The miniature bakery is coming right along, and I’ve finished all of the brick work for the front and sides of the building–hallelujah! And for now, I’m simply not going to think about the fact that I have to do an entire sheet of bricks for the rear wall. 😉
I painted two tiny doors, one for the employee entrance near the back of the bakery and the second is the windowed door you can see below, which is the front entrance of the bakery. At that point, I sort of hit a wall, because I was having trouble deciding how I wanted to finish the bottom edge of the walls.
After a lot of hemming and hawing, I made a test strip of gray stone blocks to see how it looked, and I hated the stone on the front brick wall. But, as it turns out, I liked the way it looked on the white side walls. You can see the stones below, behind the little red bike.
I then had a happy accident when I took one of the tumbled marble tiles I bought at the hardware store and placed it in front of the entrance door, like a paving stone. I loved it! The box of tiles had eight in total, so I took them all out and laid them down like a little sidewalk–they’re just what I wanted! I could even buy a cafe table and chairs to set out on one of the stones.
For now, here are my thoughts:
- I don’t want to glue the paving stones to the building as that will probably make the piece much trickier to ship, so for now, I’m going to glue them in two separate strips (one for the side wall and one for the front wall) to a piece of wood so they’re easy to install.
- On the side wall, there’s a little gap between the paving stones and the wall, and I want to make a tiny strip of grass to fill this spot.
- I also want to make flower boxes and flower pots that I can arrange on the sidewalk against the wall, but I think the grass would still be a nice touch, peeking through any spaces between the flower pots.
Apologies for the rather blurry picture, but here’s a glimpse of the interior of the bakery now that the bay windows have been installed and the window sills painted. Doesn’t it look eager to be filled with colorful sweets?
August 12, 2014 at 4:26 am
Love the stones outside! Can’t wait to see what sweets you fill the bakery with, and what flavors of ice cream/gelato you make too ;).
August 12, 2014 at 12:45 pm
Thanks, Rebecca! I’m already feeling like the gelato case is too small–I have to narrow it down to only ten flavor choices?! Impossible… 😉
August 12, 2014 at 3:47 pm
Hmmm it’d be cool to have extra metal tins (containers for the gelato) to switch out the flavors!
August 12, 2014 at 3:48 pm
Ooooh, yes. I might need to do that. 😉
August 14, 2014 at 2:13 am
*happy sigh*
August 14, 2014 at 2:27 am
😉
August 15, 2014 at 4:28 pm
Wow, Mo. This is absolutely beautiful! And I love the stones in the front. Your timing is perfect for me as I was filling an ice cream display case for sale in my Etsy store since it is summertime (I know, a bit late LOL–not in a bakery or room box though), and your project continues to inspire me for my own private collection.
August 15, 2014 at 5:54 pm
Thank you, Gail! I’m so glad the bakery posts have been inspiring for you. I love that you’re doing a mini ice cream display! I would love to see it once you’re done. And I know what you mean–I found myself wanting to finish up Christmas stuff in February, but I told myself, “Mo, you probably missed the boat on this one; might as well wait until the next holiday season.” 😉
August 15, 2014 at 10:38 pm
LOL. Yes, I can relate about the Christmas season too. I was able to list some things, but others were put back on the shelf for this year! Life is hectic for sure.
I don’t know how you manage to create and get your books completed. I realize, obviously, that you sell prototypes, but you still sell an incredible amount of other items.
Anyhow, please keep doing this marvelous work. I look forward to it!
Happy Weekend!
Gail
August 16, 2014 at 12:37 pm
Thank you, Gail! I will say that, in spite of the things that I am able to create for work, I do have a partially undecorated personal dollhouse that stares at me reproachfully every day. One of these months I’ll get around to finishing the poor thing! Happy weekend to you as well. 😀
September 10, 2014 at 4:36 pm
[…] Today, I’ll be making a cake to finish filling the bakery case, and then I’ll move on to another case–I haven’t decided which one yet. If you’re just joining us, remember that instructions on how to sculpt all of these sweets will be in the upcoming miniature bakery book, which will also show you how to make the bakery room box itself (see pics of the room here). […]