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.