Egyptian Revival

I have always been fascinated by Egypt and as a child wanted to be an Egyptologist, an archeologist specialising in Egypt. I ended up Fashion Designer , studying at St Martins and working in Paris. I have often seen pyramid shaped furniture, especially bookcases in grand houses and dreamnt of making one full size, so here is my dream in miniature instead. 

 After working out the scale I chose this odd piece of paper covered plywood which was part of a dollhouse kit given to me by my good friend Chantal along with 20 kilos of furniture and accessories found in a friends garage!

 Here I have cut and glued the main body using the drawing as a guide and building blocks to help me line up.

 Adding the backing, here I chose Balsa, not my favorite wood but it has its uses.

 Given the odd shape some filling was needed. After trying wood paste I reverted to plain wall filler. The shelves are just wedged in as a test.

 After trying different feet I realised that the piece had to have a solid base instead.

 The assembled piece with a pyramid top made from four triangles of balsa, very tricky! Next time I will just carve out a solid piece.

 The back in balsa. I think that the proportions look quite good.

 Here I added strips of kraft card to the cut edges of the plywood before painting as ply doesn't take a good finish.

 I initially wanted to line the bookcase in 18 the century style paper and paint the outside in a pale colour but on seeing this old French map from 1935 printed in 1945 I decided it was more in keeping and more fun!

 To prevent the kraft from 'drinking' in the paint I painted it with a wood glue/water mix and allowed it to dry before sanding. The glue had the effect of making the card very hard but sealed it well.

 I chose to paint the piece with Farrow & Ball, 'Breakfast Room Green ' to complement the map colours.

 Looking slightly chunky in this bad light here is the finished bookcase with a black base and top. I skipped a shelf so it could hold some objects, finding it to look like something found in a Cabinet de Curiosity.

 Another view, photographed against a lovely paper found in an old damaged book.

 The stained walnut back with the label from the map reading 'Tirage de Mai 1945 ' or 'Printed in May 1945' for the non French speakers.

 Here I sort of filled it with the things you would find in a 'cabinet de curosity' to see how it worked.

Some of the pieces used. The religious statues are flea market finds, used as 'portable' saints. The obelisks I made from airclay and marbled. The red coral is also in clay on a card base but the white coral is real, found on a beach. The ostrich egg also clay but on a spindle and clay base. The tiny Buddhas came from Thailand via Etsy as did the architectural model which is in fact a 3d printed key ring from Etsy painted in off white and mounted on a painted balsa base. The store is called 'The Temple Store' on Etsy and the guy makes printed versions most of Americas old buildings, mainly churches.