Back to the front

I pasted the first of the fibreglass brickwork sheets to the front opening panel a couple of weeks ago. I used an entire sheet and left it to dry over twenty-four hours. Though it feels fairly thick, it folds back around the edges quite readily. In fact, I found it just as easy to apply as ordinary paper. And like all wallpaper, it should be glued thoroughly on the back (here with a PVA adhesive). This fibreglass brickwork comes with a realistic sprinkling of sand in the mortar lines, so I smoothed it all down by pressing the surface firmly with a soft pad made from an old T-shirt.

I laid the panel face down on some thick cardboard and cut out the windows from the back with a medical scalpel. Best not to try cutting while the sheet is still damp, it can pucker and tear. 

Scalpels and craft knives are great tools so long as you're careful not to slice your other hand (though I'm afraid most people tend to do this at least once!). When not in use, any cutting tool without a retractable blade should be stored with the sharp point pushed safely into a wine cork. Please don't be tempted to use the same old blade for too long; a blunt tool is actually more dangerous than a sharp one because it won't cut cleanly in one go.

Two more pieces of brickwork sheet were needed to fill in the rest of the front. The trapezium shape you can see sticking up is the floor section that slots into the bay. I fitted the bay window assembly on top to see the effect.

And having finished cutting out the window spaces, inserting the cream plastic window frames, and setting the shop front in position . . .

this is what Brennan's looks like so far. You could almost expect to see someone standing at one of those windows . . .

but no, because below is what it really looks like from the other side . . . 

 see, there's no one there after all. And so much more to be done!

Just a little caboodle this time, some of the antique shop stock from Brennan's pre-war days. On the floor is an eighteenth-century wine cooler or 'cellaret', I have it on Charlie's authority that early wine bottles were short and squat. The majolica fish jug and leaf dish are set on the spindly Taiwan table together with an eighteenth-century tea caddy (another lockable item, like the cellaret, apparently servants were not much trusted in those days).

Next time I shall probably be talking about amps, volts etc because I am due to visit the home of Small World Products, www.smallworldproducts.com 

charliechas