Pagoda Renovation

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This is our six foot tall pagoda I made while I was working, in 1987."When I had more time."

Like the lanterns it was to compliment the koi pool I built the year before. The designs came partly, from a book given me by a friend which came as one of the extras he received when he bought a new Nissan car. These days you can find photos easily on the internet.


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I made it in an hour or so in the evenings after work over a period of about two weeks, much in the same way I made the lanterns in our garden, fine concrete mix with an outer skin of sand/cement mortar.
But unlike the lamps it needed 19 different "castings"
Each time, the same molds had to be re-sized to get the required reduction in size.


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It needs a bit of a tart up every few years, as even though it's painted with Hammerite paint it suffers from the weather and some of the detail has been erroded over time.
It sits on two Corporation paving stones. The balcony balustrades are of hardwood moldings, set into the concrete.



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The extent to which I went to make the "simulated pin joints" that support the roofs go unnoticed. The detail is as fine as I could get with fine concrete mix.

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The Sorin (that thing on the top), is a "work of art." A collection of drilled through brass cupboard door handles, plastic shower curtain rings, plastic milk bottle tops, the top off a Decleor shaving gel aerosol, nuts and bolts, wooden beads and a plastic garden lighting stake with holes I drilled in it, threaded on to a long bolt.

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I was going to do it today, but it looks like it might rain, so I will probably do it when I come home from golf tomorrow afternoon. It won't take long.
 
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This was the lantern in a photograph in the book on which I based my first one.
It's in the garden of the Katsura Villa in Kyoto, it must be several hundred years old.

Lantern.jpg



For the second lantern I made it on a column and with a different top, to add a bit of variety. Both are illuminated by 12v lamps controlled by a switch behind our lounge curtains.

I mentioned pagoda "pin joints." These were complicated structures made entirely of wood used to support the roofs.

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Pagodas were made of a wood called Hinoki, a form of cedar. It's very strong, pliable and doesn't rot.


For any who are interested, I'll post some more photos at the week-end if I complete the renovation.
 
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A bit too wet to do much in the garden, but I thought I'd share this with you. It's from the section on pagodas in the book I mentioned.
This elderly gentleman made this five storey replica wooden pagoda using miniature hand tools of the type the from which the original pagodas would have been constructed. It's authentic to the last detail.

Most Japanese who don't live in small apartments in high-rises in the cities, reside in equally small houses in the countryside. This could be in some sort of small shed in his garden.

This photo I guess is at least fifty years old, so I doubt he's still around. I often wonder what happened to his pagoda.


Big pagoda.JPEG


I used a short break in the weather to complete in the end, what I decided to do with the pagoda.
Just a wash down of the bits I haven't repainted with a paintbrush and some soapy water and then a hose down. A ten minute job.The Hammerite paint I use which is really for metal, is very durable.








Here's a confession, the two sides which aren't visible, never received the white paint treatment. After all it's just a "folly."
 

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