What a Beautiful Idea....
A few weeks ago, Dear Readers, I was bemoaning the difficulties I was having with the Lighting of this very Dark and Gothic Library, and my Wonderful Mother commented that a Real Library might have a stained glass hanging lamp! Of course my Mother would suggest that.... she has always loved stained glass lamps (we always called them Tiffany Lamps) and she has even made a few herself! Well surely I must have thought of that idea and rejected it as WAAAY too difficult in this Tiny scale! It would certainly be the ideal sort of lamp for this room.... if one could figure out How to make one that small! But her comment got me thinking.... and it seemed the idea would NOT go away! I was going to Have to try to make a tiny stained glass lamp! So I dug out my jewelry findings that had lacy filigree parts and I cut one down until it was small enough. (Of course, I forgot to take pictures of the first steps....)
Here you can see the "lamp" partly "painted" and already attached to the LED wires. I used a technique I had seen on somebody's blog.... forgive me that I can't remember whose... to use Fingernail polish as paint! It fills the holes in the filigree using the surface tension of the enamel.... there is no "surface" to paint.... the paint becomes the surface! You simply brush across the gap with a color.... being careful to only paint one color at a time and let it dry thoroughly before doing another color. And these days Fingernail Polish comes in ALL the Colors of the Rainbow!!!! I used only four... Yellow, Green, Lilac, and Burgundy.
This shot shows the lamp looking into the inside....
the LED bulb is in the middle and the light glows through the Fingernail enamel.....
I couldn't wait to test the effect with the light lit....
so I took some pictures before it was even done......
Just to see if it worked.....
Oh, It WORKED!!!
Then I decided that the metal filigree needed to be painted black....
to cover over the enamel edges and define the sections better.....
also just so it looks more realistic!
Above you can see it all painted and ready for installation.....
But, of course, it is extremely difficult to Photograph this tiny light!!!
As with the Salon,
I may have to add some ambient light to show off the details of this room....
And speaking of Details....
that is not all I managed to do this weekend!
I also completed the two partially done paintings....
I darkened the gold trim of Anne of Cleves' Gown and made better copies of the paintings.
I am sure you can't see the difference, but the improved ones are on the left!
I framed them and attached them to the wall over the book shelves on the right hand wall....
Which I filled with books.....
And you can sort of see how they look....
here with the ceiling removed so enough light gets in.....
Yeah... there will have to be an ambient light source....!
And now that the bookshelves are filled and the paintings attached....
I have begun to Glue the walls in place!!!
Which means I can work on the stairs to the NEXT floor....
and the exterior wall.....
Which HAS to have a window half way up the stairs....
And I know that you are going to think I am nuts.....
But the window has a seat cushion.....
And I made another TINY Book.....
That got Left on the seat cushion......
Half way up the stairs...
Because perhaps someone was carrying a book up the stairs
and stopped to look out at the moon and forgot the book.....
Can you even see it?
Well.... never mind...
I will know it is there!!!
And maybe you can pretend to see it from outside.....
Or think about it as you head up those narrow stairs....!
But really, it is that marvelous Tiffany Lamp that has me enchanted!
I am going to find a way to take a great picture.....
of this Wonderful Little Stained Glass Lamp!
