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

Angry house mold and curing

Fairy Houses Formed

Angry house mold-formed
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