The enchanter's tower

Greetings, and welcome to the tower! The resident enchanter (he's shy about his name) is here to show you - his respected visitors - through his modest dwelling.
He hasn't yet noticed the book which he was searching for earlier - it was left out in the rain after his twilight walk last night searching for herbs!! He's not going to be happy about that . . .
He asks your patience while he completes a small task at his desk.
Here is the lower level - this is his workroom. He has his pet owl inside today, as mice have been seen inside.
Another view, with the ladder to the top floor.
Upstairs is where he sleeps and reads, and sometimes plays the lute when he is in the mood.
Details of the workroom.
And another view.

He hopes that you have enjoyed your little tour - and he would like to thank the following people for their beautiful works which have made his home so very comfortable to live in -

Ericka Van Horn - books, scrolls, printies, potions
Lorraine - dribbly candles, skull, curly wand, witch accessories
Kiva and Carol Cook - food
Norma - printies, open books, wall hanging, wooden chest downstairs
Nikki - dribbly candles, unicorn horn
Honey and Bee - specimen jars, glass inkwell
Annie - horn on mantelpiece
Teresa/Northern Lites Miniatures - owl
Kiva Ford - tall clear bottle
Patricia Paul - bird skulls
Merry Gourmet Miniatures - leather wineskin

Glenda

The top of the Tower

After working a few unsuccessful samples of thatch :( I decided to make life a lot easier and use wooden shingles on the roof.
The roof isn't glued down yet, as I'm not happy with the way it sits on the top of the walls. I'd like to make another roof which reaches the very outside of the eaves, but that will be on the five year plan :)
Another reason is that I messed up when I was gluing it together, and the front and back sections don't fit neatly into each other :( Using ten-minute setting glue on such a complicated and mischievous roof proved too much for this girl!
And here is the inside. Since I was small I've always wanted a ceiling with stars, and finally I've got one :D
The ceiling sections are lined with paperclay and stippled with diluted blue acrylic paint - beautiful rich dark mysterious twilight blue! Then I glued on varying sizes of Swarovski flatback crystals. I wish I could photograph the way it sparkles as your eyes move over it! I'm very pleased with this :D

Glenda

No internet for 5 days - what to do . . .?

Waaah!! No internet! It's incredible how often I use it, and being without it was a real test :)
I did find something to occupy me, though, as you see.
I can now show you the (almost finished) tower.

The beams are stained veneer, glued on to the paperclay walls. This dealt with the difficulty of 1. not having enough suitable wood for solid beams, and b. the corners on this tower are on a tricky 60-degree angle, and my woodworking skills are abysmal.
Do come in - welcome!
The lower floor.
The floor is made of paperclay. The fireplace is made of egg carton stones - general instructions for doing this can be found here and here.

The painted strip around the walls is based on a design from an Anglo-Saxon enamelled brooch.
The scrolling to the left of the window is a copy of a medieval illumination, and the scrolling to the right is my own, including the leaves of my favourite trees.
Now to go upstairs, or rather up the ladder :)
The whole floor is covered in rush matting (hatstraw), an idea I got from the 'Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry - Janvier' (here).


Thankyou for visiting! I hope soon to be able to show you the roof :)

Glenda

iMagery in the tower

For a while I wasn't happy with the tower. I'm doing it as a learning experience, getting used to using different materials and stuff like that. A bit boring . . .
Then I had an idea of decorating the walls, and it has taken over my life (in the best way) for the past few days! I'm loving it - I can have images of things I love, and of course my enchanter loves them too :)
These are for the upstairs room - I want this to be a light and airy room, so I've kept it pale and simple.
First is a dragon. It's medieval enough as an image, but for me it has become the Green Dragon which the pub in Hobbiton was named after in Tolkien's Lord of the Rings. Because it's a hobbity, friendly dragon, I found one which isn't too scary and copied it as best I could.
Next is a tree. The Tree of Life, the Spirit of Nature, the seasons, woodland beauty, and finally a representation of the mallorn trees of Lothlorien. Tolkien again, but I do love his Middle Earth!!
And now a rendition of a medieval border. This was copied from a book on DIY calligraphy and illuminations.
A window border. I made this one up.

