Art gallery, yellow room

The ground floor of my art gallery has a yellow room that opens into a long row of rooms, which is a trompe d'oeil.

 

I explained in the previous post now I made the frames. But the really interesting feature of this room is the floor. 

 

I made it from pieces of cheese boxes, half stained, half varnished. I used the pattern from a paper floor I had. If you think it was a lot of work you are absolutely right. But isn't the result worth it?

This is what the two-storey art gallery looks like. I got the statues from a Greek student.

 It was fun to make, but there isn't much to add or develop.

More frames

Here are some of the many ways I have made picture frames, apart from those I have shown before and those in the previous post.

 

These frames, except the little one on the right, are made with lace. The two top frames are made with several layers of plastic lace to create depth, then painted gold. The two frames below are made with real lace which creates an effect of a delicate carved frame. The dark wooden frame is stained lolly sticks. 

All these frames are made with different techniques. Upper row, left: lolly sticks. Middle: cut from a cork placemat which creates a nice, uneven surface. Right: an unidentifiable piece of twisted metal rod (most likely a Christmas decoration) that I bent into a square and glued onto a piece of cardboard. Bottom left: a ribbon. Next: lolly sticks and grill sticks, but an ordinary yellow paint rather than gold. Next: metal foil folded around the edges of the picture. Right: a ribbon.

These are fake: just cut from a catalogue.

Art gallery

The mantelpiece I described in the previous post gave me the idea of an art gallery. I had a rather shallow wine box where I couldn't make anything that demanded depth, but lots of pictures on the walls would be just right.

I made wallpaper from ordinary coloured printer paper and used self-adhesive paper border for cornice. The floor was temporary when I made it over a year ago, but it is still there. I made the mirror frame from grill sticks to match the decoration on the mantelpiece. The angels on the mantelpiece come from Christmas crackers; they were a hideous blue-green colour so I painted them gold. The angels over the mirror come from a hobby shop. The two oval picture frames are also from a hobby shop, but generally the point of having an art gallery was to try various ways of making picture frames. The one above the oval frames is made by placing the picture (cut from a magazine and glued onto card) on a piece of tin foil and folding it over the edges. It creates an effect of a heavy gilded frame. The round frame on the left is cut from a very special Russian candy box: I have another frame like this in my Victorian house, but I will probably never find this candy again.

 

Candy boxes are excellent material for all kinds of things. Here is another one, perfect for a picture frame. 

 

Otherwise, using lolly sticks is the easiest way to make simple frames.

That said, who wants a simple frame if the point of the box room is to make as many different frames as possible? I'll show some more in the next post.