Finished Medieval Shops!!!!

Here are pictures of my finally finished Medieval Shops!

This is a big picture of the outside of the house.



This is the outside of the fish monger. Hanging on the far left are some stringed rainbow fish. On the counter are some large river fish, crawdads, more piled rainbow fish, a basket of trout, a barrel of mackerels, and a barrel of eels.



This is the outside of my butcher. Hanging up from left to right is a goose, sausages, a rabbit, a pig, a pheasant, more sausages, and a ham. On the counter from left to right is a leg of lamb, some roast pigeons, and a pig head.



Here is a picture of my vegetable cart. Inside it, there are numerous different types of vegetables. Every thing, including the cart, was handmade by myself. Unbelievably, this small cart alone took me at least 10 hours of labor.



These are my medieval stocks. They were used in medieval times for a punishment.

This is the front window of my bakery. From left to right are some light braided rolls, some medium trenchers, a mixture of light and dark loafs, and some large round light loafs.

This is the outside of my bakery again. In the bottom left corner, there is an ale barrel.



This is a picture of the entire inside of the building.





This is the inside of the fish monger. On the table there is an ale jug and a fish having it's head chopped off.

Here is a good shot of the fishing spears and nets.

This is the loft of the fish monger.

This is the inside of the butcher.

This is the bottom floor of the butcher. On the left side, there is a giant oven with a pig roasting on a spit, some roasting sausages, a pork roast in the oven, and another roasting pheasant. On the ground is a chicken which will soon be brought upstairs for slaughter.

This is the upper floor of the butcher. On the table, there is a goose having its head chopped off, and a candle. On the bench there is a sack of freshly killed game, and a jar. On the stool, there is a medieval brazier (bra-zee-ay), which was a tiny fire place upstairs. On the hook against the right wall, from left to right, there is a ham, sausages, a pheasant, a rabbit, and more sausages.

On the left wall, there is a bread oven made by my mother. On the right, there is a small table where the baker makes bread. In the bottom right corner, a small bread paddle, used for removing the baked loaves and hand made by me, can be seen.

This is the upstairs of my bakery. On the table in the corner, there is a book and a candle. In the middle, there is a small mattress stuffed with hay. Next to the mattress is a small pot for boiling water. Next to that is a small wooden stool.

So, as you can see, a lot of work went into this house. With this medieval row of shops, I have the possibility of winning $500. Unfortunately, I won't know if I've won until August. Please cross your fingers for me! Bye!

Stocks

Hi! So, I just made some Medieval Stocks. Here's a picture:

These stocks are made out of bass wood. To make them, i cut three strips of wood, two poles, and a rectangle base. In two of my strips, I cut a head and two arm holes. I then used sand paper and a craft knife to shape the tops of my side poles into points. I glued my solid strip and one of my holey strips about half way up my two side poles. Lastly, I took two tiny slivers of wood, just large enough to hold my top strip of wood, and glued them onto the stocks. The reason I did this step was because now I can slip the top piece of the stocks on and off, therefore allowing me to trap an unfortunate person in the stocks. I glued my two poles down to my base and stained the whole thing. For the finishing touch, which is optional, but looks really cool, I painted a bucket, filled it with scenic water, and glued a tiny ladle onto it. I glued my finished bucket next to my stocks, and tah dah! I had a finished torture device!

Bye!

Medieval Shop Buildings

Hi! So, I've been taking about my medieval shops for awhile, but I haven't ever posted pictures, so here they are:

This building is going to be my fish market.

This building is going to be the butcher.

This building is going to be my bakery.

 So, as you can see, lots of work has gone into these buildings, but there is still lots to be done. I still have to use my wallboard joint complex and brick all of the corners of my buildings. I also have to build and install ledges in my big windows for meat displays. The roof tiles you see on the two side building are terracotta tiles. My mom and I are making them using terracotta colored paper. we curl, score, shape, and glue the tiles onto our roof in strips. After they are glued on completely, we will stain them to make them dirty, and put a protective coat of modge podge over them.

After the buildings themselves are done, we have to decorate the inside, and finish making our cobble stone base. Here's a picture of the cobble stones in progress:

To make the stones, we are cutting egg cartons into stone shaped pieces. Then, I'm taking glue and gluing our "stones" to a wooden base. Once all the stones are finish being glued, we will use wallboard joint compound and grout in between each stone. Lastly, we will paint the stones a nice color, and oila! I hope it works.

Well, that's the building so far. If we finish before July 2, my mom and I will enter an online contest with our house, which will give us a chance to earn up to $500. I hope we finish. $500 could found our dollhouse exploits for a long time...

Bye!

Cake Pictures

Hi! Here are the pictures of the cakes I made. I'm not going to write how I made them; If you want to know, go to the cake tutorial in the post below this one. Here are pics:

This is a chocolate, light pink frosted cake, topped with three chocolate roses.

This is a vanilla cake with light pink frosting, topped with three bright pink roses.

This is my vanilla frosted red-velvet cake, topped with three blood red roses.

This is a vanilla frosted lemon cake topped with three yellow roses.

As you can see, I kinda went to town on the roses, but they look the nicest on cakes. I'll post about my almost finished medieval buildings next. Bye!

Hi! So, I just found the most amazing cake tutorial ever. Here's the website: http://www.cdhm.org/tutorials/making-a-miniature-cake.html. This is the best. It made the cakes I'm making look sooooo professional. I'll post pics of them soon. Also, if you have time, please check out this blog: http://cynthiascottagedesign.blogspot.com/. Bye!

Lots and Lots of Medieval Food

Hi! I have finally completed all of my medieval fruits, vegetables, meats, and fishes. I've been working very hard on all of them. If there is a certain type you want to know how to make, just comment below!



