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.

Baked Goods and Experiments

 April 28th - 30th 2021

One of my recent purchases was a bread tower. Or that is how it was advertised anyway. I found it on a nice Etsy shop and the dimensions seemed ok for putting it somewhere in the Tea Room/Orangery/Limonaia.  It came with some small wooden trays that would slide in and out of the slots. The top is open, so I figure I will end up closing it off and making a top shelf for bags or something but for now, I only made a few changes.
Part of the tower’s exposed wood had been laminated and part of it not.  So I rectified that and added some of my own (of course from left over pieces of my other projects) and then stained the remaining exposed areas. Looks a lot better to me. I also aged the trays as they were too new looking. I imagine that in a setting with lots of bread and hands constantly pulling the trays out they’d be beat up a bit. (I soaked a bunch of wicker baskets while aging the trays making them darker and pulling out the useless handles. I’ll use them for bread and other sundries.) I then “made” some paper to line the trays and pulled out my stash of miniature breads that I have been buying over the last few years. 

The original state of the tower. You can see my piece of laminate to the right.

I just needed to add laminate to some sides.

Looks much better.

Shelves painted now too.

Staining the trays and darkening baskets.

Crimping paper so it will be soft and fit in the trays.

The same shop that sold the tower also had some baguette and a little shokupan type loaf. I bought both but when they arrived I wasn’t 100% pleased. The baguettes are bowed and much too light colored for my taste. So fixed them up a bit. The little loaf was not the best either - you could see the seam where the loaf was made in a mold. I have no issues with molds but at the very least they could clean up and trim off the seam lines.  So I made it into a little whole wheat loaf and sprinkled some “flour” on the top of it. Looks better. I also added a little flour (actually scraped chalk) on the large whole wheat loaf I bought (different shop and better quality). Once I fixed up all the bread products and added them into the trays I was pleased with the final result.  Now I just have to make a bunch more bread bags.

New and improved tower.

New and improved bread.

And better baguettes.

Template for making bread bags.

I also stained the cheese board. I scratched it up with knife marks too since I imagine it would have them being a cutting board and all. Looks much better.

Cheese board

I finished painting the two window panes for the door panel. They look fine and of course, since I didn’t put much paint on the sides they are not fitting snuggly.  I will probably have to glue these ones in - or just add more paint to the sides and refit them. More likely that.  So I started to look at the inside of the panels and thinking about how to decorate them. I already have an idea of the designs and “tiles” I want to use. But I thought that just printing them on photographic paper would be too flat and boring. So, I started screwing around with embossing powder.

The tile - powder and pastel chalk.

Mixed green chalk and resin.

The powder is sprinkled over wet ink and then “melted” with a heat gun creating a pseudo 3D effect. (Embossed effect.)  Thing is, the damn powders are expensive and I wasn’t even sure how to use them. So, after navigating the net for info I decided to mix the powder I have (white) with pastel chalk. I couldn’t find anywhere that suggested doing this but I figured it had to work. I experimented on the black & white pic to see if the powder would melt and stick.  The green was fine so I tried yellow.  But since I am not sure of the ratio, I was afraid to put too much chalk in and I ended up with a pale colors. No good. Still, I was able to use it on a color print out of the large lemon tile and I actually like it. I may want to make some areas in the designs in relief. Then I can varnish them thickly to simulate a tile like surface.  There is also the option of buying alcohol based inks and adding those into the white powder.  I may try and find some inks and see if that works too. Anyway, it’s fun finding a new process and experimenting.

Applying the powder to the brushed on ink.

After applying heat. You can see it's glossy.

Adding the yellow embossing to just part of the design.

And here is some more info on my favorite lemon the bizzaria. It is so damn ugly! I would like to taste it one day.

Painting and Door Knobs

April 21st - 26th 2021

I admit, my blog is more a story about trial and error.  I am not a miniature artist or builder with any experience - all I know is from what I try to accomplish and sometimes it works and sometimes doesn't. It's a hobby that presents challenges to me in finding the best and more effective way to create an object or a look that I have envisioned - but that really doesn't exist. This is why I enjoy it - but for you, maybe it's boring reading about my constant fails - dropping pieces, splinters, burns.... The dangers of "screwing around" with things I really have no business doing. Well, it's fun for me - and hope you enjoy my creative endeavours and I look forward to finishing this project! Hopefully it won't take as long as the Japanese Dollshouse did.....

