Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Revisiting The Tree House....

 


Revisions, Repairs and Rocks.....

I Will not bore you, Dear Readers, with every tiny alteration I have made to the Rocky foundation upon which The Tree House sits, but suffice it to say that progress has been very slow! This is partly due to the very hot weather we have been having this summer, which saps one's energy and causes the need to keep the windows and blinds closed making visibility a struggle inside even in the daytime, and mostly due to the indecision about exactly what shapes I am trying to create in these rocks. And even the local Geology has to be taken into consideration... because I need the landscape to look somewhat natural. And in this part of the World, we have some very interesting geology! I am not a geologist, but the simple explanation is that the Connecticut River Valley (in which I reside) is formed by the ancient collision of two tectonic plates on the Earth' surface... when North America collided with North Africa long Long LONG before anyone was calling them such. The North American plate went under the North African one, and then when the land masses decided to split up and move apart (what a divorce that must have been!) the North American Plate took a large chunk of North Africa with it! The evidence of this happening is in the rocks to this day... on the Western side of "the divide" ie The Connecticut River Valley, the rocks are largely Shale and the mountains are waaaay older than the ones on the Eastern side of the Valley, which are mostly Granite of a type that is only found in North Africa! The collision formed what is now the White Mountains, the tallest mountains on the Eastern half of North America, with Mount Washington standing at approximately 6000 feet tall and only about 100 miles inland from the coastline. And all this is the reason I will tell you that the Bedrock at The Folly Garden is made up of the shale type of rocks, a dark gray multilayered and flat type of stone. It is used often for making slate roofing shingles because it can be so easily split into smooth flat layers. In the above picture you can see my "extended" base is trying to look like this sort of bedrock. The "real" rock you can see next to it is attempting to help me match the colors right.

But that is only Half the story! The other half is all the boulders that were brought in to support the foundation of The Folly house which are made from the Granite which is so prevalent just across the Valley from here. Granite is a much harder rock less inclined to erode and is mostly a much lighter gray tone, but can be found in tan and pinkish colors too. The structure allows it to be quarried in large blocks or chunks. And those are the grayer boulder shaped rocks in this small setting.

So while the rocks get endlessly fiddled with and altered and primed and painted and varnished and re-varnished and painted all over again, Dear Readers, I am also beginning to find my way around The Tree House again. One of the dangers of leaving a half-finished project for so long is forgetting what you did.... to make the various parts.... where you put the materials.... and what you intended to do in the first place. And what all the "not quite right and need fixing" parts there were already started and you would get to fixing someday when you had the time. Well.... those are completely forgotten now!

So I am searching high and low for the same type of wood that I used to make the stairs.... so I can complete that half finished staircase to the top floor (dare I say it will be the last floor?) and surprise of surprises, I found the already cut sections of wood!!! I almost didn't recognize them!

I had been looking for strip wood in the right thickness... in this case 3/16ths of an inch, which is fairly thick for strip wood. It turns out I had made mine from sheets of basswood cut to the right width (1/2") and then divided into squares for the steps. Yes, this makes for very narrow little staircases running up through the walls, or in this case spiraling up through the side of the tree trunk. (Remember, this is a 1/48th scale project set into the garden of a 1/12th scale project.... just to be confusing.)

But meanwhile, one of the very first fiddle around and fix it steps I accomplished was adding a tiny strip of wood to the bottom of the Nursery outer opening door. Can you see it in the picture below? 

 
The repair is not perfect... 
but it makes the bottom of the door actually meet
 the floor of the Nursery  at one edge, 
and helps the door stay closed even without the magnet to hold it.
 (For how many years has it been annoying me
by swinging open and needing to be taped shut......?) 
And when I could stand on my new step ladder
 and actually see into the Nanny's Room from above, 
I noticed a big hole where the floor did not meet the support post accurately....

 
Can you see the tiny patch   I put in place....?
 Oh, Dear.... time for the flash again.....

