizontally across the clapboard afterwards.  That was the end of the painting.  I may go through and give a light sanding on a spot here and there, but not a whole lot of that.

Now that the painting is finished, I will be working on the "field stone foundation of the house.  After the field stone foundation is added I will begin working on the tin roof.  More about that in the next post. 

Goblins Halloween Diorama - Part 15- Photos- Field Project

This week I completed the clapboard siding on the house for the diorama.  It has taken a long time.  There is a lot of work going into something that seems so simple.  Each clapboard was individually sanded, etched, painted (1:12 water to paint ratio; 2 coats).  Each clapboard was attached individually with hot glue, but each board also had to have a measured line made before the the board was glued on so that the clapboards would be relatively even.  Easier said than done.  They don't make a chalk  line that small, so I had to do the measurement with a small sewing ruler.  Before gluing, I also had to dip the cut ends of the clapboards into diluted paint so that the ends would be the same color as the boards.  I think that this will be the most labor intensive project I have done since I made the Folk Art Pig back in 2012.

I also trimmed out the windows.  Before I added the trim pieces, the windows looked wrong.  It took me a while to realize that the trim was what was missing.  They could actually use a few more trim pieces, but pieces would be so small that I doubt that I could cut them with enough accuracy to make it worthwhile. 

I used hot glue to attach the clapboards.  Usually hot glue annoys me because it leaves strings and little bits of glue here and there that need to be cleaned up.  This time, they are a feature.  Think of what is normally on the outside of buildings; spider webs,  cocoons,  wasp nests, and dirt and debris. The little bits of glue left here and there mimic those things.  Heck, after I finish with the rest of the house, I may go back and add some more.

Before I put on the roof, I will paint the house.  It will not be painted like a new house, but like an old house that has peeling paint that is mostly gone.  As you can see from the door that had to be glued on to the building early, there is still some paint on it even though it is the worse for wear.  That is the idea that I want to present in the diorama: that run down old house in the neighborhood that has legends and rumors attached to it.  That spooky house that everyone wants to go by on Halloween.

It is going to be difficult to put that first dab of paint on the house.  This house reminds me of many old houses I have seen in the hills and mountains of Virginia that have aged and left to go to ruin.  So many of the old places are gone now; torn down and replaced with homes with vinyl siding.  It is almost enough to make me want to change the diorama so I could leave the house just like it is.    However, I think I will save that idea for a future diorama.

It is sad to see so much of the old way of life disappearing.  Those old white farm houses used to be everywhere.  They had terracotta red or forest green tin roofs.  I remember the sound of rain on a tin roof.  It was wonderful.  Now there are a couple of generations of people about who have never heard it.  If you Google sound wave rain on tin roof, you can actually come up with some sites that have sound waves of it.  I did not put a link here because on my first attempt at finding a site you had to register to get on to the site.  However, taking time to poke around will yield plenty of other sites.

That brings back other memories of thing that have fallen away: hay ricks (follow this link for an image )
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTlmO8O0tUKKPMzOStPdLSGQZYLHXHMqtqVss8zSc1C_nBnFgISYJTxo9QNFZVEsseXPvJqOrYtLnPecid48oU_ycxVDpm26GeBELLmobeLDymajrzqg7v9Pp2jATmvhQ2ME1BGWjOeb8/s1600/15.jpg  I have not seen hay ricks in a long time.  They were replaced by bales of hay and the bales were replaced by the giant roles of hay that are used today.  I'm sure that using machines to roll up the rolls of hay is quicker and much less labor intensive, but it is not nearly as picturesque.

One other thing I miss are large bells. Gigantic bells are not just an audio experience.  They are also a visceral experience: the vibration of the bell moves through your body.  When I was growing up, a church on the street where my grandparents lived had a bell tower with huge bells in it. The bells rang out every hour and half hour day and night.  First it played Westminster Chimes.  Then the bell tolled once for each hour.  On the half hour smaller bells peeled out a bar of music.  It could be pretty annoying at eleven or twelve o'clock at night, but it was a wonderful sound.  I kind of liked the bells waking me up at two or three a.m.  I'd wake up with that feeling of  "what's that noise", then realize it was the bell ringing the hour and that all was well.  Eventually, noise laws came into effect and the bells were silenced at night.  Then mill workers and other night shift workers complained that the noise affected their sleep during the day.  That silenced the bells completely.  I think we are the poorer for that.

