Some Summery Hats, for lady Zonneschuts pleasure

Hello My friends,

Finally I had an afternoon to myself that I could spend on miniatures. It is high time to add some more personal items to the dressing room of Belle Zonneschut than just pieces of furniture and art.  For Belle this little room is her personal sanctuary after all. It needs personal items! 

I have a beautiful wig (made by Annemarie Kwikkel Smit) for in the small pink wig (powdering) room attached to the dressing room. Why not add a few summery hats to help furnish it? When she goes walking in the gardens or horse riding on the Zonneschut estate she can not venture outside without a hat that fits the occasion. 

For the two hats that I have made today I have used a lovely little tutorial from Ann Wood's blog: Handmade. 

If you want to make your own hats with this simple but very effective method, please check the link by clicking her name in the previous sentence. Her tutorial is well written so there is no benefit in repeating it here step by step. I will therefor only tell you the bare essentials. There are more tips and tutorials on her site. Why not check it out? 

Just for the record: I am not asked or payed to say this. I found the tutorial by chance and like to share it with you here. Now lets get back to my attempt at hatmaking!

Anne uses cheese cloth for these litlle hats. I happened to have a torn piece of cheese cloth lying around. I had not yet gotten round to throw it away, so that was a lucky coïncidence. I mixed paint ( a mixture of white with small parts of yellow ochre, burnt umber and ivory black), with woodglue to obtain a straw like colour. The mixture strenghtens and straightens the cloth when you brush it on the cheese cloth. If you want to make white hats or dye the cloth with coulour baths, just use the glue without added paint! 

For the crown of the hat you wrap it around a ball or a pen or whatever, as long as it has the apropriate width for the hat to fit on a 1:12 head. I used the straight cap of a nail varnish bottle. And then you paint the sides of the crown down to where you want it to end. The height of the crown depends on the type of hat you want to make.

Letting the painted cheese cloth dry completely was difficult to do. simply because I did not want to wait and the air here was very humid because of some summer storms and spells we've had over here these last few days... 

So when dry to the touch but not fully hardened, I started with the next step and painted the rest of the cloth. First the top side and when that had dried sufficiently, a second layer on the bottom side. This will become the brim of the hat. Finally you cut off the excess material.

After a few hours of painting and waiting, I had something like the picture above. I have trimmed off the excess around the edges and now it was already time to decorate the hats and give them their final shape. I made two different models. 

The first is a tricorne hat. Around 1800 this was still a popular model that was worn by ladies in a smaller model than usual for men. After glueing om a piece of ribbon I pushed back the brim on three sides and fixed them with a little dollop of glue. With the remainder of the ribbon I made a small bow which I stuck on with the cut off end of a pin. The pearly pink head of the pin is perhaps a bit too big, but i like the colour together with the red and the white of the ribbon. 

The second hat is inspired by the flat bergeres made of straw. Also very fashionable in the second half of the 18th century. By the way. If you feel that it looks somewhat modern, you are not far off. These bergeres saw a resergence in the 50's by the hands of Christian Dior for example. 

Originally these hats are inspired by the simple wide brimmed hats of sheppardesses (bergères). The bergeres worn by the 18th century aristocratic ladies were a more sophistigated. This second hat has a wider brim than the tricorn and is slightly oval in shape. Being wider in the front than in the back. The crown is only half the height of the tricorn for example. A fine blue silk ribbon finishes it all off. 

Et voila! One hat for walking in the gardens, and one for a gallop through the countryside! Or sit pretty for a few hours for a portrait in pastels...

Huibrecht

P.S. the next hat should be one made of silk!

Visiting grand houses: from hunting lodge to summer palace.

Hello my friends, 

Usually I post around 2 items per month. But not last may. It was a very busy month with little time for miniatures. But I did manage to visit a grand house for miniature inspiration. A very grand house indeed. Because we may call this house a palace. 

On a sunny and delightful day, late in may, I went to visit 'Paleis het Loo' near the city of Apeldoorn. In dutch the word "loo" has nothing whatsoever to do with a water closet or indoor plumbing. No, it means an open space, or clearing in a wooded area. 

