Gilding The Lily....

Or Rather The Vine.....

Garden Season is upon us, Dear Readers, so once again, much of my Time over the weekend was consumed by my RL Garden. Hard work digging more beds and uprooting a thousand tiny baby Tree Seedlings... but so worth it in the end! And thus my mind is preoccupied by Flowers and plants and Growing Things... so is it any wonder that it overflows into my Mini World? To begin with, I added another flower to the Tiny stitching on the bed curtains.....

It is very difficult to get a close-enough shot of this.... 

I put the thimble in for size reference...

(You can poke the pictures to enlarge them...)

I dug out my lighted magnifier to stitch with and it helped speed the process!

But there is still a long way to go....

 

And you may recall that I said the Domed ceiling for the Bedroom was not yet done...

Well, I was not at all satisfied with the central panel decoration.... 

So I started over.... 

(only the central panel!)

 

 Even though it is inverted from the other panels (they are sunken and it protrudes)...

I felt they needed to look more similar... 

so I cut an octagonal frame section and painted it gold 

and outlined it with the golden "roping"...

 

And added a single inverted flower "Bosse" in the center.

That looks Much more like what I wanted!

But we are not done, Dear Readers... 

At this point I had to make another one of those Difficult Decisions....

To stop here and always wonder if my idea would have been a good one....

or to go one step further and just trust it would be what I imagined....

I had to give it a try... 

 

I am not a big fan of Straight lines...

I LOVE the sinuous shapes of vines, and I Love my gardens a little over-gown and wild....

and had imagined the sections of the coffered ceiling as if they were carved with vines...

I had to glue them in place to even see how they would look....

(Because they kept falling off when I tried using tape...!)

And we had to test it in place....

 

 

It gives a sense of the effect... and since I have started.... 

I must glue them All in place... 

Oh, My! NOW we are getting there!!!

 

And can we see it in place now?

This is NOT easy to photograph!!!

But you can get a sense of the Vines growing overhead....

As if they were continued from the walls.....

Only Gilded instead of painted.....

 

Maybe a little closer...?

That is Much more like I was Imagining!

The ceiling is Nearly Done now....!

And while Some of you might think it is Definitely Over Done.... 

I think I made the Right decision this time....

Gilding the Lily...or rather the Vine!

Coffered, Bossed and Gilt

The Dome - Part Two....

I hope you will forgive me, Dear Readers, for I am sure that Some of you will think that this is Way Over Done... while I am sure that it is Not Quite Done! I warned you that the ceiling as you last saw it was Not At All as I had Imagined it! I am certain that this style of ceiling was not what I had originally imagined for this room, but then it had to have a Dome to accommodate the bed.... and I had recently been looking at a Book I got for my birthday which featured some of the Awesomely Ornate Interiors of British Country Houses... and there were a bunch of Amazing plasterwork and gilt ceilings.... and so the Idea happened to make this ceiling in the style of those ornate plaster ceilings! Easier Said than Done!
You may recall that the room is irregularly shaped... so the "octagonal" dome is also irregular... which means that none of the sections are the same shape or size! I had to cut patterns individually and then make each layer of the cardboard for the "coffers" carefully cut to fit.....

Here below you can see one section with the three layers cut 

and the central openings cut out in graduated sizes...

along with one of the sections already painted and testing the "bosses"...

(those raised textured pieces made from jewelry findings...)

And here below you can see the dome with the first sections being tested for looks...

 And adding more sections.... 

coffers cut, stacked and painted and bosses too....

This was an amazingly slow and tedious process!

I needed to keep testing this in place....

Because I wasn't sure how it was going to look....

 

Although it really was impossible to get a feel for it 

with the sections only partly painted....

And particularly when the all white textured ....

 "trying to look like plaster"... ceiling was tested.....

I know some of you will think "Oh, she should have stopped right there....!"

With the current fashion for Minimalism and all-white interiors.....

But I could Not stop there! I had seen the pictures in that Book!

I wanted Gilt bosses!

So I added the gold paint.... no they are not truly "gilded".....

And tested it again....

And I wanted the edges to be corded in gold roping.....

I know, it is barely noticeable... 

on a ceiling it is really hard to see....

But I thought it added Just the right touch.....

So I glued the thread on one section at a time.....

And then we Have to see it in place again....

Can you see the difference????

No?????

I know it is hardly visible.... 

But I think it adds a definite Edge to the coffers....

And then the question of whether or not to add the central Bosses.... 

And ... to Gild or Not to Gild...?

But having come so far, Dear Readers, I was loath to leave it there.... 

afraid to try for the defining moment....

And so to give myself Courage, 

I looked again at the pictures of those Incredible ceilings....

And went for the Gold!

