Through the Roof!

Things are happening in the roofing dept in Halfland, happy to say. The second panel is done thanks to Cirelle and all we need do is plant the crepe paper grass on its dirt patch.

I took some time to add a few roots growing through the rafters into the kitchen so that Rana could reach up and break off a bit to throw into her soup pot. Why? Because....

During the heavy rains here a few weeks back a few parts of our ceiling fell down. Above you see our wonderful handiman, Damian, halfway (HA!) through patching a hole over my desk. When I saw what was underneath the ceiling layer, the lath and plaster layer, with its visible rafters, I had the idea to make a similar hole over Rana's kitchen so that roots growing on the top could be part of her dinner.

I loved the idea of a damage-caused skylight in there and how it alludes to a bit of the cottage construction. Cirelle shaped the hole by copying the one over our bed and I used broken shims and iron tacks to make the patch.

The real fun started when Constance brought me a special order root from her garden to use as the start of the detail. It was the most perfect root for this. It was fully dead and so very rugged and didn't require any preserving, the structure was exactly the size and shape I was after, etc. It's so nice to have a bevvy nature devas to work for me! Brava!

For the earth over the open patch, I painted large clumps of upholstery foam brown and then hit them with matte medium and dirt. This gave me plenty of flexible dirt pieces that wouldn't fall through the cracks in the rafters, yet would look like natural soil when seen from below. This technique is a keeper. Word.

Once the roots were in place and trimmed a bit, I painted on a top coating of matte medium to strengthen them further.

I love what they add to her home. And you can begin to feel how the cottage will feel with its roof fully installed; safe, quiet, nurturing. A place with great soup simmering, and a blanket for your legs as you sew by the fire.