But Wait, There's More!

(click image to enlarge.)

Plain hard wood timbers on the cotage exterior were tinted with diluted burnt umber acrylic and liquid beeswax to a nice brown. Then a stronger mixture of burnt umber, gloss medium, and a gorgeous Alizarin crimson hue from Nova Color was washed onto that. It was the perfect color for Rana's cottage whose palette is solely warm tones of wine and ochers. After that had dried, I took the plunge and covered all the wood with masking tape hoping it would protect the perfectly finished wood while a new layer of joint compound was applied to the outer walls. The idea is to raise the surface of the walls to be flush with the wooden lathing strips.

Thanks for hanging in with me, all's back to well now. And I'm happy to report I made FOUR medium-sized acts which brings me practically up to date! What isn't shown above is the whole cottage plastered anew. I meant to make just a test patch of it somewhere to determine whether my plan would work, but in for a penny in for a pound, I covered the whole place in white. Tomorrow, if it's dry, I'll carefully remove the masking tape and see how it worked. I used some of the compound to even out flaws in the construction, especially where the wall panels meet. These areas are going to have to remain tough enough to keep their shape but forgiving enough to come apart where needed. We'll see. Pictures forth coming.

ART BONUS:
This paper lotus is my second attempt. Funny thing, whilst I was still down with my middlesbesmerchment, I had to make a couple of timely cards for friends. I took the super cool paper pop-up lotus flower pattern from Russian designer, Tatyana Stolyarova, and proceeded to watercolor textured art paper, cut out the patterns, and assemble them. The thing was that I was so "out of it" from my condition and the (non-narcotic but still wonky-making) pain meds that the first one came out looking as though I were inebriated while I tried to make it. I did my best but I was noticeably impaired. (Oh, we gave that first one to our friend with an apology for my crafting under the influence.)