YES, I made it myself: Constructing Molds

OJ House

The OJ House still curing.

At my last selling event, once again, someone asked: “Did you really make that yourself, by hand? Well, how did you do that?” Sometimes folks don’t believe that I DO actually create the papercrete items I sell, from the design, the molds, to the painting and finishing of each piece. This post will be a step-by-step breakdown of a custom miniature house to show the amount of work involved in just creating the molds.Continue reading

Almost Finished

Papercrete Fairy’s Castle Cottage Almost Finished

Dormers Installed

Old asphalt roof shingles can be cut, etched with designs, and then reused as shingles once more.

The Fairy’s Castle Cottage was one of the first batch of papercrete fairy houses for this season (2014). Creating the molds, forming the papercrete, waiting for the ‘crete to cure, and dry, are only a small part of the fairy house building process. Like building an actual house, the finish work takes the longest.Continue reading

Catching Up . . .

Papercrete Dew Drop Fairy House

Baby Box became “Dew Drop”. After painting, she was embellished with aluminum soda can cutouts for window frames and round leaves for the potted tree. A pull-tab, screen, and wires form the front door. A plastic end cap was cut down to create a pot for the twisted scrap wire tree, and crushed lava rock dust was added for the pot mulch.

I’ve had the flu and been out of commission the last few weeks, so I’m taking a day to catch up the Blog with the papercrete fairy house projects.  Some of the fairy houses were pretty cut-n-dry to develop. They were hand formed over disposable food containers, un-molded after set, dried, painted, and embellished.Continue reading

Hobbit Haven hedge experiment

Papercrete Fairy House Hedge Growth

Papercrete Hobbit House Hedge-front

The front of Hobbit Haven (protected by a plastic bag) after the cement-soaked dish towel was formed into place.

I already have a few hours invested in Hobbit Haven and wasn’t happy with any painted options that I imagined for the top of the house. I wanted dimensional “hedge growth”, so I’m trying a technique of soaking fabric in cement slurry (watery cement). The idea is that the cemented fabric can be draped over an object, formed as needed, and then left to cure and dry.Continue reading

Curing Hobbit Houses

Waiting Game

Curing Hobbits
As I suspected, the Hobbit houses didn’t do very well. It took two days before I could remove them from the molds, and they might collapse anyway. They’re still wet, fragile, and spongy. I’m afraid this batch failed! I’m letting them set out to see if they will harden up any, or just flop. Either way, I can’t use them. I learned a lesson (or two), so it wasn’t a complete waste of time and materials . . . disappointing though!Continue reading