Uncanny Dream Diorama: Floor WIP Images

[kiyakotari]

Several people have asked me how I made the floor of my Uncanny Dream set. The short answer is "blood and sweat" (there were no tears), but I also took some progress shots.




This tool is called a v-gouge. It cost more than the piece of wood I'm using it on.


So many wood shavings! The cats kept grabbing them and dragging them under the sofa.


The floor after two coats of stain. Getting that uneven look involved a lot of swearing and some
creative use of water and rubbing alcohol during the application the second coat.


One coat of varnish on, one more to go, and then on to the nailing. The seemingly interminable nailing.


The final nail! It was such a relief to get to this one.


Now all that's left to do is give it a light sanding, then varnish it a couple more times.


The nails were only 1/2" long, in perfect scale with the dolls.


Holding the nails turned my fingertips black.

Comments

[nagasvoice]

I'm awed at how long you had to hold the v-groove tool steady while you were grooving, that can't have been easy to do either. And the floor came out looking wonderfully convincing.

[kiyakotari]

I got the hang of holding it steady fairly quickly, but it wasn't easy. It made my hands ache. ^_^ I am incredibly proud of this floor. I kind of want to try my hand at another one - maybe parquet - but have no idea what I would do with it when finished.

[nagasvoice]

Make another different room?
Send it off to one of your bjd co-conspirators who needs to take more pix??

[kiyakotari]

It would probably cost at least $50 to ship the floor alone. =/ I could maybe use thinner wood over a base of very thick foamcore, but it's the size that's the issue, almost as much as the weight. Storage is also a problem, at least for me. It completely collapses, but I live in a tiny apartment, so that doesn't really help much.

[nagasvoice]

Hmm, I like the idea of thinner wood over foamcore, dunno if that'd make it harder to carve. Also, if it's parquet, those marks could be usable to disassemble, fold or hinge it down into smaller square or rectangular parts for travel or shipping?

[kiyakotari]

It would make carving a little more problematic, but not prohibitively so. I think the hinging would cause problems with the overall appearance of the floor, though. Multiple pieces that fit together (puzzle-like), maybe. Hinges, no.

[shipwreck_light]

V-gouge shoutout love! I haven't used one of those in forever. And oh! Te magic of alcohol.

I had NO IDEA you did that much of the floor work on your own. That just makes it all the more amazing.

Cats + woodshavings = hilarity.

[kiyakotari]

I would personally go with cats + woodshavings = mess, but hilarity works, too. ^_^

The floor itself took about two weeks to complete, and the only thing that I didn't do myself was cut the piece of wood down to size (they did that for me at the store when I bought it). I actually built the set completely on my own, aside from cutting the wood, and I even did some that. I would have done more, but don't have the equipment.

[greenjudy]

Jesus, so that's how you did it. You are a crafty beast, aren't you! The varnish...the nails...the tiny curls of wood...Jesus Christ on a bike.

[kiyakotari]

With no seat and no lube, even! Yeah, it was a lot of work. I enjoyed it, though, and wouldn't mind doing more.