What Does Sugarplum Want to Be?

I woke up early this morning with visions of Sugarplums in my head. No. It's not Christmas yet. I decided that Sugarplum Cottage wants to be a French country kind of cottage. It is all in my head now and a little of it is running out of my fingertips onto the cottage.

I pulled out a brand new package of DAS and set to work. Just for the record, here are some of the tools that I am using for making an old looking plaster wall on the outside. See the handy dandy rolling pin at the top of the page? It is one that is used for rolling fondant when making fancy Wilton type cakes. I like it for all kinds of clay. It has never touched fondant. See the little pink band on the end? There's another one on the other end too. The make is so that you can roll the fondant/clay to the exact same thickness every time. It comes with two different sets and does two different thicknesses. I use the narrower ones. I would say that they are between 1/8th and 1/16th of an inch.

The set of tools in this photo are from Michael's and are pretty cheap when you have a coupon. They are also good with all kinds of clay. I especially like the spade shaped ones for working with the DAS. You can get into corners and tight places with them to smooth the clay. In this photo you can see how well the tool has done the left side. There are still gaps to close on the right side.

As you can see, I started at the roof line and worked down. I smeared plain old white glue for this just like when I am doing rock work. I know. Please don't write and tell me that I have more DAS on my hand than I do on the structure. I am not happy unless I am up to my elbows when I am working with that stuff. It comes off with soap and water when you want to take a break.

Here's the first side that I did. It looks pretty rough. That's the way I want it. I am going to finish the walls with washes and I want the texture to be like the cottage is old and been re plastered an number of times.

I started on the front. I am probably done for today though. I try not to do any straight lines except for where the plaster meets the roof line, or corners. I wrap the clay to the inside of the doors and windows and cut it off even with the back side. At the bottom left you can see where I stopped. I will wet that down a bit with a sponge tomorrow and just start with a new piece, blending it in.

After finishing the front and the other side, I will come back and do the steps. They will be bricks. There will be one course of square bricks around the base of the building. I am thinking Normandy type frames of stone around the front door and window. Or maybe I will do folding shutters on either side of the window. I am also wondering if I should make a basket shop instead of an accessories shop......Random thoughts are leaking out of my brain again. I need to go write them down now. I might lose something important!

See you tomorrow.