Sidewalks
In deciding how to address the area in front of the shops, I've gone through several ideas. My first thought was some sort of cobblestone or flagstone, so I bought…
Osteria Al Vecchio Stallo: Interior Walls
I stained the inside trim dark walnut to match the exterior. The walls are painted white. Once the walls are assembled, I'll be adding the baseboard, chair rail, and other…
Osteria Al Vecchio Stallo: Exterior Walls
The purpose of my very first trip to Italy's Friuli-Venezia Giulia region was to meet with the owner of the Ledragomma GymnastikBall company, in order to develop some sort of…
Pasticceria Penso: Baseboards & Wainscoting
While I'm aiming to recreate certain exterior elements of Pasticceria Penso as authentically as possible, the interior is born entirely of my imagination. The inside of the real bakery is…
Gelateria Bocelli: Exterior Walls
In 1994, I participated in the dance festival Pro Danza Italia, located in Castiglioncello, on the Tuscan coast of Italy. I returned to the festival in 1997 as a Pilates…
Pasticceria Penso: Concrete Block Veneer
For the concrete blocks, I used a sheet of styrene veneer, painted light gray with white grout lines. Here they are glued in place. I've left the one above the…
Pasticceria Penso: Exterior Walls
When I was doing research for my cookbook Flavors of Friuli: A Culinary Journey through Northeastern Italy, I rented an apartment in Trieste for three weeks. Much of that time…
Street of Shops
For my current set of projects, I bought these kits by Houseworks. There are three styles: a bay window shop, a double window shop, and a corner shop with two…
Sweet Shop: A Closer Look
These are some of the minis I made many years ago, as a child in the early to mid 1980s and then briefly as an adult in the late 1990s.…
Sweet Shop: Wall Shelves
The red cookie jar was a childhood gift. It's filled with dried lentil "cookies." The glass cookie jars are filled with some homemade polymer clay cookies. I got the crackerjack…