Turning Up The Heat

Fire and Ice

It has been colder than usual in this part of the world this winter. So it is not surprising that this has people thinking more than usual about keeping warm! Sitting beside a roaring fire in your cozy livingroom fireplace is one timeless solution to keeping warm. Not so very long ago it was the ONLY way of keeping warm in the long nights of winter. But with the advances of technology in the nineteenth century, people built furnaces that heated water which flowed through iron pipes to radiators to give a steadier warmth to the room. This allowed them to heat many of the rooms of a house with less mess and little effort. The Folly, being a very Victorian house, relies mostly on the fireplace to heat the main rooms. Will Peters Ott is keeping warm here while Arthur is out.
But the Folly has been modernized to some extent. There is a new steam radiator for the bathroom! This helps keep the pipes from freezing in a winter like this one!
And the Lovely Old Dollhouse has steam radiators as well. Even though it was built well before the time of steam furnaces, as soon as they were invented a former owner upgraded to the newer technology! Here you can see the beautiful silver painted ornate cast iron radiator in the bathroom. It is EXACTLY like the ones in the house I grew up in! So you can see that it is JUST RIGHT for the Lovely Old Dollhouse.
And there is another one in the Front Hall of the Lovely Old Dollhouse, probably because there is no fireplace in this room. It is the perfect place to dry wet mittens in the winter! There are no other radiators in the Lovely Old Dollhouse, probably because there ARE fireplaces in the other rooms, and therefore the radiators are not necessary. The fires would keep the room warm.
And Of course, the Great Hall fireplace is the ONLY heat source for the main part of the Castle Dollhouse. You may remember that I remarked that the fireplace had not been used in a very long time, and the fire was not as ROBUST as I wished it were! Well, now that we are in the depths of Winter and it is BITTERLY cold outside, the Castle fireplace needed an upgrade!
Guard Ian is seeing to it! He has piled on the firewood and we now have a blazing fire that just might take the chill off the Great Hall!

And some MORE wood! It takes a great deal of wood to heat the Great Hall!

You can see here below that I have painted in a much more vigorous fire than the tiny electric unit makes. Even though this is quite un-realistic, I am using it as the starting point for the larger fire.
With the electric fire turned on, it adds a slightly more realistic glow to the painted fire.
I painted a sooty background too, and added wisps of my favorite glittery "smoke" gauze.
Then I decided to try adding a more three dimensional painted "flames" to the foreground of the fire. I am not finished with this step, and am not sure how well I like the results. But I thought I would share them with you anyway. I painted some strips of clear plastic packaging material to look like flames and added them at the front of the fire. This picture doesn't really do it justice.
Here you can see the painted plastic packaging material. I used curved pieces as I wanted them to curl around the burning logs..... maybe they will look like it when I'm done!
And here's a slightly better view. You can see the "sparks" on the gauzy smoke cloth!

I will leave Guard Ian to his fire building......

Because it is St. Valentines Day today, and there are other "fires" to be tended to!

Charles and Helen are up early. Charles wishes Helen a Happy Valentines Day......

And he cooks her breakfast! He knows exactly how she likes her eggs!

Because it has been SO cold, Pollyanna is sitting in front of the fire in the Livingroom. She is wondering if she should invest in MORE radiators for the Lovely Old Dollhouse! It is a lot of work to keep the fires burning! This one has burned down to just the embers.... it is not enough!
While she is thinking, Arthur has arrived to bring her a Valentines Bouquet of Roses...... one for each year they have been dating...... has it already been FOUR years, she thinks? It does not seem so long!

But look, that is not ALL he has brought her......

Pollyanna is taken by surprise! She was not quite expecting this.....

she wasn't quite sure he was thinking of this...... could it be?

"Pollyanna, will you marry me?"

Oh My!

Fire And Ice!

