Globe Makeover

I've been having a lot of fun lately taking inexpensive, mass-produced miniatures and remaking them into miniatures with a more unique look. Here's a globe I finished recently.
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Here's the gobe I started out with - I bought it for US$6-7 on eBay.

Now, to me, this piece looked much too modern for Myrtlewood, so I had to "antique" it a bit.

First, I carefully took everything apart and stripped the finish off the wood. Then I restained all the wood and applied a satin finish. This by itself greatly changed the look of the piece.

I replaced the gold bead feet with mini casters. I absolutely love these little casters! They made their first appearance on my cellarette, and will probably find their way onto several pieces in the future. If you want the piece to roll, be careful to apply all the casters facing the same way. While they actually roll (which I love!), mine at least do not swivel, so they must all face the same direction.

Then I got creative and decided to redo the globe itself. To maintain accuracy, I can't have a modern-day globe in an 1880s library! First I searched out antique globe gores on the internet, resized them on my computer, printed them, cut them out, and carefully glued them over the top of the globe. The result was too horrible to photograph. The paper would not lay flat against the globe, and the more I fiddled with it, the lumpier it got!

I finally chucked the whole thing and started over with a 1 1/4" wood ball, which fortuitously was just the right size. I drew on all the continents by hand and then painted them. This was a laborious process that I do not care to repeat, but I think the end result looks nice, and I'm glad I did it. To me, the globe looks a lot more Victorian, and isn't too recognizable as the modern piece I started with. What do you think?

Library: Bookcases

I'm taking a break from the dining room for a while and working on the library at Myrtlewood Manor. As you can see, I've built a wall of bookcases.
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I didn't build these entirely from scratch; I started with some unfinished bookcases I purchased on sale for about $6.00 each.

I added baseboards, plinth blocks, fluted casing and crown molding on the top. Then, because they were only 7" tall and I wanted them to go all the way up to the ceiling, I built the extensions on the top. For the top, I tried to mimic the construction of the bottom bookcases; it's not exact, but pretty close. I cut the arches using my scroll saw, and it is evident to me that I need a LOT more practice with this tool. It took me several attempts to get those arches even.

I'm still trying to decide whether to add cabinet doors to the bottom two shelves of each bookcase. It would involve working with those fiddly little hinges again, but it might look really good. Let me know if you have any thoughts either way.

I plan to add a brass rail about 7" up and build a ladder that hooks over it and rolls along the length of the shelves. I'm still trying to figure out how to do that, but I have some ideas.

Christmas Baking

I've spent the last few days baking. No, not Christmas cookies, although I'm wishing I had a few right about now. Rather, I've been mixing, shaping and baking polymer clay into marble mantles, hearths and fireplace surrounds.

This set is for the dining room; I made a nearly identical set for the parlor.

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It's a bit hard to tell from the photo, but this set is pink marble (for the conservatory/music room).

I also made a set of black with veins of gold for the library.

I still need to add a coat of clear lacquer; I photographed them before the lacquer to keep the flash from bouncing off them.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out. One of the things I really love about miniatures as a hobby is that it encourages creative problem solving. I spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to make marble in miniature. I read about some faux painting techniques, but I've never been very good with paint. Also, the results don't seem to have much depth. You can buy marble tiles from miniature shops, but they're expensive and only come in certain dimensions. But with polymer clay, I can create any dimension I want and achieve, through the incorporation of translucent clay, some of the depth that is so characteristic of marble. I also plan to use this technique to create marble decorations, vases, statuettes and furniture tops.

More Floors

I absolutely adore libraries. I think you can get to know so much about a person just by looking at the types of books with which he has chosen to surround himself. I especially loved the libraries in the movies My Fair Lady, Disney's Beauty and the Beast and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen. I'm also really inspired by several real-life libraries:
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Melk Abbey in Austria:

Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC:

I therefore knew Myrtlewood would have a library before I'd even given a thought to any of the other rooms. I had to balance my desire to build a huge library, though, with my lack of desire to make thousands of tiny books (seriously, they are a pain to make). So Myrtlewood's library wil be small and cozy, but I will find a way to work some luxury in.

Which leads me to the floor. Yes, I'm still working on floors; I fear I may be working on them for a year or more, at the rate I'm going. Anyway, I'd been inspired by a parquet floor in a window pane design I'd seen somewhere and thought it would add some interest to my little library. Here's how I created it.

First I figured out the dimensions I wanted for each piece (3/8" wide for each walnut plank and 6/8" square for each cherry piece), then measured out the design, centered it in the room and drew the entire design in pencil on the plywood floor.

Then I cut and glued down the vertical walnut planks.

I cut and sanded each horizontal strip so that it fit perfectly.

Even though I'd measured the walnut planks very carfully, there were still variations in the sizes of the open spaces. So I cut and sanded each cherry square to an exact fit. I do not have pictures of me doing this; I'm still trying to block the entire painful process from my memory. Here's what it looked like when I'd finished.

I finished it as I usually do: by sanding, restaining and giving the entire thing a few coats of polyurethane.

Not bad. I think I'll keep it.