Flowers.... Flowers......

 

And Still More Flowers.... 

Well, Dear Readers, It is that time of year when we are swept into Flower Season in a great heady rush of blossoms! The Trees, the Shrubs, the Gardens, the very lawns at our feet are bursting abloom and transforming the world from a bleak landscape to a colorful wonderland seemingly overnight! Ahhhh, I do Love springtime! And, of course, here in Blogland it is the season to bring forth the Lilac Shrub in all its Spring flowering glory! It is such a brief season, lasting barely a week or ten days in RL, but I allow it a slightly longer run here in Etherland. There she stands! The ancient lilac beside The Folly porch, scenting the air with that wonderful aroma.... (well, in my imagination, at least!) and filling the hearts of all passersby with Joy! If you wonder why it takes me so long to finish my Dream Landscapes... this is the reason! It is so beautiful, but agonizingly slow to materialize! And now, every year I get to revel once more in the awe of this miniature shrub!

 

We have been experiencing a lot of cloudy days recently,

 but I was able to get pictures of the Lilac in sunlight 

yesterday morning before the clouds moved back in.

 

If you Really need to know about the making of these blossoms.... 

you can read about it in the archived posts for 2018

  (beginning in March) and (ending in October 7) 2019. 

It took a year and a half to make the shrub in four seasonal variations! 

Yes, sometimes it just takes a huge amount of time!

 

 

But, oh, it is so satisfying when it is done!

 

But that is not all the flowers I have to share with you this morning. 

I also have been stitching up a "milles fleures" 

 background for the Medieval Lord Tapestry!

 

Some of you might recall the previous Tapestries

 I have stitched in this series, showing the background

 liberally strewn with blossoming greenery. 

 

Here is the original kit picture for reference. 

Because I moved and changed so much of this design, 

I found almost no spot that I could stitch as the kit had specified,

 except for the part to the left of the Lord's head. 

I also had widened the area being stitched from 3 and 3/4 inches 

to 4 and 3/4 inches, so there was really no comparison.

 But I decided that it would be best to use the "flower forms"

 as designed, and just fit them in wherever

 I could in the new design! 

I also tried to keep a similar overall balance 

of pale and darker blossoms and to "sprinkle" 

them in a natural seeming arrangement.

 

Here you can see the "finished" addition

 of the kit designed flowers. 

But some of you might also recall that I had

 added a few more flowers to the 

other pieces of this Medieval series.... 

Lots more in fact!

 

In case you needed a reminder.... 

Here you can see all three of the Tapestry "fragments" 

lined up next to each other for reference.

 The one on the left is the first I stitched

 and I only changed a few details of the headdress

 of the lady to the left and added more flowers, of course. 

The middle one I designed the Lady to the right

 as well as all the background to her right, 

plus the added flowers. 

So you can see why I have to continue

 with this altered background for the Lord's Tapestry!

 

You might have noticed there are no blue's in the Lord's Tapestry 

(other than the midnight blue background) 

and I had added tiny blue flowers to the others. 

I dug around in my archived kits and 

found the threads for the Lady's Tapestry...

 

I keep the remaining threads, needle and charts 

in clear plastic pockets in a binder for just this reason!

 The blue threads and some of the green threads

 I used were all right there!

 

It was just a matter of fitting more flowers

 into the background wherever I could... 

keeping an eye to the color balance too. 

There are also tiny "white" blossoms being added... 

but they are nearly impossible to see until the background is stitched.

 

 Here all the flowers have been added... 

before the background midnight blue is added.

 

Which is quick to follow... 

because we need to see how it will look...!

 

And Oh, how I love what it does to the colors!

 

But not to distract you, Dear Readers, 

I have also been stitching a few "flowers" 

on the Chinese Dragon Carpet too!

 

Now that the daylight is lengthening and the light is stronger, 

I have been working on the Dragon Carpet again. 

It needed the corner motif's redesigned

 from what the original kit specified. 

But first I had needed to add all the little "golden blossoms"

 to the chart in the appropriate places. 

Because I had changed this design too,

 I had to alter the position of these blossoms.

 

And I had redesigned the corner motif entirely! 

I wanted to carry the central motif of the sun

 out to the corners, and balanced it with 

additional golden flowers just inside the corner.

 

Here you can see I have added the golden flowers

 to all the corners and the "sunburst" to the outer borders as well. 

Now all I need to do is design the remainder of the borders.... 

and stitch the white background... 

that will take a while!

 

Well, Dear Readers, I have been

 Wallowing in fields of blossoms lately,

 stitching Flowers, flowers and still More flowers.... 

and Loving every minute of it!

