The Cenacle or Upper Room

The Last Supper at the Cenacle

As I stated previously in my first posting, the most important tools to have are "liquid nails" and a friendly hardware store where they sell small pieces of wood or have personnel who will cut the wood you buy at their store to fit your specifications.

This Cenacle was made by my husband.  If you have one of those handy types, then you are very blessed as I am.  If you don't, you can find a drawer like the one pictured below.  This can be found at a used or antique furniture store.  I stained ours and painted the menorah, a Jewish candelabra, to represent Passover, the Jewish feast that was celebrated there.  I painted with a varnish over the entire piece.  The wooden floor and three walls with a door are a separate piece from the drawer.  It is smaller in length and width than the drawer.  (I need to point out that I designed it this way so I could move the figures around it and behind it when Jesus and the Apostles leave to pray in the Garden.  This separate room can be made with the liquid nails as described in my first posting.)  The arch with the menorah can be slid off and reversed.  This reversed side is used in Level II for the Origin of the Eucharist.  It consists of two small arch shapes with a piece of wood glued between them to separate them and sits on the back wall of the Cenacle.  The reverse side is painted like the altar of our parish church or a photograph can be glued there of your parish altar.  It is supposed to represent an early church sanctuary.

Now I'd like to address the figures you see in these photos below of Jesus and the Apostles.  I made them with "Sculpy" clay which I bought at Walmart.  After you form your pieces, they will need to be baked at 275 degrees for 3/4ths of an hour for 3/4ths of an inch.  So that is 15 minutes for every 1/4 inch of thickness.  Then you let them cool down before painting.

The benefits of making them yourself is that it doesn't cost that much.   To buy each figure online is very very expensive.  Go online and price them to see for yourself.   Believe me, it's worth trying.  I tried to fashion mine after these online pieces.  I downloaded photographs of them.  I made a lot of mistakes and improved with the practice and keep finding better ways to do it always wanting to improve.  I used a water base Acrylic Stain.  I tried to stay with brown earth tones.  These paints I bought at a ceramic store and had a large collection of them from doing ceramics over the years.  However, you can get Acrylic paints at Walmart, online or at most hardware stores.

One mistake I'd like to point out.

I lined the drawers with a soft felt and then sprayed a matt finish over all the figures to protect the paint.  Although this makes the colors much richer, I would suggest not doing this because the figures became sticky from the heat during the summer.  The felt started adhering to the figures and the oil from the children's hands began smudging them as well.  So I would suggest not spraying.

The benefit of these baked figures, however, is that they can be dropped on a hard surface floor and will not break or chip.  They are tougher than resin figures and less expensive.

Steps in making the figures:  It takes me a few days to make three figures.  I usually do three at a time.  First I make the basic figure which is a a head with a body.  I shape the face.  Then separately I make the arms, nose, beard, head pieces and outer garments which I then add to the figures smoothing each one of them onto the main body.  After the nose is added and smoothed onto the face, I take a curved, pointed instrument I bought at a ceramic shop to make the eyes and mouth.  It's called a cleanup tool and it's an indispensable tool to use for this project.  You can probably buy one at Michaels if you don't have a ceramic store near you.  I also draw lines in the beards with this tool to give them texture as well as some of the outer garments.  I paint the larger areas first and set them aside to dry.  The next day I paint the faces.  It may take me a third day if my finger prints have smeared the paint.  Usually last minute touch ups are necessary. 

I learned from the first figures I made that I was not good at making eyes.  So you can see that I  simplfied this problem by having the eyes closed or half closed in prayer.

Also, this job could have been much simpler had I not painted the clothing different colors.  I could have used one color in different shades and perhaps added sand to the paint to give it texture.  That's something I haven't tried yet, but I'm planning to make that my next experiment in painting them.

 I really had problems making the noses at first.   Then I discovered that if I form a small ball of clay,  then place it on the face, smoothing it out in all directions, I could then shape it anyway I wanted.  So have fun with it.

The children love the Cenacle.  I would say that it is their favorite material.  This material really helps them with their understanding of the Last Supper and the Passion.  It is well worth the time spent making it.

These figures were by far my favorite to make.  They look like little monks.  I'd never done anything like this before and so I guess the old adage is true, "You don't know until you've tried it."