Completing the panel tiles

16th March - 22nd March 2022

I started making some trials on the foam to see how I could finish up the external areas not covered by the larger center tiles. I used the paper folding tool and made tile indents then tried some gesso on it - and some gloss varnish on top. The gesso made no difference so I applied layers of gloss on the areas that I have “carved” out of the foam. I had to do that before actually glueing in the tile image. The foam tends to absorb the varnish so I had to carefully layer it till I got what could pass for a tile that’s been in place for a while. I had thought about using the embossing sand on the foam but since it would probably melt under the heat gun I rejected that idea. I think they look fairly realistic tho.

Shaped fake tiles - using varnish for shine.

Positioning the larger image.

Finished image application

I then applied the other square tiles in their spaces and used my paper tool to emboss indentations to simulate the tiles’ junctures there too. I was careful not to press too hard otherwise the paper might rip (which it did a little on one tile). 

Simulating grout indents between the tiles.

I didn’t really like one of the larger tile designs but I had printed out a very large one that could be cut down to size. But, I had to emboss that one image and size it to the space. Of course being such a large design it took me a few passes with the embossing powder and heat gun to get it covered and even then I missed a spot. I mounted it onto the base and pressed in the grooves between the tiles and touched up the missed spots with my varnish. I think it looks ok. 

Covering the image withe embossing powder.

After heat gun application

Cut to size and positioned.

While doing that, I figured there had to be a way to make the tile indentations look grouted. So I ordered off Amazon some white ink ball point pens. Only after reading lots of reviews did I decide on the Uni-ball point instead of a gel pen or brush pens. I didn't care if I had to pass over the tiles more than once - I just wanted to simulate grout. These pens worked perfectly! The only down side is obviously you can see where the tiles were not spot on straight in some of their positions. But that’s ok. I like them anyway! 

Testing the grout lines on my test tile

You can see the "grout" lines penned in.

And onwards to "grouting" the rest!

Here is another blurb about the Bizzarria - and it also mentions the villa at Castello where they managed to bring it back.

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.

UV Gel Plate tests

 August 9 - 15th 2021

Continuing with the UV gel plate tests and have had quite a few failures.

First thing was to try and find some cheap semi-permanent nail polish that hardens with UV light. I did find some white paste like gel at the dollar store (altho it cost €8.79 euro for 30ml - not a dollar) and still needed to be mixed with the clear gel I bought specifically for this (10ml for €9.00) so that product is not quite the right thing, but the plate test did come out a bit better. So my next test involved using some nail polish that I found at the local mall. I bought some white polish and made a plate from it no problem. Didn’t even need to add any of the UV clear gel. It hardened under the UV lamp in under two minutes. Next was to try and add in the design.

First thing I lost around two days installing a new printer. I had to test the printer to be sure I could install it on my Mac (which is pretty full) and that went no problem. Then I had to find some ink jet cartridges for it. My old printer works fine (even nicer than this one) but the HP cartridges are hard to find now (not making them anymore) and at €49 for two, the newer printer and it’s cheaper cartridges (€34 for two) makes it a better choice. I am not a huge printer of things but when I print out mostly for my mini stuff I need the color printer. So I’m hoping these will last me a few months at least. After having removed and re-boxed the old one, I printed off the labels on normal paper high dpi on the new one and they’re good enough since I will be applying other medium on top of them and they will lose a lot of details anyway. I attempted to use a new clear UV gel sandwiching the plate design between that and the white nail polish but when you squish the plate mold the white overflows into the design in front. Not only, seems that this gel is really only good for adhering the semi-permanent polish to fingernails and not as an outer layer. So will have to continue to use the pure white nail polish to make the plates and find another way to add the designs. First fail.

You can see the difference from plate one to the mixed medium plate. Better but not perfect.

Trying sizing on the design into the silicone plate mold.

How the design would eventually fit in.

Full white nail polish result from the mold.

Result after hardening - the white invaded the top side of the plate - so, not acceptable.

In the meantime, I wanted to also run a test in adding color to the white nail polish. I used a green chalk pastel to the white but also this was a failure. The ratio of powder to liquid makes the nail polish too diluted to harden sufficiently. I ended up re-enforcing the underside with the specific gel I bought for the silicone molds and coaxing the plates out of the mold. Even after many minutes under the UV lamp, the plates just weren’t hardening sufficiently, so I added a little to the top too. I don’t think these green ones are salvageable - no matter how much I add on top the inside is still not cured (even after leaving over night and back under the UV lamp the next day). Fail two.

