In Da House

I finished laying down a layer of masking tape over the mesh shapes last night. Today I took a look and saw that some reshaping was in order before laying down the papier mache. I added crumpled newsprint into areas that were too deep and took away new tree growth to better flow inside and out of the house. After I go back and forth with paper on the tree and plaster on the walls the tree will look well grown into the house and vice versa.
I keep checking whether I've got the scale right on the set. I use the apple as my scale guide and ask myself whether the cottage could be made smaller (no, it really is the right size and can't do without any of the areas, sitting room by fire, bed alcove, food kitchen, bay window seat.) I wonder whether I should cut the tree off at the branches and raise it up about 10 inches or so to make the tree larger in relation to the house. My decision is to go forward as is. I can't picture how it will look when all finished with roof and leaves. I'll find out. It did help a lot to widen the trunk.
Sitting in the cottage to get at areas inside feels funny, like Alice in Wonderland after eating the cake or drinking from the bottle, I can't recall which. I feel like Alice when she grows larger than the white rabbit's house and she's forced to stick her arms and legs out through the doors and windows.This is the brilliant paper pop-up artist Robert Sabuda's version of Alice in my predicament.

The really big news: For those that haven't discovered it yet, our favorite model construction artist, Hila Rosenberg Arazi has launched her very first blog this week! Maneria affords those who love beautifully detailed tiny worlds insight into how this rare talent thinks and works. I can't wait for more of her postings!

Comments

  1. Super awesome Pics....!!

    The set is looking so bueatifull. The pic of you inside the house is Crazy inspiring to me.
    Everything about it is the stuff that makes stopmotion and 3rd dimensional art Magical.

    It looks like you have a big dedicated room for arts and crafts there.

    lovin the progress.

    jriggity

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  2. Thanks Justin, for the rooting!!! Bwahaawwaaa.

    Progress is still like frozen molasses but at least now I'm doing a little something that needs doing on the project. This small acts idea is turning this hair-brained hare into a tortoise!

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  3. wow, it's looking great, shelley! it's very exciting to see so much progress! :)

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  4. Anonymous9:44 AM

    Ace Shelley, you have never shown such photographs, I never realised how large ard awe-inspiring the tree was, Stunned as always.
    -Ben

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  5. rolling rolling rolling, keep that paper mache rolling

    great photo, now I really get a sense of the scale.

    It looks real nice, I like the wonderland you are building, in fact the whole room looks like a great fun workshop.

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  6. Thank you, Mike, Mark, Gretchin, and Ben!

    (Teensy little steps taken, but moving is much better than not for me! woo.)

    About this workspace.... Yowsa!! You guys, Paul and I PINCH ourselves everyday over where we are living for the last three years! A friend of Paul's owns this 100 year old warehouse, south-east of downtown LA in a ROUGH rough area. Lots of gangs and street folk, etc. There is ak47 gunfire sometimes, police heliocopters nearly nightly looking for bad guys, a noisy clothing factory out back with dozens of latino workers, etc. The place was in terrible shape when we were shown it as a place to live, no kitchen, no shower or bath, no water heater, it was "tore up from the floor up!" It had been used by near-do-wells as a live, online, pay-for-view, porno studio, a fiesta salon complete with stage and a bar, a voodoo witch's secret animal sacrifice lair, etc. (!!!!) It was an unholy MESS. When I saw it I was horrifyied that Paul's friend would consider that we should live here!

    However, that night, after I went home to our tiny place with the giant paper tree jammed in the middle, I pictured the S P A C E this place had (nearly 4,000 square feet for far less than we were already paying for 1,000!) It was neatly divided in two by a long collenade, one half could be our "house" and the other 2,000 sqft area could be....

    My art studio! I took myself by the shoulders and seriously asked myself, Shelley, are you fooling around with Halfland or are you serious about really making it? You can imagine what I chose to do next!

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  7. shel, You are so mazing!!! the progress is unbelievable (the pic of you in the cottage is so sweet, I love it).
    About your studio story, foof, I'm more then a bit worried about you living in the middle of all that ROUGH ROUGH area, and yet I'm totally jealous of your amazing studio space.

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  8. Hi Hila! I am "mazing" as you so cutely point out, but only because I'm like a plant growing in one! haha, I'm only teasing you because of the delightful way you write/type because English isn't your natural tongue. (I kid you, knowing full well that I could never speak two languages personally, not even proper English really, and so, I admire people who do learn so much!)

    Heh, I'm in a rough area? You want to tell people the small town you've braved before?!!! Oy! Your courage makes me feel like a total wuss in comparison.

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  9. Hee hee... Amazing :P

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  10. (In Rodney Dangerfield voice):

    Yeah yeah..... I tell ya.... you think your neighborhood is tough..... yeah...... I tell ya.... in my neighborhood, it's so tough, we used to play frisbee with manhole covers!

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  11. I don't get no respect.

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  12. I laughed out loud, so clever so perfectly put together! You are full of cleverness!!

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  13. Hi Corey! So glad you got the laugh!

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  14. Anonymous7:38 AM

    You look adorable! Love the scale! And Hila's blog is a gift to the internet - just like yours is!

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