In the 17th century the countryside in this part of the Netherlands was largely wild and uncultivated. Mainly moors, heather and woodland with an abbundance of game. When William and Mary (before they succeeded to the English throne) built a hunting lodge here, to escape the summers in The Hague, the original house only consisted of the higher central part with the flagpole on top. Soon it was extended with the two paired pavilions on either side. The lower wings on either side of the open front court housed the stables, kitchens and such.

It was never built as a royal summer palace, but with the elevation to king and queen of Great Brittain it became as such. However, after the elevation they hardly spent time in the netherlands anymore. So William directed his attention to (re)building palaces in England. 

Hampton Court is for example the best example of their plans that were (partly) executed. (partly because in the initial plans for Hampton Court all they Tudor wings would have been demolished to make way for the new palace Wren had designed for William & Mary. 

But back to 'Het Loo'. The palace as we see it today, including the gardens is as true to the palace as possible as it would have been when William & Mary last saw it. Practically all later additions and extensions in the 19th and early 20th century have been demolished or removed. 

If we were to visit the palace in 1914 for example, you would see an extra floor added on the central part (the corps de logies) and on all the pavilions. All the external walls would have been plastered white, and a large wing with grand reception rooms and (guest) appartments were built on top of the former private garden of Mary. The baroque gardens had been destroyed and replaced by a landscape garden in the English style. 

The visitor in 1914 would hardly recognise what he sees today as being the same palace. All those later alterations have been removed and turned back to the 17th century state as far as that was possible. The only 19th and early 20th century additions that remain are the royal interiors appartments in the west wing.

In the east wing and the 'corps the logies' (the original central building) most interiors are restored back to their 17th century appearance. One of these beautiful rooms is the old diningroom you see above an below. In this palace they use the terms "old" and "new" according the functions of rooms before or after the paired pavilions were added to enlarge the palace. So before the additions this was the dining room. Later it became the ante chamber to the new diningroom.

One of the details they have brought back are these doors with the tapestry pulled away. After the original restauration in the 1980's this door was hidden from view by the tapisties. Now it has returned to show how the room was used. While dining the door would not be used and the tapestry would hung as a curtain to obscure the door from view. With the latest restauration they brought this original feature back in view.

And where there is an old diningroom there is also a new diningroom. And here it is. Bigger than the old one. The collumns and the balustrade (partially removed for the walkway for visitors) divided the area where William & Mary and their guests dined, from the 'gallery' where the dishes would be served from and where the (marble) wine coolers stood. The trompe l'oeil vases on the back wall are actualy doors behind which cutlery and tableware to lay the tables with were stored. The door in the back, where the lady dressed in white is standing, opens up to the corridors that eventualy leads to the kitchens where all the food was prepared. 

And when you think of a palace, you think of a picture gallery or a long gallery.  This is said gallery in Paleis het Loo. Not nearly as large as it's counterpart in Hampton Court, but that was built as a royal palace, and this house was only 'elevated' to that role after it was built. And to stay on the subject of food.... This gallery was used as a diningroom too when the number of dinner guests would 'royally' exceed the capacity of the new diningroom. :-)

Speaking of old and new. This room above is the new bedroom of princess Mary or the Queen Mary bedroom. You have guessed it by now. This room lies in one of the 17th century extensions and the 'old' bedroom when she stil was 'merely' a princess was situated in the original building, the corps the logies. Exactly! We'll get to that room later. 

Unfortunately I forgot to take picture of the room in its entirety so I can only show you this corner of the room. This room shows an extraordinarily beautiful two poster bed, or a 'lit d'ange' as the french call it, the floating canopy looks as if it is held up by invisible angels...  

One room that has considerably changed since the last restauration is this salon in Mary's appartment. The white plaster ceiling you see here is an 18th century addition that was left untouched. But the rest of this room has changed considerably. The picture below shows you how the same room has looked since the previous restauration in the 1980's. 

Apart from the ceiling the rest of the room is restored to its 17th century splendour, including the loosely draped bright red wall hangings. The stretched panels we are acustomed to (like the blue and gold in the picture from internet above) only started to appear in the 18th century when these became permanent fixtures of rooms. 