 

 

Details.....

 

And More Details....

Sometimes, Dear Readers, I am struck by what a Magnificent Structure this Castle is becoming! And in those infrequent moments, my resolve to just Keep on Keeping on is fortified and the missing inspiration is awakened anew! What has taken me so long...? This is the ever present nagging voice in my life... but I know these things take Time, and lots of it, for those pesky details to emerge from the confusing mists of "what if I tried this...?" and "maybe this would be best..." or "What was I thinking..." or "How could I have forgotten that..."?. Clarity is sometimes a rare treat. And thus I will tell you that the Grand Lower Windows of the Castle Great Hall have always been as clear as a bell in my mind! The story is that they were "added" to the original Ancient fortress along with the fireplaces sometime long after the original structure was built. They are large and have opening glass sections at the bottoms. But true to typical castle construction, they are "plainer" then the higher up windows. The arch at the top is just plain without the saw toothed decoration and the central pillar is plain with out the barley twist carving. The only extra decorative element is the capitals on those pillars. And of course, they ware not so easy to make!

 

But first, we have to build the arches. 

Again I am using that scrap of luan plywood. 

It has a smoother grain and denser filler than

 modern plywoods of similar thickness.

 Then they need the required painting...

 

Primer, the base coat of gray and the "stone" texturing.

 

 And here they are propped in position, awaiting the glue. 

But we are still missing one important detail!

 

Did you notice there is no "Capital" on that central pillar?

 

Like this! 

(The one on the left)

Can you see the difference it makes?

 

I neglected to take pictures of the making of the capital. 

By itself the stock wood was not thick enough at the base, 

so I needed to pad it to make it thicker. 

And it needed to taper in from top to bottom.

I know it is impossible to tell from this picture!

 

 Here you can see both with the capitals. 

It makes the windows grand, elegant, but not fussy. 

 

It always amazes me how much difference

 the glazed windows make in a building!

And eventually the entire facade will

 have the "rocks" painted too. 

 

 But that is not all I worked at this week, Dear Readers. 

The Medieval Lord Tapestry had it's share 

of pesky details to sort out as well!

I left you last week with the Horse just getting his legs....

 

I was trying to get the main outlines of 

the horse's body stitched, so I could be sure

 of his placement and angle of stance. 

This was so that I could design the saddle. 

My original sketch was inadequate in several ways.

 It omitted the stirrup, and didn't allow for the

 "roundness" of the horse's girth around the belly. 

There was really not quite enough space 

for everything to look right and be distinct 

when stitched at this thread count. 

 

And there was the question of what colors

 the saddle should be.... most leather saddles

 are brown of one shade or another. 

And while the tapestries proved that saddles 

also came in brilliant shades of red or reddish-brown, 

that was way too similar to the horse's color.

 

While pondering these issues I decided

 to get the horse as finished as possible, 

the better to judge colors and positions.

 

I had chosen a dark maroon red for the horse's reins... 

the ones that steer the horse, not the decorative

 flashy ones of the "caparison" ...

 they are the ones the Lord is holding.

 I decided to make the stirrup leathers the same color

 and stitched the metal stirrup and the leather first,

 since they will be "in front of" the rest of the saddle. 

Fitting the saddle girth behind them was really tricky.

 But this also needed to be done before

stitching the rest of the saddle. 

I made a start on the saddle, in back next to the horse's head,

 but the color was too similar to the rest of the brown horse. 

I ended up unstitching that bit and starting again 

with the grays I used for the hooves.

This shows the saddle "removed" (ie unstitched)....

 

 

And the re-drawn chart... 

also the "extra bit" of the horse's hind end

 that would not fit on the Tapestry...

 

 

Here the new saddle color is started... 

way up there at the horse's withers (beside his head)... 

but it was getting late and dark... 

I needed to be stitching in the daylight to judge the colors.

 

 

Here I have decided that I need the clarity 

of the Tapestry edges to work within 

so I ran a line of sewing thread around the stitching area.

 

 

I have begun the saddle stitching... 

I decided the gray colors worked well enough... 

but I am not happy with the shape of the saddle. 

 

 

 Having unstitched and re-stitched the saddle a couple of times... 

I realized I was not going to be able to make it look "right",

 but this was probably good enough.

 The saddle is not supposed to be the focal point at all.

 It needs to just be there in the background, 

recognizable as a saddle whether or not it is accurate in details!

 Once the background is finished, the Lord 

and the Horse himself should be the focus.

 

 So I concentrated on finishing the horse himself.... 

including the complicated decision of whether or not

 to include his left back hoof.... 

the one that sticks back into the tapestry fragment at the bottom right..

