Bricks And Other Things

Revisiting the Tree House.....

The problem with waiting for the Morning Light, Dear Readers, is that it is hard to catch enough of it! Already the sun is slipping back and rising later and further south.... it is a brief opportunity on a sunny morning! But here is a picture of the Newly bricked and grouted garden with enough light that you can almost judge the colors correctly. I think it always takes a while for my "expectations" to adjust after making such a big change in the character of the landscape.... it just doesn't look at all the same as it has for the past three... um four... or five years! This is to be expected, but it does take getting used to! I think I will like the bricks once I am more used to them! But no matter what the color, the grout is all too new looking!

There was no doubt in my mind that the grout would need to be "aged".

(I don't know why my camera has such a hard time with the focus on these steps....) 

but this shows the grout before the aging process. 

The stones themselves were already "aged" before the grouting was done.

Here is the "glass House" end of the Garden area.... new grout still too clean!

And the garden wall.... which I think looks pretty good, but the grout is too new.

The difficulty with "aging" the grout is that 

the minute it gets wet it Looks darker! 

So it is really  Really difficult to tell what color you are making it....

 until it is dry!

So I decided the best strategy was to go Slowly!

I didn't want to overdo it!

Here I have added a dark wash into the cracks of the stairs and the garden wall....

I really wanted to start by only darkening the grout 

where I was Sure I wanted it darker....

Like in the corners and along the base of the walls.

Because it was so hard to tell how much was the added color, 

and how much was the wet grout!

So I did the minimum I thought necessary, 

and then had to wait for it to dry.

And on the following morning during the brief burst of morning light....

try to judge if it is enough or too little or too much.....

Of course, the shadows don't help!

And I have to remind myself that Someday there will also be moss.... 

and plants..... and the Tree House finished.... 

all adding to the feeling of age...

I am sure I will want to darken more of the grout.... 

but I am going to do it slowly!

I think I need to build the Glass House before I will know

 jut how and where all the moss and old grout will look best...

And I will get used to the feel of the bricks and the look of this new space!

So I painted the edges of the "dirt" gardens brown.....

And of course, it is night again... and everything is dark.

But with The Folly sitting where it is, Dear Readers,

The Tree House is right beside my work space 

and catches my attention....

Do you even Remember the Tree House?

I cannot believe it has been several Years since I worked on it!

(Where does the Time go???)

In case you never saw the Tree House.....

Here is a view into the Kitchen at the lowest level with the door open...

Yes, it is too dark without extra light shining in...

(I think the LED Battery is getting old)

Here... this is a little better.

This is approximately 1:48 scale and is the home to my Rat Family....

The next level up is the Salon..... 

they are a very sophisticated Rat Family!

The next room up is the Library.... this is too dark.....

And with more light shining in you can see what a mess this room is!

Many of the items have fallen off the table and shelves 

with all the moving of the Tree House on and off the base!

I will have to tidy up....!

And the Chinoiserie Bedroom!

I hope you have seen it since I completed 

the stitching on the bed curtains!

And the shell-grotto Bathroom!

There are still a couple of details to add to this room....

And the Nursery.... still only just begun.....

with the alcove bed and the bead-tile stove!

The walls are still all unattached on this room!

So much still to do!

Well, Dear Readers, I hope you don't mind that

 when I get bored with the Bricks and the bases...

I just want to return to these other little worlds....

Perhaps it is Time to Revisit the Tree House!

Painting Bricks and Stone....

Do Not Panic.....!

There is only One Way, Dear Readers, to get all those egg-carton gray bricks to look like "real" bricks and that is by painting them. You can imagine how eager I was to get started with this transformation! To begin with I painted them all with a coat of primer and then with a coat of ordinary latex paint in the same red as the walls of the base. I forgot to take pictures of the bricks with only the primer, and I warn you that the red painted bricks look rather alarming! I was going on the assumption that the red undercoating for the bricks would allow me to save a little on the cost of the acrylic paint used for the final color of the bricks. And once the red paint was applied, there was no turning back!

Yes, I know.... it is rather shockingly red! 

I left the "stone" portions white.... and underpainted them with a tan color 

and then a layer of gray stippled over that....

But it is very difficult to get good pictures of the colors here....

I have started to darken the bricks with a more realistic brick color.....

But it is really hard to see the difference... 

partly because the red is so bright....

and also because the "grout" spaces are still the bright red....!

I kept trying to judge the color I was painting.... 

and it kept looking wrong!

Adding more light just makes it look... More Wrong!

So I placed the Folly on the base 

so I could try to match the brick colors I had already painted on the foundation.....

And on the side wall of the garden too.... 

trying to darken the bricks....

And the sheen of the paint doesn't help either! Too much Red!!!

So I decided to work on the "stone" portions for a while....

Trying to make them look like stone....

And adding age and dirt to the places that would be dirty....

Especially at the base of the door.....

And on the steps......

I spent Hours and Hours painting.....

And darkening bricks.... 

and trying to tell if they were dark enough.....

Because before I could start with the Grout, 

I would need to seal it all with a coat of polyurethane....!

This is so that all that grout won't scrape off all the paint.....

And because I was having a hard time trying to tell if my paint was the right color....

I decided to start doing the grout on the foundation of Hardwick Hall.....

(remember that is where this all started....!)

Because one thing to remember about the grout 

is that adding it makes the color you think you have painted the bricks 

appear to be lighter than before you added the grout.....!

And then I added the grout to The Folly Foundation too...

Here the grout is still wet, so it doesn't make the color look lighter...