Hoi Up and until the time of William and Mary the cloth wall hangings were only attached at the top of the wall. Easy to take down again when the princely (and later royal) couple and their court left again after the season to reside in another palace. In the 17th century these fabrics were still too rare and expensive to leave behind. And so these were taken off the wall and taken with them each time the court moved to another residence. 

And here is Mary's 'old' bedroom. I love the painted ceiling very much. It is painted as a tromp l'oeul. Suggesting that you look through the open ceiling into a suggested space above. You can see beyond the oval balustrade into a domed space above. Very grand. The top pieces here are the set of a table and mirror flanked  by two gueridons. In the Dutch Republic of the second half of the 17th century a set like this was thé thing to have in a main room. The epiphany of fashion and refinement.

The next room I want to show you is the large reception room. Here the prince greeted important visitors and ambassadors during the day and receptions and dances were held here. Mind you. Not bad for a building that was only meant as a summer retreat to go hunting...

Interior decorating being the slave of symmetry in that period, the windows on the courtyard side are 'mirrored' with windows filled with mirror glass. 

Can you imagine a group of people in court dress dancing the night away with the light of candles being reflected in the mirrors and gilt surfaces? I can...

These small rooms in the pictures above and below are some of the private cabinets in the palace. Cabinet here means a small, private room, where only a select group of friends, family and servants were allowed to enter. And in some cases noone without the express invitation of the owner. The dressingroom (although that room is a bit too big to be a proper dutch cabinet room) and the wig room are meant as such private little rooms.  

There is a lot more to see here than the rooms I've showed you. But I have limited myself to some of the rooms that have been restored to their 17th century look. For now I ignored the sumptious late 19th century interiors in the opposite wing where king William III and later his daughter queen Wilhelmina lived during the 2nd half of the 19th century in the summer months. Great rooms but not interesting for Huis ter Swinnendael.

The immense restauration operation of the last 5 years does mean that quite a few changes/additions from the 18th and early 19th century have disappeared in order to reveal or bring back 17th century remnants. A pity on one hand. But stil a spectacular museum.

After the palace it was time for the gardens. Here you can see some of them from the roof terrace on top of the central corps de logis. This may feel like a modern addition but the terrace is actualy an original feature of the palace from the start. 

Here Queen Mary and her ladies in waiting would sit in the shade of a canopy on hot summer days. From here they would have view on her husband and his friends galopping in the woods outside the palace garden on their many hunts.

Speaking of her, if she did not wish to go to the public portion of the gardens she could withdraw to her private garden. This you can see in the picture above. Her privste parterre and on the far right you see a part of the berceau. The covered walkway where the ladies could walk without the risk of losing their pale aristocratic teint.

And with these last to pictures I'll leave you on your own in this garden. After the Batavian revolution the high maintanance baroque garden was turned into a romantic landscape garden. For the first restauration in the 1980's they had to dig out the filled in lower garden. They were astonished when they found most of the statues, fountain heads and ornamental vases, long lost, buried there and with only minor damages. So most of the statues and fountains here are original. The rest recreated acording to the plans and drawings found in the archives.

P.S. this is going to be quite a royal summer for me by the way. In july and august I have been given the chance of visiting the 'Paleis op de Dam' in Amsterdam and 'Paleis Noordeinde' in The Hague. 

Contrary to 'Paleis het Loo' these palaces are stil in use by the royal family. Normaly they are not open to the public. But since a few years a select number of tickets are available in the summer months. They are often sold out quickly. But this year I was lucky with both palaces. Of course I will share the pictures of those visits with you all.

Be well! 

Huibrecht

Painting porcelain. A charming prince on a white horse! I mean a Unicorn...

Hello my friends,

 It was again time for another lovely workshop painting miniature porcelain. On the first weekend of june our usual group got together to work on our miniature projects. 

After all the tile tableaux that I made last year it was high time for making a few plates again. Miniature copies of two Dutch majolica plates from the 17th century. 

And something that is very unlike me, their decoration consists of brown and yellow. A colour combination I really do not like. But, I love the decorations on these plates and want make them resemble their originals as closely as I can. So, combining brown and yellow it is!

