The Patience Of A Saint...

The Tiniest Things....

I Only have a couple of Tiny Things to show you this week, Dear Readers, because I only had the ordinary sort of Weekend to Lose myself in the mini projects! Vacation was long gone and the short weekend sped by! But I was able to add a small amount of detail to the Saints for the Castle ceiling. I did not want to bore you with the before picture which you can see in last week's post, so the above picture shows almost all the details that were added this weekend. You must forgive me when I tell you that it is not I but the Saints who have to have the patience here! I set out with Very Good Intentions of completing both these Saints and maybe even the third one too! But then I thought that while the paint was drying... as is sometimes necessary before painting the next detail... I could ALSO be working on Another Tiny project....
You must understand that this is a piece of furniture that I have been planning to make for a LONG time now, and the only difficulty was not being Exactly sure of the Style I wanted it to be!

So I started by locating the pieces of wood that would be needed.... 

and then giving them a coat of stain...

Because I learned the hard way why you must 

stain the wood BEFORE you try to glue the Furniture together....

So while the Stain was drying.... 

I added more details to the Saints....

 

This is just a closer view....

Believe it or not... they are really NOT done yet...!

And then because I thought the little piece of furniture would go together quickly....

I had to start gluing as soon as it was dry....

 

I was right! It did!

The only tricky part was attaching the mirror.... 

which had so little contact with the wood, that I glued a tiny strip of clear plastic

(packaging material) across the back....

You can see just the edge sticking out on the left side....

See how Tiny it is?

And as if That distraction was NOT enough for one weekend.....

I also HAD to satisfy my curiosity about a Certain piece of Real Estate....

Namely.... COULD I cut it open and be able to access the inside???

Yes! I Could! And Did!!

I decided to access two of the Houses from the back.....

And the third from the side.... 

because that allows access to the Attic too...

When the floors are put in, of course.....

Perhaps Samuel Whiskers is going to have to hire a carpenter...

He had to come and investigate....

Yes, it is just as he feared.... 

the Property is not Quite ready to move in!

He will have to have the Patience of a Saint.....

if he expects to live here any time soon!

So while he was investigating....

I had to see if I could make the tiny utensils for the dressing table....

At the very Least it would need a tiny hairbrush and a hand mirror!

Thanks to Irene of Hambleton Hall  blog

(who also has several other Wonderful blogs...)

I knew Just how to go about making the hairbrush!

I used an old paintbrush and a toothpick....

and forgot to take the pictures....

Oh, and I needed to add a lace runner 

and some lotions and perfumes.... 

And then tried to fit the mirror and brush.....

 

Gosh, they look HUGE! 

And I even had already shortened their handles....!!!

But I guess they will have to do...

Oh, and please notice that the drawer does open and close!!!

And will eventually have items inside....!

But now we have to see how it looks inside the Dressing Room of the Tree House...

(Do you even Remember that room?)

And you must believe me when I tell you, Dear Readers, 

that THIS is where I need the patience of a Saint!

The building is Nothing.... 

but the Photographing takes Forever!

The Room itself is SO Tiny... 

and the lighting is either too strong or too weak...

Or the focus is not clear enough.... 

Can we get good focus on something only three quarters of an inch wide... 

inside a space that is only three inches by one and a half....

When the camera itself gets in the way of the lighting.....

I can't tell you how many pictures have been taken... 

then deleted....

And only a few get close to good enough....

And even Then.....

There are those who will say 

"No! You must not hide any more of the wall painting.... !"

But, Alas.... what Dressing Room would be complete 

without a Dressing Table?

And maybe we could see it better if there were Lights in the Dressing Room???

Oh Dear... I had hoped I could get away with no lights in This room.....

And How could so Tiny a Project use up all my Time?

Maybe I should just go back to Painting the Saints....

It's a Good thing the Saints have Patience!

Chapel Update

Painting In The Chapel

For the past two weeks I have been doing my Favorite thing....... Painting on the walls .... and the ceiling.... this time in the Chapel of the Castle Dollhouse! I have made some good progress so I thought I would share it with you, Dear Readers, even though it is still a LONG way from complete. So bear with me while I explain that there is still MUCH detail missing from these paintings, especially the ceiling which has only just been started. Even so, it adds immensely to the atmosphere and gives a glimpse of what I hope it will feel like when it is all done! Here you can see that overhead above the Altar I have painted God the Father emerging from the heavens and gazing RADIANTLY down on all below! (Yes, I put glittery crystals on his eyes!)

Here is a closer view. You can also see that I have painted the Vault Ribs in the red and gold that I used around the windows. This is a view looking UP at the ceiling. (Remember that you can poke the photos to enlarge them...!)

And to one side, above the entrance doorway I have painted a series of Saints Portraits in roundels over the arch. I know, this view is a little bit too dark.... but it is Night in the Castle!

Ah, that's better.... here the ceiling has been temporarily removed (remember that I have not attached the ceilings to the rooms I am working on...) so the roundels with the portraits are clearly visible.
At the farthest left side is Saint Amand, then Saint Matthew and Saint Mark. I scoured all my Medieval Miniature Books for portraits that would reveal the character of each Saint and I have copied them here, somewhat roughly in most cases.

Here is the portrait of Saint Elizabeth, patroness of Beggars, the Embodiment of Charity, and to her right is Saint Luke the Patron of Artists and Sculptors.... sorry this photo cuts him off....

And to the farthest right is Saint John the Evangelist and then Saint Radegund who gave up a Queens crown to become a Nun and founded an Abbey....... Each of these portraits is about one inch in diameter and painted directly on the wall. The edges need a little tidying up still......

And the Painting I did THIS weekend was a rendition of the Nativity...... copied faithfully from a Miniature in a Psalter from Wurzburg painted around 1240 AD.

Here below you can see the almost completed version I painted on the Chapel wall......

And here you can see the original that I copied from.......

I used the tried and true method of making a tracing of the miniature and then transferring it to the wall by covering the back side of the drawing with graphite pencil and drawing over the original design which transfers the design to the wall beneath. Then I go over the pencil outline with a fine point Permanent India Ink Pen. Here below is the inked drawing on the wall.

Then I paint the various areas with the colors as shown in the original. This is not as easy as it sounds as matching pigments is very challenging. I allowed myself to vary the colors from the original rather than try to match them exactly. This picture shows it partly done....

And this one shows the completed Nativity scene. This Painting is about 4 inches by 5 inches!

I am VERY happy with the results!

Here is a view with the ceiling back in place and the Altar Candles lit........

There is still a long way to go.... but it is some Progress!

Just a Chapel Update