At my other grandparent's house there was a church that mounted four stadium size speakers in their bell tower.  They decided that everyone would hear the message of their church whether they wanted to or not.  Each Sunday morning, the area was blasted with the sermon from their loud speakers.  Their plan had just the opposite effect.  With the loud speakers blasting in four directions and echoing off buildings and the hills, it resulted in an unintelligible cacophony of noise.  This went on for years.  I'm not sure the area missed that experience
much when the noise laws went into effect.  Anyway, times have changed.  Some of those changes are dearly missed.  Others: not so much.

Today's field project photo was taken at 8:30 am.  The temperature was 69 degrees Fahrenheit and the winds were calm.  It was overcast, but with only a small chance of rain.  Another section of the field has been planted.  It is still far away, but I think it is sets of cabbages.  I am not sure about why there are sections of PVC pipe in the patch.  Perhaps it is just to help find the vegetable patch in the tall grass.




 

Goblin Halloween Diorama - Part 14- Photos Road Art

It has been sort of a slow week this week for getting anything done, but there has been progress on the house for the diorama.  I repaired the section on the right hand window where it overlapped the window too much.  It is not perfect, but at least good enough.  When I add the trim pieces it should hide the imperfections.

Clapboards added to upper level.

So how did I remove and replace that section of the clapboards around the window?  Well, I took an itty bitty pry bar...... Well, only sort of.  I used a flat edged file from my craft set and pried it loose.  Regular readers may recall that I had worried that it could be a problem that I painted the house black inside and out before starting.  Well, instead of being a problem, painting it really saved the day.  The clapboards stuck on there well enough that they were not falling off.  When I pried the wooden pieces off, they took that layer of paint but left the rest of the foam core board pretty much intact.  So it was really a matter of just prying off the boards and replacing them with new pieces that fit a little better.  Sometimes the thing you think might be a problem turns out to be exactly what you need.  That is why I try not to fret too much about a mistake in art.  It is an opportunity to try something unexpected.

King Kong road art.

Clapboards have been added to the sides of the upper section on both sides.  A couple of clapboards went on the front also.  At that point, I was out of painted craft sticks so I had to spend some time making some more.  I thought I had made enough originally, but so many broke as I was trying to cut them down to size that I came up short on craft sticks.  I have painted a good many more, and I hope that will be enough to complete the clapboards on the house without having to paint more.  With any luck, I will have the clapboards completed on the house this week.

On another subject, I had said I would post a picture of some roadside art I took on my last trip.  This is a big fiberglass statue of King Kong.  It was in front of a themed diner.  (The theme only marginally has anything to do with the statue.  More on that in another post.)  I wish I had a better picture of it, but the statue was very close to a busy road.  I could not step out any further without risking getting run down.  At that time of day, the sun was at a bad angle, so it is not the best shot.  It is what it is.  Along the way I also spotted a T-Rex head and there is a massive statue in Beuna Vista that I missed getting a shot of because I did not have the camera out at the time.  Maybe I will get a picture of that next time I am through.  There are only so many times that my husband is willing to stop on a trip so I can take a picture. 

Check back on Sunday for more progress on the diorama.

Goblin Halloween Diorama Part 13 - Field Project Photos

I've been working on the front of the house for the diorama this week.  I thought I had finished the lower portion, but I am going to have to go back and make a correction on the clapboards on the right hand side.  Once I stepped back from the project, I could see that the clapboards near the upper portion of the window are a little too long and encroach on the window.  Sometimes it is hard to see a problem when working so close to it.  I guess I will be doing that today.  Other than that, I think the clapboards came out pretty well.

Field 8-10-2014

The house will be a taller when it is complete.  It will have a field stone base on it to give it a bit of height.  The extra height will allow me to make the other pieces of the diorama a little larger without looking overly out of proportion.  It is a bit difficult to work so small.  I would actually prefer to work a little larger, but I don't have a lot of studio space or storage space.  At some point, I'd like to have a show of my dioramas, but you have to have enough of them for a show first.  So that means they will be hanging around for a while.

I'm looking forward to getting to the spooky parts of the Halloween diorama.  I am getting lots of ideas for that portion of it.  I'm really looking forward to getting to work on them.

