Working on the facade of the Divine Mercy Chapel

Hello my dear friends,

Hope you are all well and cosy. Here in Malta; it has been quite cold.....cold to the point that my hands are so cold that I can't do much. I am so looking forward to the warmer days. I hate it when I can barely feel anything. For some reason this Winter, Mother Nature has been taking a tantrum and she has not been very kind to me. Roll in Spring so I can get my act together and continue with the hobby that I love so much. Today I wanted to welcome 2 new followers of my blog Minna and Pepper. WELCOME!

So today I will be sharing with you what I have been up to with the little chapel that I am renovating. I wanted this little chapel to be bricked from the out side. I went for the plaster and stencil method only that it was tougher than planned. As the building was already built you can't really stencil it the way you wish. I started off with the front porch which needed to be bricked from both the outside and inside.

Bricking the outside of the porch

Bricking the inside of the porch

This took me ages and there was no way of using the stencil especially inside. So I first plastered it and using the point tool I had to trace the brick design myself. The same thing happened on the outside especially the front due to the uneven surface and door way. 

At the end after a couple of hours it was complete and like I say one tough job that was worth the effort. After the plaster was dry I sanded down the uneven bits and shaded the brick work to make it look a bit more realistic and weathered. I really enjoy blending in the colors. 

The brick work 

When that was ready I have painted the out door and the out door ceiling with a dark brown to give it that extra contrast. I have also added a beam inside the porch's roof and I made the flooring of the porch myself. I got myself a piece of card board from a cereal box painted it with different shading of browns, greens and grey. Then I cut the floor slabs and stuck them to the flooring. They came out really nice and realistic.

The hand made floor tiles

I still need to paint the trimming outside the main door, tile the roof and do the front facade before I glue the porch but I am really happy how it turned out

The front Porch

After the porch was ready, I started working on the inside. Like I said before the paint job was a mess. You could see the strokes of the paint brush every where and the floors where not even painted. So I sanded the walls slightly and started the paint works with a small roller. Another obstacle were the windows. I have masked tape them and there is when I realized that there was another problem with the windows. I had 3 side windows which where glued in but not fitted in properly most probably due to the amount of  paint on them. So very carefully I had to lift off and cut the glue with a Stanley knife. I removed the extra paint from the windows so they could fit in their opening properly.

Starting the work paints

When I was happy with the inside of the chapel I once again started working on the facade outside. I started with the side where there was the side door. First I sculptured a cross using air dry clay so I could place it on top of the door. 

The hand sculptured cross

I started first by plastering the sides and then once again I bricked the wall. This time I could use the stencil a bit better but still when it came close to the windows or doors I had to give the detail of the brick work myself. I added the little sculptured cross while plastering the walls. 

When the plaster was dry I shaded the brick work and painted the door and window frames. I also shaded the little cross to match and so far I am pleased how it all looks.

The cross on top of the door

The finished facade

So this is what I did so far. I haven't done much but it is really testing my patience. I also got myself my first church pieces of the church. 

My first church miniatures

If in Malta the word dolls housing is a complete taboo when it comes to miniature churches or nativity scenes it is completely the opposite. Once Christmas is over most of the religious shops start preparing for Easter time and this is what I found. They might be slightly bigger than the 12th scale but I think they will still work their magic.

So this is all for today folks. Please bear with me I know it is taking me longer than usual but I can't work with this weather. Hopefully the next time we will meet I will be having most of the outside brick work all done. So keep tuned for the next update.

Take Care and see you real soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx