Progress...

 

New And Old...

As I Mentioned in the past few posts, Dear Readers, I felt a strong urge to move to the larger long-term projects in my Mini Worlds, but not before creating a "solid" roof for The Wonderhouse Kit. You can see in the above picture, the framework of this kit's ceiling. There is no covering supplied with the kit, it is all open to the air and (in my opinion) at serious risk for disaster in the form of dust and cat hair if nothing else! (My cat's name is even "Dusty" because he likes to spend time in those hidden corners that collect so much dust....) I was determined to finish covering this roof before I moved on to the Larger projects. The first step was the need to build a framework to cross the open space at the front of the shop part of the kit. (The "Studio" section has that nice solid framework as part of the kit.) The dimensions were easily matched with my stock wood pieces. The smaller inner framing was trickier to make. I "raided" the wood from the kit "boards" cutting a narrow piece of the leftover board to make the square inner window frame. It needed to be patched together from several pieces, but did not need to be too structurally durable.

 

 Here you can see the Studio end already has the

 framework in place as part of the kit... 

all I did was add a carefully cut piece of the

 plastic I used for all the windows.

 (There will be a top piece of framing to seal the joint.)

 

Here you can see the framing pieces 

I used from the kit "boards" cut to size.

 

And getting the required several coats of paint!

 

Here the new framework is mostly all glued in place, 

only lacking the inner wooden framework 

along the right end by the wall rack.

 

For the outer framework I decided to simply

 cut cardboard and paint it the dark brown. 

This was the method I used on the other windows

 that needed additional framework...

 in particular the opening ones on 

the front by the studio area. 

The plastic "window" has also been cut

 to fit for the area over the Shop.

 

Here you can see both the cardboard frames are cut to fit. 

Then they needed to be painted brown.... several layers! 

And then all the "windows" needed to be

 glued securely to the roof openings.

 

Here you can see the Kit from the top

 with the new enclosing roof to keep

 everything inside free of dust! 

(While I dash off to tend to other projects!)

 

And just to  prove I am not avoiding 

the Castle Great Hall Window framing.... 

I have made some small progress

 on the Major Lower Windows.

 

The frames for the "Grand Windows" in the lower portion

 of The Great Hall, are in fact,the Signature piece 

of decoration for the front facade of The Castle! 

Castles tended to not have many windows. 

Only the sheltered side of the castle had large-ish windows

 and these are probably a bit anachronistic

 in their grand structure. 

But perhaps the Lords of the Castle did some renovations

 and added these Great Elegant windows with the opening panes!

 At any rate, the structure, by tradition is less ornate on the lower levels. 

So the central column between the panes is only a simple rounded column. 

Nevertheless, I needed to carefully "clean up"

 the construction irregularities of these windows 

by aligning all the frame pieces as identically as possible. 

This took several days of measuring, cutting, fitting,

 testing the window opening function, trimming, painting

 and sometimes starting all over... for every piece! 

It doesn't look like much and still has a ways to go... but it is Progress!

 

This is a (much too dark) in progress picture 

of the elaborate "gluing clamps" needed to attach the side framing. 

None of my real clamps could reach far enough. 

(There is a bag of wood spools weighting those prop sticks!)

 

But the Real progress, Dear Readers has been in my stitching projects!

 

Do you even remember the Medieval Lord Tapestry

 I had started to stitch back in ....2024? 

I had reached a certain point in the altered design 

I had laid out for myself before the Tiny Medieval Tapestry Cushions

 took over my stitching time and attention.

 Since they have been completed (for now) 

I find myself wanting to complete this other piece

 of Medieval Tapestry that I consider a "fragment" 

of the tapestry that I have already stitched two other pieces of. 

The original kit was designed by Janet Granger, 

but I felt it was too "Tudor" in its costume design 

and I wanted fourteenth century not fifteenth century style. 

 

 Here is a reminder of the original chart design.

 So I had redesigned the costume and also decided

 to use more of the mesh and end up with a larger tapestry section. 

But it also needed to have the design made by me. 

That means charting the pattern... and that requires a lot of focus!

 In the previous stitching picture you can see

 the "Lord" is only partly done. Believe it or not, 

I stitched the legs just the other day but forgot to take a "before" picture. 

I tried to find one in my collection.... but didn't find a satisfactory one. 

The next stitching I did was the elaborate sleeve... 

all of this needed to be adjusted as I went, 

because the colored pencils I use for my chart

 are not easy to tell apart....

 

But I think it is looking okay.... 

at least the way I hoped it would. 

 

And once I had the main part of the Lord's clothes completed.... 

including the small boots to which I decided to add

 a pair of silver spurs (using silver metallic threads!) 

it became necessary to work out the details of the rest of the design. 

I had planned to add a horse for the Lord, 

or at least part of a horse to stand behind him... 

the horse was already roughly sketched

 into the chart I had made in 2024. 

But it needed to be actually charted so 

I could begin to stitch with confidence in my plan.

 

I spent hours refining the design and attempting

  to get the "colors" worked into the chart. 

A Dear Reader had suggested a long time ago

 that the horse could be white...

 but I was not leaning in that direction. 

You must remember the background color for 

these tapestries is a very dark navy blue. 

Any very dark brown would disappear 

into the background. 

But I did not want the horse to entirely "steal the show" 

from the Lord in his golden raiment! 

The color would need to stand out from the dark blue, 

but "recede" from the foreground. In short, it needed to be brown. 

But not the same browns already in use for the Tapestry. 

So I dug out my threads to see what I had

 in "coordinating shades"... because you need

 at least three shades of a color to imply three dimensions.... 

the base color, the shadowed tone, and the high-lit tone. 

My colored pencils were going to be useless

 for charting the brown shades. 

But at least I could get the Horse on the cloth

 by starting with stitching the harness... 

at a certain point you just have to start somewhere!

 

I began with the harness... the elaborate bridle and reins..... 

then the eyes... the point at which the picture comes alive! 

And I just am stitching the brown shades by

 feel and instinct..... there are four shades of brown in play.

 

Here the horse is showing all four browns in action.... 

can you tell them apart...??

 

And because I needed to see if the silver threads 

would work on the harness too... 

I went ahead and stitched them as well...

 

Of course, now I can't wait to get to the background stitching too.... 

to see how that will play with the colors....

 but that will take some time! 

Gosh, it feels great to be back in the "Middle Ages" again!

 

So you can see, Dear Readers,

 I am making Progress! 

Even though it is mostly on 

Very Old Projects!