Today is Sunday, so that means it is time for another field project picture.  The photo was taken at 9:00 a.m. The temperature is 70 degrees Fahrenheit.  The winds were calm.  It is sunny and the humidity is relatively low for this time of year.  We are having a very cool summer.  The nights are  in the lower sixties.  It is wonderful.  Usually we are sweltering in the heat.

 Gee, you miss a week around here and the whole thing changes. Another small section of the field has been planted with something.  I'm not sure what.  The rest of the place has grown up in grass again.  The section of the field closest to the street has been mowed.  That is nice of the new owner.  We have a lot of snakes around here, and having the area closest to the street cut down keeps them a little further away.  

Goblin Diorama- Part 12 - Also Roadside Art Photo

I have finally started putting the clapboards on the house for the diorama.  I've been so busy that it seems as if I've been forever getting the house done.  So far, I have finished the clapboards on both sides.  The windows still need some trim, but that will come later. 

I am used to making my pieces out of paper mache', so using different materials is interesting.  There will still be some paper mache' on other parts of the diorama.  The clapboards are wood craft sticks that have been sanded, scratched, and painted with a diluted black paint.  (1 part paint to 12 parts water)  I'm using hot glue to adhere them to the foam core board house.  It took a couple of boards before I figured out how to mount the clapboards without burning the dickens out of myself.  However, once I got the hang of it, things went smoothly after that. 

I started on the sides, because I figured that the mistakes I made on the learning curve would be less obvious.  I've begun work on the front, but have not yet finished it.  There will be photos of the front of the house on the next blog post.  I may have to make some more clapboards before I finish the back.  I made what I expected to use on the house plus a few extras, but I had not counted on how many of the boards would split when I tried to cut them down to size.  I may have to come up with a different method of cutting them.  I had been using heavy duty scissors because it was fairly quick.  Cutting them with a craft knife will take more time per board.  Anyway, progress is being made.  I expect the rest of the diorama will move along quickly once I get the house made. This portion of the project is very labor intensive.

I received a couple of encouraging comments from a reader in the last week.  Thank you for taking the time to make a comment.  It can sometimes get lonely out here in blogger land.  I took a look at my commenter's website, and I thought it would be of interest to my readers who are looking for interesting websites on creating in paper mache'.  Check out the website here:  http://www.whimsysculpt.blogspot.com/
I hope you will enjoy it.  It has some interesting material.

In other news, I saw some interesting roadside art while I was out traveling this past weekend.  I took a few photos.  I'll be posting them over the next few blog posts.  Natural Bridge is a tourist area in Virginia famous for its naturally formed stone bridge.  There are other attractions around there as well.  It is also an area known for its quirky roadside art.  The piece shown in the photo is in nearby Glasgow, Virginia.  It is supposed to be Raquel Welsh on a dinosaur from an old movie.  I think it was called 10,000 BC.   The piece was made at a local studio at Natural Bridge, Enchanted Castle Studio.  They offer workshops and studio tours.  Check out their website here:  http://www.enchantedcastlestudios.com/

I'll be back on Sunday with new photos of the artwork and the latest photo of the field project.

Re-purposing a Crib

Re-purposed to a drying rack

Due to my schedule, I haven't been able to get back into the studio since Wednesday, so I have nothing new to blog about on the diorama.  However, I did want to share a great idea for re-purposing a crib.  It was my husband's idea.  It has come in really handy.

After the grandchildren grew older, we tried to donate the crib to Goodwill.  It is a nice crib in good condition.  They would not accept it.  Goodwill said that so many cribs had been recalled that it was too difficult to keep up with them all so they decided to stop accepting cribs.  So the crib has hung around for a number of years.  When we started remodeling, we found a number of uses for it.

In this photo we are using the crib as a drying rack for the wood slats that will go on our cabin's ceiling.  One side of the slat has been painted with clear polyurethane.  They will be coated front and back to help prevent moisture damage which could cause the boards to warp or mildew.  By doing the work at home, we will only have to coat the end of the boards where we made cuts when we are at the cabin.  This maximizes out working time up there. 
If we had used a couple of saw horses, we would have only been able to do a few at a time.  By up-ending the crib, we have numerous slats on which to lay the slats.