Trouble at t' Mill

Nose to the grindstone and shoulder to the wheel are expressions which are associated with hard work, and if you keep at it you get there in the end! The expression "trouble at t'mill" usually said in a Northern accent, is another often used idiom when things are not going well ...  I'm trying hard to keep to the first two .. but experiencing the latter, but I know if I persevere I will achieve my target!!  My latest commission is to make a mill and having been really inspired and keen to make a start, I'm finding it quite an awesome task!  It's the sheer amount of red brick wall that is daunting, as well as the amount of windows  and all to be made of stamps and "postal" materials!

I've made a start with a lot of thinking ... then transferred my reference photograph, enlarged to a workable size, onto my paper, a robust watercolour paper, onto which I have started to build the mill! Eventually the sky will also be painted onto the watercolour paper, although the sky may be  different from the cloudless one in the photo!

I'm currently involved in carefully cutting up old British definitive stamps of a suitable hue for one side of the mill which is in shade, and will then follow on with a slightly lighter and brighter stamps to replicate the Accrington bricks.  These bricks did have some variation in the shade after firing, so any postmarks or variations in the printing colour or even using some different stamps will help to keep it authentic.
For my windows I'm using the insides of some old envelopes from a similar period, which I acquired recently as part of an old collection of stamps and envelopes.   Having made my patchwork quilt series of stamp collages, where I used some very pretty almost floral patterned envelope interiors, I've learnt always to look inside  envelopes and I found  some very suitable papers for my mill windows! But it's extremely fiddly ...   and I may be some time!