Brick hotplate top, more detail

Okay, I decided to go ahead and do some more work on the hotplate top.

First of all I finished the bricking (it actually took a full package of mini bricks -- 50 of them) then painted the individual bricks to give them more character.  I mixed the acrylic artist's paint with a medium lustre acrylic medium, so I sealed them as I painted them.

Then I mixed down some Poly Fix -- a fairly fine crack filler -- with water to make it the consistency of thick glue.  I tinted it a little, but could have tinted it more.  (As it is, I'll have to go over the grout and "age' it.)

I then loaded up the tool on the right of the photo, above -- it's a "Monoject" syringe used for gluing, and I happened to have a spare one.  It worked just fine, once I trimmed a little off the tip (making the opening big enough for whatever particles are in the Poly Fix.)

I grouted the bricks, then cleaned them off (I used baby wipes, because I always have them around for polymer clay work).  I left the piece then for about three hours, and when I came back, the grout had very politely sunk more deeply into the lines, and I applied a second layer of the stuff, and cleaned it off again.

I think it'll look quite good when I "dirty" it up a little with paint and it's set in place!  I'm already looking for mini cauldrons and such to put on the hot plate when it's done :)

UPDATED:  just had to add these two photos of the finished work.  I'll add some more soot when the thing is in situ.