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Monday, March 29, 2010

A Clean Slate.....

I am beginning to hate porch rails, posts and spindles. It took a couple of hours to paint them all. Boring! Boring! Boring! Thank goodness for books on CD!

First I painted all of the indentations on the corner posts gold. Then I did the rest in white. I really dislike, strongly, the little spaces in the rails, between the spindles. That took the longest. I know some people don't paint them, but I felt the need.

Tessie got in the act when I started gluing the posts to the rails. She made sure that everything was square and level. RGT even provided a couple of 1/8" spacers so that the railings set exactly that far off the floor all the way around.

Before I could glue the railings in place, I needed to finish the slate floors on the balcony and the roof. I got as far as the balcony floor.

Remember the old song....Monday's wash day. Well it's that, among other things. So I have to get serious and do some house work along with the mini house work.

Anyway, about the balcony floor. I have my own method of doing slate. I have this paper that I bought many years ago at a now out of business, art store. I still have a couple of sheets left. When it runs out, I am going to be very unhappy.

My method is to whack off a piece of the paper approximately the size of the floor that I want to cover. Then I just cut as I go. Stick it down and cut another piece. No real rhyme or reason. It works for me. After I get it laid down, I go over all of the grout lines with a ball stylus to soften and roll the edges of the paper.

I couldn't wait until I put the Prismacolors on the floor to see what it was going to look like. The balcony rail is not glued down. I sat it in place and Tessie, nickers in a twist, wanted to know why I skipped a step. I assured her that this was just a trial run.

That seemed to mollify her.

As I said before, I have to do some serious big house work now. Tomorrow I will show you what a difference the Prismacolors make.

See you then.

5 comments:

iseecerulean said...

Jigs and spacers...I'm definitely buying from RGT next time.

The house is looking so nice. It's almost hard to believe that it's coming together so quickly, you make it look effortless.

Deni said...

I like the slate floor, I use card and egg carton as much as I can looking good that railing!
I understand about the painting too small,painstakingly...... time just never enough!

Maia's Twinkle Miniatures said...

I really like your method for the slate floor!
The rail looks great and I know what you mean about it being boring and hard! When I did the one for my dollhouse we had four hands (my moms and mine) and it kept falling apart while we were gluing! But once it's finished and in place it's woth it. :)
Maia

Jill said...

That balcony rail looks great! Don't ya love books on tape? I've been listening to Wicked during my commute!
Hugs,
Jill

miniacollection said...

I love the floor of the balcony.
Geneviève