The Second Story.....

I started out this morning thinking I was going to finish a slate floor for the kitchen of the Clockwork Cottage. The only leather paper that I have left is a dark charcoal color. I got the floor made and this is how I went about doing it.

This is a method I came up with for using this particular paper. I don't know if it would work with lighter paper because it is rather roughly handled.

The board that I cut to size and painted yesterday was the basis for it. I cut a sheet of the textured leather paper a little larger than the size of the board.

I started at the bottom left corner. I cut a random sized rectangle and glued it down with plain Elmer's. I left enough to cover the front edge and lap to the back.

I laid the large piece next to the piece that was glued on and decided how big I wanted the next piece to the right, to be. I cut that out of the large sheet right next to the first piece. It is kind of like disassembling a jigsaw puzzle. I glued that one down and moved on to the two pieces with the angled corners. I glued them down and the edge piece on the left side. As you see it in the first photo, I work out from the starting corner in all directions. Sometimes I have to do some trimming and once in a while add a larger piece.

Here you see it all glued down. The next thing I do is go over all of the cracks with a ball stylus. That knocks down the edges of the paper and rounds the corners.

Next I take Berol Prismacolor pencils and rub several colors over the paper to give it depth. In this case, I used quite a bit of silver, some copper, cool gray and raw umber.

Before I put it in the house I will spray it with Deft Satin spray varnish.

As I said before, this was to be the kitchen floor.........I put it in and it didn't want to be the kitchen floor. It was too dark. Then the light bulb above my brain went on. The kitchen floor and the secret room floor are exactly the same size.

Did I mention that Tessie figured out that the house was not protected when Zar is not in residence? The last time I saw him, he was on his Steampunk Cycle in front of Cordelia's place.

Tessie still hasn't let go of Spike. She approves of the slate floor for the workroom. Too bad Zar wasn't home to see it. Oh well. I guess things are back to normal. At least they are for Tessie.

I really think that she has given up on Zar. She is back to doing anything that she pleases. Personally, I have a slight suspicion that her crush is not so much on Balthazar as it is on the Clockwork Cottage.........She hasn't been at her place much since I started this one. I don't know what will happen when Zar gets back. I don't think anything will explode, but Tessie may be back outside in a flash. Literally.

See you tomorrow.