Water Tank And Water Mural

With A Little Help From My Friend

Dear Readers, I have Jumped WAY Ahead of Myself and made a START on the mural for the hallway of the Cupboard House. But BEFORE I show you that, I want to show you the Completion of the Awesome water tank in the kitchen! As I mentioned in my last post, I had to figure out WHERE the pipes were going in order to get them attached just right. Here you can see the intake and outflow pipes attached and the tank temporarily in place. But it seemed as though it was still lacking in a few touches.......

So I put together a tiny jewelry finding and some painted cardboard and some clear glue.....

to make a tiny pressure gauge ........

Here you can see the completed tank.....

And a close-up of the pressure gauge.....

And I added one of the original faucets I had made....

being a bit large seemed okay on the tank!

And here it is installed in the kitchen!
I had to install the shelving around the pipes that bring the water down from the roof cistern..... (Still imaginary at this point!)

Here's a view of the overall look of the kitchen so far.......

Oh, and I also added a working light!

It is an oil lamp attached to the fireplace mantle but supposed to look like it could be moved.....

AAAHH! We have LIGHT in the Cupboard House! (It is SO Difficult to photograph this!)

So, meanwhile, as I mentioned, I have jumped way ahead... not completing the Dining Room, but starting on the Hallway mural which will EVENTUALLY wrap itself around and up all three stairways! And in order to do THAT, I had to construct the Curved Wall that the staircases will follow.... NOT such a simple task!

Here you can see what the completed cardboard support looks like.

The cardboard is then covered with the paper upon which I paint the mural.

But first I had to determine the shape of the curve of the wall...... I traced on the floor along the edge of the paper curved to match the stairway while it was in place. Then I made a bunch of "spacers" cut from corrugated cardboard which matched the space we needed to fill......

here you can see them stacked up......

And then I glued them in place at intervals along the entire height of the cupboard walls.......

And followed that by bending another section of corrugated cardboard along the corrugated lines to make the curved wall.... then glued it to the spacers and the walls on either side....

I also added a vertical strip at the front edge where the stairs curve away from the wall....
And although the fit is NOT Perfect..... it is Close to matching the curve of the stairs......
Close enough that I got STARTED on painting the Mural! For you see, Clarence is a Seafaring Man and he has now decided to stay ashore.... but he wanted a Mural of the sea and the ships he sailed on to remind himself of where he came from..... so he commissioned a Little Known Artist to paint the scenes that were so familiar to him..... the ships setting out on their voyages with all sails set...... or loading their cargo at the docks.....

And the OCEAN spread wide open before them......
Please forgive the rough nature of these paintings.... they are just the roughed in beginnings....
Here you can see the inside of the Front Door wall....... looking out to sea......

And under the stairs is where the Harbor and Wharves are to be......

And the long wall on one side will show the Ships coming and going......

Here you can see just the Sea, before adding the ships.....

And here is a view with the Cupboard Door Wall open......

But Dear Readers, I MUST tell you, that it is THANKS to my Friend Ewa that I have been able to start to paint the ships! Because a few weeks ago she posted on her blog "The Sunny Hours" some STUNNINGLY Beautiful pictures she had taken of the Tall Ships in full sail! And she didn't even know that I was studying all the pictures I could find that I MIGHT be able to use as examples for my mural....! I have shown here a picture I took of her blog open on MY computer... showing just a couple of these GORGEOUS pictures...... (Ewa, if this bothers you, let me know and I will delete this picture........!) But really, folks, if you have not seen this post already you must go have a look!

So I have STARTED to add the ships to my mural...... only to realize How LITTLE of it is really visible.....!!!! But I will NOT be deterred by that! I will complete the mural .... and even if they are mostly impossible to see.... I will know they are there.....

and Clarence will watch them every day!

Here you can see the painting with the wall removed......

I am NOT doing the painting inside an already constructed space this time!

And a closer view.......

how much more detail does it need if it is barely visible....?

Tucked away back there at the far end of this dark hallway.......
Probably I will add a lot... because like the water tank in the opposite corner of this Cupboard House..... it is the Details that make such a Difference!

With a little help from my friend....... Thank you Ewa!

Water Tank And Water Mural