I wish everybody a happy, healthy and prosperous 2021!

 

Hello my friends,

A year ago I wished you the same for 2020 of which only hours separate us from the new year. That wish did not come quite true. I think I can say that none of us ever has experienced a similar year in his or her life. And let us all hope that we never will again! I will not drag up all the events that has coloured and marred this year. The medea are full of that already. 

The picture above shows how I would like to spend this day. Sitting next to a comfortable fire. listening to some music while I read a good book. At this moment that is "Orley Farm" written by Anthony Trollope. A right beast of a Victorian novel. I quite like his work. ;-) Eating an occasional "Oliebol" and wait for the champagne to be uncorked at midnight. And instead of reminiscing about the year that has passed, as I often do at years end, I like to direct my attention to the new year this time. What will 2020 have in store for us?

That being said, I also hope that you all enjoyed a lovely Christmas this year. After all, let us not forget that nothing is all bad, not even 2020. Good things happened as well. Let not all those good things be overshadowed by the pandemic and other sad things. Cherrish the good and fun things that happened as well!

One such small (and perhaps insignificant in the light of 2020) things that made me smile was the christmas present I found under the christmas tree. Well actualy I did not see it at first. None of the lovely wrapped packages bore my name on them. Only when saw that the little baby christ in our nativity carried a miniature envelope with my name on it, I knew that I was not forgotten. ;-)

When we opened the presents I saw that my partner had given me a 1:12 gift voucher to help me save up for a beautiful miniature I wish to buy next year. How sweet is that? It is in fact the first miniature he has made in 1:12 (who knows what may follow. :-O) 

Unfortunately my partner is 100% Dutch. Why? Because he divided the amount on the voucher through 12 as well. and so of the amount he has give me as a present he only has to pay out € 4,17 when I will buy the miniature! We both had a good laugh about that, and I hope that you have too.

I hope that all those sad and terrible things that we all experienced in this old year can soon be healed and/or forgotten in the new year! And may you all be(come) and stay happy, healthy and prosperous! 

Huibrecht

Saint Ambrose's beehive

Hello my friends, you were very kind in your responses on my post on the miniature beehive I have made. I had thoroughly enjoyed making it and wanted to make more. And although we associate bees with spring and summer, making beehives was in the olden times typically a job for winter when the fields lay fallow. So making them now is actualy the right season for it. :-)

I used the same hemp twine and cotton thread to make a larger beehive. You can see it in the above picture on the left. After I  finished the second beehive I wanted to make something else. In the tutorial I had used there was also a tutorial for a so called Saint Ambrose beehive. It was used  by catholic beekeepers and/or monasteries as a devotional item in parts of Western Europe. This because Saint Ambrose is the patron saint of the beekeepers.

There is a legend that as an infant, a swarm of bees settled on his face while he lay in his cradle, leaving behind a drop of honey. His father considered this a sign of his future eloquence and honeyed tongue. For this reason, bees and beehives often appear in the saint's symbology. Saint Ambrose thus became the patron saint of bees, beekeepers and even candle makers! In his iconography, he is often depicted with bees or a beehive – symbols that also indicate wisdom.

He would lend his name to the Latin term for honey ‘ambrosia’ also used in Greek and Roman mythology to describe the food of the gods. St Ambrose is still referenced today by modern beekeepers, using the term ambrosia to describe the mixture of nectar and pollen prepared by worker bees to feed bee larvae. His holyday is december 8th of every year. So this post comes a week after his feast. Pity I did not think of that sooner or I would have posted this on the december 8th. ;-)

But back to the miniatures. I decided to use the first hive I made as the body for the Ambrose hive. I added a few rings to add height. In the picture above you can see that the frst hive was quite low next to the second one. It is funny that, with my speed with stitching, It took me several (full) days to make all the elements that you see in the pictures above and below. 

Next I had to make a smaller hive shape for the head. When that was done I weaved a strand of hemptine through one side for the nose. Furthermore I used the same blanket stitch (used on the hives) to make his cape, a bishops miter, two arms (with only three fingers), and 2 ears. Furthermore I braided three strands of hemptwine together just as I did with three strands of the cotton thread. The first of the two braids is used to decorate the bottom of the hive that will be St Ambrose his body, the second one will be used to hold together his cape. Lastly I assembled a bishops staff out of a round bead and two tooth picks, bound together with a cotton thread. 

