Placing the Tiles

January 4th - 14th March 2022

I have been gone a while. Too much going on in real life between my annual preparations for Halloween, then our small Thanksgiving feast in November, then of course Christmas. I had been distracted a little doing other hobbies (like crochet) and then work issues. I finally got let go from my job (the Italian state wouldn’t let them fire me till 3rd January - after a year!) and promptly found another job less than a week later. That’s good. Then my husband caught COVID - that’s bad - and I managed to avoid it for a while but had to quarantine at home. Which would have been good but I had to cook and constantly sanitize everything because my 84 yr old MIL decided to do something which caused her to fall and break a vertebra - very bad - and I was helping out with her. A week or so later, I ended up with the virus along with my son and MIL (so now at least my husband could take over for MIL - that’s good). Consequently I ended up on sick leave for another week. Bad.
Anyway, brand new job and I lost a full two weeks of training in my first month. Didn’t matter anyway. I got interviewed (Zoom- I was still in quarantine) and offered another job more suitable to my skill set so I quit the job I had for this new one and should be starting it soon. Turned out I have not had a lot of free time to screw around with my mini project. Oh well, I’m back now.

I had promised myself that until I finished painting all the panels of the green house I wouldn’t embark on any other things for the project so, I can say at least, that I finished painting the panels. I made them white and decided I will age them up a bit on the outside. But I’ll do that once they have been screwed onto their bases.

Finised painting the panels both sides.

I began by cutting out the embossed square tile sheets I had made some months ago (I bought a brand new cutter - a Cricut one - that works really well and better than the circular blade type cutters) that would fit in the square spaces of each panel - 12 total. I also cut out the foam core material that I had bought ages ago (stumbled across really) to fill the spaces and give the idea of actual tiles inside the the panels. I preferred the flush kind of look instead of just the thin piece of paper against the wood - didn’t look very tile like to me. Gluing them in place I found it better to apply the glue to the foam core and then position the tile on top of it. That way the paper wouldn’t curl during application. Worked out fine.

New Cricut cutter - so far a valid purchase.

Cutting tiles down to size.

I had made a template to cut the foam core.

I used my paper craft tool to fit the tiles flush to the edges.

Next was working out the center panels. I had some larger tile images that I would use there but they really didn’t fill up the entire space. So for now, I’ve positioned them and will think about how I’d like to finish the space around them. Maybe with the foam core and simulate a plaster or tile like surface? Will mull it over.

Working out the center panel placement.

Here is another site with info about the Bizzarria lemon. The more I read about it the more I am sure I want to call my tea house/limonaia Bizzarria.

Not enough hobbies....

August 3rd 2021

Yup so I totally blew off July - I got distracted.  

I ended up catching up on a few other hobby things that I wanted to finish (I had bought two Japanese themed fat quarter fabric squares to use for some masks plus I had a some clothing that required mending) so I pulled out my sewing machine and did those things. Course, once you start something there’s always something else that needs fixing or mending too. Anyway, I got somewhat bored with going back to painting the last two panels so instead, I decided to dapple into something I have never done before.  UV curing resin.

Basically, you make objects out of gel that is cured (activated) under a UV light. It’s the exact same thing when you get a gel manicure.  So, I found a tutorial and bought a plate mold and some UV hardening gel and, of course, a cheap UV manicure light.  My first test was today.

So this is what I learned in my first test :

First UV plate test - learning experience...

• The mold needs a lot more gel in it than I thought it would. So, given the price of clear UV gel, I’m going to test making plates using UV gel nail polish. It comes in tons of colors so I won’t have to make my own (which I did in the test - I scraped some white chalk pastel into the clear gel and it came out grayish - not happy). Plus, I should be able to find it cheap at the dollar stores here (basically Chinese owned junk everything shops).
• Better to overfill the mold once I get cheap gel then trim the plates. Course, it’ll be important not to over cure the plate otherwise it’ll be too difficult to trim. So more tests to be made.

In any case, this gel stuff is pretty smelly and I have no idea if nail polish gel will respond the same so I’m fairly excited to make a few more tests.  In the meantime, here is a peek at what I am planning to put on my plates :

Deruta

Deruta

Della Robbia

Alcantara

Course my idea is to print them on decals but if I can cheaply make lot of plates I will try and decoupage them onto them - since finding decals will be another adventure as I have already checked into it.

And here is a nice recipe again with my favorite - lemon. I have been dieting since around my birthday in May so eating a lot less pasta but doesn’t mean you have to….