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!!

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 !!

What is an Orangery and What's the Big Deal of Having One?

Kensington Orangery

Ok, I admit.  My first exposure to an orangery was Kensington Palace where inside the orangery the public can enjoy high tea when the building is not being used for special events (such as weddings or private parties for the royals or the wealthy).  I had no idea that a specific kind of greenhouse existed!  Built in 1761 with the idea of housing oranges (see why below) it wasn’t as successful at this endeavor as it was planned to be - this due to the fact that the roof was solid and did not allow sufficient light into the building.

Around the 9-10th century the orange was introduced into Europe by the Moors.  But the early version of the fruit was more bitter than today's sweet orange which was introduced into Sicily around the 15th century and its popularity soon caught on.  Once merchants began to spread the sweet orange into the Mediterranean, it became a luxury item and sought after by those who could afford it - or afford to grow them in their own greenhouses.  If you had fresh oranges on your table, you were considered very very special.  The fact that citrus trees and fruit suffer to frost is the reason why hot houses and orangeries (and the limonaia) were created to protect the precious fruit during the cold months.

 

The whole idea of a structure built specifically for housing citrus plants is much older than Kensington.  Basically the first citrus houses were built in Italy in the mid 1500’s and once glass blowing developed a system to make large panes of glass and use them for roofing, the orangery or in Italy the “lemonaia” really took off.  Obviously large panes of glass would be as expensive as gold so anyone having such a luxurious greenhouse or conservatory usually came from royalty or rich well to do families with very large villas.  The Renaissance gardens in Italy did them best.  Both functional and beautiful.  And the Medici families made sure each of their villas had a limonaia.  And the decoration of the inside of these limonaia were nothing less than masterpieces. 

Inside courtyard of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi that served as a place to house citrus trees and plants. Florence, Italy

Just like Kensington which has another function today, so too do the orangeries in Italy.  Some are still housing fruit but many are either mostly empty or have been converted into restaurants, hotels and even theaters.

Villa Petraia (Medici) in Sesto Fiorentino, Italy. You can see the hot house to the left of the pool (not for swimming but for fishing!)

The Orangery at Versailles, of course!

So, while building my Japanese dollshouse (my first project), somewhere during the build I came up with an idea to build my own Orangery.  It too would be a tea room and used for entertainment but I want to make it so that inside is still functional for the plants and fruit trees I plan to house there.  It will definately have a relaxed yet functional atmosphere.

I made purchases over the last 3 years or so based on what could go into my Orangery Tea Room and have collected quite a few objects.  Right now I am very busy with a hectic work schedule but I hope maybe I can find an hour or two in the week and on the weekend to try and get back to creating something in miniature.  I miss having a project to work on.

Ok, so, I welcome you to join me on the next project and hope it turns out as satisfying as the first dollshouse project did.