Monday, June 25, 2012

Fitting Pieces

The Salon Taking Shape

Why is Progress always Slower than I think it will be? Well, I will tell you ONE of the Reasons, Dear Readers, is because I can't imagine how many times I will need to Assemble the pieces temporarily, just to check how it is fitting , or how it will look, only to disassemble it all in order to Work on the pieces! I thought it was going to be easier on the "above ground" rooms because the room could take on normal rectangular proportions with four solid walls (or three and an opening side;) and the walls could all be "decorated " while flat and slid easily into place! Well, maybe that would be the case if I didn't insist on having alcoves and vestibules and stairways inside the walls...... all the parts I love the Most because they make the space so interesting...! And then you must realize that I am building it inside a tree.... which means the shape is NOT square... and I am trying to maximize floor space because there is so little.... and then you will see that NOTHING is just neat and square! EVERYTHING needs to be tested and adjusted in place, and None of the pieces are attached so they keep falling over and getting out of place! But in spite of all that I have made some Wonderful progress on the Salon!
To begin with, I painted all the walls in a smoky antique blue that I am very fond of.....

And I also made a niche out of Sculpey for one of the corners of the room....
(This required quite a bit of Fidgety fitting!!!)

And then I began the long process of cutting the trim out of cardboard in the pattern I wanted for each wall...

For now I am just making the around the door framing.... 
the baseboards and chair rails will be added later when all the walls are assembled....
Here below you can see them all propped in place to see how they will look.... 
(after painting them all in a soft Dove Gray....)
(Can you guess how many times all the pieces fell over...?)

I had decided to make a "Roundel " over each door.... 
so I could paint a tiny scene in each!
Here below you can see the paintings begun.....
 
And here is more detail....
It is supposed to be a bucolic countryside... 
but it is only about one-half an inch in diameter so my technique is a bit rough.....

And here you see it with the framework overlaid....

And here below is another one...
This one has sheep... Can you see them... there on the left...?
No? ...
Well, never mind...... 
I will know they are there and even if no-one ever sees them and says "oh look, sheep!"....
I will not mind!

Here is another one... over the main door... 
I Hope you can all see the Cow and her calf?
(do be sure to poke the pictures to enlarge them... or even better... use the right click and choose open in new tab... then you can zoom in Really close... Scary close!)

And here you can see it with the door trim also temporarily in place...

And here is the fourth little painting....
I hope I don't need to tell you it is the shepherd with his sheep (on the left!) meeting the milkmaid on her way home with the milk.... the cow is not in this picture.....!

And here below you can see the same picture with the delicate gold rope border added.....

Here you can see the Cow painting with it's gold border added too....
The trims have been glued on , but all the walls are still unattached....

Here you can see them all propped together.... 
and I have started to paint the fireplace Mantelpiece...

And here is a closer view..... the better to see all the flaws.....
And you can see the Niche with it's sculpey shaped backing....

 The door needs a "crystal" doorknob......

 I have finished the "marbled" pillars in the mantelpiece....

 And here the niche has been made to fit snugly... 
it required a whole lot of very careful carving away of the excess material on the back side.
I will probably put a statue on a pillar in there.... depending on what I can find that is one inch tall!

 The stairs are not finished... 
but you can see where they lead up to the next floor.....
And here below you can see the whole room framework.....
still not attached but in place for fitting.....

Here below is a view looking down from the top.... 
I have attached the floor and the opening side door!

And here is the view from the side looking down..... 
with the stairs taped in place.... 
none of the walls are attached yet.... 
but we are getting closer!
On the right you can get a glimpse of the vestibule and front door... 
right behind the wire frame support....

And on the left in the alcove you can see there is a problem with the floor which will have to be disguised somehow.... 
I will still need to make all the baseboards and chair rails.... 
for the tiny bits of wall that require them
not to mention the ceiling trim and the ceiling itself....!

But maybe it is almost time to attach the walls?
Could it be that I'm almost done with fitting these pieces?

Monday, June 18, 2012

New Door, New Floor And More

I LOVE Tiny Hinges!

I Wanted a New Door, Dear Readers, that would be the more Formal Front Door and open into the Main floor of the Tree House, rather than into the below ground Kitchen level. I don't know how it is in your neighborhoods, but around here in New England, people almost Never use their Formal Front Doors! Sometimes they are even nailed shut against the cold Winter Winds and are never opened again! But nevertheless... there IS a Front Door.... and so I wanted one for the Tree House! Figuring out Where it would fit in was a bit tricky and required quite a bit of odd angles and tiny spaces... but I have managed it! It opens at the top of the kitchen stairs into a tiny vestibule off the "Salon" (which is what I am calling the Formal Living Room!) Here below you can see the door and the tiny bit of vestibule flooring....


And here you can see the door from the other side.....
I have made the door handle out of a bit of root.. 
and the end sticks out to act as a lever so I can operate the door from the outside of the house.... !

The tiny vestibule wall is "hung" with a piece of the Unicorn Tapestry.... 
which is Just visible through the door into the Salon....
And the floor of the Salon is made of a marquetry patterned paper.......

Here below you can see the outside of the vestibule wall with the door on the left..... 
and you can see I have started to add the paper mache to the lower level for the roots of the tree...
(I have put a layer of plastic wrap between the damp mache and the wooden floor while I am working...)