 
There.... now you can see it on the left by the post... 
as I said, not perfect, but much better!
And another small thing I had noticed was that
 many of the outer opening doors I had built
 stood "outside" the edge of the floor of the room they were closing.... 
so those floors needed small "extensions"
 to make the structure more "finish-able" 
when I get to adding the outer tree bark!

 
 In particular the Tree House Toilet Cubicle
 needed the floor extended.... 
you can see here the "before" picture....

 
And the "after" picture with the increased floor structure.

 
And the little Bathroom Dressing Cubicle too.... 
which still is not all completed. 
It needs the window panes and the furniture at the least!
 These doors both need the magnet closures,
 even though they don't swing open on their own.

 
And yes, the little spiral stairs are continuing upward now...
 I had to straighten the support wire a little bit first... 
This is how far they had reached twelve years ago.....!

 
Now they reach just about to the level of the next (and I hope final) floor!
And while I am revisiting all these doors, Dear Readers,
 there is the Bedroom Door with the "promise" of
 a "Juliette Balcony" overlooking the brook below....
Do you remember me mentioning this "Someday" Balcony? 

 
Here I have added the first layer of the balcony "surround" 
to the floor that has been there since the beginning.

 
And the rest of the "surround" structure.... 
it is another place where a tree limb was cut off long ago
 and left a big scar..... and a hollow ...... 
it will eventually look much more "tree-like" 
when I get to adding all the outer bark to the Tree!

 
And this morning, I surprised Lady Arabella
 out on the Balcony for a moment of fresh air!
And did she look down at the Rocks 
and wonder if the brook would ever run past below....?

 
The bright morning light reveals so much about those rocks....
Can you see the "real" rocks up front for help with the painting....?
 

Oh, yes, and with the Final Rock... 
The "Balance Point" of the Brook.....?
 
And shall we have the Rhododendron in its place... 
showing how much it hides the Tree House from view....?

And can you spot all my "Pet Rocks" in the picture....?
 

And yes, you can rest assured... 
Mr. Gnome is keeping a watchful eye on all the "Rock Business"!
 The Balance Rock is not yet complete and will blend in better soon...
But I make no promises about the Brook for now....
Some things just will not be rushed! 
I am really Loving, Dear Readers,
 Revisiting the Tree House
 and Finding little things to
 Repair and Revise
And even if the Rocks take Ages to make.... 
They are finally becoming Rocks! 

Tuesday, August 5, 2025

Realizatons...

 


And Remembering...

As I have been laboring over those rocks, Dear Readers, and Dreaming of bedrocks and geology and the ice ages, and wrestling with the way the rocks must nestle against the Tree House's Roots, I have found myself looking up at The Tree House again and again! And the key word is looking "Up"! I am not a tall person and am used to looking up at things... but if you are trying to build it... it is very frustrating to not be able to see the project from above! It makes it quite impossible to see how things are fitting together....

The Tree House Nursery is right at my eye level... and I can't do anything without standing on a chair or a step stool! And as I looked around my many unfinished project this spring, I realized I had "maxed out" on all my buildings and everything was getting above eye level for me! No wonder I was having so much trouble with building them! And because I am no longer as young and spry as I was fifteen years ago... I don't trust the step stools or chairs.....! So I finally bought myself a new "trusty" step ladder with  a safety handle! (see the top photo if you haven't already noticed it!) I can't tell you how reassuring that handle is! And while we are talking about the Tree House...

  I am Sure there are a few of you, Dear Readers, who actually remember the Tree House way back at the beginning of building it in 2012! Has it really been that long, I hear you ask? Well, the first six rooms consumed nearly all my attention from May 2012 until September of 2013, with a few distractions along the way. And I think it was sometime in the summer of 2014 that I began the construction of the Nursery with it's curtained bed nook and the ceramic beads stove, but I didn't get terribly far with the construction and was distracted by all my other buildings and stories. The Tree House has waited patiently ever since for my close attention to resume. 

Well, DO You remember the Tree House? All those 1/48th scale little rooms tucked inside the huge old tree (still so incomplete!) beside The Folly? Perhaps you would like a reminder....

