Vaulting...

 

 

Finished....

I Left you last week, Dear Readers, with the "vaulted" ceiling in the back corner just begun. As sometimes happens, one forgets to take any more "in progress" pictures until the job is completed, and then suddenly the work appears finished as if by magic! In this case, it was not a lot of work, and not interesting work, cutting stone pieces to fit, stacking them so they cantilever over the open space, and painting them to turn them to "rock". It was done in no time! Above you can see the results in the morning light. They are not "shaped" to make a smooth continuous arch, but are more rough and step-like as they stack upon each other. But the principle is the same. Gravity keeps them from falling because most of their weight stays on the rock below, and with the decreasing size of the opening as they close in at the top, their "lateral force" keeps them in place against the other side of the vault. Simple physics! (But I did use glue!) Here, I will show you a closer shot....

Here you can see the first two layers stacked

 and the ceiling and arch out of the way.

And with the third layer in place.

All that was left to add in this corner

 were the stones at the corners of the window.

Which you can see added here.

It took longer to fit those corner stones 

than the entire vaulted part!

And the other corner, where the tower stairs spiral upward

 only needed a few small details.

With the door wall removed you can sort of see

 that the "doorpost" on the left was very uneven

 where it tucked close to the stairs.

(The flash was needed again)

There was a lot of carving off millimeters from edges

 of the door frame where it meets the stair wall to make it fit well.

And the hinges needed their sculpey "hinge straps" added.

And the brass parts painted black.

And I needed to finish all the parts of this door

 before gluing the wall in place.

Including a "ring handle" on the inside.

I couldn't find a plain simple one in my stash,

 so I improvised with a jump ring and some wire.

(And neglected to take a picture!)

Here you can see the door wall is finally glued in place!

(Yikes!)

And I have begun to add the stones which surround the door.

And here you can see the door opens!

(Yes, it needs some touch-ups!)

And if you look closely,

 you can see the improvised ring handle.

I still need to complete the stones that surround the door frame.

 And a few more at the top where the wall meets the stairs.

But I believe I can say the Tower Spiral Stairs are Finished!

Of course, the access at the top of the Tower is still not done....

but it will be a while before I get to that step!

I am So glad, Dear Readers, 

that I decided to try to make these Spiral Stairs work!

Maps....

How Do You Know Where You Are.... Going...?

I Hope you will not mind, Dear Readers, if I take you on a bit of a Ramble while I show you what I have been working on recently in the Lord's Council Chamber in my Castle Dollhouse. Above you can see the Chamber as it has recently developed, and I am sure some of you would think it is nearly finished. It has the fireplace, the floor, the glass windows and the ceiling is even showing the base colors of blue paint. But Alas, the longer I look at all those details, the more there is another detail that stands out in my mind as a step Not taken when it should have been! I am referring to the lack of three-dimensional stonework around the windows and doors. The What? I hear you ask. Well, let me show you what I mean...

Here you can see that the door surround in the Lord's Council Chamber

 has only "faux painted" stones to frame it. 

While in the Great Hall, all the door frames and window frames

 have a three dimensional "stone" framework, 

which you can (sort of) see in the above picture.

(I apologize for the dark photo!)

When I started building the Castle all those years ago,

 I hurried past a couple of these steps... 

because they use a great deal of time.

And it has bothered me ever since! 

(But do you have any idea how many window and

 door frames we are talking about...?)

Now that I am working on the Lord's Council Chamber, 

it stands out too much to ignore....

 or rather, it doesn't "stand out" enough!

I decided that it is not too late to correct this oversight...

 especially in the Lord's Council Chamber,

 while I am still "building" all the details.

It requires the slow process of cutting and fitting the "stones"

 and painting them individually before gluing them to the wall.

I was having difficulty finding wood stock of the right dimensions... 

not too thick, but wide enough to make good big "stones" ....

I realized that I have many old paint stirring sticks

 that have a great dimension....

Here I have started to add them around the doors.... can you see them?

I know it is subtle... but it does make a difference!

It is slow going.... but I am sure it will be worth it in the end!

And along with the framework surrounding the doors

 (and eventually the windows too)

I have also added a "carved stone" rail across the middle of the wall, 

which will frame the painting....

Which will cover most of this wall....!

"What on Earth could she be thinking... ?" you are wondering.

Well, Dear Readers, I am so glad you asked!

Because many many years ago

 when I was traveling in Europe

 as a college student, I stumbled across

 the Gallery of Maps in The Vatican.

I was completely unprepared... 

had not known they were there... 

and I've never really recovered!

I have always loved maps.... and Oh My what amazing Maps!

And of course, when designing my own Castle.... 

I thought "shouldn't my Little Castle 

have some Approximation of such maps adorning its walls?"

It is taking many coats of primer to whiten the wall 

sufficiently to cover the "stones".

And there needs to be an upper framework added as well....

here being braced while the glue dries.

And while I am slowly adding the stones that will frame this painting, 

I am pondering the problem of the Map itself....

Those maps in the Gallery in the Vatican 

were painted in the late Fifteenth Century.... 

the very end of the Middle Ages...

And a Medieval Map was a very different thing!

I know this.

And This Castle is supposed to be an Early Medieval Castle.

So Exactly what sort of Map will be on this wall...?

Ahhh.... that is where the Adventure starts!

It is much harder than one imagines to "unlearn"

 the perspective that is currently known....

To try to see the World as it was seen

 when nobody could really see it all...

