Adam furniture

Before I continue my tour of Womble Hall I will show how I made a couple of unusual miniatures and explain why.

In my report from Kensington dollhouse festival, I mentioned that I saw some magnificent tables with Robert Adam tops. I have used Adam wrapping paper for ceilings - if you haven't seen them look here. I have plenty of paper left, and I thought that it could possibly be used for table tops as well (although they were originally ceiling designs, never implemented).

Although I have now been experimenting with House of Miniatures kits for a while, I still felt reluctant to use a kit without having tried out first. It isn't a rare kit, and I had a duplicate, and yet I thought I would run a test. First, I found a pattern, semicircle, in more or less the right scale. It didn't quite fit, but it didn't matter for my specific purpose. For furniture I have made from scratch, I have used various kinds of wood: pieces of wooden venetian blinds (pretty, but hard to cut), balsa (easy to cut, but crumbly) and cheese boxes. Obviously, a cheesebox lid already has the suitable semicircular shape, so that was helpful, although it was slightly bigger than the HoM kit. I worked with the top first, sanding it smooth, painting gold and then gluing the paper semicircle onto the top and trimming carefully. I needed to seal the edge so that the seam between the wood and paper would be next to invisible, and the only way I could think of was decoupage - I am sure there are other and probably better ways. What I did was varnish the edges and then sand them, repeating a couple of times until the edge was smooth. You could still see the white edge of the paper, so I painted it over, very carefully. The paper is glossy so it did not need any further varnish.

Now the top was ready, and I started thinking about the base. Once upon a time I would probably just glue on the legs that would keep going off, to my irritation. But I had the HoM instruction sheet, and what I needed was a semicircle about half a centimetre thick, and this is not the kind of material I have easily available. I have no tool that can cut circles (wish list for next Christmas?), and when I tried to cut a trapeze it didn't look neat. Usually when I get into a dead end with a project, I put it aside and do something else. I was rummaging my stashes for something completely different when I saw a wooden circle that was a part of a kit to make a piglet. I hadn't bought it to make a piglet, but for all the parts and fabrics included (it was in a charity shop, for 30p). So I cut the circle in two, and then everything was straightforward. I used chopsticks for legs and managed to cut exactly the same length so the table was, to my amazement, absolutely steady.

Seeing that it worked as I had thought, I could now with confidence replicate the miniature with the Chippendale kit. I have promised some miniature friends to post a detailed description, so I took step by step pictures - feel free to skip them if you only want to see the result. 

This is the paper I used; as you see, I had just scraps of it. But then I only needed a semicircle.

Once again, I started by painting the parts with gold. Then I glued the paper onto the top, leaving a margin that I then trimmed carefully.

Then I sealed the edge with varnish.

When the varnish had dried, I sanded the edge. The white paper edge was clearly visible so I painted it very carefully. 

The tool I am using is called "a third hand". If you haven't got it, give yourself a belated Christmas gift. 

The rest was easy: first glue on the base and let it dry under press. The instruction said clamp, but I was anxious not to damage the paper so I just put a heavy box on top. Then glue on the legs. It is probably the easiest kit of all.

Here is the result. 

And here are both tables, for comparison.

Since the handmade table is slightly larger, it is really a semicircle that looks more natural in the middle, but there is not much I can do about it. I cannot put them together to make a round table, which would be fun. But there are two lessons learned. First, I need not be scared to do something radical with the kits. Second, I can make a nice miniature from scratch, particularly if I have a pattern. It means I can try more.

Meanwhile, I got so bold that I decided to try a more sophisticated kit. Again, I only used it because I had a duplicate, and the bold part was making the table top. This is the paper I used.

 

Obviously, I wanted the medallion in the centre, and the pattern is large so I could only use a bit of it. When it was done I of course saw that it wasn't very well centred, but it was too late.

The challenge was to mix a paint that would match as closely as possible. I am not good at mixing paint, and it is difficult to match perfectly, but close enough.

 

I am not showing step by step assembly, because I have made this or a very similar kit before. I also had trouble matching paint then.

To make it look more natural, I have "aged" it. And of course I have put some stuff in drawers.

I have no space for any of these pieces in Womble Hall, short of replacing something else, so at the moment I don't know what to do with them. Maybe I will make a special room box. Or maybe I can simply display them as they are. (Although they always look better in a proper environment). 

