Honeydukes Re-Opens.......Time to Get Cracking.

It's been a while now since I worked on my Hogsmeade Honeydukes but today I decided to get going on the list of small finishing jobs I had written to myself when I packed everything away before Christmas.

As you can see there is still quite a lot to do.

 I haven't really decided what to do with the upper floor yet. I am leaning towards a store room area much like what is in the basement of the books so I need it to be rather more grungy than the pristine shop floor. My Honeydukes is modelled after the one at Universal Studios rather than the one seen in the film so I am allowed a little licence with the contents.

So my first job on the list was to give the walls of the first floor and the top of the spiral staircase a bit of a dirty wash. 

 The ceiling is very high and sloping so I have decided to add beams for a bit of added interest. So I have cut various pieces, added wormholes and ageing and given them a silvery undercoat. I am not quite sure what the final design will be so I have left some of the lengths long. I will add more colour tomorrow once the wood dries thoroughly.

For the first time I have put in a removable floor in order to hide the wires for the lighting fixtures in the main shop on the ground floor. The edge on the left hand side wasn't quite as well cut as it should have been and you could see the underneath so I have removed the offending floorboards and replaced them with a much better fit. I now need to wax these. One more item off the list.

 When I went to the Harry Potter Studio Tour I noticed that in various settings there as a continual repetition of the same props. Although the eye might take in 50 vases in various cabinets if you look closely there are in fact only 10 different vase but they may be of different sizes or finish. 

When I started Honeydukes I thought I would have totally different sweets in every jar but now I realise this isn't necessary and in fact repetition is a useful staging trick. 

This led me to filling up some jars today with leftover sweets from previously filled jars. This shop needs loads of jars everywhere so this will make things a lot easier. 

 I have also used clay canes from various suppliers including various chocolate canes from My Tiny World. These work quite well in the jars and certainly are a quick fix.

What I really need to do now is work out how many jars I have, where they are going to go and how many more I still need. I think I need to have a dress rehearsal and produce a proper plan of work tomorrow otherwise I will end up with far more than I need and none of the things I want!

Loads of rain here today but me and the dogs were snug as bugs in the workshop, can't tell you how much I love my den at the end of the garden.