Finishing the Brickwork

5th April - 9th April 2021

After Easter, I went back to finish the brickwork.  The templates were more solid and allowed me to finish up the mortaring and allow things to dry.  It took quite a while to get thru all six panels but the final result was satisfying. The only problem was that the templates were perfect for getting the mortar in between the bricks but lousy in getting the space between the bricks and the wooden facing.  I had millimeter gaps on each side of the brick panels. So, I mulled it over and came up with a solution of using a sac à poche - you know, those pastry bags used to apply frosting or cream - and I created one with a zip-loc bag.   

Panels bricked and drying.

The unsightly gaps that needed filling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I made some mortar mix and filled the bag then cut a small hole cut at the bottom. I was able to squeeze out what I needed to fill in the spaces that were the most unattractive.  I used my Exacto knife to shove the mix in the gaps and a T-pin to flatten out the mortar and pack it in.  It worked like a charm!

Filling the Zip-loc bag with mortar.

Stuffing the mortar in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The little T-pin to pack mortar in the gaps.

I left the mortar again to dry and went back the next day to sand down any areas that were not to my liking.  I used a face mask during all of this work since the warning label on the mortar mix was sufficiently nasty. 

Thank god that right now I had an extra KN95 mask in my house (due to all this virus stuff - our city has supplied us with many masks including a few of these. Since I’m still furloughed, I have been using my own home made masks to go out on dog walking or grocery shopping. I was saving these KN95 ones for up close contacts in a work environment. So, I am using one for this work today.) After sanding things down, I sponged everything again and let things dry. Next day I came up and used a soft cloth to dust the bricks down and improve the overall surface removing the streaks left from the damp sponging the day before. Still needed a mask to do this work too. I scraped back some of the mortar that was applied too far over some of the brickwork - then dusted and cleaned my work space for the next phase -

Cleaned up and ready for ageing.

To age and give the brickwork some character.
First though, I’ll need to do some research into methods…. in the meantime I got my first vaccine! Hoorah! Bout time. Oh, well, Italians are not known for their logistical skills. Still, they do try.

Back to the Brick laying...

March 24 2021 - 2nd April 2021

Well, with me being furloughed and all, I have taken back up the Orangery project.  Lots of time and events have passed since my last posting from August 2019.  I have yet to be able to return to see my Dad in America since that last post. Who would have thought that we would ever be blocked by a virus and inhibited from doing any traveling.  And here we are nearly a year and a half later and still stuck at home.

Lots has hppened over that time - not all of it good - but I have learned to make bread at home (yes, a bit clichéd at this point but when life gives you lemons -but I do make a really good kick ass schiacciata now!), finished three cross stitch projects, rekindled my love for opera (thanks to many streamed performances by the Met in NY), finally found a part time job closer to home so quit my full time job only to be then unceremoniously dismissed after not even six months (due to the market collapse in textiles here in Italy) leaving me in limbo - neither employed nor unemployed as it is illegal right now to fire people in Italy - and with no income per se, have a MS flare up after nine years of nearly nil health events and losing the use of my right eye (but it's nearly back to normal now - just wasn’t fun having to find treatment in the middle of a pandemic), and, finally, taking some exercise by walking much more than I have in years. I figured I’m not getting any younger, I’m just getting fatter (all that good food, wine and bread) and need to start thinking at least for my heart health.  So, maybe I can make 2021 better for me - but I do have a feeling I’m going to have to beat 2021 into submission - it hasn’t honestly started out that great and I do not intend to pass another year like 2020.  Not without a fight anyway.

So, getting back to my Tea Room, I found the walls that I had started the brick work on.  I was regretting having decided to use this project to learn how to do brickwork since the bricks do not in fact lay flush to the building (and I had also seen a very effective use of the embossed sheets of brickwork on another project that was quite convincing and infinitely easier) but I worked today on making some templates to help keep the mortar mix from oozing everywhere. (I also worked with a dremel bit to see if I could clean up the edges of where mortar was not quite clean and it worked fine - so mistakes are reversible.) Given that, I will stick with these bricks for now. Although I did purchase a sheet just in case - and I do like it too.  But seems way to flat - not 3D enough - so I’m sure I can use it in another part of the build (thinking the edges of the orangery platform for example).

Working on the small template for the mortar

So, after the Miniaturitalia show (which was held on line this year end March) and me making way too many purchases (I will dedicate a post to those as soon as they all arrive as well as my review of the show - for me very positive) I finally got around to tackling the brickwork on the remaining panels. In one afternoon, I managed to mortar up three small and two large sections.  The mortar is still a bit tricky but after applying the mix to the panels and scraping and sponging them down before they dry solid, they looked fairly good.  The small template did not hold up to the humidity (amount of water using during the mortaring phase) so it required some reinforcing. I added some masking tape, gave it a layer of glue and then gave both templates a coat of varnish. Hopefully that will stop the damp from eating away at the wood junctures.

smoothing and squishing in the mortar

scraping back the excess

The next day, the brickwork was dry enough to be cleaned up a bit. Clearly it is quite dirty and with a grey patina. I don’t really mind it since I plan on giving all the brickwork an aged look - even with a greenish hue where mold or plants are starting to grow over the brickwork.  I had even thought about covering them at the bottom with ivy or something but will have to wait and see. So, while the templates are drying, I figured I’d write out a quick post to show you that I am getting back into the project.  It still feels daunting as all new projects do when you’re winging it. But hey, that’s where the fun lies in it.

The panel on the right was from the first brick laying, the central one from last night.

