good evening...

here are pix of a piece i recently re-constructed...a similar one is shown on ted's site as the "august 2003 house of the month"...

this "hotel/house" it was sent to me in two pieces...i made a new top section and base plus found a tree that was similar to the original...it also needed new windows and a door...my goal was to make the new parts look old...and make the old parts look newer...i didn't want to destroy the character of the vintage pieces...just breath new life back into it for the owner...

the "snow" highlights were done with a mixture of a soft white craft paint and white glue that were sprinkled with bright white craft sand...no glitter or mica...i also "very lightly spray misted" the entire piece with gray primer...

i guess i can tell the owner of the house that i also sprinkled dust and dirt off the outside window sills of my shop over the entire piece...the fine dust/dirt gets into all the little space and helps it look older...it's there to stay...

my very best regards...

howard

Pretty cool, Howard. And a great job of matching the new to the old.

Terrific job, Howard!!! That "sprinkle of dirt and dust" from the window sill is a great tip!!!

WOW! Good job on this one. I have the original and without seeing it you did an amazing job. A couple of things about this building (I call it the hotel and the "dog house" is the Cantina or tea room. The trim on the marquee over the main door and the roof of the cantina is orange laquie (which is flat paint that has had shellac put over it) But the finish on the base was the most intriguing thing to me. It was a mid gray BUT it had a sort of black stuff scattered over it (NOT coconut) that looked much like shredded supper fine steel wool?? CRAZY eh. And the snow was a very heavy very white thick substance very much like plaster (likely not that as it would surely have flaked off and it is quite durable.) Perhaps a plaster and paint mix of some sort. VERY interesting.
BIG QUESTION. HOW DID YOU MAKE THAT TREE! WHAT DID YOU USE FOR THE TUBULES? Outstanding work. Tom

Nice work!! That is a great house to have in any village!!!!

hello...

tom...tree was a modern piece...not vintage...but looked right...especially the branches and the snow globs on the tips...

i had to shorten the tree, prune the lower branches and wrap the trunk area with brown paper and finish with brown craft paint...

by the way...i studied how you restored the august 2003 hom very carefully...it was my guide on how the finished piece should look...

my very best regards...

howard...

Wish I could find trees like that! I thought maybe you had figured out how to construct those tubular trees. And noting that brown paper around the trunk was very observant.
I was watching Bizarre Foods America and the host was at a Japanese Americans home and eating some seaweed that he said looks and feels like steel wool but tasted GREAT. It was VERY dark green. Do you suppose that the material scattered on that hotel base was that seaweed all dried up? It wouldn't really surprise me.

tom...i would say they probably used any and all materials that were free, leftovers from something else or very, very cheap...nothing would surprise me either...

howard...