New Gnome House / Mabey Smurf House

Hi everyone, 

This is my most recent project I have completed this weekend.  My Gnome House or possible Smurf Type House, not sure yet!  I'm excited, I have been working towards having a model that I can make a mold from so I can mass produce at least 50.  So I can start a side business selling them at Miniature Shows or on my Blog and see if people would like to buy them as they would a Doll House.  But mine would be made out of 100% Paper, and be able to fit virtually anywhere, since they are not to small and not to large. 

I wish I could create each house different, but it takes me about 5 hours to make a cardboard frame for the shape of the house, and about 2 hours to add all the paper and carvings.  Not to mention the long drying time of a couple of days.  I'm hoping if i make a plaster mold of one house that it would only be an hour to press in the paper for the house, which should dry quicker within the plaster, which I could place directly into the oven to dry for a couple of hours or all day to dry.  Then pull the house out of the mold and make another.  My goal is to make a line of different houses with a limited number of each house.  Now the scary part next weekend is trying to figure out how to make a very large plaster mold of this house, and build a would box large than this house to pour the plaster into.  I have no idea what to do, but ill experiment until i figure it out.  Once the mold is made, then I will complete this house if I don't destroy it when I make a mold from it.  I hope you like! 

I'll post more pictures soon with progress as I go. 

Let me know what you think, I can handle any critizism, I think. :)

Have a Wonderful Week Everyone!

Stan

While the paper was wet I cut a line through the house.  This will be where the house is hinged to open, for easy access.

Ya its starting to dry!   I let it dry for over 1 day before I could pull out the bolt nuts that made the window openings.  It was still very wet.

Just finished pulling out more bolt nuts.

At this point I felt really proud of what I had accomplished, and really liked the look of the house so far.  I remember thinking how much it looked like a Smurf house, but in my own creative style.  I grew up watching the Smurfs, and remember how fascinated I was with the thought of miniature things living in the woods.

This is right after I added all the paper to the outside of the cardboard frame. 

I had to end up cutting open the house after a day so it could start drying, since the cardboard frame keeps all the moisture and doesn't let it dry properly.

A closer look at the inside of the cardboard frame.

This is after I used a knife to cut open the house to dry.  As you can see, the plastic grocery bags i used to make the shape of the house.

Up close look at the bolts nuts that I hot glued on to make the shapes for the windows and door.

It took me a couple of hours to figure out what to do to make window openings, so I don't have to cut into the harden paper later on.  So I hot glued on bolt nuts from the garage to give a basic shape I was looking for, for the windows and door.

The main cardboard base I made out of cardboard and duct tape and painting tape and plastic grocery bags.  This way I can get a basic shape I was looking for.