Lord Asriel's room, revisited

Every now and then I go back to my old projects and either dismantle them or improve them in some way. I have for instance made room boxes with shops, and I keep adding objects or things get "sold" for other projects. 

It is almost impossible to alter something in a project that you have gifted. For some time, I kept giving my friend new items for her shoe shop, but there is a limit to how much you can squeeze in a shoe box. Mostly, when a room box leaves your hands it's out of your control. I even wonder how many of them have been kept. I shouldn't care, but I do. 

I have for a while wanted to improve the room box I made for my son many, many years ago. It was the second room box I made, and I wasn't very good at it. Every time I came to visit, I would look at the box and wish I could give it another chance, and finally the time has come: I am working on the revision of Lord Asriel's study.  

This is the before picture, more or less the final picture of the original project. 

I will not elaborate on every fault I find, but it needs a total renovation, including floors, walls, mouldings and more. The challenge, however, will be to preserve the general look so that it will still be easily recognisable. The focal point of the room is the bookshelf, which is one of those pathetic first attempts at handmade furniture, so I will replace it with a magnificent Chippendale bookcase. And the rest will have to match. 

I have just had good training for this project making my Dark Academia book nook. I don't want to copy it, but I will use some features, because Lord Asriel's study is a typical Dark Academia environment. I didn't know anything about Dark Academia when I made the box all those years ago. 

The first thing I did was of course strip the room of everything, except the wallpaper and the ceiling that I decided to keep, for the reason stated above: it must be recognisable. I left the pictures just to have some sense of what it used to be. 

The old floor was flagstone made from air-drying clay. At the time, it was an innovative technology for me, and I was proud of it, but really, why would an Oxford academic have flagstone floor in his study? It's more appropriate for a wine cellar. Hence, the first step was to make a proper hardwood parquet. I had a large piece left over from an earlier project (in fact, I cut a little bit out of it for Dark Academia) so I used it, or what could be saved of it, since a lot had to be redone to fit the new floor area. I was much more diligent with sanding the floor when it was finished. 

Next, I wanted to make dark wooden panels, and for that I have experience both from Womble Hall and Dark Academia. I used a strip of card, adding some moulding from coffee stirrers and skewers. I considered heavy skirting I have left over from Womble Hall, but it felt too bulky.

But I wanted something extraordinary for the panels, also testing something I have never done before. I had a wooden ornament from a hobby shop, and it would have been easy to just get more of them, but it's not much of a challenge. Instead, I made a mould from air-dry clay, then made multiple imprints of the ornament. 

I painted the panels with acrylic, then gave it a coat of mahogany stain and several coats of varnish. 

Close up. Yes, I see that the wallpaper is bubbly, but not much I can do about it, short of pulling it off and hanging new, and that's too much. 

 

I did not put the ornaments on every panel because they would interfere with the furniture. 

I wanted to add a fireplace that wasn't in the original room but of course would be indispensible in an academic's room without other heating. I happened to have a suitable fireplace surround so I didn't make one from scratch, but I will add some details to it, including a fire. A mantlepiece is a good place to put all the numerous weird objects I had in the original room. I will probably replace the mirror with a more period-correct one.

Coving in the old room was made from full-size picture frames, which at that time felt a perfect solution, but wouldn't do now. Again, I have quite a lot of leftovers from Womble Hall, and since then I have learned to use mitre shears. although even with this tool, mitring cornishes is a nightmare. I considered painting coving dark as well, but decided against it, to have something white in the room for contrast. 

As you see, I have discarded the pipes. I have tried and tested, and they just didn't go with the panels. Since I am not even sure why they were there in the first place, I don't feel bad about them. 

Before I could focus on furnishing, I needed to consider anbaric light (which, if you haven't read His Dark Materials, is what they call electricity in Lord Asriel's world). I have learned a lot about lighting in the past years, and although I still haven't found a perfect solution for Womble Hall, I have successfully made lights for some room boxes, including Dark Academia. Lights do add to the atmosphere. That said, the recipient of this room box is a lighting expert so it has to be perfect or none at all. 

