Gypsy Wagon Hearth Tiles....

Cutting And Fitting.....

The Living quarters in a Gypsy Wagon, Dear Readers, are quite small and require very careful planning and measuring and cutting and fitting to ensure that everything will work in its designated place! In the picture above (alas, it is a rather dark one.... the sun had left for the day....) you can see the beginnings of the general layout of the hearth side of the wagon. The hearth is in the corner right inside the door (or should I say left inside the door?) and occupies a space just over 2 inches wide.... or approximately 25 inches in RL measure. I know it looks terribly confined.... and it is.... but I have known apartments with smaller cooking stoves! Next to it, under the window will be a sink or wash bowl stand, and next to that beside the sleeping compartment is a bench seat with storage underneath. I have cut a simple framework that separates the parts, but have only started to build the hearth. The trickiest part is that it needs to be surrounded by ceramic tiles to protect the wooden walls of the wagon from the heat which would be emitted by the old fashioned wood burning stove, and it needs to have a "hood" above it to contain the chimney pipe where it exits the roof of the wagon. And since the walls on this wagon are not yet attached.... so that fitting and measuring and painting might be a little easier.... I needed to build a little "framework" for the hearth so I could attach the tiles and still be able to disassemble the walls when needed. The base for the hearth is plywood, but the tile surround is just cardboard because I didn't want to lose any more space than necessary with the thickness of the tile walls.

As I mentioned before, I have two different patterns of tiles

 that I am mixing because I don't have enough of either one

 to complete the tiling needed for one hearth.

And since there would be gaps 

where the tiles were already cut apart

 (not just from one printed sheet)

 I decided I needed to cut all the tiles apart

 and glue them on individually.

 Above you can see I have made a start

 gluing the tiles to the very carefully fitted

 cardboard hearth sections.

Here I am starting to add the tiles of the second pattern.

I love these tiles, because they portray 

the labors of the seasons, a very Medieval theme!

In this case the labors only cover ten tiles

 because this set was already cut up by someone

 before I ever bought them. 

(Bought at a going out of business sale long ago.)

But it is just enough to fit this space perfectly!

And of course, I had to test the fit.... 

again and again....

And try to get a sense of how much 

would be visible from the door of the wagon....

And a closer view....

And the other side wall.... 

once the tiles were trimmed to fit.... 

(and the trimmings Not thrown away... 

because they will go around the wooden door trim....)

Here all three wall sections are propped in place.....

But the trim around the doorway would also need tiles

 to protect the wood from the heat.... 

so I add that section and use the trimmed ends 

of the tiles for the  edge you will never see.... 

(But I will know it is there!!!)

And with the section of tiles that covers the door frame trim. 

The wall sections are now almost complete, Dear Readers,

but I still need to finish the base.

Because I don't have enough tile to cover the entire base as well, 

only the top surface on which the stove will sit,

 I decided to try to make the base a "stuccoed" brick structure. 

(But I have still not figured out how to make the

 appearance of stucco on the wood...)

 I decided it would have terracotta bricks for the bottom layer.... 

Which I have only painted on here.... 

(hoping that the painting will resemble the bricks well enough... 

once they are dirtied up and covered with wood for the fire....)

This is Not yet finished.... 

it's just a start..... 

to see if it looks the way I imagined..... 

but I think I need to finish the tiling on the base....

 and the stucco..... and "age" it a bit..... before I can really tell.

But you can sort of start to get a feeling for the space.... 

I will need to manufacture a little "cast iron" stove.... 

because I have not seen any that would be small enough! 

And have the right features....

(such as a railing to keep pots from sliding off....!)

So that is what I accomplished on my weekend, Dear Readers, 

a Little bit of Tiling, lots and lots of cutting and fitting.

Oh, and the thirteenth Lilac blossom too!

Which you can see here

 with the slowly growing collection!

And the hearth for the second Gypsy Wagon

 is waiting its turn....

I have the tiles, but they will require

 the pattern to be designed for the space....

And lots more cutting and fitting to be done!