Back view of the Tudor House
This is my crooked house, it has been made entirely with foam core and strengthened with wood strips. The ground floors tiles are hand painted. I have made all the furniture for this house myself, bar the kist at the end of the bed upstairs, that was made for me by Rob Ferracini, he also turned the beautiful bed posts!
The front of the Tudor House
The plaster work is created using a fine crack filler, the secret to that is to make sure it is very fresh, then it is easy to apply. It also cracks slightly as it dries giving a lovely old feeling. All the bricks have been made with Das Air Drying Clay and pushed through an icing tool, and dried in strips, they are then painted to give a varied colour and cut into the size required. I used coloured poly filla as the grout and stuck the bricks into that! I then washed the plaster with a few shades of brown and black and added a bit of green for effect.
Side View
On the side of the cottage is a cattle pen, I have created the stone wall using aerothane, which is a hardended foam and is terrible to work with as the dust is quite harmful so you must wear a mask. The up side is that it is carved easily and paints up beautifully even though it uses quite a lot of paint to seal it. The whole base is cover is the aerothane, so the structure is quite light and easy to move around.
Living Area
All the beams and roof trusses were hand carved by myself, I also made all the furniture. The window panes were made using a ribbon lace in triangles and stuck on acetate using a glue that dries clear. It create the leaded window effect beautifully. The floor tiles are my handed painted creations.
Upstairs
I have also dabbled a little in doll sculpting, but find this is not something I excel at. The Headless Tudor was a delight to make and dress as he is so completely different to what I usually do. The goose chasing a mouse was a gift from a friend and is one of my favorite items in the house. The beautiful kist was made by Rob Ferracini.
Fireplace
The fireplace downstairs offers such a warming atmosphere, it almost comes alive! As I pointed out earlier, the bricks are all hand made and painted and inserted individually. The brown slate tiles also go up the inside of the fireplace and have been blackened with charcoal. The brass ladles on the rack were bought from the US and the other spoon and saw were made by me. The pot in the oven hangs from a hook in the wall and can swing out.