To gild the Lily

Hello my friends, 

My last post of this year is about gilding. To gild the lily means “to add unnecessary ornamentation to something beautiful in its own right.” This little frame may not need goldeaf applied to it, but I decided to do so none the less. :-) just some harmless unnecessary ornamentation... In the picture below you can see the frame in its original state. 

There are more blogs where this process is shown and on Youtube Josje has a series of 3 short video's where she explains the process in English very clearly. (the link brings you to the first of the three video's.) So I will only tell about the gilding process itself in broad strokes.  please watch these or other tutorial (video's) if you want to try applying goldleaf yourself. With a little practice it really is not that difficult!

The portrait above is of 'Lilly' Liliane Zonneschut. An imaginary ancestor of Sir Carel Polyander Zonneschut. I can't find where I got the picture of the portrait from, so I can not say who really made the portrait of this young woman in a blue dress posing as Artemis, Greek Goddes of the hunt. You have seen this portrait before on my blog. Last year to showcase the silvery frame and last week she  peeked around the corner in my short Christmas post. 

The frame surrounding Liliane is a little silver plated frame that mimics the sometimes heavily carved 17th century baroque frames. But to really mimic it, it had to be a gilded frame. 

Up to now I used gold paint to add some luster to a miniature. Gold paint works well on several occasions, but sometimes goldleaf is just better/prettier. My partner gave me a starterset for gilding for my birthday this year and I really wanted to try it before the year was over. 

After cleaning and degreassing the surfaces to gilt, I added the red coloured goldsise. the colour mimics that of Bole clay that was originaly used. the deep red shines (very delicately) through the slightly translucent gold leaf and enriches the colour of the endresult. I have read that the hue of the gold is different when you use a white, or green or other undercoat. Red is said to give the most satisfying result, and I believe them. because this is not real gold leaf but gold coloured leaf metal (I will buy the real stuff once I am trough the leaves that come with the starter kit) I had to apply a coat of fixative which works like a varnish to protect the leafmetal from corroding over time. 

Next it was Liliane her turn to get a little makeover. Unfortunately I do not recall where I found this picture, but I love this young girl in her pale blue satin dress, posing as the goddess of the hunt. She looks no older than 14 or 15 years but her expression shows a great self awarenss. The real lady was probably not a push over, and rightly so! To fit in the frame, however, I had to cut away the greyhound on the right, which is a shame, but oh well, it is what it is. 

To give this print more the resemblance of an oilpainting I tried two different methods I have read about online and in dollshouse magazine articles. First method was using Modge Podge or woodglue. Apply a thin layer on the print and use a brush to dabb and swirl to create the illusion of brushstrokes. The sheen of the translucent dried glue would give the appearance of old varnish. 

I do not have Modge Podge so I resorted to using woodglue. The result above was not satisfying. The transparency workes well but the bubbles and the blodges look appalling. I may have used too much glue. I will try again with less glue to see how that goes.

But first I tried using gloss varnish. First I added a thin and even layer on the print. When that had dried I added a second and thicker layer and used the brush to dabb and push it around over the portrait. This dried up in the way you can see in the picture above. I really like the result. Unless the second try with woodglue wins me over, this will be my method for working over prints of paintings.

I am very happy with the result. I already have more projects in mind to gild. The gold paint on the putti candlestands or gueridons I have made would look better when properly gilded. Don't you think? But that is a project for 2022.

I wish you all a good Newyear my friends. May 2022 bring health and good fortune to you all!

Huibrecht

  

Merry Christmas 2021

Hello my friends, 

This year is almost at an end. How it has flown by! You may have noticed that after the move to our new house the frequency of posts here have dropped considerably. These past few months have been busier than the rest of an already busy year. 

Since the move mid october I have had only 1 afternoon where I could work on miniatures in my new craft room. So apart from visiting the dollshouses in the museum in Lier and the miniatures show in Rijswijk, my hobby has virtualy been in a standstill. 

But no reason to moan about the recent mini time shortage. A new year is approaching and I have a lot of ideas for Huis ter Swinnendael. 

But back to Christmas. At blogspot, Facebook and Instagram I see a lot of your beautiful and spectacular mini rooms and houses with Christmas decorations. 

At the moment I still have only a mini nativity scène of tiny carved pieces of white marble in a basalt pyramid. So I made a small scène in the picture above. Having to do without a Christmas angel I have hercules to keep a protectie eye on the mini manger. For next year I want to make some garlands and ribbons and such in order to properly decorate at least one room for Christmas. 

But for now I wish you all a merry and festive Christmas! May you all have a wonderful time together with your loved ones! 

Huibrecht 

A dollshouse exhibition in De Lier

 

Hello my friends,

The picture above is the first class staircase of the Titanic, made by Cees van der Weide. unfortunately it is not mine. ;-).  knowing what happened to that ship in april 1912 this 'empty' roombox has an eerie feel to it. You can imagine everybody being on deck after the ship had hit an iceberg. To me it shows a silent scene before the realisation had et in to the people looking at the iceberg dissapearing in the darkness of the night, and the sailors and stewards running around, that the ship had already started to sink. 

Why show this beautiful roombox? Last saturday I went to a small town called De Lier. It is a half hour drive away from my new home. (coïncidentally also a half hour drive from my last house.) 

I read in a dollshouse magazine that in museum 'De Timmerwerf' in De Lier, the former carpenters workshop that was in business from early the 17th century up to 1996(!) there was a temporary exhibition of dollshouses and rooms in miniature.

So Naturaly I wanted to take a peak. Although the museum is not that large, the exhibition showed a lot of houses , roomboxes and vignettes. It was a lovely display of the ingenuity and variety that miniaturists show in their work. So many different subjects, styles and ages were shown there.

For me it was  very inspirational to visit this exhibition. Below I show you only a few of the many items on show.

Here you see cells and the 'interrogation room' of De Gevangenpoort, an ancient prison a gatehouse which is now a museum in The Hague. One of the other historic interiors showed this lovely 17th century style kitchen. Great stuff for inspiration of the kitchens in Huis ter Swinnendael. 

But also modern interiors like the Roombox and the house in the next two pictures. Much of what you see here is hand made from scratch! I could show you much more if only my pictures were any good! but these two give a good idea of the quality shown.

None of the houses and interiors were made for commercial purposes. These are all prised possessions of crafters and collectors of miniatures like you and me. The exhibition really showed that us miniaturists don't just make the same stuf in 100 variations. The people who assembled the exhibition really have an eye to combine so many different thems without it becoming a circus. It was quite tasteful indeed. 

 There were also several items with am exotic touch like this Japanese restaurant. Unfortunately my picture of the Chinese antique dealer (different maker) was blurred because that was a roombox where you kept descovering new treasures when you thought you had seen it all. 

The picture above and the picture below show a nice contrast. the contrast between a classic interior that could be the music room of a "snob", complete with a buste of Queen Victoria and a potrait of Queen Sophie of the Netherlands (first wife of King William III). And on the other hand the possible mess wherin a "slob" spends his or her days. The last room shows a level of distressing and aging I have not yet dared to try myself.

And last but not least there were also some lovely little scenes with miniatures with this 'painters bike and an old chest filled with books. 

You can imagine my friends that I enjoyed myself thoroughly while watching this exhibition. And although it is a small museum it was filled with people who came for the museum itself and the exhibition. Nice to see so much interest in the work of local miniaturists and collectors!

Huibrecht