The Ancestor Portraits

Or Who Lives Here...?

What Library would be complete with out the Portraits of the Venerated Ancestors adorning the walls? I have been looking forward for quite a while, Dear Readers, to filling these tiny frames with suitable TINY portraits! And I even made a start a good many weeks ago! I found a book with lovely miniatures from the Elizabethan eras that I shrank with my copier to the correct size and glued the best ones into the frames I had prepared. I thought they looked Perfect, and could not wait to have the walls ready for them!

In fact you may recall seeing one of them being tested a few weeks ago... 

but I was concentrating on the desk, so you might not have noticed.

Here you can see it being tested..... 

but Suddenly I was not sure that these were the right portraits!

How could that Be?

Well, it had occurred to me that the people who live in this Tree House are not "people" at all.....

so why would they have "people" portraits on their walls?

But then I had to be VERY sure that I was making this Tree House

 for "Tiny Creatures" rather than "people".... 

because the portraits would Surely give it all away!

GONE would be the illusion that "people" could live here..... 

no matter how "human" the habitation appeared!

So I had to be VERY sure just what "Creatures" were living here!

But would it really matter if the "Creatures" had "people" portraits? 

Would anybody even Notice... or Care about such an inconsistency?

Alas, once I had noticed.... I'm afraid the idea just would not go away!

But that meant I would have to paint all those portraits myself!

Even loving to paint the way I do..... that was a daunting prospect!!!

But I FINALLY have made a Start on those portraits!

Here you can see the originals on the book page to the left... 

The upper one is a famous miniature of Anne of Cleves by Hans Holbein, 

and the larger one is a self portrait by the very famous miniaturist Simon Benning.

You can see the reduced versions in the tiny frames.... 

and the Beginning of MY version to the right....

Here it is a little closer... 

I decided that the simplest thing to do would be to copy the picture fairly faithfully 

and just make the face look more like a Creature than a Human.... 

And I chose to paint it at about half the scale of the original.... 

so the reduction would not loose as much of the details.....

 Here the details are starting to fill in.....

Here he is just about finished....!

I was having so much fun I started right in on the next one.....

You can see the original ones to the left...... 

showing the relative scale of the paintings...

The paintings are about one inch by one and a half inches each....

Here the lovely "Lady " is completed!

Then I decided I needed to see how they would look in the reduced size....

So I made copies at one half the size......

 

Can you see the reduced copies at the bottom?

I was so excited.... I started on some more.....

You can see my version to the left and the Original on the right....

And I even started a version of the Famous Anne of Cleves.....

My version at the bottom....

Once I had copied them to the smaller size, 

I glued the copy to cardboard and cut them down to fit the frame...

Here is a side by side of the original reduced version and my own version...

I apologize for the blurry photo.... the camera doesn't focus that close....

Finished size is one half inch by three quarters of an inch...!

(Obviously my copying is not very exact...)

Here is the Dignified Scholar all framed.....!

And the noble lady too..... 

Please forgive the glare! 

I am finding it quite challenging to get good pictures of these pictures!!!!

The other portraits are not entirely successful.....

The Anne of Cleves is too pale in the decorations of her gown.... 

I need to make the details darker as they get lost in the tiny copy.....

And a certain amount of blurring of the details happens when the paper is glued to the cardboard.....

My careful painting of the Gorgeous Lace Ruff all but disappears in the tiny copy.....

But these paintings will be on the side wall... 

even more difficult to see than the first ones on the back wall....

Here you can see them with the ceiling removed..... 

so plenty of light reaches the back wall...

But you can see I have made No progress with the Lighting .....

Can you even tell the portraits are not "Human"?

Well, Never mind......

I am having fun painting these tiny 

Ancestor Portraits!

Pull Up A Chair

More Beginnings....

