I am one of those people whose imagination tends to go a little out of control. And as a result so do my displays. My wife Agnes wanted a display for the event piece for the California Gold Gathering, the concept was to show collectors how easily it would fit into their villages. My first thought was what would fit with a miner and a mule. I have a friend in Northern California, whom I visit regularly, who is a miner, there was no doubt in my mind that it had to be a drinking establishment. What better to represent Southern California than Rosita’s Cantina and what better reason could there be for buying a house in a village we do or did not collect. Here’s where after 32 years of marriage’ we still don’t see eye to eye. She said display, she omitted small. In her minds eye she envisioned a 12”x12” display, I envisioned at least 22 inch width to accommodate a house (she knew nothing about), and saw no logical reason to waste the back half of the table. As a result a 22 X 36 inch display was born. My wife, as chair of the CGG had the,” Gavel”, and when the rapping was finished, my work of art was relegated to the display contest, and the job commissioned to another person, probably a mind reader.

I guess all was not lost because the kind and understanding editor of this newsletter asked for the recipe of my folly.

Bon Appetite.

I had never seen a display with actual living plants used, and because cactus comes in all sizes and shapes, I needed a hollow core in the base, to hide the plant pots. I just happened to have two pieces of ply wood, one piece was ½ inch for the top and the other ¾ inch for the bottom. These were cut to 20 X34 ½ inches. Between these pieces I screwed three pieces of 1 X 2 inch pine, one in the middle and one on each side. These were not rough cut so their actual dimensions are ¾ X 1 ½ inches. When doing displays I make it a habit to use dry wall screws and an electric driver, if you find your engineering skills are wanting, they are a lot more forgivable then nails. On a tour of homes looking at displays, I had seen Rosita’s Cantina, angled. My host, Myrta Burns had explained that she had done so to show off the very attractive lounge door way on the side. I agreed and so with out hesitation a little plagarism was not beneath me.

Having a wife that specializes in Honey Do’s, I have become very familiar with Home Depot, especially the tile department. This may tend to scare you. but not to worry, I will make it as painless as possible. They carry 1 3/8 inch square tiles in a variety of colors, and I choose raspberry, because it matched the colors on the cantina. I cut strips of hard thin cardboard, 1 inch square and 1 X 11 inches. Next I positioned the cantina and out lined the lounge patio. I then drew and 11 inch line from the corner on the same angle as the cantina. At this time I positioned and cut out the areas where I planned to insert the plants in their pots. Using a hot glue gun I attached a tile at each end of the line, and using the spacers filled in between them, using the line as a reference point. I repeated this till the patio was approximately 8 ½ inches indepth. I purchased a small box of white grout, mixed it with water to form a paste and filled in between. Allowed it to dry for twenty minutes and then wiped it softly with a damp sponge to remove the excess grout. To me it looked just fantastic, and that’s when I made my second mistake. I tried to get fancy. Remembering I had two cases of quarry tile in the corner of the workshop and the tile saw I had previously purchased, I decided on an authentic entryway. I should have stayed with the raspberry. I cut the quarry tiles into ¾ inch squares and because of the sharp edges, (instead of the forgiving rounded edges). I cut long narrow strips and inserted them in between the rows to hide the irregularities in the rows. I started laying the tile from the place I envisioned the entrance, tiled toward the cantina, finishing underneath it. . Because I wanted authentic, I used patching cement as grout.

With much pride in my workmanship I showed my accomplishment to my wife, who immediately stated the two tiles did not go together and the raspberry had to go. Unfortunately I had already placed the Village wrought iron fencing around the patio by hot gluing to the board. Carefully using a chisel I removed the colorful raspberry. The entrance was nice but too rough for a fenced in patio. I decided that it would be best to use a very strong glue and would bind most anything, but not super glue. I would just have to put up with the slow drying time. The wait was worth it. I then grouted it with quarry tile colored grout. The patio looked like an absolute disaster. After a few bad thoughts and many choice words, I got my electric sander and 36 grit sand paper and in less then an hour I had a patio so smooth, only a real pro could have achieved it.