After all the parts of Saint Ambrose were done I brewed a strong cup of tea and let them bathe in it for a few hours. I had a little doubt about the body. That hive had already had a tea bath before so would it not darken too much now it lay in tea for a second time? The result was that all the pieces came out in roughly the same colour. So that went well. Because I used a different tea than the first time it has a little reddish hue while the large hive is a bit more yellow. 

Then all that was left to do was to assemble all the pieces. I have used tacky glue for this last part. If I want to alter things in the future that may be easier to disassemble Ambrose than when using a thread and neadle. Because which threads do I have to cut then? The cape is not attached to the body with glue. That is just folded over his shoulders and tied together with the braided cotton between the two round beads on the ends. 

Lastly I used two headpins (vut short with yers) with the smallest head I could find in my stash of things. I could swear that the glass heads were of the same colour, but on the first and last photo in this post, you can see that Ambrose's right eye is in reality black while his left eye is blue. I think there is a song in that if the black eye was brown? ;-)

And not without a little pride I present you the newest addition to my family. We call him Ambrose. Does he not look lovely in his attire? He wants to be a bishop when he grows up. :-) 

Well that is it for now. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this post. Until next time.

Huibrecht 

A (terracotta) bust is a must

Hello my friends, welcome back. The last few years I have bought several kits and miniatures that only need to be finished. Looking at all those items to make or to finish there should be something that could be done while "in between miniatures". Then I saw the two busts I bought from Alison Davies last year.

A Roman emperor and a lady. Quite popular models by Alison Davies, cast in white resin. Often you see these finished as aged sandstone or marble. Beautiful, but I wanted something different, but what? Busts come in all kinds of materials besidse stone or marble. Just think of wood, (blackened) bronze, lead, pewter, (glazed) terracotta, painted porcelain, et cetera. You name it!

So  I wanted to try something new. A painted terracotta finish. Terracotta was used by artists for studies before the attempted cutting the bust in marble. It was also used for making copies.  For those who can work with clay it is a wonderfull material that can be teased into almost any shape or form.

There are probably very good articles and tutorials on creating a faux terracotta finish. But I could not find one. So I had to think up a method myself. Terracotta is not rjustone colour. but a range of different colour (tones and hues) Depending on the type of clay used the natural colour of the real material goes from soft grey to pink and from sandy yellows to a beige with a burgundy hue. That natural variety gives quite a lot of freedom. After I found pictures of good examples I tried to recreate their colour.

First I aplied an undiluted layer of acrylic paint called terra. As you can see for yourself, this looks way to orange! As if it came from a factory where they make brand new terracotta sewer pipes. yikes! I had expected this because this is meant as the basecoat to shine through the next layers. And so, after it had dried, I applied a second layer of pinkish beige. Something close to a light skin tone. 

The result looked quite promising colour wise. much better than the basecoat Unfortunately this colour did not come in matte finish. As you can see on the picture above it is way to shiny! It almost looks like it is glazed! Not good! I apllied a matte varnish but that dit not tone down the sheen in any way. So varnish was not going to help me with this.  

So what now? In a local store I found (vallejo) pigment powders used on miniature (train) diorama's and such. typically for ageing and such. This could help. I aplied a thin layer of medium and a dusting of the powder. When the medium dried I rubbed the bust with a soft cloth. I ended up with this as a result. Quite dark but it has that subdued sheen that (older) terracotta often has. 

The darkness in the last picture was replaced with a lighter result after it had fully dried (took quite some time) The end result can be seen on the picture above. I am very happy with the result. 

I also painted 2 1:24 vases. I followed the same steps but omitted the first step of painting them in terra like the bust. So the skintone paint was added directly on the resin vases. Because of poor light (it is a rainy day) it is a bit hard to see compared now, but their terracotta colour is actualy a bit paler and more yellow than the bust. Just like with gilding, the base colour affects the final outcome of the colour. 

I have enjoyed this little trial and error. The result is even better as I had hoped. I had expected to need to use more layers of paint to achieve this effect. And who knows some of you may benefit from it someday. :-)

Huibrecht 

Bzzzzy as a little bzzzzy bee.

 Hello my friends,

August has been a lost month for miniatures in my case. A heatwave with a record length (for the Netherlands) did not help. And before you know it, the month has gone and is replaced by september before I could blink with my eyes. September and even october went the same way. And now we are almost halfway november! 

So did I do nothing? Oh but I did do quite a lot. But little to do with miniatures and  nothing that I can show you here. I think I have been experiencing the "new build anxiety". Building a miniature house is new for me. And I am a risk-averse person. That is why I put so much effort making precise drawings for every room. And with little time and energy to actualy do building work last months, I made a list of everything I need to do to cpnstruct and finish a room. It has become quite a manual that will help me plan every step of the build. 

