Brick...

Well, I am closing in on this monster.   All of the brick walls are made and 4 or the 6 panels have been carved.  I will get the last two done early this week and they can all be painted Thursday, when the weather warms up again.

The process of making a brick wall is really pretty simple, just tedious.  I start with a basic luan flat in the shape that I need the wall. I then apply a layer of styrofoam. Since the profile of brick and mortar is not necessarily heavily rusticated, I can use fairly thin styrofoam. In the case of these walls, I used 3/4" thick sheets.  This is more than thick enough to carve the pattern and age the brick because the surface of even a very weathered brick wall is still pretty flat. It will create decent shadows. 

 If I am doing stone, I use 2" for a typical, laid up stone wall. The mortar joints in stone and the irregular surfaces require more definition.  

I stripe the foam surface with a Sharpie in the brick pattern.  Normal bricks are 2 1/8" high and 7 5/8" long.  These allow for 3/8" mortar joints to become 8" long and 3 courses high makes 8" high, so that they align with concrete blocks and other standard masonry units.  In carving brick walls, I don't have to be quite so precise.  I measure the courses off at 2" tall and 8" long.  It makes the math a lot easier and who is really going to know the freaking difference? Using a hot knife with a V-groove blade, I cut the mortar joints in along my black lines.  

For many people, this is as far as they go and they think that they carved foam...not so fast, buster.  The edges of bricks are never nice and smooth, especially in old industrial loft buildings in the East Village.  These buildings are beat up and weathered.  So, I switch to a 4" flat knife blade and drag it along the edges of the grooves creating an irregular edge.  Gouges at the corners make the bricks look chipped and broken.  

Finally, I use a heat gun over the surface.  This does a few things...first, it melts away all of the jagged little edges that do not appear naturally in a brick wall.  Second, it opens up imperfections and pores in the surface of the foam, giving it a texture instead of being slick.  Finally, it melts the surface just a bit and when it cools it has closed all of the pores leaving a thin hard shell which is easier to paint and much more durable. (Melanie has a lot of heat gun experience!)

So, with the walls nearly complete and ready for paint, I can turn my attention to the next task...payphone!  More to follow later in the week. I post an update when the brick is painted...

Until then...Rob