Reflections from a dollhouse festival

I have lived in the UK for ten years, and I remember very well when, ten years ago, I told myself that I would now be able to go to the Kensington Dollhouse Festival. It's just an hour by train from Cambridge. But for some reason or other it never happened – until last weekend. And it only happened because I already was in London and had some spare time.

I had consulted my miniature friends on Facebook, asking for advice on how to make the most of it. The advice I received was: Go early and bring plenty of money. On the former, I had not much choice because I had something else in the morning; on the latter I asked whether credit cards were accepted, and they were. So against the advice, I arrived at Kensington Town Hall about 3pm.

I had no expectations. I had seen pictures from previous events in dollhouse magazines and on the web, but things are different in real world. I knew it was on three levels and there were hundreds of stands. I wasn't sure what I was supposed to do at a dollhouse festival. I wasn't sure whether I wanted to buy anything or just look. I am easy to tempt, so I decided that I would only buy something if I fell in love with it at first glance.

I spent two hours browsing. I went around two or three times, returning to stands where I had noticed something interesting.

It was a lot like being at a book fair.

Here are my reflections as a novice dollhouse festival attendee.

Firstly, it's amazing. So many stunning, fantastic things. Most of them unique, one of a kind. Handmade. It means that mortal humans have actually made them. They have probably been doing it for decades, and they obviously have appropriate tools. And today's tools are helpful. Precision laser cutters, 3D printers. You still need your skills, and it takes years of practice, but all these wonderful things were made by passionate, imaginative, creative people. I don't have time to develop the necessary skills, so I will never be nearly as good, but I can try. In a year and a half I will be free. I will get myself a laser cutter and a 3D printer. I will make miniatures full-time and try to be as good as I can. So it was highly inspirational.

It was interesting to see the prices. I have seen fancy prices on Etsy, and since I know how much time and effort it takes to make a miniature, irrespective of the result, I am not surprised. But I do wonder what kind of people buy tremendously expensive things at a fair. Maybe you need to see them in real life, touch, feel. I did fall in love with a marquetry cabinet, but I am not yet prepared to invest half of my monthly salary in a trinket. On the other hand, why not? It's like buying expensive jewellery or art.

There were lots of things that were lovely, and I told myself: some day I will make these. Again, with some practice and with better tools. And some things I will never be able to make, like ironwork.

Miniature food was prominent; it's fun to make, and given some practice I will get good at it.

There were many 1:24 and 1:48 scale things, but I have never been particularly interested in them. There were no 1:18 scale things! It must be almost exclusively Swedish. 

There was a lot of kitch too.

There were tons of supplies: fabrics, wallpaper – tempting, but I am a recycler. I believe this is my foremost lesson from this visit: I am a recycler, and I am interested in making miniatures from rubbish rather than from expensive supplies. (I did, however, buy a piece of fabric to re-upholster a sofa I am not happy with). But it is good to know that if I need something special, it's available. 

Anyway, next time I go - which I think I will - I'll know what it is like and what to look for 

I had told myself that I wanted to buy at least one thing (fabric doesn't count). So when I saw this one thing I made up my mind quickly. Actually, I asked the seller to keep it for me for ten minutes because I needed to sit down and breathe for a while. I know it's silly to go to an artisan fair and buy an antique, but it just so happened. I am not telling you how much I paid. It's Christmas soon.

 

I didn't think it was appropriate to take pictures, although some people did. But I made lots of mental notes. One thing in particular caught my attention: Adam tables. They were either House of Miniature kits or very similar: lovely half-moon side tables with Adam pattern on tops. I don't know how that seller made the tops, but I immediately thought that I had some Adam paper left from my ceilings, and I also had a duplicate HoM kit that I could experiment with. Back home, though, I didn't want to use the kit before I knew that my idea would work. I used a cheese box for the top. The trick was to sand the edges so that wood and paper were seamless. I used decoupage technique, varnishing and sanding, then painted the edge with gold. It took me a long time to figure out how to make the base because I didn't have a suitable round piece of wood, but finally I found one when I was looking for something else. I used chopsticks for legs and even managed to cut them equally long which has always been my problem. 

 

Of course it is not good enough to be displayed at Kensington Dollhouse Festival, but I am really pleased. 

Adam ceiling: reception room

I really thought I was done with ceilings, but of course once you have started any other ceiling just doesn't look right.

If you haven't seen my Adam ceilings, have a look at dining room, the gentlemen's smoking room, the drawing room, the grand hall, the upper hall, corridor and guest bedroom, nursery and servants' room.

The reception room has a magnificent ceiling that I am very proud of.  And yet, with all other Adam ceilings, the white border around the centerpiece doesn't look magnificent anymore.

