Home is where the heart(h) is; 1. A fireback project and some gilding

Hello my friends,

You have seen this lovely fireplace before but today's post is mainly about the chimneyplate or fireback that I have made. 

July is drawing to a close and it is mid summer in the northern hemisphere. The weather is warm and dry but thankfully not as dry as last year. And for some reason I am busy with my fireplace. Not really a summers project. :-) More on that later, first I want to Welcome Birgit as a new follower. Thank you for taking interest in my wanderings in the world of miniature.

Now, Mrs. M. Has pointed out some Etsy vendors in her blog and so I found these beautiful brass stampings which I ordered from Jewelsdumonde. Lovely frames that will be turned into miniatures. I got a few ideas for these but that is for another blogpost.

In the picture above you see a stamping shaped like a plaque. It depicts a woman carrying a wheat sheaf and a putti harvesting the wheat. It could be an alegory on the harvest or autumn. Perhaps even depict the goddes Ceres. But as soon as I saw it I thought "fire back"!

So as soon as my order arrived and I could find a free afternoon I started by cutting out a back for the plaque out of manilla card. Great stuff, tough but a also a bit tricky to cut out curves. And perhaps most important pretty water resistant so no problems with water based glues and paints. I cut out a backing for the plaque and a piece for the bottom. It now follows a classic shape for Dutch fire backs.

I assembled the three pieces and let the glue dry.

Once dried I painted them with black enamel paint two thin coats. It already looks quite good. But it is as yet too shiny. I added a bit of graphite/charcoal to matt the shine down a bit.

And here is the result. An elegant and decorative fire back.

I also found the time and courage to complete the gilded details on my marbled fireplace I made in the workshop of last march. In the picture above you see the unfinished gold details. I spilled a lot of gold paint outside the lines.

So after retouching the gold details I retouched the marbling. That was the most daunting part. But after enough trial and error I managed to mix the chrome white and ivory black in the right quantities. I am very pleased with the result.

That's it for now. I hope you have enjoyed this little post and wish you a very good day.

Until next time!

Huibrecht.