Lighting The Night.....

Why Things Take Longer....

It Was a Beautiful sunny morning on Saturday, Dear Readers, and I had high hopes of installing the Council Chamber fireplace and getting on with the floor grouting. There were just a few tiny details of the fireplace to finish first. Or so I thought. I had even put the first coats of blue (yes, my favorite Blue!) paint on the ceiling and was testing how it looked. Then I remembered that I had dreamed of lights on that castle Mantelpiece, and knew that I was going to have to test this idea before I attached anything! A few weeks ago (you might have noticed) I had attached the "iron" torch brackets to the chamber wall. These were made many years back when I was working on the lighting of the Great Hall... so long ago I am Sure it was the Dark Ages! And there was even one partly constructed "torch light" to try out.....

It was mid afternoon and the day had turned gloomy

 with the threat of rain

 before I had time to test the torch.... 

which was just as well, because it needed gloom

 to be able to see the effect at all.

I needed to find the mini "extension cords" 

to be able to reach the "candle" wires to the

 power strip on the back of the castle....

But as soon as I had one in place

 I could tell I liked this effect!

But is it too "Theatrical"?

It wasn't dark enough to really tell....

So I waited until it was night out.

And late.

I had spent the afternoon in the garden

 uncovering tiny bulbs and was too tired to think straight.

So the following day I realized that I should try

 all the lights that would be in the room before deciding anything.

It was a rainy day, which helped give a feeling

 of how the lights would look on an ordinary day.

(Forgetting that the Castle folk of long ago 

would not have wasted lights in the daytime...)

But they would have lit a fire on a cold damp day... 

so I had to "borrow" the fire from Hardwick Hall's

 unfinished Attic fireplace to test the fire....

And then had to rig up a second "torch" for the other bracket...

 to see if it cast too much light into the room... 

or lit the fireplace well enough that

 the candles on the mantle would be redundant....

But I couldn't really tell... 

because it was still daylight outside.

But if I unplugged the "candles".... 

I could maybe see how it would look if I decided not to use them....

Ahhh... clearly they would be missed!

Just the fire and the two torch lights would not 

be enough light for the Lord's Council Chamber!

 

 

So I baked the candle sockets into some sculpey "candles"

 and glued them into the Mantelpiece.

And a closer shot.

I wanted them tucked behind the Castle Towers 

so they did not glare too brightly... 

pretend they are mostly burnt down!

By now it was night again...

I have spliced extensions on all those wires....

But it was too late to even think of gluing anything in place!

Which was a good thing...

 because by then I had realized that I was going to have to

 build that rear window frame, tucked into that far corner... 

and wouldn't it be a whole lot easier to do 

Before I had glued the fireplace in the way?

So perhaps you can see, Dear Readers, 

while I am lighting the Night

with the meager light of Medieval candles,

Why things just take longer...!