I will fail over and over as I try.....

But sometimes you just have to jump in and start....

Please don't judge this beginning too harshly, Dear Readers,

because it will undoubtedly change....

As I try to find my way... 

mapping a World that has never been...

 and probably never will be....

I have no Map to show me the way....

How do You know where you Are..?

How do you know where you are Going...?

Undoing.....

It Had To Be Done.....

I was Only part way through Constructing the Lord's Council Chamber, Dear Readers, when I stopped working on the Castle Tower all those years ago, and I truly couldn't remember how much of what was in the room had been glued in! I am sure you can remember what the room looked like Before I tore it all apart... the Wizard has been using it for making his Potions for several years now.... but I forgot to take a picture of the deconstruction. As I discovered, the fireplace had not been attached, but the stairs and the inner wall (already removed in the above picture) had been glued in place. So why did I feel it necessary to undo that work, I hear you wondering? Well, there was a problem with the stairs that was bothering me too much to let it go. The support beam for the upper floor on the left side had no cut-out for where the stairs would come up... and so it blocked a good part of the stair where it passed the beam! (Of course I have no picture of that!) So I needed to take the inner wall out and remove the stairs and try to cut a space into that beam. I thought maybe I could saw through it with the beam in place... but that was not working at all! There was nothing I could do but try to remove the beam (screwed and glued to the wall!) and replace it with the necessary gap for the stairs.

I had to swing the Tower away from the Great Hall portion of The Castle

 in order to access the screws which are screwed from the exterior

 into the floor supporting beams...

(I apologize for the dark pictures... it was ... still is... 

incredibly dark and gloomy and rainy all weekend!)

Once they were unscrewed I could chisel the beam 

away from the wall in order to cut it shorter.

But before I did that I remembered to drill two additional

 screw holes where the shorter beam sections would be.

Here you can (sort of ) see the beam replaced with a gap for the stairs... 

(the beam has been painted to resemble stone in case you are confused)

And with the upper floor back in place (not attached) 

you can see there is no "beam" in the way of the opening...

 even though the stairs have not been replaced yet.

In this picture you can sort of get a better sense of where the beam used to be!

 

Meanwhile I am still trying to get the "prosceniums"

 and doors attached to this upper portion of the Tower.

But this is where we encounter some of the warping of the plywood....

You can see how much the outer wall is leaning in the upper two rooms!

This meant that the process of attaching the "prosceniums"

 would be a bit tricky... as it needed to correct the warp if at all possible!

Of course I forgot to take any pictures of the process....

 and this one shot is fairly blurry... 

but I think it shows that we narrowed the gap between the Castle sections.

 And Ta da.... 

the doors are attached for the Council Chamber! 

None of these unpainted prosceniums and doors are glued yet...

 I am simply drilling and attaching with the screws

 which can be removed when the painting needs to be done.

And then I re-glued those stairs.... 

having decided not to rebuild them from scratch.... 

even though they are a bit uneven 

and have gaps where they abut the wall....

because it is a narrow and dark stairwell where you can barely see....

(but the little people can easily scamper up and down the stairs now!)

The process of adding the proscenium to the Top floor 

was a bit more challenging, Dear Readers,

 because it was much more warped at the top,

 and I also discovered that my measurements were a little off!

Because the screws are going into the narrow 3/8ths inch thick plywood, 

I pre-drill the holes in the proscenium edge carefully centered on that width.

 Next I hold it in place and drill one hole at a time into the wall, 

making sure it is centered properly.

 This requires that I force the bent wall into alignment 

and hold it while I drill the screw hole and insert the screw! 

At the top of the Tower

I needed to make sure the proscenium edge also aligned

 with the top floor or ceiling of the Tower...

Which you can see here just propped in place...

(not drilled or screwed or glued)

And with the top aligned correctly... 

it became clear that somewhere along the way

 there had been a net loss of an eighth of an inch

 in the prosceniums' collective height... 

causing a gap at the foot of this proscenium.

But it was more important to have the tops aligned correctly... 

this gap could be filled later.

Here you can see I have only drilled and screwed

 the bottom two holes on the left side,

 and only the bottom one on the right side

 in order to hold it in place while I 

slowly bend the walls back into alignment...

Here you can see a close-up of the warped top wall!

It required considerable coercion!

Both sides did!

 

Here you can (almost) see the results... screwed in alignment!

And the gap at the bottom of the wall will be filled with this piece... 

which is why we Do NOT throw away the little pieces

 we trim off of the doors to make them fit better...!

I will glue it in later... but first I want to add the doors!

Can you see all those hinges?

Now I can open and close all the doors!

Of course, I will need to take it apart 

as I actually work on the rooms....

but for now the Tower is nearly "built"...!

I just need to add those "beams" to the top of the walls

 where they abut the roof... and drill and screw and glue them in place.

Meanwhile I have re-attached the inner wall in the Lord's Council Chamber.... 

the stairs run behind it up to the Bed Chamber on the top floor.

And even though I had hoped to start in on the prosceniums and doors

 for the Chapel Tower, Dear Readers, I ran out of time. 

And the more I worked on the Guards Tower,

 the more I realized that I will probably need

 to undo a fair amount of the Chapel tower too! 

But that is a task for next week. 

 

 

For now I will leave you with a picture 

of lilac blossom number twenty-one!

And the entire collection...!

Sometimes, Dear Readers,

 Undoing Just has to be done!