Noel and Pat Thomas with their class project prototype The Garden Shed.

The first day. The start of The Garden Shed.

This is the beginning of Day 2 of the class.

Showing my progress during the second day of class.

The entire class working hard on the 4th day of class.

The project after 5 days of hard work in the class. The rest I finished on my own.

The Garden Shed, finally finished!

This is Miss Abigail Haversham who still lives in her childhood home, alone, except for her two cats Puss and Boots. She was engaged at one time, but when her fiance was killed in WW1, she was so heartbroken she never married and now lives quite contentedly with her cats.

Miss Abigail (as everyone calls her), loves gardening. So much of the time you can find her in her garden shed puttering around with her plants and flowers.

Puss and Boots, who are brothers, and great mousers,
frequently keep her company while she's out gardening.
They love to lie in the sun and sleep. When they're not sleeping
(which is most of the time), they keep busy keeping the place free of mice.
The sunflower sign and garden lady on the bench are by Karen Markland.

Miss Abigail bringing in some fresh cut flowers.

Crock is by Jane Graber and the Adirondack chair is by Pat Thomas.

The left side view.

A closer look at the left side.

Here is Puss having a bath after a hard day of mousing while his brother lounges.

The right side of the shed.

A closer view.

The shingles were the hardest and most time-consuming part of the project,
but well worth the time and effort.

A closeup of the roof after aging it. I used 1/2 scale cedar shingles gluing them on with Elmer's glue. Then I aged them using "Famous Thomas Bug Juice". After they dried, I used a sanding block to sand down the edges, then I wire brushed them using a large wire brush from a hardware store. I then used my X-Acto knife and picked at the edges to take bites out of the shingles. I repeated all these steps a couple times (replacing the Bug Juice step with a dirty water wash instead, Raw Umber, Mars Black and water) until I was satisfied with the look of them. For the last step I used a foam brush dipped in slightly diluted bleach and lightly brushed down the shingles hitting the edges of them. It will highlight the edges giving the shingles a lot of depth.

The roof apex is made from a piece of lead tape from a golf store (this can also be used for the lead lines on a stained glass window). I first glued a 1/16" dowel to the ridge and glued the aged, lead strip over that. It's easily cut with a scissors or X-Acto knife. I aged it with dirty water wash and also a rust solution.

Here is a link to Pat and Noel Thomas' Shingle and Roof Tips

The back of The Garden Shed.

A wonderful little matching birdhouse by Pat Thomas.

Cute little bunny having lunch on some dandelions.

The back opens up for viewing the inside.

Four years earlier, Miss Abigail inherited Barnaby, a Scarlet Macaw from her seafaring uncle. Her uncle was lost at sea during a storm on a trip to the
West Indies and left Barnaby to his favorite niece in his will.

When Miss Abigail first received Barnaby, she kept him in the house. One day she was having tea with a few of the towns old gossips, it was that day Barnaby decided to show off his colorful, extensive vocabulary.

Barnaby now resides in the garden shed so as not to offend any more company with his colorful language that he picked up from living aboard a ship with sailors for so long.

Most of the stuff on the potting bench is by Wright Guide Miniatures.
The stool is by Karen Markland.

A closeup of the left side. The Water cooler is by Ron Bufton.
The painted cupboards are by Karen Markland.