So Far To Go

How Many Tiles?
It was just one year ago that I first came upon the "Medieval Tudor Castle Dollhouse" Blog and saw the beautiful Encaustic Tile floor Nina had made for her Guard Room of her Castle. It was LOVE at first sight! And Desire, followed quickly thereafter by Inspiration, impelled me to begin my OWN Medieval Castle Dollhouse! I quickly drew the plans, bought the plywood, and began construction. Regular readers will know that I have blogged about the Castle often this past year, and even though it is FAR from finished, it has been the feature location of more than one Party for the dolls who have found their way into this Miniature World of mine. So, as I look back on this past year since I started the Castle, I have to confess that I'm just a tiny bit disappointed that I haven't accomplished more! Could it REALLY already be a whole YEAR? In my optimism I felt SURE I would have completed more of the rooms by now! In fact, I don't think I have COMPLETED ANY of them! In my favor I will argue that I have some excuse for not getting more done. There are the OTHER dollhouses which absorb my attention too, and there have been a whole series of Parties and Holidays creating a whole lot of DISTRACTION from building! Nevertheless, I now feel as though I had better knuckle down and get busy BUILDING again! And so at last, I have come to constructing the Great Hall floor. From the first, THIS was where I wanted to use the Encaustic Tiles that Nina had made for her Castle Guard Room. Here I MUST add a HUGE thanks to Nina for her sharing of her methods and sources! I have shamelessly copied her method and would never even have THOUGHT of using these tiles but for her beautiful post about her Castle floor! Thank You Nina!
But before I go further, I MUST show you a couple of the Illuminated Manuscript paintings that I found which show tiled floors. Apparently it was a commonly used material for the grander sort of buildings shown in Manuscript illuminations. The simplest form was a checkerboard pattern of two colors of tiles. Here below is an example from my favorite Boccaccio's "Decameron" showing a meal being served in a Great Hall with a tiled floor.
But the tile artists of the Middle Ages also created more elaborate patterns with their tiles as we can see in this illumination, again from Boccaccio, showing a King receiving a petitioner, where the tiles are triangular and combine to create a circular design.
And an even more elaborate design is shown in this illumination which shows a woman instructing some men. This is from another work by Boccaccio, le "Livre des Femmes Noble et Renommees."
Another example showing a very intricate floor tile pattern is from the "Hours of Catherine of Cleves". This one shows Saint Nicholas standing on a floor with an elaborate checkerboard pattern.
And an even MORE elaborate pattern on the floor below Saint Dorothy, again from the "Hours of Catherine of Cleves."
And yet Another fancy floor tile pattern, this one below Saint Thomas Aquinas' feet in the "Hours of Catherine of Cleves." This book of Hours includes an amazing section with Illuminations of the Saints, all done as portraits against tapestry cloth backgrounds and standing on tiled floors, every one with a different design!
But the type of tiles Nina was using for her Castle, encaustic tiles, is a particular type of tile where the design is created by using a separate color of clay to create the design on the tile, which was then fired, making the pattern more durable than a painted glaze would. The designs on these tiles were often very elaborate, and sometimes were even used to illustrate a story. Below is an example from a fourteenth century church in Hertfordshire, England.
And another series of tiles with stories from The Tristan Romance made for Chertsey Abbey in the thirteenth century.
And below is an example of the floor from a chapel built for Henry III at Clarendon Palace.
So, why am I showing you ALL these examples of Medieval Tiles? Well, clearly the Medieval world LOVED pattern! But all these examples show a Consistent Pattern throughout the floor! While the example Nina used, and I have chosen to copy, was an apparently random assortment of designs all combined together! I believe her source was an ancient floor in part of Westminster Abbey. Because it was that random chaos of pattern that so appealed to me in the first place, I am going to duplicate it in my OWN Castle Great Hall floor!
I started to make the tiles WAAAAY last spring. I got one whole batch cut and painted and glazed with an ocher wash. I drew every pattern I could identify from Nina's picture on her blog post! (Thank you, Nina!) And then the weather got HOT! Can you REMEMBER? Week after Week in the nineties with NO let-up! There was NO WAY I was using the oven to cook sculpey tiles in that heat! So they got put aside and other projects took over my attention. But now it is COLD outside, the PERFECT time to run the oven hour after hour for baking tiles for the Castle floor....... How many tiles did you say? Well, I lined up the first batch in front of the hearth... about ninety tiles in that batch. Hmmmm.... doesn't cover much floor does it!
So then I ran a single line of tiles all the way across the floor to count how many tile rows I would need (my tiles are a little irregular.... more like 7 or 8 inches mini size rather than the 6 inch size Nina was using.) I came up with 29 rows deep by 45 rows wide. That's more than 1300 tiles I need to make!
So I knuckled down and got started! For now I'm using two different colors of sculpey, Terra Cotta and Chocolate, but I am going to add a couple more varying colors too. Probably another brown and a burgundy color. Maybe even the navy blue Nina was using for her contrast color. I've got a lot of tile decorating ahead of me! Here you can see a couple of the designs I started with.
And here is a lovely design that makes beautiful patterns when done in careful repeats...... but I am probably just going to use it in random mixture..... because I really like that chaotic medley !
Here you can see the first batch of tiles in front of the hearth and with the fire lit it starts to feel like the floor I am hoping for!

And closer in, you can see the variety of designs...... I think I counted thirteen different designs!

But so many tiles cover so little floor! And I think I am going to have to use grout of some kind..... does any one out there know anything about mini grout for mini tiles....?

So, as you can see, I have SO far to go!

