I am happy with the clay on Washtub today - it has dried beautifully overnight, and looks even better than it did last night. The edges of one side have shrunk a tiny bit but I will fix that when I have the clay out again (this is a warts-and-all blog so I'm telling it all).
Feeling much better about the house and also feeling much more organised, I then dived into the next steps on Toadstool Cottage, leaving the clay on Washtub Cottage to dry for another day. There's not a lot to show you, but I'm pleased with the progress. I sponged two or three coats of parchment coloured Folk Art paint on all the pieces that will be painted - the interior and exterior of the walls, the inside of the roof pieces and the ground floor ceiling. While each coat of paint dried, I worked on the dividing wall on the ground floor. This involves drawing the 'beams' on to thick paper or thin card then cutting them out with a scalpel. It is not a quick process, but once it was done and adhered to each side of the dividing wall it was worth it. A coat of brown paint, distressing with darker brown paint and it looks great.
I decided to do the floorboards before I did the beams on the ceiling for the ground floor - my hands were fairly sore after doing the earlier beams for the dividing walls. I am quite comfortable doing the floorboards using the strips of thin card now, and really like using this method. In fact I have used it on other projects too because I like it so much. I cut the strips of card, stuck them to the floor and painted them with the first coat and left them to dry overnight.
In between all of this I managed to get the pieces sponged with parchment paint and the walls were ready to assemble. I glued them together and left them to dry overnight as well.
I really feel that Toadstool Cottage is well on its way now.
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