Because every room will be quite different from the others I will have to make a list catered to the specifics for every room. The idea of making such lists would drive some of you crazy (and rightfully so) but it has helped me enormously to visualise every step of the build and the ideal order in which every step should be followed to assemble each room. But I have not done nothing in mini. I worked on more floortiles and even more floortiles. ;-o

And I started on a beehive. I do not know yet where I will place it in or around the house It will not have garden or a courtyard (since it is surrounded by a moat). If no good opportunity will present itself, it can always end up in the attic. Or perhaps another project when the house is finished?

The construction is very simple. I used hemptwine and a cottonthread in a matching colour. I found a few handy tutorials in magazines. In reality these hives are made from loose grass/straw that is bound together into ropes. These ropes are wound into coils and fastened with strands of grass during the making of the beehive. 

The outside of the hive.

My problem was that both tutorials advise to use a cap or something similar as a mould around which you make the hive. I obviously buy the wrong household items because nowhere could I find a suitable mould. If the size was right, the shape was way off and vice versa. 

The coils are bound together by thread using the 'festonsteek' or blanketstitch. This gives straight lines on the outside instead of diagonal ones. Pretty! My experience in sewing and embroidery is virtually non existent so I found this quite exciting to do. After some trial and error I got the hang of it. Progress was quite slow but I enjoyed stitching the beehive nonetheless. 

The inside of the hive where the extra threads will be hidden from sight. 

After the last coil I turned the hemptwine inward and stitched it to the inside. I am quite happy with how it turned out but de colour of the cottonthread was too light and bright. It really stood out. So, on a friends advice I made some black tea.

One cup with very strong and dark tea for the beehive beehive, and one cup of tea for myself while waiting for the hive to soak away. 

And soak away, and soak away. This process for colorisation is quite slow. The upside of that is that is does not get too dark too quickly. And in this case I want to keep the grassy colour and not end up with an unnatural looking reddish brown hive. 

And here you have the result. The cotton thread and the hemp twine have darkened a bit but not too much. And the cotton has taken on more colour than the hemp so that they have practically the same colour. I am very happy with the result. I will make one or two more hives. 

Be well and stay healthy and safe! 

Huibrecht 

Collecting from home

Hello my friends, as summer progresses covid will not yet go away. Where in parts of America the first wave of the virus sadly still rolls on here in Europe a second wave is beginning to rise up. Let us hope that one or more of the vaccins that are being tested around the globe is soon found to be a good medicin to heal us and eradicate this threat. 

In the meantime we have to be careful. Careful for ourselves and those around us. I hope that all of you, and your loved ones, are healthy and safe and that you all may stay that way!

While working from home I have bought several miniatures the past few months. Made by several wonderful miniaturists or just run of the mill items. Some I saved up for, others I could snap up as soon as I saw them. Let us say that I have no budget for the remainder of the year. 🤫

First I want to show you the two dolphin shaped candlesticks. They are made in silver by Stephan Wein. They are quite decorative and delicate. I could not resist them as you may understand. 

The 4 urns are from the other end of the miniature scale. These are factory made halfscale vases cast in resin. But they look good. I want to decorate them so they can be used in the diningroom. Faux marble perhaps or silvered with leaf silver? What would you do?

Other miniatures which may very well end up in the diningroom are these Venetian glasses. Hand blown by Gerdt Felka. I love the red and White decorations on the stems of these glasses. Every fluted glass is different from the others. 

You may remember that I showed you a hunting rifle in my post "In front of the looking glass". I'm afraid that I have yet bought more fire arms. Dueling was a right of the upper classes. In the 17th century, pistols were added to swords as methods of seeking satisfaction for wrongs. Although luckily dueling pistols were sometimes more a status symbool than a means to harm ones opponent. Thousands of beautifully styled and carved firearms were stored in noble houses across the continent, waiting for the right insult to be levied against the owner or his associates.

Sir Zonneschut needs to have a decent pair of duelling pistol as well. although he probabaly inherited them. This mahogany case holds a pair of flintlock pistols made by the miniaturists Jim Watt. Sadly he died a few years ago, but he has made wonderful miniatures in his day. The double barreled rifle is also made by him. 

All metal parts, save the metal barrels are made of silver. All the flat areas are engraved, but the picture is sadly not sharp enough to show all the details. But you can see some of it. These will probably end up in sir Zonneschuts library.

