tributesinwood

“It’s All About the Base, ’bout the Base…”

“…no trouble!”  I suspect that I’m probably infringing on a music copyright here.  Sorry.

But, when the base is looking right, the whole carving looks right.  You might recall that when I completed the “Hobo and Ned” carving, the track beneath the pump-car had a gravel and sand bed between the rails.  The gravel and sand was actually a stone and polymer mixture that is used between patio stones and pavers.  Once this mixture is swept into the gaps between the individual pavers and water is added, the mixture cures near rock hard.

I used the same mixture for the sandy soil around the fence posts.  In this instance, though, I didn’t want the soil to be coarse gravel like I wanted for the rail bed.  So, I took some cheese cloth and sifted the dry mixture to separate the larger pieces of grit.  I then added a diluted mixture of white carpenter’s glue rather than just straight water.  I felt that this would just make sure that the polymer really bonded well.  I picked out a few larger pieces from what I had sifted out of the mixture and added them, here and there, to the sandy soil with some of the white glue mixture.  Finally, I positioned the hound in place and “pushed” the boots into the mixture until I was satisfied with the overall stance.

Once things dried, I thought it looked pretty good.  I want to add some colour now to make it look more on the sandy side, but, all in all, I’m pretty happy with the result so far.