Anyway, I finished painting the first panel white including the window panes. They were easily removed but to put them back in I had to sand down the sides a bit. Course they were quite loose coming out so I thought they’d fit snuggly going back in - but they were a bit too snug. So quick slight sanding did the trick. At least now I won’t have to glue them in place and I know that all the others I should just put a very light wash on the external frame to save time from sanding.  I hate painting - I think it’ll be easier if I just give them a slightly diluted paint job and a second hand rather than straight paint from the tube.

I decided to paint a door panel next.  The doors are pinned into the frame so I had to be sure that when I removed them (or even if I should) they’d go back in easily.  I have never done a build with a pin hinged door (the Ryokan dollhouse just had sliding doors) so after checking info on this kit it seemed ok to remove the bottom pin and slide the door out. Which I did, only to have the top pins fall out and onto the floor.  Ho-hum.  Boring. How many times have I dropped miniature parts on the floor which of course hasn’t been swept for weeks?  Anyway, I used my trusty dust pan and brush and found the missing pegs after about 10 minutes of cleaning/searching.  I pulled out the second door panel and took those out now since I will probably paint that panel next anyway.  I then removed the panes from the doors and carefully made sure I put each with its own door as they are also a snug fit.  I sanded down the areas where the tapes they used to stabilize pieces during shipping had left some gummy residue and put masking tape on the “window” panes since those are not removable.  I was then prepped for painting.

Masking off the windows for painting

 

First door done, second to finish.

After painting more, I had to clean the window pane since the dirt and grime had accumulated a bit there. I used some alcohol and cotton and a cotton swab to get it fairly clean. Course it’s impossible to get it perfectly clean.  I then checked the other door to find out which side was inside and outside (since the panes get installed on the outside) and managed to coax the window panels into place. Again, nice snug fit because of the small amount of paint on the inner part of the door frame. That done, I tackled the second door in the same manner and fit its pane as well.  Next up, door handle and embellishments.

Doors painted and trial fit.

I had seen a really nice antique door with kick panels on the bottom. I really like the idea that the Tea House would have some kind of bottom protection for the front door.  I mean, the idea is that people have always been coming in and out and banging up the doors with pots and plants etc. Then once it was refurbished, they just decided to leave the kick panels and give them a quick brushing.  I recently had our front door rejuvenated after 20+ years and so much wear due to weather that I noticed that the front brass door knob was pretty tarnished and sad looking.  The guy that did the work said no need for chemicals, you just give the door knob a good rubbing with steel wool.  He left us a nice size piece since the materials were already paid for in the renovations so I used that to burnish and blemish the panels. You can see the difference on the left where I rubbed the brass and let the black residue shed off onto the door. I did the right side one to match them up a bit.

Cutting the lamina, again.

Gluing the door kicks into place.

Burnished areas and dirt added on the left.

Next up was the door handle.  I bought door handles (two) because I had no intention of adding actual handles to the back doors - although I may change my mind later. Also, thinking how doors usually work, I really only needed one on the outside and one on the inside of the working entrance door.  The left door is what would swing open - not the right.  As a shop, they could prop open the right door during business hours but the entrance is really just on the one side. Or it is for now. Anyway, the doorknobs did not come with screws (grrr) so I had to steal 4 screws from a tiny hinge kit.  They of course were super difficult to pick up and put into the respective holes but I eventually got the front door knob on.  I dug out a little more wood for where the key would go (which will be on the inside only) and fixed the knob and screws with a drop of glue here and there.  I then decided to glue the other two screws onto the door knob plate thinking it would be easier to just tap them into the wood on the back of the door to fix them in place. It would have been had I not forgotten to mark the holes on the back of the door.  Ok, pulled them out and tried again. The key won’t fit right now since I need to dig out a little more wood but they look good! They are just propped in place as I still have so much more painting to do - but I did put them in a zip lock bag in case the knobs come away and the screws come out - I’ll never be able to find them again if I didn’t.

Doors propped into their frames

Well, sorry for the long entry - to make it up to you, check out this room fragrance Cedrato di Firenze made by Wally Cosmetici - its inspiration being the Bizzarria Lemon of course !! It is the most wonderful fragrance spray especially in the kitchen. Check out their site and hopefully you can find it close to home -

“Bizzarria”, chimera, legend and love spell

Introduced in the citrus fruit collection of the Medici Gardens, it comes from the

countryside of Pietrasanta (Lu).

