Hot and bothered

As the whole word probably knows we are having a huge heatwave here in France. I cannot say how ill I feel as in the shade it's above 30 °C !! There is no escaping from it even inside what is usually a cool house. I had plans but until I get my body temp down a bit it's all on hold. 

I wanted to show some recent things and workings meanwhile. 

I found this frame on eBay, it came as is with a crack and not backing. I thought it looked quite baroque and needed some gilding. I haven't really gilded before so it was an experiment.

I fixed the crack with Gorilla Glue then gave it a coat of gesso white then a coat or red bole colour as a background for the gold.

Here a coat of gilding primer, a bit too much, I did take some off, it seemed to froth!

Then down to the gilding. NOT easy. The gold leaf came in tiny sheets from India, you can see on the left the pages. I thought I was getting a great bargain until the sheets arrived so tiny but in the end for minis it's better.

Here I brushed on some lacquer to seal the gold then some dark paint to age it. 

I am really not convinced I made it any better than it was ! I put it all down the the impending heat!

I tend to buy things in groups. First it was Chinese things, then small bronzes and now small mirror frames. I do think that a beautiful mirror makes such a focal point in a room any size.

The one on the left is for the main drawing room. the second one, no idea yet ! I might strip it back and just rub it up with wire wool to a brass shine. The third one came this morning. It's just silvered metal but could look good maybe lacquered off white. The tiny sterling silver one on the far right is so lovely! I put a piece of mirrored acrylic Inside. I will put it on the Chinoiserie bedroom dressing table with other small silver things not yet found, maybe my next obssesion !

I have since brushed it up with fine grade wire wool and it looks much better. It came with it's glass which makes a much better base for silvering than acrylic. 

As I AT LONG LAST managed to glue the stair unit in place ( yes !! ) I could move on to the drawing room and give the stairs a rest and me too. Glueing in the stairs was such a trauma, it had to be glued at the bottom wall plus the stair base, the first floor landing and the upright wall to the back portion all at the same time. I had to do this whilst making sure the electric cable got out it's back hole. I then put three small screws into the back of the landing to pull it against the back wall. Much clamping and pressing and waiting almost a whole day to dry I began to relax. I then glued in place the drawing room floor mdf section. For the hallway I glued the hexagonal floor tiles directly onto the base mdf and then glued this onto the frame base. For the drawing room, because it is going to be parquet, I will first glue the parquet to kraft card which in turn I will glue to the base floor. This way I can make it like a puzzle, much easier to work.

The back wall has as you can see an opening in the middle. This portion will have the windows and will be hinged to allow access from the back. On each floor the depth of the build allows for back rooms which will be bathroom and in order to see them access is needed from the back. I haven't as yet determined the width of this opening. I slipped in place the fireplace protroding wall. This right wall has two doors and the fireplace to not much room for decor. The left wall will have a window across from the double doorway so you can see through from one side of the house to the other.

   The left wall will be lower than the right wall and will be added to as I go and all held in place with an outer skin. 

Making these walls lower allows me easy access to the rooms as I go.

The back openings do not reflect the size of the windows, this part of the build is still Under consideration.

A better view of this side. I put in a dining table to keep in mind the scale of the room and calculate room for dining chairs. The rooms are smaller than I had imagined but still bigger than many dollhouse rooms. 

I realised that I hadn't stocked up on cornicing molding for the ceilings of th drawing room. I am usually very good at anticipating my needs. As we were at the local charity shop I thought that perhaps some picture frame molding would be a good solution. Luckilly I found three identical frames with terrible cheap prints and horrible backing. 1.5 euros the three so economical.

This gave this much molding. A good purchase for this room. Always good to give to charity.

Here I mocked up the ceiling molding from odds and ends. It will be quite deep as the ceiling is very high at 30 cms = 3m 60. A deep ceiling border lowers the room visually.

Scraps and bits of frame, mdf and blind wood gives this. 

The lower molding was purchased some time ago. This mock up allows me to calculate the height of panelling.

As soon as the weather evens out I will begin panelling the room.

A friend dropped off her little Jack Russel for almost three weeks and for now he is crying for his mum. He is the son of my dear Alias who left me over a year ago. I brought him into the world and for weeks he sat on my work bench, occasionally looking up at me as you would the sun!