Of course there is no way I can tear down the centerpiece. Moreover, because I was hundred percent sure I would not add any detail I had attached wooden coving. So now I had to build the ceiling around it. With all my previous ceiling training, I knew how to do it. 

 

It is just a matter of precision. And patience. And more patience. Once again, I wish I had this paper a year ago when I was decorating the ceilings on flat surfaces. But - it wasn't available then, and it is solely my decision to make these ceilings. Whatever you say, my house is absolutely unique.

Adam ceiling: nursery and servants' room

I haven't been completely idle, miniature-wise, all this time, but I have been making more Chippendale furniture, and I will show it later. Meanwhile, I have made two more Adam ceilings. If you haven't seen my Adam ceilings, have a look at dining room, the gentlemen's smoking room, the drawing room, the grand hall, the upper hall, corridor and guest bedroom.

I will not show all steps because I have shown them before, but as a reminder: I had to tear down the existing mouldings - luckily, they are paper - measure the ceiling paper, glue it on and then add new mouldings. There was not much challenge in the two attic rooms because they have plain, rectangular ceilings. Here is the nursery:



And here is the servants' room:




It's unlikely that the master would have Adam ceilings in such insignificant rooms, but let's pretend he really likes to show off, in case a guest might wish to visit.

Now all ceilings are done. It has been a lot of work, but surely worth it.

Adam ceiling: corridor and guest bedroom

Today I made two more ceilings. If you haven't seen my Adam ceilings, here is the dining room, the gentlemen's smoking room, the drawing room, the grand hall and the upper hall.

The corridor is a bit complicated since there is a stairwell, therefore I needed to cut out a bit. Apart from that, it's a small ceiling, and there is no ceiling light, but now I will be able to add it, with less trouble than with the other ceilings. I haven't yet decided what light I want here, which is why I hadn't done it before.



The second ceiling was even easier. The attic rooms are small, the ceilings are rectangular without any details, so it was simply cut a suitable piece and glue on. For both ceilings, I had to remove the old cornices and add new after the ceiling was in place.



I have two rooms left, nursery and servants' room. I also have the master bedroom where I have a nice ceiling that I can perhaps just add some cut-outs for.

I don't think I will have Adam ceilings in the basement because it will imply moving the main building.

Adam ceiling: drawing room

It has been a while since I made Adam ceilings. If you haven't seen my Adam ceilings, here is the dining room, the gentlemen's smoking room, the grand hall and the upper hall. It is now time to deal with the ladies' drawing room. There is nothing wrong with the old ceiling, I still think it was a very clever design. But once I have started adding Adam ceilings I have to keep the style.

As with the other ceiling, I had to remove the flooring upstairs, and I wasn't looking forward to that because the skirting upstairs was already fixed. Luckily, I managed to pull out the floor - the advantage of building floors on card rather then directly inside the room - without having to break up the skirting.

I won't show step-by-step pictures because it was similar to the dining room. I had to measure and cut around the chimney breast, then align the central circle with the existing hole, put the chandelier chain through the ceiling rose (the same metal filigree), paper and ceiling, then glue on the paper. Add paper coving, except for the chimney breast where I used a piece of wooden cornice for effect.

Now that I have practiced it didn't take as long as the first ceiling, and I made no mistakes. (I hope).

In the picture, I see that the half-circle over the chimney breast is not symmetrical, but the chimney breast wasn't supposed to be exactly in the middle of the room, and anyway I cannot do anything about it now.

Adam ceiling, dining room

My next Adam ceiling project is the dining room.

If you haven't yet seen my ceilings, here is the grand hall, the upper hall and the smoking room.

To make the dining room ceiling, I had to remove the floor in the room above it, which is the smoking room. (By the way, I did add a filigree ceiling rose to the smoking room ceiling, which was easy). Luckily, for whatever reason, one of the skirting boards in the smoking room had not been properly glued, so it was easy to lift up the floor. Of course I had to remove all the objects first. I also had to remove all objects from the dining room.

The old ceiling in the dining room is one that I was very proud of when I made it, almost a year ago. When the decoration - a plastic placemat -  fell off, I glued it back with very strong glue. Now I had to remove the decoration which still left me with a thick layer of glue. There is only one effective way of removing old glue, with a hair dryer. So that's what I did. It took longer time than I wanted to spend on such a trifle.  

