Making Brick Fences - Part One
photos taken November 4, 2009

All purpose Lego has been used throughout this project.
Here it's used as an easy to take apart mold for the basic shape of what will become the brick fences.
The artist's modeling clay, not polymer clay, was first conditioned with extra water
to make it pliable to work with.

The clay is smooshed into the mold, pushed into corners and against the insides of the mold.

Here it is after being been smooshed and smoothed.

I didn't get fancy and buy a rolling pin - I just used an unopened container of silicone
to roll over the clay until it was smooth.

The back side was also smoothed before the Lego mold
was carefully dismantled one side at a time.

All mold sides are off and the clay slab is ready to be placed in the clay drier.

Yes, more Lego was used to construct the clay drier.
Heavy painter's plastic and tape were used to enclose the structure.
Holes were cut into the plastic to allow it to breath thus slowly drying the clay.
Modeling clay must be slow dried over a couple of days.
It will take three days to completely dry.

These are six of the nine slabs I made this afternoon.
They are still very wet and will have to slowly dry before more work can be done on them.
After drying overnight to a "leather hard" stage,
I will smooth the edges, stamp them to make the brick pattern, then finally slightly resize them.
They will probably be fully dry the day after tomorrow.

This is the second drier on another kitchen counter.
(Gads!  Half of my kitchen has been taken over by my ever-growing Village workshop!)
This drier has larger holes and the clay has been stamped with the brick pattern.
The slabs have hardened enough so they can stand up.

These brick fences have been drying since yesterday.
The four fences on the top left side were made yesterday morning and will be dry tomorrow.
The other fences were made yesterday evening and were stamped this morning.
They will be dry either tomorrow evening or the next morning.
As much as I am eager to move forward working on the Village landscaping features,
I don't want to hurry the drying process.

Out of a 10 pound box of clay, I was able to make 21 fences
plus part of one fence that will be used to test paint and other finishes.