What this expert taught me is the fundamental principle of display lighting is that the light sources have to be hidden. There are many ways of doing this, but I have added a top frame to hide anbaric lights behind. At this stage, I also painted all edges dark brown, to match the panels.

It does make a difference, doesn't it? I still need to make some improvements, but wanted to test. 

Now to the details. The bookcase needs to be filled with books. There were a few books in the old room, all of them with a special significance, but I need more, and of course since then I have made hundreds of books - that's not a hyperbole, really hundreds, for Womble Hall, for the library room box, and more still. 

I have some lovely books that would fit into an academic's room. They are real books, with words and pictures. Unfortunately they are a couple millimetres larger than the shelves so they will have to  be scattered around the room.  

Most books will be fake, with just covers. I estimated I would need about 60 books, and I was right: 65. It kept me busy for a while, but I didn't want to cheat with just spines. There are indeed 65 individual books that can be taken out, and at least one row is books with recognisable covers. They are all there for a reason. Others are simply generic "old books", but I used different covers and made some books larger and thicker, for variety. It does not look natural when all books are of the same size. 

Inside the room, the book case looks truly authentic. The recipient may never bother to open the bookcase and look at the books, but it doesn't matter. 

Of course I also have a copy of His Dark Materials. And a copy of one of my own books - I always leave a secret signature in my projects, like Hitchcock always has a vignette of himself in all his films. 

In the drawer of the bookcase I have put old maps, letters, newspapers, notebooks and other private and confidential stuff. 

I have already mentioned the fireplace, and it needed some extra work. To begin with, the back can never be mahogany, can it? It needs to be brick or just black. 

It is also too shiny as compared to the panellling, but I will have to live with it. I painted the back, and I had to sacrifice the fireguard because the kind of fire I wanted to insert didn't fit behind it. But I needed a fireguard, and I made one by painting a piece of fence from a farm play set. I made the fire with a flickering tea light, the way I have always made fires. This one can be put on a timer so it will switch on automatically in the evening, but in my experience it exhausts the battery quickly. But it is easy to take out, switch on and put back. There is of course a more sophisticated way to do it: drill a hole in the side wall and the fire surround and use a battery light that can be switched on from outside, but it will be, or might be, a next step. 

The wallpaper was damaged in some places, which happens when you are stupid and attach things to wall with blue tack. These spots had to be disguised, and on one wall I put a large old map of Svalbard. If you have read His Dark Materials, you know why, and if not, it plays a significant role in the books. Lord Asriel would definitely have a map of Svalbard in his study.

 

There was another map in the original room which I had cut from a magazine so it had no relevance at all. I replaced it with an old map of Oxford. I am afraid there is no Jordan college in this map. 

On the left-hand wall, I put some framed portraits. I don't know who these people are, but let's pretend they are famous Arctic explorers.  

The rest was more or less straightforward. I put the golden compass on a more appropriate side table. I added another occasional table by the armchair, on which I put a decanter of Tokay and two glasses. I kept Asriel's equipment for experiental theology - which is what science is called in his world.  

I put two very pretty candlesticks on the mantlepiece. I made them in my miniature club, and I think they fit fine. I also added a mantle clock. 

At a glance, the room probably looks the same, which has been the intention. But almost every feature has been improved, and I am very happy with the outcome. 

 

Recreating a painting in 3D

Last autumn I was looking for a theme for a longer project, like a room box. Typically I build room boxes around a particular miniature, for instance, a piece of furniture, or a category of miniatures, such as clocks, shoes, bread, vegetables or flowers. But a theme can also be a starting point, for instance, a wedding.  

One day as I was having dinner, I looked at a painting I have on my kitchen wall, and suddenly I saw my new project. I would make a room box based on the painting. 

