Step By Step....
Sometimes, Dear Readers, It feels like we are Wandering in the Wilderness with no guides to speak of, and every step matters because it takes us along a path to Somewhere... that great aimless "forward" that Time insist on, but doesn't always yield the expected results. We have Dreams, dangling out there in the distance, the carrot on the stick so to say.... tempting us onward... "if I could only get this done..." we think... "it will make such a difference....!" ..... but then the next beacon is pulling us onward... Do we simply Stop and Ponder, as Buddha did... until we have it all figured out.... or do we just keep on taking the next step....? The Castle.... that Great Enticing Behemoth in my Room.... makes me think these thoughts. It is like a confounding Maze, there is always another twist or turn to try! You can see above the next small steps for the Adam and Eve painting. It would seem such a simple thing.... just paint the background.... then complete the smaller details... the paintings are only about one and a half inches square... what could possibly take so long? As you know, I had previously painted the background a rich earthy ocher only to decide it was too rich a color for the Fallen World of Adam and Eve. Better to stick with the blue sky we all know so well. But to get there I had to once again paint the background the bare bones white which you can see on the left hand panel. This is necessary for the over painted color to appear as itself.... as un-muddied by what has come before as is possible.
And here you can see both panels have been given
their brilliant azure background....
but already I am uncertain if it is the right tone..
it is perhaps too dark a blue.
I was aiming for the blue I used on the
backgrounds for the Creation scenes....
(when the ceiling is in place they are
directly overhead above this painting....)
but once again... I feel they are too rich
for the earthly realm to which
Adam and Eve have been demoted.
It is too close to that fresh clear Heavenly color....
it needs to be a paler more faded hue.
And while I ponder this issue, I am reminded
that so many of The Castle's outer opening doors
need those "overlap panel" strips added
to the already "finished" doors.
No time like the present to make those little changes,
think I, and quickly cut the needed strips of wood.
And yet, many of those doors have window trim
that will need to be cut away along the side
to make room for attaching those overlap panel strips...
Here you can see the Stables door....
the simplest example to alter.
The protruding stone trim on the left needs to be
cut back by about one eighth of an inch
to allow for enough width for the overlap panel
to be glued securely.
I have started to make the saw cut in the above picture...
And here the offending "stone" piece has been abbreviated!
Here you can see the strip being glued in place...
it needs to have enough overlap to cover the gap in the doors
while still having a good amount of glue attachment to the door itself..
This is the interior view showing the needed
abbreviation of the window trim "stone".
And this needed to be done for all the doors
that have already been "completed"....
most of which are in the Lord's Tower.
I will not bore you with showing every trim being trimmed...
suffice it to say the Lord's Tower panels have been attached!
And while I am waiting for the Glue to dry, Dear Readers,
I turn my attention to the ever annoyingly unfinished
sections of the Tree House which stands at my shoulder,
and ponder the possible "next steps" to take
in the quest for "stability" if not completion.
The Nursery and Nanny's room have been
"under construction" for a dozen years now
(utterly ignored for the first ten of those)
but I was chasing other Dreams and had lost my path.
The partially completed walls would fall down
every time the house was shifted or moved,
or decorated with snow for winter..... you get the picture.
I used tape to hold the doors closed and the walls in place....
But what would it take to attach some of those walls?
Were they ready to be glued in place?
What exactly was the "next step" for this
complex puzzle of partly finished pieces?
The most rickety corner was the little side wall to the
Nanny's Room where it extends past the original hinging post.
Was there any reason not to make it
a little less likely to fall down...?
Some little "support braces" perhaps?
I scrounged in the worktable scrap pile and
came up with two little cutoffs... bits of matchstick...
to glue alongside the wall... you can see them there
abutting the little wall and they keep it from tilting outward!
So simple.... not a problem, not in the way....
not even preventing the wall from being removed
(not yet glued down!) but backstops to all accidental movement!
So emboldened by this success was I,
I needed to see if I could determine what was keeping
the walls themselves from being finally glued down...!
This required the "overhead view....
(and results in a too dark photo.... sorry about that!)
Several of the walls have been removed
(otherwise called fallen down).
The Nanny's room (the most complete section)
is to the right, the back wall spans
both rooms and abuts on the stair tower.....
and the stair tower is needing completion
before the back wall can be attached.
Which necessitates removing nearly all the walls
(excepting the Nanny's room end wall and short wall).
Here they are loaded into the "safe-keeping box"
along with the furnishings.
So we can access and complete the stair tower walls!
This picture shows the stair tower from the top....
(with the help of the flash!)
I had already added the glittery wallpaper to the inside wall
(the same as used on the lower stairs walls...)
Here is the side view of the stair tower door....
again using flash so you can see the wallpaper...!
Why is this necessary?
Because the stairs are visible through the door to the Nursery...
and it hinges open... so it will be visible in the end.
It was a bit tricky getting the glue on the outside edges of the
stairtreads and then wrapping the cardboard tube snugly enough
to grip the stairs but not get too squeezed out of shape.
Yes, I stood and held it for a while....
quite a while in fact!
But it worked!
Here is the back hallway view....
the glue is still drying and I am testing the wall in place
to make sure the parts all align properly.
By now I had decided there was no reason not to glue
the Nanny's Room opening door wall frame
and the small side wall in place.
Because the walls slant a bit (on purpose)
the attaching join is very irregular.
I added an extra "matchstick brace" to the slanted junction.
There will eventually be an extra layer of
cardboard holding it in place as well.
The Tower Stairs doorway also needed some trim...
being glued bit by bit!
The top of the arch abuts the back hallway wall...
so it needed to be ended at the right spot.
And while the Tower Stairs trim is gluing,
we can take a look from the back side of the
Nanny's Room opening wall and short wall
seeing the room from the inside point of view.
Which made me realize
the window seat needed a tiny cushion.
I pulled out my velveteen scraps...
and whipped up the perfect little cushion...
Just right for that tiny little alcove!
Alas, this is one of those spots that will be
impossible to see in the finished room...
but I will know it is there...
and I will Dream of sitting on that little seat
while the moon rises overhead
and the fireflies dance in the garden below.....
well, I can Dream, can't I?
Well, Dear Readers, I don't know about you,
but sometimes those bits and pieces
and little steps lead to the most
wonderfully surprising places!
