Why checkered platforms?

Hotel du Depart:

In an earlier blog I outlined my theory that if I packed lots of French imagery into my layout then the thing would look French. The twist was that I would not align any particular item of imagery with the object or setting that one usually associated with it.

So, I associate  checkered tablecloths with French brasseries/cafes but rather than have checkered tablecloths in little HO scale cafes on my layout, I would dissociate the checks from the cafe setting and associate them with the platforms.

By doing this there would be a certain tension in the eye of the beholder as he or she confronted the  imagery of checkeredness, which would conjure up Frenchness, BUT in the absence of the objects usually associated with checkeredness.

This tension, I believe, invigorates the total perception as the mind struggles to resolve the dissociated elements.

(Yes, it does sound like a load of crap.)

I was reminded of the Frenchness of things checkered when I looked again at this interior of an HO scale model of Hotel du Depart. Not mine; off the internet.

And, I added another 10 rows of tiles to my final platform.

Ceramics update:

Not much to report: continued to repair and tidy up the walls of the much vaunted building.

One decision was taken though and that was NOT to assemble the 4 walls before the firing but to fire them all flat and then assemble them. There was too much risk that trying to stand them up and join them together in a pre-fired and thus brittle state would lead to calamity.

Getting rid of uneven edges with a wet paint brush

A tidied up wall.

Then I put all the little clay stanchions back in position to keep the window frames intact during firing. What a palaver!

The rest of the class seem fascinated with my project and keep coming up to me with excellent ideas for decorating the building with features eg windows, window frames, balustrades, shop windows, balconies. I hope I don't offend anyone by not choosing theirs.

A Gift:

The lady whose terracotta tiles I so admired and wish to adapt to make a background townscape for the layout presented me with one of them as a gift. My wife and I really love it.

Front

Back

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Last night's dinner:

Mushroom omelet

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Prix Choc:

This is a classic track by Etienne de Crecy from Super Discount 1 which is permanently set to play in my car CD player at the moment. For some reason I have 3 re-mixes of it - all excellent.