It is a gouache painting, titled appropriately "Found on the Beach" by the Swedish artist Lars Norrman,  and I have always been fond of it, but now I saw a completely new potential in it, with its array of weird objects. And it is obviously a painting emulating depth. 

I once made a room box inspired by a painting, and it was a challenge. I like challenges. 

I had a small box that I won in a lottery at the Swedish Miniature Association's Christmas meeting the year before (the first and only time I ever won anything in a lottery). I had been saving it for the right occasion, and here it was. I painted the box very dark blue on the inside and started thinking about making all those interesting details. Some were more straightforward than other, and some gave me trouble. It would be boring to take step-by-step pictures, so I will just show a couple of pictures and explain how I made the objects. 

The focal point of the painting is the blue washing basin, and it was also the first object I made from card and fixed provisionally to place the other objects around it. The painting is dark, and it isn't always easy to discern exactly what is hidden in the background, but the foreground was easier. I used real dried plants and a real conch shell. I painted a plastic bottle dark green and covered a wooden barrel with dirt. The pots in the front are bottle caps. I made the crate from an egg carton, and I cut a pill bottle in half and painted it for rusty effect. I added a rod and a rope, and I put a glass marble in a fruit net. So far so good. 

I made a half-decayed wooden boat with a mast and a torn sail. The sail was probably the most difficult thing to do as it had to be fixed in appropriate folds. I also added some random bits of wood here and there, for depth. Some details aren't even visible, but they contribute to the whole. I had to shift the objects several times before I was happy.

I glued on everything carefully before I inserted glass and added the provided frame. 

I am really pleased with this project, and it was fun to make. I will definitely be looking for more paintings to turn into a three-dimensional scene. 

Dark academia

 

When my daughter suggested that I make a Dark Academia room box, I had no idea what she was talking about, but after some research on the web I thought it was an interesting challenge. And of course the suitable format was a book nook rather than a room box. I had only made one book nook before, and I find it a fascinating format, but it has its special demands. A scholar's study would be just right. 

I made the crime scene book nook in a large cat sand box, but this project would be smaller, so a cat food box felt the right size. I covered it with wrapping paper. 

 

I wanted the front of the box to be a french window, and I had a frame from another project. I added a valve extending from the roof. 

I cut off a small bit of the beautiful floor I had from an earlier, dismantled project, and I printed out an old-fashioned wallpaper from the web. In accordance with the style, I made dark wooden wainscoting. For the ceiling, I used some leftovers of the magnificent Robert Adam paper.  Obviously, a book nook like this needs display lights, and it took me some time to figure out how to make and hide them. 

All the time I was testing different furniture and accessories. Some things I tried proved too bulky; some didn't quite fit in. I played with it for some time. But here is what it looked like just before I inserted the window: 

The writing desk is a Chippendale piece made from kit, with plenty of correct and interesting details that will never be seen in the final project. There are for instance small objects hidden in drawers. The armchair is likewise a Chippendale kit. I made the books from cardboard using book spine printies, but recombining them for individual look. Books on the floor are also made with printies, as are newspapers and maps. The chandelier is a fishing hook with some jewellery bits - I made it many years ago for my very first dollhouse. The clock comes from my clockmaker's room box; it's a large button with a printed clock face (I tried a grandfather clock, but it was too large). Just a couple of commercial minis: wine jar and glass, a candlestick, and of course a cat. A few more, and it would feel cluttered. 

Here is the finished nook. As I always do, I left my secret signature, like Hitchcock has a vignette of himself in all his movies. But I am not telling you where it is. 

 

Ceramic studio

I haven't posted anything for a long time, but not because I haven't done anything new. It just didn't happen. Catching up now, I will start with a project that I did in early autumn, when it was still possible to move around, and I did it in my miniature club. In this club, that meets once a week, everyone makes what they want; single objects or a larger project or anything. We have a guru who has an answer to every inquiry and a solution to every problem. We also support and encourage each other.