Now sir Zonneschut has been spoiled enough with goodies. Lady Zonneschut deserves something equaly beautiful, if not more so. Right? The next miniature may by one of the smallest that I have bought, but it really outshines many others.

Let me zoom in on it so that you can see it for yourself. This is a silver brooch made by Sun from Nalladris. She specialises in replicating (historic) jewelry in miniature. It is a minute copy of a jewel from the 18th century. It is made out of silver and set with miniature silver pearls, (faux) pearls, and a green (faux) peridot gem. It measures only (just under) 8 millimeters in length. I simply love this little treasure. Don't you? 

Bijschrift toevoegen

As you may now, I am a big fan of the miniatures of Elisabeth Causeret. There are several miniaturists who make beautiful and delicate porcelain, but the crockery for daily use in the kitchens and larders was made of earthenware and stoneware. Simple and sturdy designs that cán be very beautiful in their own right. I also received an order of het beautiful stoneware and earthenware. Every piece was neatly wrapped and survived the transport from France to the Netherlands.

Above you can see my current collection of Stoneware from Cologne. Grey stoneware with blue glazed decorations were imported from Cologne since the 17th century, hence the name "Keuls Aardewerk". But stoneware like this was used, from the French Alsace Region to the Netherlands and made in several places in France and Germany. 

The low storage pots will be used to lay meats in salt or fat, covered with cloth or wooden lids. The high pots were often used for storing vegetables, beans et cetera in brine. Sometimes they were also used to store (vegetable) oil used for cooking and lighting. Every Dutch period larder and kitchen should have at least a few of these. The two jugs and the the two tankards in the foreground will get a place in the kitchen as well.  

And last but not least, a bunch of porcelain apothecary jars. These are mass producer and their lids do not even go off. I have an idea to turn them around so the black writing will no longer be invisible and embellish them with blue porcelain paint to give them another look. But that is a job for the near future since these are not destined for the east wing that I am currently building.

Well that' it for now. I hope that you like my purchases. 

Huibrecht 

"Wat er op de vloer omme-gaet" All that goes on on a floor. (encaustic tiles)

Hello my friends,

The title of this post 'wat om die vloeren omme-gaet' refers to the title for an article written by Eloy Koldeweij. It can be found on the site of the Dutch national Library and a very interesting read. (‘Wat er op de vloer omme-gaet’: poppenhuisvloeren en de realiteit) 

Medieval encaustic tiles

It focusses on Dutch flooring materials and fashions from the middle ages into the nineteenth century. The emphasis lies on the question if the cabinet houses from the 17th and 18th centuries are reliable contemporary sources for the variety of floors and (simulated) materials that they have. A very interesting read indeed! I have used this article as a reference while choosing the types of flooring for Huis ter Swinnendael.

My first attempt at encaustic tiles

If you have read my blogpost on the start of the build I start with the east wing of the house. The cellar of this wing will house the Stewards office and the cooking kitchen. Both rooms will have tiled floors with clay floortiles. All the rooms on this floor of Huis ter Swinnendael will be tiled. Only the servants entrancehall will have white marble on the floor.

While the stewards office will get a floor in two tones, grey and red, the kitchen floor will only consists of grey tiles.  But which pattern will I use for the Stewards office? As you can see in the picture above I have narrowed the choice down to four types of arrangements. Feel free to give me your opinion. 

 I made the different tiles out of terracotta or grey coloured airdrying clay. I rolled out the clay between two spacers to get an even thickness and let it dry until the clay is leathery but not yet hardened to a point where you can't cut it. It is a tip I picked up in one of my books on miniatures. Cutting the airdrying clay when still soft does not give clean lines because the thin sheet of clay tend to cling to the knife and come up of the table when you lift up the knife.

When all tiles are ready I will place them on the floor arranged in the chosen pattern. When the pattern is made to fit, I glue them on the floor of the room. When all has dried I will grout them quickly with filler and clean the excess filler right away as to not damage the tiles.

The fireplace in the rentmeesterskamer (Stewards office) will get small glazed tiles on its floor. These tiles will have slipware decorations and are called encaustic tiles. By 1675, when the house was built, this type of tiles were no longer fashionable and therefore no longer made. So these are likely to be recycled from the previous house which was destroyed in 1672. Encaustic tiles are best known from floors in churches and grand house from the midle ages and grand houses.

Various designs of encaustic tiles

Truth is that I like the real ( medieval/ renaissance) slipware tiles/ encaustic tiles so much that I wanted to include some of them in Huis ter Swinnendael. But I remained hessitant. 

