The Chapel Undone...........

You Might Not Remember....

I had to do a lot more Undoing, Dear Readers, in order to access the Chapel Ceiling which needed to be trimmed an eighth of an inch shorter in order for the Proscenium to attach flush with the walls. I had not noticed this discrepancy all those years ago when I was actively constructing the Chapel... it would have been easier to correct then! But fortunately, most of the Chapel is not yet glued in place, because the ceiling is not yet finished being painted....(by those suspiciously absent mini artists...) so I was not destroying anything. But it was hard to remember exactly how to access the ceiling after all those years!

Once I had removed all the furnishings 

and sent Father Alban on a Dream Vacation, 

I could begin to explore and reacquaint myself with

 the structure of this very complex part of the Castle.

The ornate pillars are all still loose so the ceiling can be worked on.

Once again, I cannot attach the ceiling until I have completed the paintings....

Here I have shined a light in so you can see the partly done work....

The empty quadrant on the left will show the Creation scenes...

The right quadrant is a partly finished Last Judgement scene.

Above the altar is God in Magesty

and at the front is Archangel Michael defeating the Devil and his demons....

(The Medieval models I am painting from were shown long ago

 in This post if you care to know them.)

Perhaps someone else knows why I have not yet completed these paintings...

 why I started on the Great Hall Ceiling before I finished this one....

But I have forgotten!

 The entire vaulted framework of the ceiling slides straight out...

 in order to pass the supports without snagging.

The arched vaulting pieces are notched on the ends to pass the floor support beam.....

 Here you can see it a couple of inches out...

The arched pieces of the ceiling are made from

 ordinary corrugated cardboard, curved to shape

 and covered with a thick watercolor paper for the painted surface.

They are fitted to cover the entire ceiling when in place,

 so they have to slide perfectly along the edges of the walls 

and not catch on the framework of the monk's cell in the corner.

The view from above as it slides out......

The ceiling removed.... the edge along the front

 will need to be trimmed by one eighth of an inch!

And with the ceiling out of the way 

you can see the structure of the interior walls.

 The stairs in the wall to the right lead from the Great Hall

 to the Lady's Solar on the next floor up.... 

and they pass over the Chapel entrance from the Great Hall.

 In the back corner is the Monk's Cell....

The Monk's Cell from above.... 

showing the structure of the piece of ceiling 

which does not slide out... is glued in place!

Here you can see the front wall to the Monk's Cell is still removable..... 

and the ceiling is not grand but is the unadorned brick

 (painted on the corrugated cardboard...)

and the furnishings are quite simple.

Here is a closer look... 

the cot with the woolen blankets, the candle on the ledge,

 a simple cross on the wall, a shuttered window with no glass...

 and a brass ring in the floor...?

Which opens a trap door....?

And if you shine a light in you will see stairs descending......!

Where do they go..... I hear you ask?

Well, Dear Readers, all good Castles must have

 a Postern Gate Somewhere!

This door leads out onto the cliffs above the Sea... 

and if the need arose, anyone trapped inside the Castle 

could escape this way!

You can imagine how reassuring it is to know this!

But for now we are more concerned with

 the completion of the Chapel structure....

The floor support beam also needed to be trimmed by a "whisker"... 

and you will be glad to know I did not have to

 remove the beam to accomplish this!

My goal at this point is to attach all the "Prosceniums"

 and the exterior doors to ensure that the basic

 Castle Structure is solidly assembled.

I managed to trim the ceiling section with my coping saw

 without doing the artwork any harm 

(although the edge of the painting also needed to be trimmed a tiny bit).

Then I screwed the proscenium and the doors in place!

Oh, I do Love it when the doors swing open!

As before, nothing is glued in place.... 

waiting for me to complete the paintings first!

But for now we are moving on to the Solar....

There were nowhere near as many adjustments needed here.... 

since the room is essentially unfinished.

The stairwell wall had been painted and needed a little trimming...

 but is still unattached.

(I apologize for the dark shots... no excuse!)

I really wanted to get the fronts all finished... 

so I pulled out my big saw and cut the

 final proscenium and doors for the Lady's Bed Chamber,

 the top room on this side of the Castle.

