Walkers Way Weeds
It's all about recycling the WEEDS of our daily life!
I’m having way too much fun with cement-soaked towels to work on anything else at the moment. I’ve made draped vases, miniature fairy houses, funky steampunk looking flowers, and have a few more ideas I want to try before I work this obsession out of my system. So, I thought I’d share some of what I’ve learned while experimenting.Continue reading
This 1/2″-scale fairy throne set was handmade from wire mesh hardware cloth, Swarovski gem, gold-tone beads, Fantasy Film, polymer clay, and paint.
I’ve been extremely busy the last couple months (good for me), so I’m just getting back to blogging! I promised in my last blog post to create a couple of tutorials. There was one to be on forming hardware cloth and another on using recycled asphalt shingles for miniature garden accessories.Continue reading
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.
The Fairy’s Castle mold was formed from disposable plastic containers, foam packing materials, and a shopping bag.
Out of the mold, then back inside the moisture tent to finish curing. Meanwhile, I’m considering the potential finishes for the castle.
After the castle had cured and dried out, rough spots were cleaned up, the balcony floor and railing were mounted, and other accessories were constructed.
Custom-fitting the doors from scrap wood and craft sticks is a long tedious task. They were cut, sanded, carved, painted, stained, and door knobs (seed beads) installed. The drawbridge was a must for a castle, but my hopes of hinging the balcony doors meant quite a bit of filing, sanding, and drilling the hinge holes before it all came together.
NOTE: If you may be interested in making the hardware cloth railings, planter baskets, ladders, and furniture, please see this PDF: Hardware Cloth Wire Forming Tutorial
A couple of coats of paint to get just the right color and mottled look, drawbridge in place, and second balcony railing installed.
The mounts for the drawbridge chains were a real pain. A drill couldn’t reach so a bead reamer was used to make the holes. There was much more glue used than I would have liked!
When a fairy might need to escape the castle, an emergency ladder was installed on one end of the main balcony. And all the balcony doors were mounted.
Hanging planter boxes were made from hardware cloth and an old coconut coir basket liner with a few tiny faux flowers tucked in.
NOTE: The black accents above the doors are painted aluminum can scraps that were created from the gate and fence templates on the cutting/embossing machine.
After the roofing is done, I’ll add the drawbridge door latch and black bands from aluminum can cutouts. There is a possibility that I may add a hardware cloth flower trellis with potting bench to the left side (too much action on the right side) . . . still pondering.
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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 is ready for any wee folk that may be in need of a home.
Sorry to leave you folks hanging. I was sick, busy, and . . . never mind. Here are a couple of photos of the finished hobbit house, a.k.a., one of the flopped hobbits.Continue reading
Cured hedge growth/roof waiting for paint. A little thinner than I would have liked, but sturdy enough!
For those of you awaiting the results of the experimental Hobbit Haven Hedge growth results, here ya go!Continue reading
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
“Hobbit Haven” features carved stones on the chimney and around the doorway and windows. It will have a fitted wooden door and a moss roof.
The hobbit houses LIVE . . . the flopped hobbits didn’t flop!!Continue reading
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
The R2D2-like mold was made from disposable plastic containers, Easter egg half, foam packing material, shopping bag, tape, and a straw. It yielded an “Angry House” once formed with papercrete. The pattern of the roofline made it appear a bit ticked-off, but I liked it, so I left it. The papercrete felt really good and I have high hopes for this one!Continue reading