This was a 3-day class I took with Rik Pierce in San Jose, CA.
The project was small, yet contained all his techniques, which is why I decided to take this class. Day 1 started with the 4 basic walls cut from 1/2" Natural Coated Gatorboard. Our first job was to age the wood timbers by scraping them with a saw-tooth type knife.

I then glued all the timbers on the walls in any design we wanted.

After the timbers were all glued on the walls, I drilled small holes where the timbers conected to another one. I then inserted wood toothpicks in the holes, tapped them down with a hammer and snipped them off. That little technique, made all the difference in the world to add tons of detail and charm to the whole project. This technique can also be used to make pegged wood floors, except the pegs get cut off flush with the floor, then sanded smooth. After the pegs were added, I stained the timbers with a thinned-down Minwax Ebony stain.

While the walls were still lying flat, I rolled out Paperclay on a tile to 1/8" thick. I then cut it to the shape of each area between the timbers, and glued the Paperclay down with a thin layer of wood glue. Each area of clay was then stippled using a cheap, cut-off paint brush, pouncing the bristles onto the clay to give it a slight pattern. Using some plastic tools, we then worked the brick patterns into each area as we went. This had to be done right after glueing the clay into each section, or the clay would dry out (the clay could be made soft again by brushing a bit of water onto it). It helped to design the bricks by first drawing them in with a pencil to get the idea of what pattern or design I wanted.

Once the brick patterns were all done, I then glued the walls together and glued them down onto the wood base which had a piece of foam glued on top that was also used as part of the landscaping.

After the Paperclay had dried, the clay was first painted with a dirty-water wash to tone down the whiteness of the clay. Then each brick was painted using a watered-down Brown Iron Oxide acrylic paint. Next, select bricks were painted again using watered-down Dark Burnt Umber, Hippo Grey and Terra Cotta. I added Paperclay stones to the base around the structure, and added steps in front of the door.

The back of the Loo after the initial brick painting.

I thought some of the brick colors were a bit too bright, so this photo is after I washed them again with the dirty water wash. Then I went back and gave the Terra Cotta colored bricks another wash of Dark Burnt Umber to tone down the color. This really helped the overall look and blended all the bricks together beautifully. I then took bits of the Paperclay and covered up various areas of the bricks to give it that wonderful old look of crumbling plaster over brick. Then again, toning down the newly added clay with a watered-down brown color. I also washed the interior with this same watered-down brown. After the landscaping had dryed, I painted the rocks and steps using the same colors used on the bricks.

For the roof, Rik had previously prepared Balsa wood which he wire brushed using his drill and a round wire disk. It added all the wonderful grooves to the wood, which made it look like a thatched roof. I stained the roof pieces using a thinned-down Ebony/Special Walnut Minwax stain. After they dried, we then glued on the four roof pieces.

The front door and back window were painted any color we wanted. I chose a nice green for both. Then the hardware was painted black and the whole door and window was given a Dark Burnt Umber wash to age it. The door was added using simple "L" shaped copper wire hinges for the door to hang on. A wire vine structure for the Wisteria was painted with a brown paint, thickened with corn starch and added to the front. Two colors of green foam were added to the vine for the foliage. Grass was also glued to the base.

For the added details on the thatched roof, we stained some chair reeding to match the roof. The reeding was cut and applied into any design we wanted. I bent about 60 wire pieces in half to hold the reeding down to the roof. They pressed fairly easily into the balsa wood.

Here is the interior of the Tudor Loo, it shows the "throne". Rik used a
Take-a-Seat chair by Raine, cutting off the legs and drilling a hole in the seat.

I thought I would add a permanent(?) "resident" to the Loo
by making a mousehole in the wall. The local cat is trying to catch his lunch.
Lunch at the Loo . . . sounds ritzy!

Here is the vine again, after I added the Wisteria flowers to the vining. I also added additional bushes and another cat, plus a bird in the tree.

A closeup of the Wisteria vine. I used purple Candy Tuft for the flowers,
cutting them in long, cone shape.

The back of the Loo, showing the added bushes.

If you would like to see more photos of another class taught by Rik,
please click here English Tudor Cottage Class

To see more of Rik's wonderful projects, please click here Frogmorton Studios