And again, this is where I encountered the warping of the plywood.

Both sides were fairly bent...

But they pulled back into shape with the screws and a little pressure!

 

 As you can see here!

More trimming needed to be done before the doors would fit...

It was getting late.... 

I chiseled away at that annoying "bump"

 in the top edge of the proscenium.... 

my sawing was clearly not very precise!

And I attached the doors!

The only part still to attach is the top roofs on both towers!

(And the crenelations.... and the exterior stairs.....)

It is actually starting to look like a Castle!

And before you ask.... 

 

 

yes, I completed lilac blossom number twenty-two!

 

 Count them if you don't believe me!

Well, Dear Readers, if you are like me, 

you might not even remember where we started....

 with the Chapel all Undone...!

So much still to do!

The Monk's Cell

Or Good Night Henry!



You may remember, from my earlier listing of all the rooms that would be included in the Castle, my mentioning the Monk's Cell, which would be off the back corner of the Chapel. And you may also remember me mentioning that in the early "history" of this Castle it was an Abbey built on the site of a Sacred Spring. Now, in the original Abbey there was a whole wing devoted to the sleeping quarters of the Monks. But as this was VERY long ago, the dormitories were only built of wood, not stone like the Chapel Tower and Great Hall, and so they did not survive long when the Abbey was abandonned (whether because of Viking raids or the Black Plague, I do not know). When the Castle was once again occupied and fortified, the only room left for the Monk's Cell was the tiny room beside the Chapel. As everyone knows, Monks are very humble people and do not expect roomy accommodations, so the Castle Monk was very happy to have a room to call his own! And being humble people, they rarely portrayed their sleeping cells in any of the vast number of Illuminations they painted in Medieval texts. While it is common to see pictures of them painting or writing texts in a scriptorium - we almost never see where they sleep, and really know of their cells mostly from literary references. But I have found one tiny illumination that shows Saint Alexis asleep in a cubby under a stairway! It is from "The Hours of Catherine of Cleves" and was painted in the fifteenth century.

Please excuse the blurry photo, the original is about one inch wide!

So you can see that I have little material to go by in deciding on the decor for his cell, and I must therefore make it up as best I can!

So to begin with I determined that the Cell would have a tiny window with wooden shutters but no glass panes. Glass was used only in the important rooms and only slowly became common in all windows. His bed would be a narrow wooden plank raised off the floor, allowing room to store his clothes beneath the bed. And you may also remember that the Monk's Cell is where the trap door to the Postern Door was located. And because this room would eventually be closed in and hard to access, I had to complete all of it's details before I could complete the Chapel details.

Here you can see the very beginnings of the Chapel, while the Cell has already received it's Faux Stone painting inside. You can also see the trap door open, and the bed to the left.




Here you can see the Chapel ceiling (temporarily) in place, and the front wall to the Cell as well. And you can see the beginnings of the pillars in the Chapel itself, also temporarily in place. This gives you an idea of how little access there will be when the Cell is completed.

And the part I am really proud of is the Lighted Candle I made from sculpey, perched on a stone corbel at the back of the Cell! You can also see the wooden shutters on the small window on the left wall. And the Chapel has received the first coats of paint and some of the "stone" trim around the doorway.

A closer view of the inside of the humble Cell

And looking in through the door with the wall in place......

I'm SO proud of that little lighted candle!

And of course, there is a cross hanging on the wall. I apologize for the darkness of this photo.... the candle only gives a little light! If you look closely you will see that a mattress and some woolen blankets have found there way in too.... it looks so cosy and inviting! Almost as though somebody is living here already!

Oh, but wait.... I didn't think you were a Monk!

"Most certainly NOT!" says Henry. "But while nobody else is here, why not use it myself?"

"It's not like I'm putting anyone out.... and the place looks so cosy...... for a Castle!"

"And it's getting late! I'm going to bed now."

"Put out the candle for me, would you?"

I just LOVE that little candle!

"Good Night Henry! Sleep Well!"

Good Night Henry