Sandy Shores - Lighthouse (continued)

Today I've spent many, many hours continuing to build the stepped section of the lighthouse. It's scary how long it's taken, and I've only done 4 or 5 layers today!

Below: More DAS clay is cut into strips and then scribed into individual bricks. These are then immediately covered by cling film which is kept in place by whatever is close to hand! The cling film is to stop the air drying clay from hardening too soon.

Below: The next step is to start building the next set of clay supports that will hold up the next layer. There are around 8 or 9 supports per level.

Below: After having produced a couple layers of the steps, and about 18 supports, I already needed to roll out clay for the final three layers of steps. This shows why this takes so damn long to do!

Below: A shot looking up shows the offset supports holding up each level. It's easy to see why it takes so long to do one layer.

I decided to stop for the day after the 9th layer. Technically it should be the final layer, but as you can see, there is still some way to go before I hit the beach (it's even further on the other side!). I'm currently undecided what to do; I could carry on and keep adding steps, go with one final level that just goes straight down to the beach (with rock armour at the bottom to protect the base). Or bring the beach level up. I'm reluctant to keep adding layers since not only does it take a long time, but the beach is uneven which will not make the final layers easy.

I've always intended to add a groyne next to the lighthouse, so the level of part of the beach will be higher anyway (because of longshore drift, one side of the beach is higher where there are obstructions, such as groynes).

Below: You can see just how far away the beach is to the base on the right hand side in this shot!

I didn't have time to do any more today, so I'm afraid that's it for this update!