Vaulting...

 

 

Finished....

I Left you last week, Dear Readers, with the "vaulted" ceiling in the back corner just begun. As sometimes happens, one forgets to take any more "in progress" pictures until the job is completed, and then suddenly the work appears finished as if by magic! In this case, it was not a lot of work, and not interesting work, cutting stone pieces to fit, stacking them so they cantilever over the open space, and painting them to turn them to "rock". It was done in no time! Above you can see the results in the morning light. They are not "shaped" to make a smooth continuous arch, but are more rough and step-like as they stack upon each other. But the principle is the same. Gravity keeps them from falling because most of their weight stays on the rock below, and with the decreasing size of the opening as they close in at the top, their "lateral force" keeps them in place against the other side of the vault. Simple physics! (But I did use glue!) Here, I will show you a closer shot....

Here you can see the first two layers stacked

 and the ceiling and arch out of the way.

And with the third layer in place.

All that was left to add in this corner

 were the stones at the corners of the window.

Which you can see added here.

It took longer to fit those corner stones 

than the entire vaulted part!

And the other corner, where the tower stairs spiral upward

 only needed a few small details.

With the door wall removed you can sort of see

 that the "doorpost" on the left was very uneven

 where it tucked close to the stairs.

(The flash was needed again)

There was a lot of carving off millimeters from edges

 of the door frame where it meets the stair wall to make it fit well.

And the hinges needed their sculpey "hinge straps" added.

And the brass parts painted black.

And I needed to finish all the parts of this door

 before gluing the wall in place.

Including a "ring handle" on the inside.

I couldn't find a plain simple one in my stash,

 so I improvised with a jump ring and some wire.

(And neglected to take a picture!)

Here you can see the door wall is finally glued in place!

(Yikes!)

And I have begun to add the stones which surround the door.

And here you can see the door opens!

(Yes, it needs some touch-ups!)

And if you look closely,

 you can see the improvised ring handle.

I still need to complete the stones that surround the door frame.

 And a few more at the top where the wall meets the stairs.

But I believe I can say the Tower Spiral Stairs are Finished!

Of course, the access at the top of the Tower is still not done....

but it will be a while before I get to that step!

I am So glad, Dear Readers, 

that I decided to try to make these Spiral Stairs work!