 
It is quite challenging to get all six stories
 (so far!) into one photo... 
and I am sorry the pictures are a bit dark. 
In this hot summer I keep the blinds closed a lot...  
but perhaps you want to come closer....

 
Here are the lower three rooms
 with the outer doors open and the lights on....
 but still, you need to come closer...!

 
Here is the kitchen at the bottom
 tucked between the roots underground.... 
I am sorry it is so difficult to get good photos.... 
I will show all the rooms first without flash....
they have more "atmosphere" that way. 


 
And above the kitchen is the Salon,
 the first ground level room...
 everything in these rooms is entirely hand made by me... 
you can read all about it in the blog archives...
 just click on May of 2012.... and keep reading forever!

 
Oh, and there is a painted domed ceiling too.....(of course there is!)

 
The next floor up ....
( and there are staircases winding up to each level inside the walls...!)
 is the Gothic Library... and all its many collections...

 
This room took me months to complete!
 August through December of 2012...

 
And the next floor up is the Chinoiserie Bedchamber.... 
with the hand painted wall murals
 and the Pagoda Bed with the hand embroidered silk bed curtains...
 (embroidered by me over several years...)

 
Here it is showing the fireplace wall and the recamier.... 
alas, it is so dark.... 
I will do another batch with the flash... 
but it washes out so much detail in its own way.......

 
And the next level up is the abalone shell bathroom.... 
a complete fantasy of seashells....

Here you can see all the rooms with their doors open and the lights on.....
 
 
And the incomplete Nursery level....
 really just barely begun.

 
 
Oh, and I almost forgot to show you
 the tiny Dressing Room off the side of the Bedroom... 
with the rose garden murals....
 (hand painted of course....)

 
And how could I forget the tiny toilet cubicle... 
and the seahorses dressing room... 
also on the side of the Abalone Bathroom
 and not quite complete!
 
So, Dear Readers... 
I have promised you the flash views....  
so here they are....

 
The Kitchen.... 
with the stairs curving upward to the right side... 
you can't see the fire properly with the flash on...
 but you sure can see the other stuff! 
Remember this is all approximately 1/48th scale.
 The entire room is about 4 inches wide and 4 inches tall.

 
And the Salon with the flash..... 
I had to angle it so the flash wouldn't reflect
 in the mirror over the fireplace...

 
And the Gothic Library..... 
so many tiny details... 
collections in all those glass domes...
and all those cupboard doors do open...! 
 (But the flash destroys the ancestor portraits on the walls...) 

 
And here is the Chinoiserie Bedroom with the flash.... 
it does make terrible shadows... 
but you can clearly see the embroidered curtains...
 and the hand painted wall murals...

 
And the Abalone Shell Bathroom....  
with real beach shells gathered over the years....
 including the tiny scallop shells..... 
and the curtains for privacy.... 
well.... it is a fantasy after all!

 
And the beginnings of the Nursery... 
with the ceramic stove and the window bed nook...
 just waiting...
and waiting...... 

 
And the Tree House beside The Folly with the flash..... 
(just so you can see how closely together they are fitted.)
 
And has there been any progress at all with those rocks...?
 
Well, it is slow going!
The rocks need several layers... 
first primer then paint and polyurethane varnish... 
and each layer needs to dry when I can open the windows to ventilate the fumes.
But bit by bit the rocks are taking shape... 
and meanwhile I am climbing the new stepladder
 and fidgeting with the Nursery walls! 
And I am Realizing, Dear Readers,
How good all those memories are! 

 


Tuesday, July 29, 2025

More Stitching...

 


The Astrological Cushions Continued... 