The Silk Road

PALACE TREASURES from the East arrived on my doorstep last night! I could barely contain my excitement as I opened the package sent by Sans of "My Maharajah's Palace" Blog. The contents were not so much a mystery because Sans had made a Blog Post about these gifts a few weeks ago. But the question of WHICH colors I would receive was about to be answered! The ribbons are just BREATHTAKING in real and close up! Gold, Silver, Green and Turquoise are the colors she has given to me! They are a TREASURE beyond measure because they are the GIFT of a Friend from afar! She wrapped them so carefully to keep them safe and dry on the voyage!


But once unwrapped and glittering in this morning's sunshine, I could not help but think of how far they traveled to reach me here, CONTINENTS and OCEANS away! The OTHER side of the WORLD, in fact! These were treasures from the FAR EAST! That fact alone makes them EXOTIC and MYSTERIOUS!
For thousands of years, the EAST has been the source of all things Precious to Westerners..... Porcelain, Gold, Jewels, Spices, Silk...... and they Traveled here along the Fabled SILK ROAD.....

To BEGIN with, you must remember that in THOSE days, the Earth was still FLAT and Oceans surrounded the LAND. For the Medieval Europeans travel was difficult and DANGEROUS. Most people lived their entire lives in their own small regions. The CRUSADES, undertaken in the Early Middle Ages, first brought the Westerners into contact with the TREASURES of the East. And once they were aware of these riches, there was no looking back! Slowly but surely the wealth of the East was brought to the West. But the Road was Long and Hard and Mysterious. Here is a map from the "Penguin Atlas of Medieval History" that shows the trade routes around Europe and the Mediterranean Sea. It also shows the Western end of the Silk Road. Silk, in those days was a secret guarded carefully by China, and the only way for silk cloth to reach the West was along the Silk Road that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea all the way to China.
Marco Polo, the son of a merchant from Venice is reputed to be amongst the first Westerners to travel the Silk Road to China and Back again. At least, he is the First to WRITE the TALES of his journeys to the East, in 1274 AD, and so he became enshrined in the annals of Western History. Here below is one of numerous Medieval Illuminations that portray Marco Polo on his travels. I believe this is taken from a Catalan Atlas drawn in 1375 by Abraham Cresques. You can see the travelers have joined with a Caravan of Camels laden with their treasures.

So you will not be at all surprised when I show you the Camels laden with the Package that has journeyed all the way from SINGAPORE!

It was one of a CARAVAN that surely trekked over lands too many to number on it's passage to the WEST!

They traveled for days......

And WEEKS!
And eventually they would reach the Ports of the Mediterranean Sea! There the Silks would be loaded onto ships that would take them to the Ports of Europe. Here below is a Medieval Illumination of Venice..... supposedly of the time of Marco Polo, but actually showing a later view, drawn in the fourteenth century.

And here is a view of a boat being loaded with goods... this is from my favorite Boccacio's "Decameron" that is so full of useful illuminations of everyday life in the later Middle Ages. It actually shows two parts of the story, loading the ship and the man being rescued after a shipwreck.... demonstrating the kinds of dangers involved in so long a voyage! Alas, I have no ship to show you the package from SINGAPORE on it's voyage over the seas.....
And even once the ship has reached Port on the Western shores of Europe, it is still a long journey over land to the Castle. Here is a Medieval Illumination showing travelers on the road, some with their packs on their backs, and some with pack animals to carry their goods.
The road to the Castle is a LONG one! But the silks were carefully loaded into strong chests and strapped to the back of a trusty pack horse. It takes yet MORE WEEKS to traverse the land and so reach their DESTINATION!
You can imagine the SURPRISE and AMAZEMENT of the humble Castle folk when the chests are opened to reveal the treasure within......

They have NEVER seen such treasures!

I THINK Henry is Speechless!

Just LOOK at the Beautiful GOLD embroidered and spangled silks!

Here, come closer!

And the other chest.....

Belle is sure she has NEVER seen anything so BEAUTIFUL in her life!

So, dear readers, can you forgive me for wandering off on my Medieval Fantasy Trip down the SILK ROAD as I contemplate the beautiful GIFTS that have come to my Castle in the WEST from Sans' PALACE in the East? Even though I am on a continent not yet KNOWN in Medieval Times, and there are no REAL Castles in this land.... my Medieval Castle Dollhouse will be forever blessed by these treasures! They will be PERFECT for adorning the future GOWNS of the future Ladies of the Castle.... not to mention trimming the BED Curtains of the Lord and Lady's bed, as well as turning into CUSHIONS for their chairs! I am certain that there will be MANY future blog Posts that feature these beautiful ribbons!

And to think that they came all the way from the EAST!

Palace Treasures from the East