BTW it's nerve-wracking drawing straight onto the paperclay walls, mistakes can't be fixed easily, smudging happens, too much coffee makes the hands shake, there are interruptions like sleeping and eating, and the cats love to sit on whatever I'm doing.

I used colouring pencils for these, and watercolour pencils for the dragon. I realised I have to remember not to use a wet sealer on it or it will be dragon-smear time and a very unhappy me, haha.

I'm working on the walls of the lower room, now. Having fun!

Glenda

Floor test update

The floor test I did in a previous post had interesting results.

Because the tile sheet was dried unattached to anything, it bent slightly, but held together. The gaps between the tiles widened as it dried - hopefully this would eliminate any cracking. You can now see a little daylight through some of the gaps, and the whole thing is slightly flexible and forgiving.
The problem is that the underside is not flat, as you can see in the second photo, with ridges where the gaps are - difficult to glue down :(
The extra separated tiles, however, each warped as they dried - again, difficult to glue down! :( My advice is, don't go there!!

So I did another test, using Jovi (as in the first test) and Paperclay. This time I glued them onto a board while wet, and tried three methods of marking the lines.
The top third is marked with a piece of veneer (less than 1mm thick).

The centre third is marked with veneer, but with a (loose but flat) layer of cling film on top of the clay. This smooths and rounds off the edges of the clay, and gives a type of bevelled effect. This also enlarges the gap a little more.

The lower third is marked with a piece of extremely fine brass sheet. I was hoping to give the effect of flagstones, where no mortar is needed (oh please, yes!!). The gaps still widened a bit, but are very crisp.

I have also tried painting the Jovi - it has a smooth surface, more like polymer clay, and shows every brush mark, and would not take a wash very well at all. If anyone can tell me what DAS is like, I'd be grateful :)
For painting I prefer Paperclay because of its absorbency - takes a light wash beautifully :)

For this technique I'd advise that you tidy all the intersections with a pin or fine toothpick at the leather-hard stage of drying. The more careful you are in the marking process, the less you'll have to tidy later. And make very sure that the marker is exactly the right length between the pinholes.

I'd also advise placing a flat layer of clingfilm between the wet clay and the paper pattern, and pricking the holes through both. The paper pattern buckles on the damp clay.

The gaps made with the veneer would need to be grouted - not my favourite activity!!
The gaps made with the brass sheet could pass for flagstones, not needing grout. I say this hopefully! :)

The Paperclay shrank more than the Jovi - the gaps were wider after drying.

So there it is so far. I hope it may help - sorry I get too pedantic in my explanations, it's a bad habit that I can't throw off . . .

Glenda

Floor test for the tower

I've been thinking of ways to do the bottom floor in the tower.

I like the idea of hexagonal flagstones here. They're an organic shape, my enchanter likes to study the natural world, and they echo the shape of the tower.

I printed off a hex grid in the right size (from this site - they do a brickwork graph too).

Then I rolled out some air-dry clay (I love Paperclay but I found a less expensive one in an art supply shop - it has a different feel but works well) on a plastic sheet.
I put the paper grid lightly on the clay, and pricked holes with a pin at all the corners of the hexes.
With a piece of fine veneer (strong card would work but you'd have to replace it every so often to keep it dry and clean) cut to the length of the grid lines I pressed it into the clay halfway through, using the pinholes as a guide. Otherwise known as 'join the dots' :D

Then I tried a second test, pressing all the way through to the bottom, so that when it dries the tiles will be separate. I'm not keen on having to deal with the clay cracking in a large sheet.

Now to wait for it to dry . . .

Glenda

The tower proceeds

Finally! I got more paperclay to clad the exterior walls of the tower.

I couldn't decide whether to set the windows and door in first, or last, or somewhere in the middle of the process. I ended up by gluing them in while the applied paperclay was damp. After it dried I had to fill the gaps left around them with more clay. Untidy. There will have to be vines or ivy to cover some of the worst bits :)
An interesting learning process!
This was all difficult to decide, as the MDF bends and bows when the damp clay is put on, making it tricky to put in the windows and door at any stage, but I kept pressure on the frames as the glue dried, and it seemed to help force the walls to behave and be more straight.

If I did it again, I think I'd wait until all the paperclay was totally dry, then press the walls under weights until they lay flat, then glue in the windows and door. You'd have to be sure to cut away enough clay while damp so they'd fit properly.