When I found the posts of Daydreamer in her Blog (http://aboutmydollhouses.blogspot.com/search/label/Encaustic%20tiles) I saw that encaustic tiles look great in miniature. I then knew that I simply had to make some myself. She has made over 1300!!! encaustic tiles for the floor of the Great Hall of her castle. I have made a much smaller amount of tiles. 

I may make more though. I will likely use some of them for the floor of the larder too. But the larder lies in the West wing and will have to wait for now. 

First I drew some decorations to scale after some original tiles on pictures I have sourced on the internet. It helped me to make a choice between the many possible decorations that were made through the centuries. 

The encaustic tiles are made out of airdrying clay in the same way as the other tiles. They are 1x1cm in size. For the decorations I used white paint. The original tiles would be decorated by pressing it into the clay and then filling the indentations with white clay, sometimes coloured with pigment. 

Finaly the tiles are glazed with a satin gloss glaze with some cadmium yellow mixed into it. This gives them a realistic yellow hue. You can see the difference this glaze makes. For this picture I glazed only a small part of them and placed them between the still unglazed tiles. As these are recycled tiles I do not make all matching decorations but a nice range of different decorations. And not every tile is decorated. I am very happy with the result. I will glaze all of them twice berore installing them. That will deepen the colours even more. 

By now I also have made most of the larger floortiles for the rest of the floor. But that is for a next post. I hope that you have enjoyed reading this one and till next time. 

Huibrecht 

Cleanliness is next to godliness? I am too late for spring cleaning!

Hello my friends,

Today's topic is somewhat different from the previous ones. I wanted to make some cleaning materials for Huis ter Swinnendael for some time now. Last week I suddenly had the inspiration to do so. But it is begin july so summer has arrived. This means that it is too late for spring cleaning. Oh well, spring will come again next year. ;-)

A house like the one I'm building had a score of servants to run a smooth household. But to succesfuly clean a house they need more than a pair of hands and some elbow grease. They need tools to do the job! So here are a few that I made following several instructions/ tutorials that I gathered from various sources.

The buckets.
In the baby cabinets in the Dutch museums you often see wooden buckets in the attics and brass buckets in the kitchens. The brass buckets @were not used for cleaning the house. The are called "marktemmers" (market buckets) and were used to buy things as fish or meat and such. The metal of the buckets made sure that oils and juices from these items could not get into the bucket itself like with wood or cloth. And the metal was easlily cleaned afterwards. The general image of those periods is one of omnipresent filth and unhygienic circumstances, but that image should be nuanced quite a bit. They did not exactly understand how it worked but they understood more than period movies let us believe. ;-)

Most buckets were made of wood. Some were made of leather. The latter were mostly but not exlusively firebuckets. Filled with sand or water to be on hand when a fire had to be contained. Now I had some leather lying around that was too thick and tough to use for miniature upholstery. When I found an 18th century leather firebucket at an antique store in The Hague, I knew that was something the thicker leather would be ideal for.

So I started sketching, made a few patterns for the different elements out of cardboard and cut them out of the leather. Then I punctured a hole in each flap for attaching the handle for the bucket.

From there it was quite straight forward. I glued the bucket wall together, added the rim along the bottom and the one along the top. These rims have to be a bit larger of course. The seam is quite thick and visible. But that is rather realistic than a problem. The old bucket that I saw, (but was not allowed to make pictures of alas) was nailed together with large hobnails, just like the chairs with stretchers I showed you in january of this year.

To simulate these hobnails I used the same mini stickers I used on the chairs. Finaly I painted the inside of the bucket light blue and added No. 1 and No. 2 on them. (The antique firebucket had the number 4 painted on it in very decorative letters. When talking with the antique dealer I  learned that although firebuckets were more common in the 19th century and were more popular in Great Brittain than on mainland Europe, they existed in the Netherlands in the late 18th century. So I feel confident to use them and add them to the cooking-kitchen of Huis ter Swinnendael.

I also have an idea for wooden buckets. But my first attempt failed. So I will come back to you all with that one as soon as I get the result that I am after. :-)

The carpet beater/rug whip
Is that the right term in english? In dutch we call them "mattenkloppers" and as the name suggests, you beat carpets and rugs to get rid of the dust they have collected while lying on the floor or table. Before the age of the vacume cleaner every household had one. And into the late nineteen eighties they were still common in houses albeit used less and less. Now they have more or less become museum objects.
In the 18th and 19th centuries these objects were a nescessity. And with a house like Swinnendael... one rugbeater will not be enough.

