A writer lives here. Books are her passion. Most of her day are spent in her room with a view of the village. 

 

Starting to apply the final coats of paper.

The white paper we use here is commonly known in England as' linning paper'. Here in France the nearest I can get to it is 'children's drawing roll' from Ikea. The idea in finishing with this paper is to create a final strong and robust surface. For larger pieces it's ideal, and you can apply as many layers as you want.

We applied two coats on all the windows. Once these were dry we sanded the Windows by hand and with an electric sander. This need only take a few minutes just to get rid of a few of the unwanted 'lumps and bumps'.

Aurore is applying the thicker white paper, both to the outside and inside of her Window. She is using the 'still warm' flour paste. The heat of the paste helps to make this paper more pliable especially in areas where there are tricky corners or in this case the thin bars to her Window. 

 

In this photo Spencer begins to build up the layers for a round Window.

This photo shows how we introduced wire during construction to help prevent the cardboard from bending twisting or changing shape. This as only used where there was thin unsupported areas as seen here .

 

Many small 'triangular cardboard sections' were glued on the inside of the walls of the Windows. This gave them addition strength and helped prevent any warping when Paper Mache was applied. 

Spencer's Window.
At this stage the window is a series of cut out cardboard sections held together with parcel tape.