Easter!

Easter!

Last year right after Easter I got all excited to make an Easter display.

I'm posting it this year ahead of Easter so I can feel like I'm on top of things.

As we speak, I am wondering where I put it away last year... 

I wanted to take new pictures with a cute tablecloth.....

can't find it anywhere.....

clearly still not on top of much.

I made all of the candy & boxes. My excelsior is way huge...so much for hand cutting.

The sugar eggs were fun to do.

               My Cadbury Cream eggs aren't gooey or shiny enough but the boxes of wrapped chocolates were fun.
                    Not sure what villain broke all the eggs open though...who does that???

The lamb is just a vintage plastic toy, untouched

There's room for lots more stuff!

Maybe these? Not exactly Easter, but....had to toss in a little Harry Potter reference! Though I cheated on the any flavor beans. They look really cool in the light though.

But this is just a strange interlude...now back to Thwilville.....

Doorkeeper's Chamber

Has it been a year?

This will be a long post then....

The doorkeeper's chamber is slowly paper-clay'ed & painted, with more secret doors added.

Here the wall sections are not fixed in place yet, and I have had many tries at arranging them with the help of blue tape. Part of the issue was the view available from my proposed doorway, which required me moving the bookcase panel to the other side, else no books could've been seen. 

Various Greenman molds provided embellishments for the room, as well as a couple impromptu wall reliefs. I realize I should have made the bookcase shelves twice as deep but I'm not going back now.

For some reason I had made quite a serious bend in the panel that houses the fireplace. There was logic there once, but as I don't take notes well and I sometimes have weeks or months between chances to work on things, so often I forget what I was thinking.

Matching stone colors in different sessions isn't working out very well, but I'm no stickler.

Once the interior was done, I worked on egg carton stones for the outside. There wasn't as much useful egg carton as I'd expected, but I did make a nice mess of trimmings on my floor.

I treated it like a jigsaw puzzle & didn't concern myself with laws of physics or masonry.

I won't bore you with the nightmare of grouting...I had a nice syringe and I colored & watered down two kinds of grout, but the stuff kept drying in the tip and..let's just say it was weeks of sessions &  I'm truly amazed I didn't quit.

Painting the fireplace panel & nothing worked. Garish bricks, yellow stone.....it will wait for another day when I feel optimistic.

Here are a couple  shots of the room with the removable door panel & all the other panels propped up. My round tower is certainly off to a  wonky start!

So, to ease my frustration & renew the pleasures, a day of my life spent rolling scrolls, making books and creating stacks of documents & relics. My only struggle with this project was that I kept thinking every scrap of paper I had was 'the good one' and so I jealousy hoarded all the good ones to use in the more prominent & visible spots and soon had nothing for the 'supporting roles' 

'.

But once in place, all the little troubles seem so benign.

Oh there's much more to the saga- the leaded windows, the mirrored corner that I hope will hide the wiring.....but for today, we'll call it a success. Tomorrow, we'll try to do better.

Another Day, Another Building

I am so easily bored....distracted...led astray & in new directions. There is a never ending carousel in my brain & I never know what horse I will want to ride on when I wake up in the mornings.
So, after a year's pondering I decided my half-constructed, screwed up Beacon Hill would make a great base/ central  structure for a big ole magic castle/school.
I know in today's world you can't say castle/school without thinking 'Hogwarts'....but I take mine back a couple extra decades & say "Great School of Roke" ( a la Le Guin, Earthsea Trilogy). And rather than work on the BH, I decided to start building a tower structure that I will attach in some vague manner to the side of it someday. A couple 14"  round wood cutouts & some foamboard & I am off! 3-4 stories planned with an elaborate rooftop garden/gazebo & probably an astronomy deck.

I have an old Miniature Collector mag that featured a stone room with a raised area in the back & thought to try something similar, so I mocked up some steps, a raised platform & a silly (as in pointless, but nifty) archway. Then I cut out some doors & windows. Then I added some real wood beams, because my husband always says scary words like "structure" & "support" for some reason when he looks at my work.....

Paperclay stonework begins! I used some molds from Ebay of Greenmen & dragons for small embellishments.

This will be Master Doorkeeper's chamber, the secret entry into the school. It is to be filled with doors, keys & records of student's names.

Because Master Doorkeeper needs a door, I am trying to rig up a removable panel using magnets since anything with a hinge is beyond me! I want it to be easily removable, but also re-attach in a hinge-way so I can swing it open & leave it attached.

There are little secret doors all over the room. These were super fun to do.

Now on to more & more & more  paperclay!

 As wretched as it still looks, I have just two inside panels left to do, the fireplace, painting of the stonework, faux tile flooring & then the exterior stonework to go before I can attach the walls. And a ridiculously elaborate doorway to construct. And then I'll contemplate how to attach the 2nd floor.....

I hate thinking things through. 

Muddling along, hacking away like a blind woodsman is the way for me!