Brick Laying

August 6th - 9th 2019

In the evening before leaving for my summer holiday visiting my Dad, I found a few minutes to insert a few more bricks into the panels of the first conservatory kit.  It was pretty easy and fun actually.  As I was doing it, I realized that the bricks were obviously higher than the panel insert and they didn’t quite fill up on the square.  So I had to come up with a kind of stencil to square off the brick sections without me having to actually fill in the areas between the bricks and the wooden side posts.  So I used my jewelry jig to make a squared-off bit of wood where I would be able to mortar in the bricks and square them off all in one go.  At least I hoped.

Well it didn’t work out that great.  But, I did three of the brick panels (having made a little mortar and didn’t want to make too much in case my experiments went awry) but it was a little more complicated than I thought.

Mixing the mortar.

The first panel was an outright mess.  Basically, the mixture said to make like to a toothpaste-like thickness but I noticed that when I spread it on the bricks, it immediately became too dense to spread - hmm.  So I used my little stencil and packed in some mortar and went on to the second panel.  This I made a little less dense and poured a little water over the top of the panel to make the mortar seep in more than spread in.  And the third panel I came up with the idea that maybe since the bricks are real, they are sucking in water from the mortar as soon as the mixture hits them.  So, I dampened the bricks then spread the mortar over them.

Panel #1

After each one, I tried to fix in the spaces between the bricks and the wood work without much success.  Then I passed a wet sponge over each panel and cleaned up the sides a bit with toothpicks and water.  Out of the three, I like the second version best.

Panel #2 - more liquidy and poured easily

Finished panel #1

Finished panel #2

Finished panel #3 - wetted bricks beforehand.

But I had to wait a few hours to see the final result - whether or not the mortar actually set or not.  Which when I cam back a few hours later, seems it did.  The bricks are set and still I like the second one.  The slight bas relief makes it looks fairly realistic.  I’ll end up adding lots of grass and moss on the bricks at the bottom so I’m not too concerned about the edges.  But not bad for a first time go at brick laying :-)

And since I will be leaving visiting family for a few weeks, I shall leave you with the summer liqueur of choice for Italy - Limoncello.  Enjoy. 

Clean up! - Painting and Brick Laying

July 21st - 4 August 2019

So I pulled down the kits and started to check them out for the method of painting and assembly.  Clearly, I needed to paint under the windows first so that is what I did.  Trying to avoid painting where joinery will be done later so I won’t have swollen wood issue like I found on my first experience of putting a kit together.

Quick paint cover up - even if I don't think we would see under the brick after mortaring.

The windows are just taped on right now and I didn’t bother taking them off since I will want to match them up later with their corresponding sills (seeing as I have two kits and so many windows, I won’t want to deal with lousy fit later).  So I painted one kit’s under window section then pulled out the other one and realized until I cleaned my work table nothing was going to get done.  So…

I cleaned the work table.  Got my brushes organized, put some new napkins for drying them and a new water jar for cleaning them.  Then I unpacked the two boxes of stuff that I had accumulated over the last few years to be used in the Orangery.  I had a lot of stuff!
Most of the purchases were already posted on my other blog but this one was not.  It’s a lemon table.

Lemon table. I think I will probably use it at the back for the gaming table area in the Tea Room.

The workmanship was a little over the top in terms of "shabby" style - the poor legs are not even and the packaging they gave me when I bought it from the artisan at Miniaturitalia Show in Milano - the only big mini-show in Italy and lots of artisans - really nice actually - was kind of make do.  But I pulled it out and fixed the leg and will probably adjust it later since it’s pretty rickety. But the table top is fab!! It is exactly the kind of top I was looking for to fit in the Orangery.  Lemons and oranges.  Beautiful.

The weekend after, I pulled out all the bricks and did some searching online to see the best way to install the bricks.  Most used regular mortar or pre-made mortar but I had bought a bag of powdered stuff so I just wanted to double-check the mixing.  Info says about the consistency of toothpaste so I recycled a few plastic containers that I figured I’d need for mixing the mortar in batches.  Then looked for how to cut the bricks.  They are actual bricks, not plastic and need to be cut with a tile cutter. There is a kind of plastic backing to them that keeps them in sheet form.

I just used an exacto knife to remove one row - because the backing made the sheet a little too large for the actual opening under the window and installing one row off the backing made for a perfect fit.
I wasn't sure about how they may cut so took precautions to be sure I didn’t end up with anything flying into my eye.  Actually, they cut fairly easily.  I used the tile cutter but since the actual depth from the cutting edge to the size of brick I needed to trim wasn’t deep enough I opted for a straight wire cutting tool that did the job just as well.  Very pleased that it was so easy! I’ll have to be careful since this may move along quickly and I’ll end up cutting too much too little too small… That’s me.

Says in the instruction to use adhesive on the surface and back of the brick to stick them in place. I do not have any special adhesive but since we are working on wood, I hope my wood glue will be sufficient.  I am trying it on the first panel Don’t know yet. Will be an experiment. - then will check back in a few days to see if it’s well stuck.  I imagine once it’s mortared the piece will be heavy and will tend to weigh forward a bit - so may fall off.

Finished first panel

Speaking of which, here is a nice story about the garden at Castello, near where I live.  This guy has been taking care of the garden and park there for quite some time and decided to try and rejuvenate ancient lemons.  He was somewhat successful.  The article speaks to how the Medici family revered their citrus collection and were proud enough to create an entire garden built around it.  This modern-day gardener has used technology and DNA to rediscover hundreds of species and bring them back from extinction.  Who would have thought - all from a lemon bizzarria!

Bizzarria!!