It's Not Nice to Annoy the Worker Bees......

Tessie is home. She couldn't wait to see what I had done to the teashop....Not a lot....Needless to say, Tessie was not happy.

She immediately started hassling me about the lack of progress. She also insisted that I start the sign for the exterior so that everybody would know that it was hers.

So I whipped out a planning pad and started drawing up a sign. This is what I came up with. If you want to try it and don't do lettering, you could find a simple font and do the design part on your computer. Just remember that you have to have the width of the ropes of clay as the letters and at least that between the letters.

It has to be fairly simple, what with the technique that she wanted me to use on it. I stuck one of the extra teapots on and sketched it out. She insisted that teas had to have the "e" on the end. I kept erasing it. She kept putting it back. Finally we came to a compromise. An extra loop on the end of the "s" satisfied her. I look at it as a flourish. She looks at it as correct spelling.
I rolled out a piece of white clay at the next to thinnest number on my pasta machine and cut it to size.

Then I took my infernal extruding machine and squeezed out long ropes of black Fimo in about the same thickness as the handle of the teapot.

When you are using this technique you have to do all of the details first and then surround them with the contrasting colored ropes.

First I did the "Tessie's Teas(e). Can't forget the "e".

Then I stuck on the teapot and a couple of flowers that match. Here you can see the three layers of the sticker. The ropes are even with the second layer. The third sticks up above it.

The next step was squeezing bunches of white to do the background. That infernal machine literally squawks in protest when you are extruding the ropes. It's like fingernails on a chalkboard, so I do it in steps. I can only stand the sound for so long. I know it's not just me. My friend Maureen has one and it is equally as irritating.

Evidently I don't work fast enough. Tessie started helping.....It was fine but she kept sticking her toes in the edge of the sign and wiggling them around. She said,"This feels just like walking around in spaghetti!".

No. I didn't ask how she knows that. I don't want to know the circumstances that found her taking a walk in pasta. I know she had a wild weekend, but I still don't want to know.

I was getting most annoyed at her. I fixed the corner three times and then I lost it. I made her get up and move away from the signage.....She kept inching closer.....It's not nice to annoy Casey when she's working.....

I ran out of white, so I grabbed the infernal machine once more and started twisting the handle.....That will teach her!

See you tomorrow.