This project is taking on a life of its own - it is drifting away from my first ideas. One of the things that has changed is the colour - of the roof support, the roof ridges and the windows and door surround. I wanted a rich golden semi-aged oak look, but with MDF you can't use washes or age it, so solid colour is necessary. I'm not a fan of black tudor, and paler oak colours looked milky. The final choice was a rich chocolate brown as you see (72% cocoa, not pale Cadbury's milk choc!!) made up of 1 part burnt umber to 3 parts yellow oxide.
A lot more contrast than I wanted, but I'm getting used to it :)

The sleepy Green Man ornament is from Mainly Minis - they have several others, fun and quirky (search for 'garden ornament').

Next I have to decide on the floor.
I'm making haste slowly, especially as other new projects keep trying to take over my thinking time :)

Glenda

Paperclay

Now that the paperclay is mostly dry, I've taken a pic of it with low-angle early morning sun.
The texture is about what I wanted - the look of medieval walls which have been whitewashed and mended over time.

I don't know if this will show up well when the tower is finished. Maybe there won't be enough texture to show properly, but I'll know it's there, LOL!

All messed up and nowhere to go

All messed up? - happy mess!! This is the first time I've used paperclay. Having read good advice online (thankyou Nikki and Michelle), I did what I usually do and went my own sweet way (born in the Year of the Goat = stubborn and never do what I'm told). I won't go into detail, but I had fun with plastic bags and rolling pins, water and a lot of luck.

Well I was lucky until I made the decision to lay the finished boards flat in the sun to dry.
The cat woke up and with his unerring sense of helpfulness, quietly walked over the wet clay, then lay down on it - it was in the best sunny spot . . .
Here's Mr Innocent - "who, me??" Note the dark fur - it shows up well on white clay . . .
I had a sharp incline on the learning curve, with tweezers (for the fur) and clay mending (before it dried). Hmmmmm.

Now I've used up all the clay I had stashed away, and I'll have to save up to get more for the exterior walls. I didn't have a clue how much area it would cover. Answer: 32 ounces (900gm) did all the tower interior walls.

And the 'nowhere to go' bit? - My husband's away for a few days and the car's parked at the airport, so Oh No! I have to stay at home and work on the tower!! Yes!!

Tower progress

Here is the fledgling fireplace for the tower. I've had a good time researching medieval interiors, and fireplaces in particular. They must have been smokey affairs!!

I'm realising how much space fireplaces and stairs take up in a mini house. It seems to be possible to do without stairs (beam me up, Scottie!), but fireplaces are a basic comfort and the eye rests there. The heart and hearth of a dwelling. I do think that modern houses are somewhat lacking when the heat is delivered invisibly. Call me old fashioned . . .
And here is some of the furniture I'm considering. I'm going to have to make a medieval bed from scratch - that'll test me! The tudor rocking cradle is an eBay find, and I love it - I'll fit it in somehow :)

With this tower I'm having to make do with what I have on hand - hence the MDF fireplace base - I have ideas about camouflaging it - watch this space!

Glenda

I've got the building bug

My new mini dwelling - the medieval enchanter's tower. Here it is in the dry build.

I'm realising that it takes a lot of thought to do things in the right order - beams, plaster, painting, and so on. Don't want any of those 'oh ****!!!' moments. :)
Hmmm, thatch or tiles? Aged or new? Lighting? Flooring? Decisions, decisions.

Fun!!

The kit is the Toll House from The Doll's House Emporium (here).

Thankyou for your kind comments

Thanks so much for your lovely comments about my lakehouse in my previous post :)

I realise that the lady who lives in the lakehouse is my alter ego! She is neat and serene, but I'm not! Dear Alan laughed out loud - he's threatening to post photos of my messy house!!

And as my little guardian poppets keep telling me, no, it's not finished :) There is still the outdoor boardwalk to make, as well as a sauna - essential! I told them I need something different to do now, and they won't let me rest! No relaxation where they are . . .

So I have told them that I'm going to start my next mini house. It's a tower for a medieval enchanter. I'm including a fantasy aspect so that I'm not totally restricted to purely medieval elements - in other words, I want to cheat outrageously and include all sorts of fun stuff :)

I hope that satisfies the poppets - they won't stop *looking* at me!!