I Left you several weeks ago, Dear Readers, with the not quite completed Wyvern Cushion and the beginnings of the final cushion framework. You can see above that the Wyvern is very close to completed, and even would fool most viewers into thinking it was all done. But I am still waiting for the purple thread I ordered... there are only about 25 stitches to fill with that color.... (mostly along the beasts neck) but I am not giving up yet! The green ground has all been completed. As for the choice of which of the four cushion designs to choose for the final cushion, it was an easy one for me. The Goat and the Bull were both too similar to the Leo I had just completed. I wanted a challenge and chose The Pisces cushion! I was really looking forward to testing my skills and my patience with that elaborate gold thread background. And besides, my birth sign is Pisces. The usual difficulties with matching thread colors from the original chart gave me some challenges too.


 Here you can see the chart with the accompanying list of threads. These are all for DMC threads, not the silk I am using. And there are no comparison charts to rely on. So I am doing my best as I did with The Leo cushion, and making some inevitable compromises. The biggest difference is once again with the gold threads.... the ones in the border squares, not the metallic threads in the pattern. The two golden yellow threads I have are the very light gold and the mid range gold that you can see in the border on the Leo Cushion. But I think the pale yellow is too pale. When I compare the picture of the finished embroidery in the book, the darker yellow is really almost a rusty color, not a gold. It is similar to the ocher color we did not have for the Leo cushion. Because it was so difficult to decide, I left the yellow border squares for last and started right in with the Fish!


 I started with the dark Navy Blue....

 
Followed by the Medium Navy Blue... and then the Bright Blue...


 

And then finally the Pale Powder Blue....
They did not take too long to finish.
And then for the metallic Gold Thread....
 
 
It was a bit challenging to follow the pattern... 
a very random swirly pattern inspired by
 the gilded backgrounds of Medieval Miniature paintings.

 
The most challenging part was trying to see the stitches you already had sewn...
 because the light glints off the thread... 
sometimes it looks like no stitch is there when one is already sewn!
 
And here the gold thread is nearly all stitched...
I know it is difficult to identify the patterns,
 partly because the thread shines through the cloth!

 
 
And here the metallic thread is all done,
 and I am starting to add the darkest of the red background threads. 
This is where the stitching gets really tricky!
If you look closely at the chart above, 
you can see that there are four colors
 of background "reddish" thread in the mix.
 Isolating the particular red you are stitching
 and finding all of those little random stitches
 in the already stitched pattern of gold threads
 was quite absorbing!
 Yes, I said I wanted a challenge!

 
Here the darkest red has all been stitched....
 or so I thought...
 I did find missing stitches as I sewed the next colors!
 
 
Here the dark red and the bright cherry red have been stitched.
 Sometimes it was really difficult to tell
 the middle two reds apart in the chart.... 
and because it was so challenging, 
I stitched the lightest color next... the coral color.

Here you can see it has all been stitched....
 
 
And finally, stitching the mid-range lighter red...
 really a very burnt orange color.
This is where I fill all the empty holes... 
unless I realize they were supposed to have a different color...
 in which case I go back in and add the missing color!
 
 
Until all those missing stitches are found!
And now I can go back to the the border 
and try to make the colors either match the chart
 or the stitched one from the book...

 
Which you can see here.... 
the darker of the two border "gold" threads
 looks almost like the orange... 
it really is the "missing" color,
 and I have to compromise!

 
I started with the darker yellow of my threads..... 
which is for the lighter yellow squares in the chart...

 
And then the medium range orange.
 I thought the two yellows would be too different
 from the rest of the design
 and would look too discordant.

 
As for the Wyvern and the missing purple threads, Dear Readers,
 I am happy to report that the purple threads arrived at last!
 Here you can see the Wyvern before the purple has been added....
 (just look carefully under his throat and along the side of his neck)...

 
And  Ta Da...!
 Here the purple threads have been stitched! 
There is also a small section below his breast 
and two dots above his tail 
if you want to try and spot them all!
 I can personally see the difference they make in the shadowing... 
so I am glad I persevered!

 
I don't know whether this is a better shot... 
but I thought I'd include it anyway!

 
Now, all I have to do, Dear Readers, 
is make all these little "designs" into tiny cushions!
 And you can rest assured....
 I have plenty more stitching still to do!