The strength of a "mattenkloppers" is determined by the number of canes used to make them and the amount of interwoven loops that they have. 2 loops are for the light beaters, used for small rugs, 3 loops for the larger rugs and small carpets, and 4 loops for the  large and heavy carpets. those also often had 3 or four strands of cane instead of 2. 

I found a very useful tutorial for two types of mattenkloppers made with two strands and three loops. I made them both. And then  made one more. This time with three strands. Because this one already looks quite 'fat', I will not make more of those with three strands in the future. 

By the way, getting the loops right with every strand lying paralel and not folding over or switching places is at the same time relaxing and frustrating. And with three strands you certainly need a good dose of herbal tea to relax! ;-)
When you have a satisfying result for the beating part, you fixate it with a bit of woodglue diluted with water. When the glue has dried, smear the same mixture on the remaining strands and twist them together to form the handle. Let the glue/water dry to fixate the twisted wires in place. On both ends of the handle you wind some (cotton) thread in a matching colour and presto!

Brooms and Brushes
Could I forget these? Ofcourse not. Brooms and brushes exist since the first ancient civilisations. So we need several here too. I just made a few types. No conscientious choice or reason. I just made these as was my fancy, combined with the materials at hand. I used pictures of the museum dollshouses and several tutorials as a guide. The result is a nice start. But more will be needed. There used to be different (types of) brooms and brushes for floors, hearths, tables, upholstery, carpets et cetera. So there is still a lot to play with.

The long handled brushes are made of thootpicks and hemptwine. Here the twine is 'forked out' with a needle to seperate the strands. The tutorial for this one I found on facebook. The white twine could be soaked in strong cold tea to give it a used look.

The twig brush is copied from the babycabinet of Petronella Oortman in the Rijksmuseum. This type of tough brush seems to be used to clean out the hearths or cleaning pavements. So we definately need one in the cooking kitchen for sure! The 'twigs' are dried stalks bound together with some twine and ruffled a bit to make it look used instead of new. In the Petronella Oortman babycabinet there are also twig brooms in the cellar. These brooms are for a next post though.

Well that is it for now. I hope that you enjoyed reading this post and hopefully until next time. 

Huibrecht

A great occasion for a miniature occasional table

Way back in 2018, I tried my hand at wood turning. I did not have a lathe back then but used an old machine drill to work on some beech roundwood we had lying around in our shed. One piece came out like this. A balustre shaped table leg meant for an occasional table.

But before I could make the rest of the table I moved on to another mini project and a lot of other things followed in suit. In short I forgot all about this table leg. Not every line on it is straight and I can probably do better (and I will, there is a lot more that I want to make on that lathe.) but I simply can't discard it. So a table it will become.

I drew a little scroll shaped leg on a pièce of beechwood. Then glued two more pieces onto it and cut out three legs with my fretsaw.Since glueing a straight surface on a round one will not be very succesful, I put each of the scroll feet in my vice and with a round needlefile I rounded the surface in order for them to fit the turned leg better when glued onto each other.

I also drew two different shapes of table tops on a piece of softwood and cut that out. I decided on using the round top. Then I used a file to smoothe the top edges of the table top and the scroll legs.  Now the 3 scroll legs, the balustre leg and the table top are all glued together and we have a table!

It is a small table which is used as a candle stand or something like that. In auction catalogue this size of occasional table is also called a wine table. Probably because it is large enough for a glass of wine (or port) and a good, albeit medium sized book. :-)

After aplying two coats of gesso and sanding it, it was time for some decoration. After the Brown wooden pieces it is time for a splash of colour. The basecoat is a mixture of cadmium yellow which is mixed with titanium white into a soft, creamy yellow. When it had dried I used alizarine crimson for adding details. 

After painting the table I still had a lot of paint on my palet. A shame to let it go to waste, now would it not? Next I took the candlestand I had put together earlier. It is a 'The House of Miniatures' kit that Mrs. M. had kindly given me. I turned the colours around and added pale yellow decorations on a crimson base. 

I am not sure yet if the occasional table and the candle stand  will end up downstairs or upstairs . For now the Steward may have them. speaking of the steward, his office is progressing but very slowly. Making around 800 tiles for the 2 floors is taking a lot more time than I thought. Here is a little 'sneak peek' though. The arches will be filled in with raised windowseats and behind that wil come the outer wall with the windows inserted into it.

Well thats it for now. I hope that you have enjoyed this little post and till next time! 

Huibrecht