What I like about the originals is that the plate depicting prince William III, has a design I have never seen before of William III. The composition with the draped curtains and the  plumed helmet echoes the tile tablaux of prince Maurits & prince Frederik-Hendrik (both his great uncles) I made last year. 

Just as rare is the acronym PW3 which stands for 'Prince William the third'. Most plates depicting this William have KW3 (King William the third) or WR (William Rex). Those plates are made after the Glorious Revolution (1688) when the protestant William & Mary took over the English throne from her father King James.

So first we cut out a picture of the plates to size. Colours the back with pencil and stick it onto a plate.(2nd picture) Then we trace the basic lines with a pen to transfer them onto the plate. (2nd picture)

The next step is retracing the lines with porcelain ink. And add some of the decorations on the rim. (3d picture) when the ink has dried we fill in the colour with porcelain paint. First brown then yellow. One peculiarity of the Prince William III plate is that the decorative rim is not decorated by adding paint, like with the unicorn plate, but by scratching lines into the dried paint.  Thus revealing the white porcelain underneath. I tried a needle for this but that sadly would not work. A wooden toothpick did do the job. This made lines that actualy are too thick for a 1:12 version of the original but better than no scratched out decoration.

For me this was a whole new technique and the second reason for me to try and miniaturise this particular plate of prince William III.  More Details need to be added but first these plates have to be fired in the kiln. 

At this point I still had some time left and started on a wide bowl that I wanted to decorate in the style of the picture above. Not an exact copy this time, but a spontanious design inspired by this 'kraak porselein'. 

I only had time to ink the outside of the bowl. The inside and the painted details on both sides wil have to wait until the next workshop in oktober. 

Well  that's it for now. Take care,

Huibrecht 

Furniture: A diva's day bed. The frame

 

Hello my friends,

In my last post on the dressingroom you could see the card stock 'yogamat' lying on the floor of the room. It was a place holder for the day bed I want to make for this room. 

In my mind this room is a cosy place for Belle to retire to during the day when she feels like doing so. In her day this day bed is almost a 100 year old heirloom. But too comfy to replace it. Since noone will (dare) enter this room uninvited (not even Carel Polyander), there is no need for the interior to be fashionable nor impressive. Just cosy and personal. 

I have a kit for a House of Miniatures Chippendale style day bed. Notwithstanding the quality of the kit, I do not like this model. But the cabriole legs are great. Taking these as a starting point, and finding two more matching corner legs to replace the straight legs belonging to the kit's back rest... well, the game was afoot!

I'm so happy that I found the needed cabriole legs! Normally I sand them to round off all the cornersI.  But here I chose not to do so. Because I needed some straight sides to fix the stretchers to with glue.

Here I'm using street ahead spindles as stretchers between the legs add some support. I choose these particular spindles because of their length of 5 cm (+/- 2 inch) and their thickness of only 3 mm. Most spindles of this length are thicker. They probably work as well but I like the more delicate look of these.

After the woodglue has dried, I need to paint the wooden parts of the frane that will remain visible. And because the woodglue will prevent me from staining this piece in a nice uniform colour, I will paint it. And for the colour scheme I want to use the cream base colour with the crimson coloured decorations like I did on this small table with a leg turned by me already a few years ago. 

The cream colour is the tough bit to recreate because it is a mixture of paints I did not write down at the time. I know the colours used. But not the exact quantities of each colour. After some trial and error I have come very close to the original colourmix. If I may say so myself.

I test it on a new table top first. Because I have always felt that the original round table top was too small for the table. This small oval table top from a mini mundus kit is larger and I think it is better suited on this table. 

After the coat of paint on the oval table top has dried, I add another tiny tiny bit of cadmium yellow to the mixture and paint the frame for the daybed and repaint the table top.  When dry, I sand it, clean it, and give the frame a second coat of paint. 

When that coat of paint has dried as well I start decorating it with Alizarine Crimson. (Mind you, could that not have been a great name for a witch in Harry Potter!) I started with the design on the right leg. And then painted a variant on the left leg. The decoration on the right looked too much like a squished scorpion to me. So the one on the left it will be. 

The decorations on this frame, Just as with the small ocasional table are inspired by William & Mary pieces. And now it is time for the upholstery! But that is for the next post!

Huibrecht