Day Four at Camp Mini Ha Ha

Day Four


Today at Camp Mini Ha Ha we got to try our hand at the painting techniques required to paint our castle to make it look like stone. We worked from some sample foam pieces and I started with a very light color base coat, then a second light coat that contained sand in order to get the grit effect of stone. I then sponged on several layers of darker colors, but I wasn’t totally pleased with the finish color. I went back and tried painting with a base coat, but once again I couldn’t get enough lighter colors to lighten it up. I want my finish color to be mid range, similar to my inspiration room. I think once I return home I will experiment with more colors until I get the finish look I want.

For the remainder of the day we continued carving our stone walls. It’s a very tedious task and I definitely will not get this finish before we leave on Tuesday. I am concentrating on getting all the interior walls finished and then I can work on the outside walls, crenulations and painting when I return home. I would also like to wire the room, and this is definitely a task left for when I return. All the places showing green tape are the areas where you cannot paint, because later there will be walls or floors glued to these areas, and the paint would prevent a good seal.

I also carved out a recess for a door at the top of the stairs.  I didn't actually cut a hole through, but I wanted to give the illusion that the steps lead to somewhere.  You will see very little of the door once the other walls are in place.  I will carved the door to make it look appropriate for the castle.

One of the instructions carved a quatrefoil pattern for me so I could carve it over the archway to the stairs.  She also made a pattern for a larger quatrefoil between the outside windows.
At lunch time again we got more of the tidbits from the attendees. I received more wonderful little accessories including some Danish spears, picture frame, plant, scroll, wine glass, Tudor styled water carrying case, wine barrel, tapestry and candle box.

In the evening we had another gift exchange and I received a fantastic medieval carving wheel bench. The wheel actually turns! I know I am not dressing my castle in a Medieval theme, but the carving wheel is a beautiful piece in itself, so a definite keepsake.

At the end of the evening we had what is termed at camp a Kit-n’-Kaboodle sale. Attendees can make up kits, do a demonstration on how to assemble them, and then sell the kits. I bought some fantastic items which I will share at a later date.

Overall another great day at camp with more mini techniques learned.

I love reading all your comments!  It's a beautiful location here in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia for the Mini Camp.  Some readers were inquiring about the materials being used.  It's builder's foam which is used in building construction as insulation, usually for basements.  You can see some of the insulation values written in red on some of the pieces.  It's an extremely dense product, very easy to carve, but your blade gets dull very quickly, so you need lots of replacement blades for your knife.  It will be challenging to get it back to Newfoundland on the plane in one piece afterwards, but I will package it will.  I will be travelling with the castle in panels, rather than assembled, and I have brought a seconds suitcase just for this purpose.

The building material they choose was the main reason I wanted to come and do the camp.  The medieval and fantasy themes that a lot of the campers choose to do, didn't personally appeal to me, but the material and techniques used in this project was of extreme interest to me, hence why I came to learn from this!

I apologize again if my pictures are not in the right order. The internet connection here is very slow, and I am having a lot of problems with uploading and arranging the photos. I am writing my blog posting the evening before and copying it to the blog the next morning, so it’s been somewhat challenging.

Thanks again for everyone’s comments on the previous postings, and especially to my fiancé! I miss you too.

Until tomorrow…..

-Wanda