I Know, it is rather Dizzying to our Modern sensibilities.....

But I like to think of this Tree House as being from those Older Times....

Of course we Have to see how it looks in place....

You have no idea how difficult it is to photograph.....

It can't be seen unless you are on your knees looking up....

But perhaps it is worth all the effort...?

And we can Pretend we are looking up at a Baroque Gilt Plaster Ceiling?

It is Almost Done, Dear Readers..... 

and even if some of you think it is Over Done...

I Know it is Not yet Done!

 The Dome.... Part Two...

More to come!

Very Little Progress

Next To Nothing Done.....

It was One of THOSE weekends, Dear Readers, the sort when no matter where you turned there were things that needed doing and even when projects got started with the Best of Intentions.... it seemed as though Nothing got Done! The Weather didn't help, because after what had seemed like a promising start to Spring.... we were met with more Winter on Friday.... (certainly only the Cold and Unappetizing Leftovers of what John of Merriman Park had to endure...) but still, it quite dashed all hopes of spending time digging in the Garden!

And when that Spring urge to dig the garden is thwarted.... 

it sends me into a Spring Cleaning mood....

Which fortunately only lasted Part of the Weekend....

Because, like Mole in "The Wind In The Willows".... 

there comes a point where one just Has to say "hang whitewashing" and run off to play!!!

Which is what I did around 4 o'clock on Sunday afternoon! 

I realized I was Desperate to get Something done on my mini projects!

So I started in on the Ceiling of the Chinoiserie Bedroom in the Tree House....

Remember where I left off with the realization that the ceiling was too low for the bed....?

Sorry for the dark picture.... 

but here you can see I have added the gilded ceiling trim at the top of the walls....

And because the chimney is at an angle... 

I decided to "round off" the other corners of the room....

By putting more trim across the corners.....

And filling the gap with ceiling.....

Leaving the middle "octagon" open for a Domed ceiling 

high enough to fit the bed.....

Here you can see the opening from below..... 

All that was accomplished Weeks ago, Dear Readers, 

leaving me with the next step of Designing the Dome.....

Which is where I started on Sunday evening....

I will NOT bore you with the exactness of my method... 

because it is so far from exact as to be Laughable!

The Room is un-square to begin with... so all the angles are unique.....

So I cut a paper pattern and I Wing it... 

It just has to have slits cut out of the edges... 

and the sections need to be longer than the flat ceiling measure....

So when they are folded up the sides are glued together.....

And the over-all width of the "Dome" is now equal to the original flat width of the Ceiling....

And then I wanted to add some more trim.....

So I carefully cut and mitred the central "octagon"  pieces....

None of them are the same... 

but they had to fit in the oblong section of the middle....

After gluing them in place I wanted to test the look.....

But it isn't done yet.... I couldn't leave it alone....

I thought it needed gold "ribs" over the joined sections....

But, like many half grown teens... 

it still looks half finished to me......

It is nowhere near what I have envisioned....

But it is as far as I got on Sunday!

And the Other project I tried to work on this weekend, Dear Readers, 

was the stitching on the Tiny Bed curtains.....

Which you can see here below....

 

Oh, you think it looks Exactly the Same as last week???

Well, if you look VERY closely, 

you will see that I added the stitches at the Center of the Rose blossom,

as well as the darker row of stitches on the petals!

Just How long will this take to finish...?

And speaking of How Long Things Take TO Finish.....

I have just Realized that this is the Third Anniversary of this Blog!!!

And Oh, Dear, that prompts one of those 

"let's see where we are with all the Dollhouses" moments....!!!

The Book Nook is still waiting for Books.....

The Wizard is still working on potions in the Lord's Chamber of the Castle....

So far he has not succeeded in Magically finishing The Chamber....

Hazel got tired of waiting outside for a House of her own....

So she came to visit in The Lovely Old Dollhouse....

Where nobody Ever cleans up the Kitchen.....

(But Pie and Tea and interesting conversation seem to be Always available..!)

 Victor and Joanna are still entertaining themselves in the Living Room....

Playing music only they can hear......

 And in the Castle.....

The Chapel is still just as I left it..... 

Murals half done.... floor unfinished....

And Anna Maria and Samuel Whiskers 

are still discussing whether it would be a good home...

While the Tree House is under Construction....

Ah... the Tree House!

That Project begun almost a year ago....

And Sooooo Far from Finished!

And I cannot even bring myself to Look inside the Cupboard House.....

Waiting patiently in the background.....

Can it be I have Spent the Entire Year building the Tree House???

And No, I didn't even finish the Spring Cleaning!

What a Year it has been.....

The Progress has all been So Very Little...!

But Next to Nothing is Done....!