Potting Bench Progress

During our virtual mini meeting this afternoon, I painted and aged the dirty potting bench. Neither of my mini friends had ever seen a potting bench like this one, but I had seen one, some years ago, at a plant nursery here in town. That nursery expanded too quickly and went bankrupt, and the building now is a place for people to get help with groceries and to learn to grow their own fruit and vegetables. However, my friends reminded me that the owners of the nursery were Dutch, so perhaps this is a Dutch potting table.

The table still needs dirt in its main bin; this will be made with some Model Magic air-dry stuff, paint and glue and tea dust.



A bird's-eye view shows the double walls, which form the slots the tray slides in from side to side, depending I suppose on where the dirt is deepest! I rubbed the runners of the tray with bees' wax to make sure they would slide with a minimum of friction; the whole thing, after all, is made mostly of craft sticks with glued butt joints, and can't cope with too much twisting.

This afternoon I also started shaping the supports for the shelves of a shabby chic kitchen cabinet, intended to be hung on a wall, based on an old Dutch design. I now have to ask the Carpenter-in-Chief to cut down some wood for the back and shelves of this cupboard; however, I hope that I have enough decent wood in my scrap pile to build the drawers and dividers for it.