A Stirring Tale...

 

Of Rescue...

You May or may Not recall, Dear Readers, that this Dollmaker's Studio project is a hodge-podge of leftover and lonely pieces mixed with Special kits (Sandra's kit that inspired the project) and Artisanal creations (the beautiful ook arched glass door on the ground level) to name a couple. It is also a venue for ordinary salvage, in this case a batch of coffee-stirrer sticks from work which were about to be tossed out because they fell on our floor (where barn boots regularly tread). I looked at them and thought "I can probably use those"! So they came home with me. I thought they would make a great rustic floor in some project or another. But there are not too many of them... and I belatedly realized that not all coffee-stirrer sticks are the same dimensions or type of wood. I had no idea what "make" these were, so what I got is what there is to use. It needed a small-ish floor area to work... and one where a different type of flooring one room to the next would not matter. So I started to test these pieces in the upstairs room. And because this is a small-ish project, but one filled with fancy details, I wanted the floor to be special too. I had long wanted to try a "herring-bone" floor, and this would be the perfect place to give it a try.

Here is the interior (sorry for the dark view...!)

with Sandra's alcove placed at the back and the window seat at the right.

(Neither are firmly attached yet.)

The space is about 9 inches by 13 inches give or take a little.

And with the morning sun hitting the spot!

So I started to cut some stirrer-sticks to see if this might work.

At one inch sections, I get seven per stick.

But I have to cut them by hand... and the stirrers

 are not identical or perfect in their dimensions.

(But I think that will add to the charm of the end product!)

Here I have laid out a very tentative section

 to see how the spacing and size will work.

I think they will look lovely!

But I have a LOT of cutting to do!

I estimate about 85 sticks will be needed.... 

each making seven pieces...

And there will be the inevitable spoiled and wrong length ones.

I think this is about twenty sticks.

I think this is about forty sticks.....

I made a system of cutting five sticks at a sitting....

Measure, cut, sand.... each one making seven pieces.

And since I spent so much time in my

 RL Garden these past weekends,

 I did not get much else done!

But it is a start!

I love it, Dear Readers, 

that the sticks that fell on the Floor by accident...

Can become the floor by Design!

A Stirring rescue all around!