The mountain was the next obstacle to conquer. I had acquired some foam that looked like rocks, from the trash bin of a local film company. They were just facings similar to the plastic one you can purchase in a train store, but more realistic. To mold these pieces into a mountain I mixed packing Styrofoam peanuts with patching plaster, formed the front of my mountain, remembering to form holes for the plant pots to fit into. Now I positioned and cut the opening for the mineshaft and cooking pit. On the backside of the mountain I again used the plaster and pellets to form a level even with the bottom of the mineshaft. When dry wherever necessary I brushed on patching plaster, the consistency of paste making sure that I left brush lines. I then sprayed the areas needed with black spray paint leaving just a hint of white. Then using brown paint, I sprayed on an angle from a distance, fogging it from one side to the other. The black fades out except in the grooves of the plaster giving a more life like terrain look, with three colors making up the texture.

The electrical: Under the cantina I drilled a 1 ½ inch hole and fed the cord into the hollowed base and with a coat hanger fished it out the rear. Acquiring DC transformer, which delivers 1 ½ to 12 volts from Radio shack, I cut off the usual connectors, bared the wires and connected four low voltage Christmas tree lights. Starting at 1.5 volts I increased the voltage till I had the desired brightness, being careful not to burn out the lights. On the back side of the mountain I placed one light to each side of the mine shaft and one over making sure the did not directly shine through. The fourth light I placed where the fire pit would be. I obtained some pyrite (fools gold) from lapidary store, smashed it into smaller pieces and hot glued them inside the mine opening, covering the back side to make sure the light made the pyrite sparkle. I then covered the back with crumpled aluminum foil to form a room and hot glued into place. Paint and a little sphagnum moss finishes this area.

For the fence I obtained a piece of wood used to reface doors. Since it is a ply it doesn’t warp as easy. I cut the desired lengths, hot glued small pieces of tile to assimilate bricks grouted with patching cement, covering the area. When dry, I applied white glue to one side. I mixed real stucco and applied it over the wet glue, placed them in the oven at 150 degrees until dry, then repeated it on the other side. The fences were then glued to the display, fresh stucco applied to the corners. Small pieces of tile were hot glued to the top, and the fence was painted to insure the stucco stayed in place. Common ordinary pea gravel was used as the rest of the fencing as well as around the cactus plants.

The patio table tops are made by cutting off the bottom of 35mm plastic film cartridges, the bases are golf tees. The table clothes were cut from the overly long ends of the Christmas bows my wife used to decorate our tree, and the stools from self drying clay and round toothpicks for the legs. The signs were burned into the thin end of wooden shims, much cheaper than balsa wood. 2 ½ inch window trim was mitered to fit around the base, stained dark walnut, sanded and sprayed with varnish to finish.

I took sawdust obtained from a cabinet shop mixed it with green paint spread on aluminum foil to dry for the grass. The potted plants in the patio area and the tree to the left are dries flowers. They are inserted in the wooden pot obtainable in most hobby shops, the stems fed through the hole cut off even at the bottom, and a dab of hot glue applied. Larger pots of the same kind were used to make the clay pots in front of the patio. These wooden pots or urns were painted with white glue and covered with the quarry tile colored grout. The remaining finished pots, and ceramic long horns steers, were obtained in Northridge, California from the Northridge Pharmacy and Gift Gallery.

The Spanish figures were make by L & H and purchased there also. The miner and the mule are the limited edition event piece of the California Gold Gathering, which sold out in 90 minutes time. The miner was the event piece and there are a limited number still available.

Though I am victim of spousal abuse while building this display, I did manage to get somewhat even. Previous to the arrival of the event pieces only a drawing of it had been seen. To say the least, every one on the CGG Committee was nervous. When they arrived I very dutifully called my wife at her work informed her that I had looked at them and that she had a problem. I heard her heart stop, and then she asked “what’s wrong”. To which I responded “ the miners shovel is too high it will not fit in my mineshaft.”