Still busy, working on Mrs. Lovett's Meat Pie Counter

I don't have any pictures yet, but I am working on the counter.  I had to take a few days to do yard work.  We have 32 trees in our yard and they drop massive amounts of leaves.  Getting them all up takes some time.  I also had a ton of orders to pack and ship, there seemed to be a lot of sales at one time and packing them all up took me a day and a trip to the post office.   

I decided to have my husband help me open up the back of the pie counter so I could fill it as well, and put in a shelf.  It seemed less impressive the way it was, with only the top to decorate.  It didn't seem realistic that it wouldn't be open in the back with storage space.  So today I worked on getting that looking right, and making the shelf for the inside.  Turns out it's not easy painting a faux "filth" paint job :)  I think I did quite well though in the end.  I will post pictures as soon as I get the counter tiled, which is very time-consuming and tedious.  Probably why I'm stalling on doing that part of it.  I'm making the tiles by hand from clay, which is a blended off-white tile made of various clays that really give that authentic grimy look to the piece.  I'm trying very hard to stay true to the original counter in the movie in every way possible.  That means it looks filthy (but isn't) and there will be cracked tiles and discolored tiles mired with all things gross :)  I've also been making and painting accessories for both the top and inside of the cabinet that I'm very proud of.  There will be a large dirty rectangular basket full of various things like potatoes and carrots in various states of decay.  Distressing the basket was quite a job of layers, both paint and wood stain and finally polyurethane to seal it all in.  It looks old and dirty now.  I have several wood pieces I had to work on and distress to look old and yucky.  They have a tudor look to them with a layer of blackening and grime.  A metal banded bucket for instance, will hold entrails :)  I also have two very old looking small barrels that hold flour and cornmeal.  They will have bugs of course.  Metal ale mugs have been dirtied and darkened as well, like the dirty one Mrs. Lovett pours something out of and then fills with ale for Sweeney when he first enters her pie shop.  I've done a very good job of refinishing metal pots to look like aged, crusty old copper pots that will hold meats with icky parts sticking out.  There is also a realistically blackened copper kettle going underneath the counter.  There will be a stack of dirty white plates with the same pattern found in the movie.  I made a copper water pitcher exactly like the one on the counter in the movie and I think it turned out very well.  I'm still waiting on some of my bowls for the counter top to come in, they must be held up somewhere.  I have the large cutting board for the top made as well, and there will be rolled out pie crust on it and a rolling pin that I have yet to make.  This is a large project full of things that must be hand-made so it all takes time.  The pies themselves will be last, and I plan on doing them to the best of my ability.  Oh and also the bowls of meat, eggs, etc.  Stay tuned and bear with me on the time it's taking me.  This one isn't easy and I'm trying really hard to stay accurate to the one in the movie which isn't easy at all!  It should be quite interesting when it's done, I can tell you that :)