When we got together after summer I decided to make a room box, and I wanted to make a ceramic studio to give my daughter for her birthday - she is a ceramic artist. There are some rather specific elements necessary in a ceramic studio, and it was a challenge I so much enjoy. I browsed through many pictures of studios on the web, also recalling the time, long ago, when I attended pottery classes. A pottery wheel was the obvious start, and that's what I made first. 

I wasn't sure how to organise the room box, but the guru happened to have a wine box she didn't want - wine boxes are otherwise hard to come by these days. I painted the walls and ceiling white and made tile floor from egg cartons. A studio would of course have shelves, and rummaging through supplies I found a lampshade, exactly the same I once used, inspired by the very same guru, in my first dollhouse. I trimmed it to measure and inserted into the box. 

The doll is for size only. Since I was making everything from scratch, scale was essential. A table has to be higher than the wheel. 

Of course I needed a kiln, and there are two types of potter's kilns: front-opening and top-opening. My daugher has the latter, but for a room box a front-opening kiln is much more grateful because you can display pots when the front is open. I tried all kinds of boxes available in the workshop, but then remembered a tin box that I many years ago used as a refrigerator. I am glad I didn't throw it away because it was perfect for my purpose here. I painted it on the inside and put in wire shelves. Obviously a kiln cannot stand on the floor so I made a base. I also added some tiny watch parts for knobs.  

The guru gave me a small sink left over from some other project, and I added taps, splash board and sewage. I was now in the third or fourth week of the project and started finding small items to serve as various jars and containers. I also made two ceiling lamps.  

But of course ceiling lamps would not work for a potter: you need strong, focused light right over the wheel. I looked around in the workshop. Making a proper workbench lamp would be a challenge. I like challenges. It took several attempts and many dirty words, but I did it. I also wanted an iconic Swedish wall shelf, and I had actually made one some months before, without any project in mind, but it went well scale-wise. 

This picture is from a later stage of the project when shelves were filled, but before that there were some other things to make. Paint and glaze jars, for instance. 

I needed lots of finished and unfinished pots. I needed tools. And I needed chaos. Even the tidiest potter cannot keep the studio tidy. 

Here is the completed project. I always say that a miniature project is never completed, as you can always add and improve, but in this case it had to be completed by my daughter's birthday, and I wouldn't be able to change anything once it was gone. 

So let's have a closer look at different angles. 

On the table there are various tools, jars - one is spilling paint, which is fun to make - kitchen towel, coffee mug, a half-eaten sandwich; the table is smeared with dried clay. On the stool, you see scales, which is a Barbie item painted in more appropriate colours.

The corner with the lamp and the shelf. Paint jars are mostly radio or computer parts. The ceramic items are beads, candle holders, buttons. The lump of clay on the wheel is... clay. 

My pride - the kiln. I used the same kinds of beads and other vessels and painted them with chalk paint to resemble unglazed ceramics. And the fact that the kiln can be opened to display its content is a bonus. 

There was an issue of getting the room box to my daughter during the pandemic, but we managed it, and I think she was glad. She did point out, as I had anticipated, that she would never allow cats in the studio, but I told her it was poetic licence. 

As with all giveaway projects, I felt separation anxiety for a while. But I was and still am pleased with it because I managed to make it just as I had imagined. 

This was two months ago, and I have done lots of other stuff since then so come back soon. 

Fruit and vegetable market stall, finished

 I will not keep you in suspense about my market stall display. Here is the final project: 

I must admit that I didn't spend a lot of time making the display, but I am still quite happy with it. 

I used the market stall I had before, with al the stuff I have now discarded, but of course it was too small for the amount of produce to display. 

Therefore I made a simple diorama from cardboard, then made two long benches to put crates on. I wasn't very careful with crates either. I probably won't keep this display and will use veggies and fruit in other projects, for instance in my Victorian house and even in my Tudor house, although Tudors weren't too keen on vegetables. 

In fact, I have already used a lot of these minis for a different project. And now it's time to move on. 

