January 13, 2013

Well it’s been a while, but I have not been idle. I’ll start of this year’s entries with updates on the outhouse. The first thing I did was add a darker paint finish to the wagon wheel and then I changed the moss on the wheel, roof and sides of the house. I used a small bit of household bleach to further change the look of the moss. It’s not quite as light as I would like it, but it will suffice for now and I will probably apply a second coating of bleach to further lighten it.

MAKING MY OWN BOOKS:

With the outhouse completed I moved on to something I have wanted to do for some time now, and that is trying my hand at making my own books. The Bronte house has a rather extensive book collection in the dining room so I figured I‘d try to save a bit by making my own. I started with the following items: A package of leather scraps, a ruler, an old magazine, glue and a rotary cutter.

I started by cutting the spine from the magazine, this will become the basis for the books.

I then laid the spine inside the leather strip and applied the glue. I folded the leather over and after allowing the glue to dry I cut the books to size with a rotary cutter. The books still need a bit of trimming and I am waiting on my craft paint to arrive so that I can gold leaf the spines and covers.

For a first attempt it’s not bad, but I did learn some things along the way. First, the glue I used, E6000, was much more than I needed to secure the leather to the magazine spine. I do not recommend using it as it has a very strong odor which lingered for over 5 days. Save this kind of glue for metal on metal and metal on wood. Aleene’s tacky glue will be more than sufficient to secure the leather. Also, although I wanted these books to be thicker, I think that a thinner magazine will work much better, as it was quite a job cutting through this thickness. A larger rotary cutter will also be a big help. This one is only 28mm, and will probably be o.k. for thinner cuts, but this one was real work! Live and learn as they say. LOL.

CHICKEN COOP:

The next thing I tried was building a chicken coop I used this photo as a guide.

My objective with this coop was to build it using only the leftover scrap wood I had from other projects, and the supplies I had on hand. To that end I used old window and door frames, and unused window parts. I also had on hand in my stash roof trusses, clay molding wire, solid pieces of wood scrap and wood and tacky glue.

I used scrap wood and the trusses to make the roof.

Scrap window frames to form the top section of the coop.

I used my Dremel to carve out a doorway and extra window trim to form the base of the coop, then stacked it and glued. I formed a shelf (on which my little chickens will nest, out of 3 pieces of scrap. The shelf will fit inside the top and the roof will be removable so that we can take a gander inside from time to time.

I used a piece of plain wood and 2 corner blocks (which I split in half lengthwise) to create the ladder for the chicks to access the nesting area. I then glued one piece of the wire underneath the base, folding it around the corner.

I found that one of the added benefits of using the extra window frames was that if I didn’t remove the center scrap piece of wood it made an excellent “Egg Door”. So I reinforced it along the bottom with a little wood glue and made a makeshift door hinge. Now all the little residents can reach in and remove the eggs from the nests.

I will be adding the rest of the front panels later on this evening and will try to update with photos as quickly as possible. After today’s session I’m realizing that I need to update much more often, especially if I have a lot of photos as they are turning out to be quite a bit of work to size and upload. Till later then.

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