More of the paper mache being added to the Kitchen level........
This is not the final shaping of the mache but more of a strengthening base layer.....

And more of the mache layer.... 
this will form a level base for the next floor to attach....


And here you can see the rough framework of the Salon loosely set in place for fitting purposes.... 
nothing is attached yet! You can see the front (opening) wall has a window cut in it....

And I just HAD to add Shutters!!!
These are interior shutters as were common in the eighteenth century around here....
Please forgive my crooked hinges and the ratty edges to the wood... 
But can you Believe there are Hinges that small?!!

See, they open and close!!!!

And here you can see I have added more of the interior wall layers, creating a deep window embrasure.... 
It will eventually be painted, hiding some of the flaws in the wood.... 
and there will be more paneling at the bottom of the wall for wainscoting....


And here you can see the window "glass" panes have been added! 
I used the same technique as before with the painted gold mesh, only this time I used a lighter gray paint and lined the panes up vertically so they would look more like the "sixteen over sixteen" type of colonial window frame which is typical of the elegant older houses in this area.


Here is a view from the outside with the interior shutters partly open....

Meanwhile, for the interior of the Salon I have built a fireplace and mantelpiece in a style I think is sort of "Georgian" what we call "Colonial" over here! It sits on a diagonal wall between the door to the vestibule and an alcove on the left hand wall which is not yet built...... and on the opposite corner there will be an ornamental "Niche" for some statue or elegant china.... whatever I can come up with in such tiny scale!!

Here below you can see the mantelpiece in slightly better detail...
 made of tiny bits of wood and tinier bits of thin cardboard....

And here below you can see the Mirror I will be using.... 
I know it is a bit much... but I will probably tone the gold down a tiny bit.... 
and I think it will do well enough...! 
I also added a "marble" hearth... painted cardboard of course.....
And would you just look at those Tiny Hinges on the door!!!!


Here you can see I have added the painted brickwork to the fireplace...... 
yes, there will be a fire!!!

Here is a slightly closer view of all those painted bricks....!


And here is a view of the "Front" Door from the outside....... 
it will eventually be much more closed in with tree roots....

And an overhead view looking down at the opening wall with the window.... 
this will not be viewable from this angle once the ceiling is in place....! 
But I love how it makes me able to imagine standing at that window looking out at the little brook down below.....

And a view from the "front" where the walls open... two floors tall...
Eventually these opening doors will be covered in paper mache "tree bark" to match the rest...

Oh, and I almost forgot to show you the last Tiny pieces I made for the Kitchen......
I had to make a copper Tea Kettle.... (for how else can one boil water for tea?)
I also made a tiny trivet for it to sit on in the fireplace.....

And here you can see them by the fire......


And there HAD to be A Robins Egg Blue Teapot on the kitchen table.....!

So there you have it...
A New Door, a New Floor and a Whole lot More!


Monday, June 11, 2012

Have I Lost My Marbles?


The Moon Window

Have you ever dug in the ground, Dear Readers, and come across Marbles buried in the dirt and wondered how long they were there and Who LOST them? It seems to me that all my life I have found beautiful Marbles whenever I have dug a new Garden! I have collected them, of course... but I have also LOST them again.... because they Always seem to turn up Somewhere, so I have NOT kept them very carefully.... but tend to leave them amongst the other rocks I unearth. So it can be no wonder that when I think of Treasures found in the Earth.... I think of LOST Marbles... and how they would appear to someone who is building a little Home underground.....


So I decided to include one that got Lost in the Ground and was partly swallowed by the Tree Roots, but was close to the surface so it could let the light into the Underground Room......!
I realize that the walls for the Kitchen are not completed in this picture below.... 
but it gives a Sense of how the Marble looks without any lights on..... 
I think it looks like the Moon!


And speaking of unfinished Kitchen walls.... 
Before I could finish the walls and the ceiling, 
I needed to Finish ALL the little things that would go in this room!  
I had wanted a small Framed "Picture" that said "Home Sweet Home" that looked as though it was a stitched sampler... but I couldn't find any suitable candidates to copy...
so I drew one myself! 
You can see it here below....

It is Quite TINY!
And then I added a Frame made of Sticks.....


And Because I simply Couldn't imagine a House without Tea and Sugar....... 
I made some Tiny Canisters of wood with labels I painted myself.....





And carefully added them to the shelf with the Clock.......
Along with a little jar full of Amber Honey!


I have also added a Tree Root handrail along the stairs....


And I have also added the Rafters overhead in the ceiling...... 
This is the view from overhead before the "Root" rafters are added ...


And here you can see the Roots added.....

Of course, they will be Barely visible from inside... 
unless you are looking up.....
(This is after I added the Ceiling infill...)


Which you can see from the top here......
 
And here I have started the attaching the Lantern in place... 
the wires go above the ceiling, but below the floor above...


And here is what it looks like with the floor layer (Temporarily) added...
And the front archway in place..... 
but not glued in.....
I need to work out the catch mechanism for this opening side... 
I'm thinking magnets.....


And here you can see the framework as a whole.... 
this room nearly done...

And me starting to think about the framework for the next level.....!!


And while there are still a few TINY details I want to add...


Like a Tiny Teapot.... and a stool.... and a basket.....
and the ceiling needs completing..... and ......
This room is Nearly Done!
But, have I Lost my Marbles?