If you are curious about what I am doing, here are some pictures. 

 

 

 

 

These are stitch markers, and they are for sale. If you are interested, let me know. 

Fruit and vegetable market stall, part 2

I could of course make more vegetables for my market stall, like Brussels sprouts (ugh!), avocado, various lettuces and cabbages, but somehow it would be repetitive, and anyway I wanted to leave room for fruit. I had made fruit before as well, mostly apples and oranges because they are easy to make from air-drying clay. I also dried berries that look like fruit, and I made a pineapple from a pine cone. 

 

 

But now I wanted to use my newly acquired sculpting skills to make more realistic fruit. And a larger variety of fruit. 

Unless you make sliced fruit (which I will do at some point) I think fruit is easier than vegetables because they do not need as much work on texture. They are sort of smooth - although not oranges of course. 

 

I found two techniques on the web for making oranges, and for these I pricked them with a toothpick, then rolled a crumpled ball of aluminium foil over them. The other method that I haven't tested was to roll them in salt before baking, then dip them in water to dissolve the salt. You can also use sandpaper. Oranges did not need additional painting because they have even colouring. 

 

I then made apples, and I decided on green apples for colour variation. As with vegetables (and oranges) you cannot just use commercial clay. With oranges, I added white and yellow, and with apples I mixed and mixed until I was happy with the colour. Apples have  a deeper indent on top, and I used a silicon tool to form it, but a toothpick would have worked too. Then I shaded one side of each apple with several layers of chalk pastels. 

 

I will probably make several other apple sorts - there are so many, green, yellow and red. 

From apples, it was a natural step to pears: more or less the same technique, just shaping each ball into a pear shape. Again, mixing several colours of clay, then shading with pastels. 

 

Pears, too, come in different colours and even shapes so there is room for further creations. But I moved on to peaches. They are a bit like bell peppers, with prominent indents along both sides: 

 

 

I made apples, pears and peaches without consulting any tutorials, just looking at my full-size fruit bowl. But when it came to bananas I felt I needed instructions, which I found in a book. The opening sentence of banana instructions was a revelation: bananas are not round, but square. I didn't have bananas in my fruit bowl, but I looked on the web, and while before reading that book I would have sworn that bananas were round, I could clearly see that they weren't. Which is just another example of how much you learn from miniature-making. The true shape of bananas is essential knowledge. 

So for bananas you make a square rather than round "sausage" (the book I consulted called it prism) before cutting it into suitable lengths and then sculpting them at ends and bending. Partially following the instructions, I painted the ends of my bananas with light green pastel before baking, but then painted the stalk and the opposite end with brown acrylic and used the same acrylic for lines and spots along the edges. (There is, by the way, a reason why I made individual fruit rather than a bunch).

 

 

 

I am really pleased with my bananas. I had never expected myself to be capable of making bananas so I am getting much more confident about my skills.

Finally, I made water melons. Most melon instructions are for sliced melons where you need very complicated colour transition with five shades of pink. I made whole melons which still involved a lot of work to produce realistic stripes. You put tiny strings of a different colour onto your melon, distress it with a toothpick, then roll and shape until you have a smooth surface. I can see in the picture that it isn't smooth enough, but there isn't much I can do about it now. 

I also made some melon halves and slices, which needs, as I said, elaborated colour transition and a lot of texture work, as well as inserting seeds. 

 

 

 

 

I am not quite happy with these, but I have tried and will need to practice more. But for the time being, I varnished all my fruit, although peaches should probably not be so shiny - let's say they are nectarines.

 

There are many more fruits I could make: lemons, plums, grapes, figs - even before I move on to something more exotic like papaya, mango or passion fruit. However, once again, I only have limited space in my market stall. I am sure you are already puzzled how I am going to display my produce. You may have noticed all the various wooden crates I have made from cheese boxes and coffee stirrers. They all need space. So come back soon to see how I have solved the issue. 

 

 

To be continued.