Mixing the green pastel chalk...

...under the UV light for hardening....

Nada, this was a throw away trial.

I figured the problem was the thickness of the actual liquid in the mold. If I put too much polish in the then it cannot harden thru - especially when I’ve corrupted it with pastel.  To test this, I filled a mini croissant mold to see if the polish would harden thru. I put it under the light for around 3 minutes and it did come out ok - seemed hardened thru. But I tried to sand and shape a bit a bigger one and it cracked and gel oozed out. Not hard enough all the way thru. Back under the lamp till they harden up. It was just a test anyway since these molds are actually for use with Fimo type clay, not really with the UV gel. So, thickness makes the difference. Pseudo fail.

Croissant mold test....

...after curing but still not solid all the way thru.

The next test was using acrylic paint to color the white nail polish instead of chalk. So I added some yellow acrylic paint and two drops of the UV super gel then used a paint brush to dose out the amount of product in the mold. It took a few tries to fill it sufficiently. When you squeeze the mold it fills areas too so once it seems covered I stuck the plate under the lamp. I eased it out of the mold on one side, under the lamp again then eased it out the other. Success! The trick is the acrylic paint. Seems it doesn’t inhibit the hardening of the gel. But still, once I started to sand down the plate I found areas where the gel was not hardened completely. So still, not the best solution.

Filling the mold with colored gel polish....

...result after sufficient hardening.

The learning curve. From first to last plate.

Lessons learned so far? If I want intense colored plates, I’ll have to paint them after making them.  It’s way too much work and waste of the product to mix the white polish, acrylic paint and drops of the super UV gel. It’ll be faster if I make all the plates white and apply the designs onto them. The whole point of making these plates from a mold is because I was not able to find white ones that are this thin and delicate looking. So I think I am on the right track! Next step - finding a way to make my own decals to transfer the Amalfi type designs onto the plates… we will see how that works out…..

Queen Mab has arrived....

 June 1st - June 18th 2021

Well, been a bit busy of late. Full scale life got complicated and summer has finally arrived. Up until about a week ago, it was tolerably hot.  Now it’s boiling. The sun scorches your skin even before it’s at its highest peak. I take out my beagle Max every day at noonish and it’s getting more difficult due to the sun’s relentless attack. I do not like summer much. I am not a beach goer (more a lover of lakes and mountainous scenery) due to my super pale skin (yes type I) and the constant need for 50+ sunscreen (that ends up attracting kilos of sand) and my own self image issues (I hate showing off my puffy white thighs in a bathing suit) so living in Italy does have its downside - for me anyway.  So much good food that puts on layers of fat and a sun I cannot enjoy.  Oh, the irony.

So, here I am up in my hobby attic - dollhouse building, sewing, drawing etc. and thank god we installed a decent AC unit. We actually upgraded it in 2019. The other one was more than 15 years old, so this one works rather well.  Without it, no way I could sit up here and play.  
In fact I went back to playing with the tiles since the ink pens arrived. They were not as great as I had hoped but will be workable. The ink refill bottles are perfect for the job of inking up the images I need with a brush then applying the clear embossing powder.  Works a charm. In this picture, you can see the printed tiles I will be using (I have 12 small spaces and 4 larger ones that need tiling) and you can see the reflection of the pebbling effect from the clear embossing powder.  Now I just need to mount them on the white backing for inserting into the panels (which I still have to paint two more - I got side tracked making the tiles - they were more fun than painting).

Embossing the printed tiles - you can see the pebbled surface I like

.

I had bought a long time ago when it was on sale a series of pub signage.  It was a large frame, a sandwich board, a wall board and a hanging sign for outside all in one package.  I had found an image which I really liked of an art Deco style woman holding a flower of some sort with little children or “putti” holding her dress.  I liked the subtle colors and the image and decided I would put her in the large frame. That meant that once I printed it to size I had to cut the frame to size as well.  First issue was that my printer started acting up.  I had bought new ink cartridges last year but as usual, they never last as long a they advertise. When I went to buy more, I found that the prices were getting out of hand (€47 euros for two cartridges and only on Amazon!!) especially when I can buy a new HP multifunctional printer here for €59. Ho hum…. So, I managed to print out most of my colored tiles (seeing as it was the black ink that was acting up - probably due to the heat in the attic when the AC is off) and the deco Dandelion lady. I will deal with the new ink cartridges later. Then I set out to cut the wooden frame. Easier said than done. My dremel attachment (a diamond type disc) wouldn’t stay in place so I ended up having to hand saw the frame. No problem, I have lots of different saws and vices so that just took around an hour to cut and glue.  Once dry on the next day I got to sanding all the edges to smooth it out. To be honest, I am not very happy with how the cut shows but since I had decided to gold leaf the frame I figured it wouldn’t show that much.

