The Fairy’s Castle Cottage was one of the first batch of papercrete fairy houses for this season (2014). Creating the molds, forming the papercrete, waiting for the ‘crete to cure, and dry, are only a small part of the fairy house building process. Like building an actual house, the finish work takes the longest.
The Fairy’s Castle mold was formed from disposable plastic containers, foam packing materials, and a shopping bag.
Out of the mold, then back inside the moisture tent to finish curing. Meanwhile, I’m considering the potential finishes for the castle.
After the castle had cured and dried out, rough spots were cleaned up, the balcony floor and railing were mounted, and other accessories were constructed.
Custom-fitting the doors from scrap wood and craft sticks is a long tedious task. They were cut, sanded, carved, painted, stained, and door knobs (seed beads) installed. The drawbridge was a must for a castle, but my hopes of hinging the balcony doors meant quite a bit of filing, sanding, and drilling the hinge holes before it all came together.
NOTE: If you may be interested in making the hardware cloth railings, planter baskets, ladders, and furniture, please see this PDF: Hardware Cloth Wire Forming Tutorial
A couple of coats of paint to get just the right color and mottled look, drawbridge in place, and second balcony railing installed.
The mounts for the drawbridge chains were a real pain. A drill couldn’t reach so a bead reamer was used to make the holes. There was much more glue used than I would have liked!
When a fairy might need to escape the castle, an emergency ladder was installed on one end of the main balcony. And all the balcony doors were mounted.
Hanging planter boxes were made from hardware cloth and an old coconut coir basket liner with a few tiny faux flowers tucked in.
NOTE: The black accents above the doors are painted aluminum can scraps that were created from the gate and fence templates on the cutting/embossing machine.
After the roofing is done, I’ll add the drawbridge door latch and black bands from aluminum can cutouts. There is a possibility that I may add a hardware cloth flower trellis with potting bench to the left side (too much action on the right side) . . . still pondering.
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