The Weather is getting cooler, Dear Readers, and the Nights are getting longer.... it feels like Time to pull a chair up close to the fire and lose oneself in a good book.... in other words... the Season of the Library has arrived! But Alas, my Library is Far from ready.... hardly any books on the shelves... no lights to make reading possible... and the only Chair is a not-yet-finished heavy wooden frame with no upholstery to cushion the seat.
I wanted to make a Jacobean-style chair.... the sort with a dark wooden rectangular frame and tapestry sort of cushion for the seat and the tall back. You can see below the humble beginnings of this chair.....

I have used some of the trimmed sides from the "woodsies" I used for the books as stock for the legs and glued them into a notched seat cut from a scrap of the basswood that is being used for the walls. The back is a piece of 1/4 inch stock trim. For the arms I decided to get a little bit fancy and carved the curved profile and rounded end out of slightly wider pieces of "woodsies".

Of course, it is so small that it is a little bit hard to see the swoop in the arms.... 

so I thought I had better point it out...!

I also took a tiny file and "carved" some grooves into the front legs....

these will bracket the front cross rail.....

but again.... they are so fine that they are almost invisible...!

But then I decided to get Really Daring 

and tried my hand at "carving" the front rail to resemble barleytwist turned wood.....

Using just my mini file and a tiny round wooden dowel.... 

about 5/64ths of an inch (says the pkg)

Here, you can see it closer....

I have never done this before....

and my spacings are not even....

and the grooves should be rounder....

But it is so tiny that maybe it isn't too noticeable when it is cut and fit....

And maybe it looks better standing up.....

Well, sort of... it is amazing how Brutal the camera close-ups are...!

I added the remaining cross rails and stained it a lovely Walnut......

And the dark color seems to Swallow so much of the details.... 

especially when placed in the dark Library.....

You would hardly know it is there! 

This will improve, I hope, when I find the right upholstery material! 

And so far, this has eluded me! 

Most of the ones I try are too thick a fabric 

to work on such a small scale... 

And I am searching for something with a small pattern as well.... 

I am trying all sorts of tiny pieces from my "archives"!

So it is not done yet.....

Meanwhile I have also made a start on the decoration of the walls. 

 I was not certain whether I wanted to keep with the Very Dark Tudor style 

and just make paneling for the upper portions of the walls... 

or whether I wanted to try to bring in some color and light with a painted finish. 

Or even be as non-traditional as to use Wallpaper if I could find a small enough design. 

And then I remembered some paper I had bought many years ago in a Museum gift shop.... 

a Gold paper with a delicate fern-like pattern in Glitter... meant to be used for gift wrapping... 

but I had always thought it would make Wonderful wallpaper for a Fairy house.... 

or a fancy Victorian Dollhouse..... 

or.....

 

Perhaps it would be just Perfect for the Library of a Tiny Tree House?

So I carefully cut tiny sections and tried them out....

Oh, I do like the way it looks!

So then I had to make tiny window trim moldings out of cardboard stained to match the cabinets...

And more molding trims for around the doors... to the stairs going up....

As well as the ones going down at the back of the room.

And you can see that the cabinet doors are all done and have their knobs as well... 

but the books are still in the works....

Just Look at the sparkly walls!!

(I am Such a Sucker for Glitter...!!!)

But I have not finished because on the fourth wall I have added a little window...

High up... next to the chimney...

Or rather, I have added the Opening for the window...... and all the rest....

The shutters, the diamond panes.... the niche and framing .... 

all still need to be built... before I can paper that wall....

I have a long way to go!

I have even made a Start on the framing for the overhead arches on the ceiling....

You can see pieces taped in place for fitting....

still so crude.....

And all the walls shift and fall down at every chance they get because nothing is finished.... 

so nothing is glued down...... but it is a start!

I have even started to paint some "gilded" frames for artwork on the walls....

 

But they are not yet finished... 

so I cannot show you the art in place.....

But I hope you will be patient with me while I get the details worked out!

But for now.....

I hope you will join me....

As dusk falls and the room grows dim......

Pull up a Chair.....!