Since there was already a drilled hole in the ceiling, I had to centre the paper around this hole and arrange the pattern accordingly. I glued on the filigree ceiling rose, which, unintentionally, made it much easier to test the paper. There is a chimney breast in this room so that I had to cut the paper around the chimney breast. All this should have been done a year ago, but then a year ago I didn't have the Adam paper. So I felt like a poor architect hired by a mad customer to put in new Adam ceilings in a house. 

Here is the result:

There will be coving of course, to cover the edges. Also, while I was messing about, one string in the crystal chandelier broke so I will have to mend it. Good that it broke before I put it up again.

I think it is a magnificent ceiling, and the whole house is starting to have a completely new look. I feel a bit bad about the old plastic placemat that has been so helpful for many projects, but it's time to move on. Come back soon.

Adam ceiling, upper hall

I left off yesterday having made some preparations for the ceiling in the upper hall that I resumed today. The problem with upper hall ceiling (as with some other ceilings I will yet have to consider) is that it is already decorated, and, firstly, I like the decoration, and secondly, it would be a huge trouble to remove it. Hence, I need to decorate the ceiling with Adam paper around the existing ceiling panel.

 

It is interesting how bare the ceiling looks now that I have started making Adam ceilings. Half a year ago when I first made it I was perfectly satisfied.

As with the Great hall ceiling, the paper is far too large. I thought I would use the same technique I used when I made the great hall: by cutting the details and pasting on a sheet of lining paper that I would then paste on the ceiling. However, when I cut the pattern and tested, I realised that with the existing panel I would never manage to make it neat. So I decided to paste the cut-outs direct on the ceiling.

First of all, I had to drill a hole for the chandelier. It wasn't possible to remove the floor upstairs, and there is a partition in the middle anyway, so I drilled as close as possible to the partition (and will later hide it behind skirting). Then I assembled chandelier - filigree ceiling rose - circular ceiling pattern.

 

At the very last moment I realised that it made sense to glue the metal rose before hanging up the assembly - one step less to think about. Then I led a metal wire through the drilled hole and fixed with tape. Then I glued the paper circle onto the ceiling.

 

As I said, the original pattern was far too large, but I cut various details and arranged them in a somewhat symmetrical pattern. I like the result.


I may add some more details, but probably it will be too much. I will leave it like this for a while. I guarantee that there is no other ceiling like this in the world, in any scale.

This room is now very eclectic with Adam ceiling and Victorian tiles, but Victorian houses were eclectic so I won't worry about it.

Adam ceiling, smoking room

While the glue is setting on my grand stairs, I decided to continue my project of making new ceilings using Adam paper. It is not without trepidation I approached this task because, unlike the Grand Hall that didn't have any ceiling decoration (and was hard enough), in order to insert new ceilings in existing, assembled rooms I will need to perform the following operations:
1) remove all objects from the room I will be working on
2) remove coving (in this situation, I am glad that I use paper rather than wood)
3) remove existing ceiling paper or decoration
4) remove flooring in the room above (which may involve removing skirting) to access fixture for ceiling light
5) remove ceiling light
6) glue new ceiling paper onto a piece of lining, making sure that the new ceiling rose is aligned with the existing hole for the ceiling light (this may also involve cutting and pasting, to assemble a new pattern, as I had to do with the ceiling in Grand Hall)
7) glue new ceiling assembly onto the ceiling - working upside down in a small room. For this step you should preferably be an octopus
8) fix the ceiling light, feeding the wire through the hole up to the room above
9) replace flooring in the room above, including skirting
10) insert new coving in the room I am working on
11) put all objects back into the room

If you wonder why I bother it's because I am a perfectionist. Now that I have this magnificent paper I am no longer satisfied with my old ceilings.

I started with the smoking room for no particular reason; probably because the old ceiling was slightly damaged when we did the lights. 

I will not show step-by-step pictures because, apart from being tremendously difficult, it was straightforward (except that it was painful to see the room stripped down again). The only unforeseen trouble was that in a corner there was a wire connector that my son-in-law would have been able to remove and re-connect, but I didn't dare, so I had to cut a little square. Unless you look closely you won't notice. Here is the result:

It took me three hours, but luckily I didn't have to tear up the room above because I still have paper floors there which could be carefully lifted.

With objects put back:




Having lights inside the room was a huge advantage, although otherwise it would have made sense to fix the ceiling before the lights. But I didn't have much choice.

Grand Adam ceiling, cont.