 I decided he would be happier with the hoof than without! 

It gives him balance.

 

Well, Dear Readers, I don't know about you, 

but for Me, all those little details

 make such a difference.

 Details matter a lot!

 

Chipping Away.....

 

Looking Good So Far.....

In the History of Castle design, Dear Readers, it is important to remember that these buildings were meant to be defensive structures. Comfort was not a part of the plan, but survival was the essence. In this light, decoration of any kind was superfluous. It was only later, as the world became more settled, that decorative elements were added and lifestyles became more comfortable. Windows initially had no glass and were very narrow openings so soldiers could defend them easier. It is only later that glass became available and larger windows let in light. Along with this development came an increasing use of carved stone decoration on windows, doors and fireplaces (themselves a late invention!). For my Castle Dollhouse, I have compromised accurate historical rendering in favor of anachronistic decoration in many parts, chiefly, the painted ceilings and the windows. But still, I am trying to preserve an "Early Medieval sensibility" to the project as a whole, especially the exterior facade. This is not meant to be a nineteenth century Romantic Gothic castle, but a good old Norman Keep! And one of the earliest window decoration treatments used was a "saw-toothed" arch over the window. It is the signature motif (if there is one!) for this Castle. I have used it over the Great Hall Doors, The Main Entrance, and the Great Hall windows (facing the back wall). So it was always clear to me that the clerestory windows on the front of the Great Hall had to have the saw-toothed design. Of course, it is not easy to make! You can see in the above picture, the basic arch shape I cut from the 7/32nd inch thick scrap of luan plywood I have saved for years.

 

Here you can see I have begun cutting the sawtooth design. 

It is tricky because it is not cut all the way

 through to the back of the arch, 

but "straddles" the front curve of the arch.. 

It is tricky to hold, impossible to measure

 and I simply have to "wing it" 

with my razor saw and exacto blade. 

 

Because you are cutting across the grain of this plywood,

 it is very easy to cause a "chip" of the saw-tooth" point to chip off,

 necessitating an elaborate reconstruction...

 which you can sort of see under way in the above picture. 

The clothespin is holding the tiny scrap in place while the glue dries.

 

Here you ca see the glued on fragment 

before I carefully trimmed it to shape... 

which I forgot to take a picture of.

 

Here you can see the notches completed on the first window!

 

And window by window I got the notches cut. 

I had to take breaks to rest my hand... 

the angle of holding the piece was hard to maintain.

 

Here you can see the four arches have been notched

 and just have to be painted...

 

Which required primer....

 

 

Then the first coat of gray paint... 

the light is giving you a real look at the saw-tooth effect!

And then the darker gray stone shading effects....

 

And... Ta da.....!! 

in position on the windows!

They have not yet been glued in place,

but, Wow, what a difference they make! 

 

And as for the Tapestry, Dear Readers, 

I have chipped away a bit at the design!

 

I wanted to see how the shading of the three

 brown threads would work on the horse's legs... 

so I worked on them next.

 So far, I think they are looking good.

 But I really needed to work out the rest of the 

chart for the Horse's position and saddle. 

Remember, I am using every square inch

 of the cloth that I can, but I have to leave 

about 1/4 inch on either side for hemming the tapestry.

 

 

So I spent a few hours refining the position 

and researching the actual structure 

of saddles in the fourteenth century! 

My go-to source is a hard-cover copy of

 "Medieval Life and Leisure in the 

Devonshire Hunting Tapestries" by Linda Wooley.

It is an incredibly sumptuous book! 

 

 

Mostly the "Lords" are in the saddle making it hard to see...

 but there are a couple of places where you can see the saddle... 

from the back on the horse way to the left at the edge of the tapestry... 

and you can get glimpses of the pommel 

with the two Lords on the horses at the front...

 and their girths and stirrups...

 

 

And you can see some of the saddle

 under the small guy at the right...

 probably a groom holding the extra horse.

 

And a look at another empty saddle on the horse at the left.... 

showing a very uncomfortable looking wooden structure!

 But perhaps this one was intended 

to carry home the quarry.

 (This is the Bear and Boar Tapestry).

 

At any rate, I have begun to stitch the

 rear end and rear legs of the Horse.

 All of him will not fit within the cloth...

 but this is why I claim these pieces I have stitched

 are only fragments of a larger Tapestry.

Who knows, I might just have to keep designing

 this "Mystery" missing Tapestry!

 

I still have a long way to go, Dear Readers, 

but I have been chipping away at these projects

 and so Far, I think they are Looking Pretty Good!