Cedrato di Firenze is the most fragrant and sweet of all lemons

"For its grateful smell superior to all the others”- Wally Cosmetici, Montemurlo (PO) Italy

Painting and Playing

12th April - 15th April 2021

Starting painting the exterior

So, getting back to my mini project, I started looking into methods of aging the bricks and got side tracked. I will need to paint both inside and out of each panel so I started to think about the interior decoration while doing that. I am planning to use the typical Tuscan and even Amalfi style of tiling on the inside. Yes, it’s true, most of these limonaia never really had tiling from top to bottom but I am going to put some mural tiles on the inside of each section under the windows.  Also here I will need to age these a bit but I needed at least to start off by finding some images to use.  So after digging around on the internet, I managed to find some and adjusted the dimensions somewhat to fit my needs. First was to print them out in black and white on the normal printer to check sizing etc. Then I print them out on my color printer, again on normal paper.  I like the colors very much! So bright!

Sizing and placement tests

Years ago I had bought some little ugly 2cm by 2cm glass mosaic tiles at a craft store. They were cheap and crappy quality but I plan on covering them with little citrus images and tile designs. I was going to use these in the spaces under the windows but the sizes do not match up and since they are glass and not acrylic, I needed to make some tests on cutting them to size.

 

First little tile done.

So, in the meantime, I screwed around with putting an image on one anyway, just to test it out.  I glued it on with watered down Vinavil glue (no such thing as Modge Podge here in Italy), then a little on the outside being careful not to apply too much to avoid smudging the inkjet image. Once it was dry, I varnished up the outside. I made it pretty thick so that the tile didn’t have a super even surface or streaks.  I think it came out great! Now just have to fool around with trying to cut them just to see if I can and be able to use them elsewhere in the tea room. (I found this image off a vendor on Amazon)

 

In my searches on the net I came across another person writing about lemons and Florentine lemons, just a small excerpt but nice none the less.  The blog has lots of info! Check it out!

Citrus vs. Lemon

July 21st 2019

Yes, time flies - wish it were because I was having fun but not so. Busy work and life schedule and health issues - I suppose not so much me as my husband but cannot do much about that. Most is  brought on by excessive lifestyle of eating and drinking.  There are not so many vices left in our lives - gave up smoking long ago. Alcohol and food are all that’s left I guess…. We are worshipers of Baccus. And he is taking his toll.

Caravaggio's Bacchus  - 1595 - Uffizzi - Florence Italy

So anyway, the other day I was home from work on my way to the doctor and had some free time. It’s been so long that I had even looked at my Orangery project I couldn’t even remember what I had bought and not.  There had been a small earthquake at the Japanese Ryokan (see the blog) so I was pretty frustrated overall about getting back to mini-ing.  But during a work convention I ran into my ex-colleague and muse of minis and she was wondering if I had gone back to the project or not.  Since we stopped working together, we both have lost our mini-ing passion.  Seems we were a sort of stimulus for each other.  But she was encouraging so having recently put the Ryokan back together after the earthquake and cleaning off my work table I decided to take a look at things.  Soon enough I started thinking about what I could do each evening or weekend to get back to making something.  And, here I am, writing the next installment after having dug around to remember what materials I have and have not.

So, here is a pic of the kit I bought ages ago.

Greenhouse Kit - bought two.

I actually bought two.  One end is completely open - it was made to butt up against a dollhouse for installation. I am going to make them both and install little hinges between them for opening and closing - or keep them unattached and install them back to back when displaying them - making them one greenhouse.

Bricks mortar and marble sheet.

I had already bought the bricks and mortar (I actually had do do an email search on my computer to find the order receipts as I could not find the materials!! - I had put them away for later and forgot where I had put them or even wasn’t sure I had bought them!)  The bricks will be installed on the side panels under the windows of the greenhouse in the style of Kensington.  I will have to paint everything white though first. And I managed to locate the “hard wood” flooring sheet and the “marble” self sticking sheet for the floors. I think I will use the marble for the greenhouse floor and the wood for making the counter shop table tops more interesting.  So, with my camera battery now charged and at least a few steps planned out, maybe I can get cracking !!

And here is an ugly lemon pic.

I will try and add lemon lore in here every now and then. This one is called a citron or cedro in Italian. I guess ancient versions of it (etrog) even have important religious significance in the Jewish faith.  You can look up info on it but I love the ugliness of the fruit.  Some of the lemons I got recently from Amalfi are just as ugly so I put them in a jar with salt to make salted lemons.  You can check out the recipe here. Make sure your lemons are unwaxed if you are going to make the recipe. Maybe the uglier the better!

So that is all for today.  Hopefully I wil l have enough energy to do something else this week.

Till later !!