Welcome to my life . . . .

This is a blog about my passion: dollhouses and miniatures. This particular blog was started to follow my miniature dream: to create a Victorian Mansion. But work on my Mansion is slow. Very slow. Sloth slow. Ice Age glacier movement slow. Why? Because I am easily distracted by other personal miniature projects (I have 50+ roomboxes and 15 dollhouses in various stages of incompletion) and because I work for a miniature shop and am often up to my elbows in miniature projects that aren't mine! So, I thought, some artists work in a particular medium (woods, watercolors, clay, oils, etc.), I work in progress . . . .

Thursday, June 16, 2016

Hope they look up! (video near end of post)

I have moved up to the Lady's Sitting Room and Bedroom.  I have drapes being made for these rooms so I really ought to have them finished by the time my curtains are finished later on this year!  Walls have been papered (although one wall is removable so that I may access electrical wires so that stumbling block did cause some delays as I tried using 1/4" thick wood (too thick for my doorway passage trim), 1/16" Styrofoam product (too flimsy), and finally I settled on a 1/16" thick wood (has some warping issues but I'm hoping it will work ok once doorway trims are in to securely hold the edges of the wood in place).

Ceilings were papered and painted white.  And I picked this medallion (#887) by Lawbre...
...mostly because I liked the fact that the electrical ceiling canopy hole was pre-drilled in the center!  It was a bonus that I also happened to love the design on the medallion!

But white medallion against white ceiling paper doesn't excite me much.  I do love the design on the medallion and it's not really noticeable.  And given that the Victorian ladies entertain their friends in their sitting rooms, I knew they would have thrown gold up there to attract some attention (i.e. show off to their friends).  So on went the first two layers of gold....
Two coats of gold are painted on to various detail parts.
Just gold by itself wasn't going to keep me happy so I had decided (before I even started painting the gold) that a light sage green and a pale pink were going on the medallion too.  Those colors would match the sage green furniture and the pink marble fireplace going in this room.
Added some very pale sage green around the gold bits.
Now that some green was on there, I wanted more gold...so I revisited some of the flowers around the edge with gold.  But I only gave them 1 coat of gold to make them more of a 10- or 12-karat gold instead of the deep gold color of the center design.  Victorian people liked to put various-karat golds everywhere, right?
Just needs a few touches of pink now
Will anyone ever notice the slight difference in the golds?  Probably not.  Well, ok, definitely not.  The only way is if I stand there and instruct them to notice it.  But I'll know. So I'm happy.

I needed a pale, pale, almost missed it, pink color.  But I didn't have any.  So I made some by mixing a darker pink with white and a touch of gold.
Making my pink
Now the Sitting Room's medallion is finished and needs to be glued up...
Finished

Just slight touches of pink...
I think it looks great with the Getzan chandelier and Bespaq furniture that's going in the room:




Now the bedroom medallion (as I get to that room next) will not have as much gold or color.  The bedroom is a private space.  Only the lady, lady's maid, and husband go into the Lady's bedroom.  No need to impress anyone.

Here is a video of this side of the mansion so far:



I love my remote control by Creative Reproductions 2 Scale!  (You couldn't tell that, huh?)  My biggest excitement about turning on the lights and video taping it was that THE LIGHTS ALL STILL WORK!!!  I haven't tested them in months (when did I finish the library?) and I have been moving the house around, cutting into the window openings to get windows to fit, and hammering on the house ever since (the top piece was attached by hammering nails into it; some electrical work involved hammering to insert some eyelets and ceiling canopies): all of which cause vibrations which could have undone my previous wiring efforts!  But it all works still!  No electrical issues so far!

My past mansion ceilings were fun, but labor intensive (Upper Library Ceiling Blog Post and Lower Library Ceiling Blog Post).  However, like this Sitting Room ceiling and the future Bedroom ceiling, I'm hoping to keep the rest of the mansion's ceilings a little bit easier to tackle.  Well, except the ballroom, dining room, and Gentleman's Game/Smoking room --- I have plans for those ceilings!.  Given how much time I spend thinking about my dollhouse mansion's ceilings, I really hope my dollhouse people look up!

2 comments:

  1. Beautiful! Love watching it come to life with all the details and lighting.

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  2. Hi, Lori - Your color choices for the ceiling medallion are beautiful! I, for one, would have a stiff neck from sitting in the sitting room with my head thrown back for a better look. I'm looking forward to seeing your plans for the other ceilings. (Oh, my aching neck!)
    Marjorie

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