Paper Clay Roof & Lots of Bits and Pieces

The paperclay experiment is coming to a close and I am surprisingly pleased by the 'nearly end result'.

The tiles have now had their mixed colours added after the base terracotta coat.

 I mixed up a selection of five colours: red, orange, brown, black and grey, in various shades and then just randomly touched up a few tiles at a time.

 I concentrated on areas where the white clay was showing through first and then tipped the kit up each and every way to make sure all the sides, edges and bottoms of the tiles received a tickle from the paint brush too.

It was quite a fiddly job and I still need to finish off with 'soot' from the chimneys but it has turned out much better than I expected.

I think I will also cover with a matt varnish to protect the tiles as I have noticed that every time I knock the roof, even slightly, the paint does chip off or scratch. The clay itself though seems very tough. 

 The project I have just started is moving along slowly but surely. I am at that stage now when everything seems to take ages and at the end of a session there is very little actual progress to show.

I am not going to mess around with this kit very much and have decided to use the quoins provided for the first time. These are made from MDF I think so are very clean and flat. 

I am going to match them with all the distressed red brickwork so they have had to coats of terracotta paint as a start and then I have smoothed on some Art Mache to give a bit of texture.

 When this dries they will hopefully look a little more brick-like. Then it will be back to the paint palette  !

 The mouldings have all been primed, given two coats of cream and one coat of my greeny/yellowy accent colour for this shop. This layered look will all be sanded, waxed, crackled and distressed to match the look of the rest of the shops. Phew! Time consuming but I want to keep the same sort of look throughout the whole street. 

 Last job has been to start the open brick work with the same bricks I have used before from Richard Stacey

 I lay them free hand because it doesn't really matter if they are a little off, using quite a liquid PVA glue as you can then slide them into place.

 These still need to be sealed and then grouted before I finish the walls of with Art Mache.

I have also marked where all the mouldings will be placed as I have learnt from experience it is very easier to glue the bricks away from the wooden mouldings.

I won't add the Art Mache until all the mouldings are painted and distressed. I prefer to put them on the kit at the same time. This means a bit of forward planning and it can seem that progress is sooooo slow!

Still when I have had enough of painting I can always play in the snow with Lily.