Deco Dandelion lady and the now cut frame.

Yes, a bit crappy but was going to be covered in gold anyway.

Adding a little embossing shine to areas inside the image.

Getting back to the Dandelion lady, I could not read the signature on the image and I wanted to label it. I wanted to figure out if, in fact, she was Deco (since I was going for the idea that the limonaia would have been old but updated around turn of the last century) and upon doing a Google image search, I found out all about it.  She would be a version of “Queen Mab" from  a book about fairies called Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens illustrated by Arthur Rackham -1906. Turns out he illustrated many books - not just fairy tales and such - and his work is a bit frightening yet beautiful. I found a nice entry  from the same blog listing all the books he has illustrated and mentioning that he knew Tolkien and influenced some of the tree imagery for Lord of the Rings. We can even see influences in Disney’s nightmare in the woods sequence from Snow White and the Seven Dwarves.  He also illustrated The Wind in the Willows which is a favorite book amongst many young people even today.  So, yes, this image would work well.  As I said she is a version of “Queen Mab” - who rules the gardens - but not always.  She has morphed in many different literary works from someone beautiful to even one of the most famous evil queens - The Queen of Hearts - in a retelling of Alice in Wonderland (Andrzej Sapkowski).  So, yes, after enjoying all the information and imagery I believe my Queen Mab will fit into the limonaia just fine.

I managed to find the actual glue I had bought a hundred years ago for gold leaf but it was pretty melma (slime) like.  Almost like snot. (Sorry). But it did work better then the other glue types I had. Soon enough, after around 20 minutes I remembered how much I disliked gold leafing. I did cover most of the frame (but not perfectly - it is supposed to be old), then varnished the gold to set it into place as the actual leafing glue was not 100% guaranteed to hold. Then, I found a darkish Burnt Sienna acrylic and lightly sponged areas of the frame to “age” the gold, sponged the back and the inside and just needed to frame the image.

Glueing the gold leaf onto the frame...

...covering as much as possible.

Sponging in a bit of bronze coloring....

...finished frame.

You can see that the external sawed edge is practically invisible. Inside will be under the image.

I set to work aging the image of the Queen Mab and even added a little bit of texture to the surface (by pressing the front onto a small piece of netting) to give it the look of canvas.  Then I aged it with some more chalk pastel and set her into her frame. I think she looks fairy-ly regal. Will just need to decide where to hang her inside the limonaia. I am still working out how the room will be decorated. Anyway, slowly making progress and still having fun.

The image on the left before aging onthe right.

The piece of netting I used to give the image a canvas look.

Close up of the canvas texture.

An idea of size - I like that it's large.

Painting....

14th - 28th May 2021

So waiting for the stupid ink pen to arrive I started working on the other panels sanding and cleaning the window panes and painting everything white.  I decided to stop painting the panes separately and just glue them and and paint them on the panel. I figured it was the same thing more or less and less of a struggle to get the panes into place since everything swells a little after painting. Easier this way. While doing this, your mind wanders so I listen to music or something else but mostly contemplate about these tiles and the structure etc.

Anyway, I got to thinking, there must be a better solution than the pens since a lot of times they dry out and I really do not need to write anything (these pens are great for calligraphy).  I just need to fill in the entire tile to look shiny like a tile but rough like they’re old. Then a few nites ago, I got an idea when checking the tracking on the pen I ordered (2 weeks later and hasn’t even left the USA yet) and noticed that Amazon sells ink refills for the slow drying ink/glue used in embossing. You buy this little bottle and spread it on your ink pad. So, I read the reviews on Amazon US and found out that they are sold like little droppers (about half an ounce) and are exactly the same ink glue stuff that would be in the pens. Eureka! I find comments that you can use a brush to cover larger areas too. So, over to Amazon.it to find out if they sell it.  They do, at twice the price. Ok, bummer, but even if the other pen arrives, this solution I think is better. So I bought the ink (like €11 with tax!) and received the package only to be pleasantly surprised. They put in two bottles instead of one (I double checked and the description said only half an ounce (15ml)) but yes, I got two. Jeez what a break! Of course in the afternoon I went straight upstairs to test it.  I mounted the test tile on the white foam type backing and painted an area over the tile, sprinkled the transparent powder and heated it.  The white backing bends with the heat but is easily bent back and the ink works perfectly.  I’ll probably have to emboss each tile before mounting them on the white backing but hey - we are a go for this process once I am ready to start embossing the tiles.Very cool!

