Tudor Apothecary Workroom Build - The Floor is Tiled and Grouted

The tiles are grouted, and the grout has been dirtied up a little with a paint wash. I staged the photo to show a small sample of the many objects I've collected over the past couple of years that will go into the apothecary workroom and its associated shop. The bench was borrowed from the Tudor Market Guild Hall, as I have made no furniture yet for the apothecary. I have to see how everything fits together before I decide on furnishings. There will definitely be a skeleton somewhere, and perhaps a "stuffed' crocodile, these shop-owners tended to enjoy injecting a little mystery into their profession.

You can see a couple of the tripods, mentioned in a previous post, on the brick stove, one of them is under the clay jar. I just love the tiny test tubes, I got those at Birmingham Miniatura last year, along with some of the wonderful pots and bottles. The mortar and pestle was acquired at NAME National in Nashua, New Hampshire quite a few years ago, just waiting for this to be built. I have also got a gorgeous wooden one, made by Pear Tree Miniatures, that will go into the shop half of this building.

Exterior matte varnish and satin varnish do not mix; you end up with something that looks like oil on water, so I'm glad I did a sample on a broken tile. Two applications of acrylic satin varnish were enough to waterproof the paper clay tiles, so the grout was easily applied with my fingers and then washed off the surface of the tiles with a small sponge. The grout will be dirtied up some more in areas of "wear" when I place the furniture.

Speaking of furniture, I think I have to go with a green shade, just to offset all the terra cotta. There's a lot of orange in the workroom right now. Normally I would just stain Tudor era furniture, but too much of a sameness in the colour makes everything become semi-visible. Green should complement things nicely.

Tomorrow I hope to make some bricks to edge the vault façade and to go above the window. Once the bricks are dry, I can do the beaming and plastering of the façade. So far, I've used a full 8 oz package of terra cotta DAS, and about 3/4 of a 16 oz. block of the white. And I've only just begun....

Welcome to my new followers, I'd love to know if you are as enamoured of Tudor as I am! Of course, I don't have to worry too much about straight lines and angles working in that period, which is my main reason for getting involved in it; I could probably not cut a straight line if my life depended on it!