Getting roads to just ruddy lay flat

I decided to try a closer weave material as the backing for the caulk mix in the hope that this would give something more for the caulk to fix to. I have some canvas lying around which meets these requirements.

Before applying any caulk, I liked the look of the fur border in the previous effort so I wanted to see if I could attach some fur to the canvas to create the effect. My thinking being that once the caulk road was in place, I could attach a border and it would blend in to the mat better (once the fur was painted).

I used some fabric glue with the following results:

This looked promising. The fur adhered well and this looked a possible option. It would even be possible to paint the fur before gluing it to the canvas.

Onto the caulk mix for the road. I used the same mix again (caulk, brown paint but less sand) and thinly applied this up the middle of the canvas strip. This layer was less than 1mm thick and just enough to block out the canvas.

I left this to dry and this was the result

As you can see from the picture, the caulk has dried and caused the canvas to curl up as the canvas does not have enough thickness to stop it. It’s also a little wrinkled.

I tried again, this time putting gaffer tape on one side of the canvas to provide some more ‘strength’

You can see below the problems with the two approaches,

So this didn’t work. I’m thinking that perhaps caulk is not the way to go. Or perhaps I need a better backing that is not subject to the problems of canvas or teddy bear fur.