You can see the pebble effect I like in the shiney area on the right.

But I can still make the embossing thick enough to be smooth.

While painting the panels (still another two to go) and doing some cleaning of my craft supplies, I came across a bottle of Crackle Medium. I bought this back when I was doing a lot of decoupage type projects. This medium gets painted on between two layers of contrasting paint (usually a darker one underneath) and causes the top layer of paint to crack showing dark areas underneath. Hence crackle medium. I had the idea that I wanted to age the paint on the bottom of the panels where maybe lots of moisture build up would cause cracking. I decided to test if I just dusted some of my chalk pastel color on the first layer then put the crackle on to see if the result looked oldish. It did actually! So we are a go for using this to make the bottom parts of the panel look weather worn. I did the first panel and I do like it. Saves on having to paint and weather by hand.

Making a test for the cracklé medium.

Applying the chalk on the painted surface.

Using a brush to spread the chalk.

Final effect. Looks fairly water damaged.

 

 

 

And various museums are re-opening this month - Boboli and its limonaia today. Restaurants are opening for indoor seating on 1st June - next week. Course reduced capacity and masks and distancing are still required but slowly we should return to normal after a year of lockdowns. I hope anyway. 

 

(oh, and the pens arrived today - so that's a good thing. I need some good things to be happening as there is way to much negativity going around that I can't control. So it's nice every now and then.)

Tile Experimenting (continued)

1st May - 9th May 2021

Tile trials - embossing tile lines.

I continued experimenting with the tiles that are going to fit the inside panels under the windows. I put one tile on a piece of corrugated cardboard for backing and painted some glossy varnish over it.  I think 3 or 4 layers. The ribbed corrugated cardboard shows thru (so that will not be an option for the backing) but luckily I was in a dollar store and found some white foam type material which should work better. I had to use a ball embossing tool to bring out the tile lines and press a little into the cardboard so I needed something that wasn’t too rigid to allow me to simulate that these are like single tiles and not just one big one. I think the white backing should work better than the cardboard.

Corrugated backing shows too much.

Anyway, it just took so long to make one tile I decided to try and find clear embossing powder. Easier said than done. There are no more stores dedicated to crafts around where I live.  Given that it’s still semi-lock down here, it’s not like I could wander around trying to find embossing products. No luck on line either. Amazon had one but it was like €16 euros which is amazing considering these things cost like under $10 in the USA. Talk about a rip off!  So, I had an idea - I had bought thru Amazon Germany in the past. Even with the cost of transport from Germany it would still cost less for a 25gr container of transparent powder.  So I ordered it off of them and it was delivered in under a week. Crazy! You would think during lockdown that stores that sell craft supplies would be stocking up. Weird.

Test fitting in the panel.

My idea was to use the clear embossing powder since it would be quicker than the varnish method and would look more interesting because it would not be a perfect surface. The idea is that these tiles are old and have been in place a while. So they cannot look new. I printed off all my tiles on a piece of photographic paper to get the colors as intense as possible.  I made a few tests on the crappy color prints just to see how the colors responded (the ink pen I have leaves a slight light blue tint so it’s not perfect for light colors) but I figured it would work.  

Printed tiles ready for embossing.

Clear powder on blue looks great.

 

 

You can see the blue hue on the white.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The transparent powder does a great job keeping the color but the blue hue in the glue pen was obvious. So, back to ordering another pen off Amazon.  This one is going to take a month to get here. Go figure. No problem - the time spent waiting will be filled with painting the panels white, something I am realizing is taking longer than I thought. 

I did finally receive the miniature cribbage boards I ordered though.  Pretty fun! So here is a pick of all the different board games I’ve managed to collect so far.  The baseball board game has been the most costly thus far.  It has all kinds of little game pieces inside.  And I have no idea yet how I am going to set up the Chinese Checker game - it comes with all the little colored rounds pieces! Maybe I will just have to fashion a miniature bag to hold them. Still missing checkers and backgammon board. Will keep my eye out for them.

Board games for the games cupboard

Cribbage !!

I’ve been making blueberry muffins lately and would like to try some different ones. Setting my sites on this lemon muffin recipe with buttercream frosting. Decadent.