Only when it dries it will turn white....

So now I took my courage in my hands, Dear Readers, 

and started to add the grout to the Folly garden walls!

And I have to tell you Dear Readers, I really thought it looked horrible!

I thought the red was Much Too Red! I thought I had completely ruined my bricks!

But I decided there was nothing I could do now except keep going with the grout....

I could always add layers of darker washes of dirt later...

So I kept working on the grout. 

As it dries you have to keep sponging away the excess...

without removing too much from all the cracks.

It is a slow and messy process!

With plenty of opportunities for seeing all the places you didn't paint right.....

And comparing the parts that don't match up right.....

Here you can see where The Folly still is separate from the base....

eventually when it is attached I will have to add a little bit more grout...

(These old foundations always need some "work" after all...)

I consoled myself that eventually most of the bricks would be 

covered with garden "stuff" and dirtied corners and moss between the cracks.

And then I realized that the grout was going to look much too "new" anyway. 

It would need several layers of aging 

to bring it up to the 150 years old it is supposed to be!

At least the "stone" was all looking quite convincing to me!

And I really couldn't judge it correctly until all the grout was dry.

And once again, it was getting late....

I was just going to have to be patient, Dear Readers, 

and let it all dry before I could tell what the bricks looked like.

Of course, taking pictures in the daylight would help...

except we had an uncommonly gloomy and rainy day!

But the grout has all dried.

And the bricks and stone are painted.

And the only thing I can say, Dear Readers,

is "Don't Panic"!

It will surely look better in the morning light!

More Bricks and Saints

Slow But Steady.....

It was easy enough, Dear Readers, to get the last few bricks attached to the chimney, (because there were so few still to add!) allowing for a brief sense of Euphoria that the Chimney was coming to Completion! All I had left to do was paint and grout the bricks and then attach it in place! Oh, and add the cap stones... and it would be done! So I set right to it! But I remembered that I would need to paint a coat of primer on it first... and while I was slowly painting it I remembered how fiddly it was to get the paint into All the cracks between the bricks... and ALL Four sides of the chimney! It took longer than I thought it would...

And then it needed to dry.... 

in all the cracks between all the bricks......

It took longer than I thought it would.....

And then the painting part....

I use acrylic artist paint and mix as I go....

It took longer than I thought it would....

 Because it needed two coats of paint on all four sides......

And then it needed more color and texture added in places....

(I forgot to take good pictures...)

And then it needed a coat of polyurethane sealer....

In all the cracks between all the bricks on all four sides....

Yeah, it took longer than I thought it would!

Above you can see it late Saturday night... 

painted but still no grout.... but progress had been made!

So Sunday morning I started right in with the grout.....

But first I took a Morning Light picture of the partly done chimney...

without the grout in place it is really difficult to tell whether the color of the bricks 

will match what has already been done.... so we just have to hope for the best!

And get started on the grout....

Section by section you push the grout into the cracks 

and wipe off the excess with a damp sponge....

The abrasion of the grout takes away the gloss of the polyurethane sealer...

In fact, it took away some of the skin on my fingers....

Which I didn't notice until later!

Hmmm... should I have used some gloves?

But eventually all the grout was applied....

And I just needed to wait while it dried....

And keep wiping off more of the dried loose grout.....

Yeah, It took longer than I thought it would!!!

But, Oh boy, the grout really makes it look like bricks!!!

Here you can see it in place....

And none of the bricks match very well....

But the Story is that it was constructed in several parts originally....

And it is very old so some of the bricks are more worn than others....

And it will be getting more "Aging" as we go....!

 So you can see that you will probably never even notice

 the different bricks when it is all finished....

Here you can see the end view.... 

without the cap stones....

 which I haven't made yet...

And which will be a whole other adventure....

But it is starting to look like I had imagined....

Here is the interior view....

I think those bricks look Amazingly real!!!

But before I can attach anything in place, 

I have also decided that the windows need interior muntins....

(All those little cross bars on the window panes)

It bothers me that they are only real on the outside....

So I stained a whole lot of thin strips.....

The window on the left is how the kit looks from the inside....

the one on the right has the interior vertical muntins 

but none of the horizontal ones....

(I forgot to take a picture of the completed window)

I have a Lot of windows to complete.....

but the one window didn't take as long as I thought it would!!

And last but not least, lest you think I was doing nothing 

while all that paint and grout was drying....

I started painting another Saint on the Castle Great Hall Ceiling....

This is Saint Cecilia.....

(Couldn't you tell...?)

She was surprisingly difficult to find ANY contemporary images to copy!

The only version I have is in the Hours of Catherine of Cleves, 

which has one of the most complete Hagiographic sections ever....

But I didn't like the image....

It didn't include any of her traditional attributes....

She is the patron Saint of Music.... and it showed her with a Hawk!

So I searched images of Rood Screens..

(Isn't the internet Awesome!)

And while I couldn't find an image that was hers for certain....

many of the surviving paintings are very badly damaged....

I found a pose and attributes I could use.....

But she is only just begun...

I have to invent most of how she is....

I apologize for the Lousy pictures... 

the lighting is so difficult at this time of year...

But you can see her in conjunction with the other saints.....

And here is a view with the ceiling in place...

Again, the lighting is difficult... 

it gives a much too orange cast to the painting...

And I have only one more Saint to begin!

But they ALL need tons of details to finish them!

So you can see, Dear Readers,

while it might take longer than I thought it would....

whether its Saints or Bricks....

Slowly but Steadily...

I have made Progress!