Here are my meats! On the top right, I have two different types of sausages. On the bottom right, I have some lamb legs. Bottom left are geese. Above the geese, I have a hanging pig, a turkey, dead rabbits, roast turkeys, a roasted boars head, hanging fowls, and stakes.



Top right I have some eels, next to them, I have some little crawdads. Next, I have some river fish in a basket. Below the basket of fish, I have some mackerels. I then have some rainbow trout, fish stakes and some large fish.



These are leeks.

These are yellow and green pears.



These are figs, freshly picked.



  

These are apples.

These are peaches.

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These are plums.

These are carrots.









These are cabbages.

So, as you can see I have been hard at work. I hope you like all the food!!!!



Finished Plague Victims and Dead Bodies

Hi! I have finally completed my bodies and dead people! Here are pics:



To make my linen wrapped body look dirty and gross, I used dry (not oil) artists pastels. I scribbled with the brown pastel on a piece of paper and mixed it with an teeny tiny bit of water. I then used my finger to spread the pastel over the body in smudges.




Here is a picture of my finished dead cart with the bodies. I stained the dead cart a darker color, used a thin black wash over it, and then scored it with the blunt end of a craft knife, to make it look like there are many planks nailed together to built the cart. I also used a super fine tipped black sharpie marker to dot little nail holes.




Here are pictures of my finish living, or freshly deceased, plague victims. I used blue and black pastels mixed with water to give my people a blueish black tinge. The lady in green is gonna have a head covering and be a dead body, because she has plastic hair, which I don't like.



As you can see,  all my dead people are looking a lot more realistic and dead. Here's one more picture of a new creation:



This is a tiny jar of leeches for my plague hospital. To make it, I first used black clay and made some leeches mirroring those I found in pictures. My favorite leech picture that I mirrored my tiny ones on is below. After I baked my leeches, I used a hardening clear liquid, like scenic water. I melted this with a makeshift double boiler and poured it in my jar in layers, putting in the leeches a few at a time. I put in my cork and I was done! I'm going to cover the cork with a brown linen, but other then that, I'm finished!



So, as you can see I'm really progressing fast. I'll be posting pics of my medieval food dollhouse soon. I've mostly glued it together, so hopefully (cross you fingers for me) it will be done by the end of the week.

Bye!

Building

Hi! Sorry I haven't posted for awhile. I've been really busy. I was just cast in the show called Annie, so I've had rehearsals and stuff. However, I have got lots of work done on my doll houses. My mom and I have decided to enter a competition with medieval meat, fish, vegetable, and bakery shops, so I now have two doll houses to work on.

For the plague hospital, I have been doing a lot of work. So far, I have my wooden shell put together, bricked, and painted the base color. Here are pics of each step:

(Sorry the pic is sideways... I'm not very computer savvy and I couldn't figure out how to rotate it. to do the bircks, I used some stuf that comes in a red tub called "Wallboard Joint Complex. It comes in gigantic tubs the are sold at ace hardware, probably home depot, and other such stores. The consistancy of it is thick and goopy. After spreading it on my wooden structures, I used a flexible plastic palate knife the trace brick lines in it, leaving blank lines the thinkness of my second floor, so I can just pop it in easily. After my bricks were dry, i painted with with a paint color called "Latte", as a base coat.)



This is the painted building. Over the latte base paint, I used a maple water based stains, mixed with water (always mix paints with some water, It helps them spread, and makes your paint last longer. Just be careful about your added water quantities, you don't want too much) and lightly coated my bricks. I then gently used a rag to dab away the extra paint. Over this, I paint a very watery wash of the latte color, which I almost immediately wiped away. I then used a water black wash, and a watery burnt sienna wash to paint a few random brick different colors. I wiped the excess from these, and tah dah!!!! My bricks were done!!!





For the floor, I first painted it a base color of mud stone paint, then i did a series of washes of brown and finally a VERY watery wash of black. If you make one, just keep experimenting until you get the look you want.

I've also been hard at work on bricking and painting my shop buildings, but the look pretty much the same as the plague hospital, so I won't show you pics until it's all put together.

All I have left to do for the plague hospital is put in my second floor, my roof, and decorate my interior, as well as strategically place the rat i made!!!! But, I'll write more on my rats, and my finish dead people and bodies in my next post!!! Bye!



       

Cannoli

Hi! The other day, I was craving some Italian pastries called cannoli. As they don't sell them in the US, I decided to attempt to satisfy my craving by making some doll house cannolis. It didn't work... But, I did make some pretty cool pastries! I made the cannoli shells using beige clay textured with fake sand. I then baked and filled the shells with wallboard joint compound mixed with acrylic paint. After the filling in the shells dried, I glued three vanilla and three chocolate onto real porcelain trays. Hop you like them!Bye!

Fish Tray

Hi! Here is the fish tray I made:

The bunches of green are parsley. To make them, I pushed softened polymer clay through a fine colander. Be careful if you try this. It is hard to clean the clay out of the sieve, especially if your colander if super. I placed my fish, parsley, and some lemon slices on a tray I made myself out of clay. I hope you like it!

Meat

Hi! I've been making meat lately for my butcher shop. Here are pics:

These are made out of polymer clay. The darker reddish pieces or meat are lamb legs. The lighter pink ones are hams.

These are sausages. I used a mix of translucent clay, a bit of red and terracotta clay, and a pinch of parsley flakes and Cayenne pepper. They smell really nice for real! I am planning to make about 5 more sausage strings, two more in this color, and three more in a darker red color.

These are my birds to hang in the shop. The light colored big one is a dead goose. The darker ones are beheaded pheasants. Again, these are all made from polymer clay. I'll post a fish tray I made soon.

Bye!