As planned, I finished the Adam ceiling today. I cannot say I am fully content with the result, because, as I keep saying, it is incredibly difficult to work on a ceiling once the house has been assembled. If there are minor faults (yes, there are) there is nothing I can do about them now, and most probably nobody will ever notice, except maybe someone inspecting the house closely when I am gone, and I won't worry about it now. Unless yo look very carefully, it looks good.

 

The magnificent silver chandelier from the antique shop in Stockholm is so far attached provisionally because first I need to attach the stairs. As I was working on the ceiling I noticed that I hadn't finished mouldings on the back wall, so I will need to do that before I attach the stairs. However, with the ceiling I feel there is a major break-through in the hall. I am glad I haven't yet attached the stairs because then the ceiling would have been impossible to fix. This was simply meant to happen this way.

Grand Adam ceiling

Once again, it took a long time before I could move on, but today's project is the new ceiling in the great entrance hall for which I used the magnificent Robert Adam wrapping paper I bought in Soane's Museum a few weeks ago.

The sheet was too large to use as it was, and the ceiling has a curious shape because of the stairwell. This is what I had - although at that point I had already cut out some bits. It's a ceiling pattern from 1756, never executed.

The central square is unfortunately too large for this ceiling, but I may use it elsewhere. The main problem was that I couldn't just cut out a bit since it had to fit the ceiling and be symmetrical, and my first attempt to paste cutout bits direct on the ceiling were a complete failure. It might have worked if I still had flat surfaces, but at that time I didn't have this wonderful paper. Working upside down in a limited space is not an option. So what I had to do is assemble the whole ceiling on a piece of lining paper. Luckily, I had a template, which is the floor above, still unfinished.

 

And then came the fun of designing a new ceiling, using Adam's patterns, like a jigsaw puzzle. 

I started with a large bit that was quite straightforward. 

 

Looks simple, doesn't it? Next, I added an octagon. I had to cut a curve, to follow the pattern below. 

Then I added a side frieze. The arrows show obvious faults that I had to deal with, and the picture on the right shows how.

 

Then it was just doing the same on the other side, fill some gaps, add trimmings. As you see in the picture, it grew dark meanwhile, and I had to switch on the light. Believe it or not, it took me most of the day.

The side flaps will go down the walls, instead of coving. This is why they are upside down against the main frieze.

I tested it with white tack, but I think I need daylight and a bit more energy to glue it on. Report to follow. 

Adam paper

For a whole number of reasons I haven't done much on my project recently. I have done some work, but nothing worth sharing.

Earlier this week I went to London with a friend and took her to a museum I like, Soane's House. I am always looking for small things in museum shops, and this time I didn't find any small things but instead a book of Robert Adam wrapping paper.

I don't know why anyone would want to use beautiful paper for wrapping that will be torn up and thrown away within seconds. Miniature-makers save wrapping paper because it can be recycled for many purposes. I have never bought wrapping paper because I like recycling, but this time I couldn't resist. I saw at once what I could do with it. My friend knows I am crazy so she wasn't surprised.

Here are Adam designs, most of which never executed.

The booklet has only been published this year, so I hadn't missed it last time I was there. But I wish I had discovered it before I had finished my ceilings because now I will of course have to tear them down and make new ones with these papers.

If you have followed my blog you know that I made all ceilings on flat surfaces, before I assembled the house (use the tag "ceiling" to see how I made them). Now I will have to work inside rooms and upside down. But I cannot even say it's bad planning because I couldn't know that a new option would appear.

And it isn't as straightforward as you may think. Firstly, I will need to remove all coving that I have so patiently added in the past few months. I will have to tear up floors to remove ceiling lights before I can re-decorate ceilings. The papers are not necessarily scaled to my rooms. I will have to center them to fit with my ceilings. They also need to match the wallpaper - no way I am re-doing all wallpaper (although it would be gorgeous, but too late). I will probably have to sacrifice some ceilings that I am quite proud of. Anyway, this will be a lot of work that I haven't anticipated but will be very happy to perform.

I started with something seemingly easy, although it turned out to be tricky enough.

 

The bathroom had a plain white ceiling and no ceiling light. Still, I had to remove the coving, cut the paper to measure - fortunately, two squares fit precisely across - with a border to fold over the wall. Glueing it on upside down was a h-ll of a job. Some additional trimming was necessary, but I hope it doesn't show too much. For this ceiling, I could afford making mistakes because I had more than enough paper, but for other ceilings I will have to be very, very careful. Arguably, the ceiling doesn't quite match the tiles, but let's say that the house owner has an eclectic taste - just like Sir John Soane.