Build in progress: Lady Zonneschut's dressingroom, the panneled walls

Hello My friends,

In january 2021 I first posted on the building of Lady Zonneschut's dressingroom. It will be a small room. In Dutch these are called "kabinet" or "kabinetje" and were private rooms used for all sorts of purposes. Dressing rooms, study's, boudoirs et-cetera.

This picture shows my original plan for the room. A bit bland to be honest. Lady Zonneschut's dressingroom/boudoir deserves a bit more grandeur. 

so I changed it for green painted panneled walls with the large panels filled with painted landscapes with birds and other animals. 

We in the Netherlands experience now the first step out of lockdown with reopened shops. But I started this room during full lockdown where all but essential shops were closed. 

The dressingroom is my lockdown project so to speak. And when I started it was very difficult to get materials. So I had to make do with all the material I had in my stash. That was not a lot. I was/am espescially short on trims and mouldings. 

And that is a setback if you want a room covered in luxurious panneling. But then I thought of a back of bamboo skewers we have for making saté and other BBQ dishes. Summer is still a few months away, so why not use those?  I have two types. One type with a 3 mm diameter, and one thinner type with a 2 mm diameter. Using them together could work. 

After adding all the pieces there were some gaps to fill. After filling those and sanding what needed sanding the walls were ready for painting. All the panneling received a first coat of green. I had three soft green chalk paints to choose from. I chose Sage Green. The frieze near the ceiling was painted white to match the ceiling which will be made later. 

The large panels are left largely white. These will be filled in with prints of the painted wall hangings. After the wall with the window I painted the other three walls as well. And now the appearance of this kabinet turned from this... 

Into this...  The big white open corner on the right is where the corner fireplace will go. But that is a subject for a next post. 

Till then. Stay healthy and safe. 

Huibrecht 

To get ahead on heads. An old saint a ram and a horse....and an easter egg...

Hello My friends, 

No this is not meant as a scene á la the Godfather where one wakes up with a marble horsehead in ones bed. Nor is it about the remains of a butchered nativity scene. Nothing of the sort, my friends. 

Last year I bought two silver candlesticks with fishes made by Stephan Wein. (I did not by the shell tazza between them) 

He exhibits at the Kensington/Londen dollhouse festival and has a shop on Etsy. He is a goldsmith by trade who also makes miniatures. His miniatures are not run of the mill items and quite gorgeous. The prettiest of those are things you have to save up for, unfortunately, but they are worth it. And this year I allowed myself to buy one more of them. 

As you may know a private catholic chapel will be added to Huis ter Swinnendael. Every chapel needs some silverware for the altar et cetera? One or two reliquary's and saint's statues would also not go amiss. But that is easier said than done. 

I had my eye on this old carved and painted ivory head of a bearded man on a base of silver and ebony. It was described as a saint's head and looks the part. However In my eye it missed something. I asked Stephan if it was possible to add a kind of halo to it. He agreed and made sketches of two different kinds of halo's. We agreed one of them and Stephan added the halo to the statue.

The result is stunning in my opinion. I first wanted a golden halo but Stephan advised me to choose silver because that would fit better with the existing statue. And seeing the result I can say that in my opinion he is absolutely right. I love the result! But which saint does it represent? Noone knows. So I am free to choose some obscure local saint.

The Ram's head and the Roman horse's head are made by Karl Blindheim. He lives in Canada and makes beautiful miniature sculptures. Mostly of animals but also plants and human forms. 

I saw these pieces on facebook and asked if these two heads were (still) for sale. They were and the price was luckily just within budget. Apart from being two stunning pieces, the charm for me lies in the fact that these are heads of animals. Several busts of humans, made of clay, metal, plaster and resin are for sale. But animal heads are quite rare. And now I've got two of them for the small but growing collection of antiquities of sir Zonneschut. 

The last item has nothing to do with heads, but I will show it anyway.  It is a mini Fabergé egg made by Sun from Nalladris. The photo above shows the original Rose trellis egg, made by Fabergé and given by tsar Nicolas II to his wife for easter in 1907.

Wait, what? A 1907 egg in a 1805 setting? Yes you are right. You are absolutely right. It is an anachronism and does not fit in the period of Huis ter Swinnendael...

However that may be, I love these eggs. Sun has a few eggs made in miniature, and I intend to collect all the ones that I love. One per year, for easter. And although I strive to make the house and collection both fit into the style and period chosen, it is not intended as a period museum and one or two anachronisms should not spoil the overall effect. 😁 And it helps that a lot of Fabergé eggs were inspired by older styles and periods. So it fits somewhat, kinda, a bit, enough... 

Unfortunately, due to a delay in the postal service the egg did not arrive until after easter. But I am not less happy to add it to my collection.

I hope that you will like my new treasures too. 

Huibrecht 

Furniture: More screens

Hello my friends,

I showed you all a post in 2019 where I showed you how I made a 1:12 folding screen or paravent. As you may know I am part of a small facebook group where we all build our own 'castle room'. Apart from monthly assignmemts every member gives the group a workshop.

In the current covid situation these are held via chat. Crafting in front of the computer while trying not to glue yourself to the keyboard.

As you may have guessed my workshop was about making an antique folding screen, fit for a castle. It is the first ever workshop I have written and given. It was great fun to do and people have made great folding screens.

To make the written description for the workshop I needed pictures to show each step. And for that I needed good pictures. 

So I made a second screen for the purpose of the pictures. And during the workshop I made a third one. So now I have 3 folding screens for Huis ter Swinnendael. With 22 rooms I probably find a good place for every one. 

Unfortunately I can not show you the great screens the participants made, but I can show you mine. On the picture above you can see all three together. 

Huibrecht