Monday, February 26, 2018

The Garden In Winter.....




Stems and Pods.....

Some of you, Dear Readers, Might recall that when I was on the mend from my broken arm last Summer, I made a few stems of Vinca for the eventual Garden of The Folly. I will try not to bore you by saying that I had partly assembled a few more stems of the vinca, and they sat cluttering my work area all Fall and much of this Winter. But when I moved The Folly recently to it's new being worked on location, the unpainted stems were still floating from pile to pile until I decided last week (during my vacation clean-up and re-organization) that the time had come to paint them and glue them together! You can see them above with the first bunch.... I have a long way to go before I have enough vinca plants for the entire garden! And while I have been working on the Spiral stairs and the shelves for Hardwick Hall, (see last week's post) I have been staring at The Folly gardens which are now positioned right at my elbow. And during all those moments of waiting for glue to dry, I have been continuing to plan The Folly Gardens. I know it must seem to some of you that they are the slowest landscaping project ever, but I have been wrestling with a particular feature of the garden (aside from the incomplete Tree House Tree) and that is the Lilac bush which I want to have on one side of the porch in front of the kitchen window. (And some of you might recall I had started the blossoms for the bush at least two years ago....!) My problem was not knowing how to make the stems for the Lilac bush... because I wanted this bush to be huge and old and have gnarly twisted stems. This might not matter too much if the bush was going to be covered in leaves.... which it will, for summertime... but I must remind you, I am sure, that I plan to make this garden seasonally changeable! What? I hear you ask... seasonal gardens for a Dollhouse? Well, you might have noticed that over the years I have occasionally had snow falling on The Folly, and certainly have shown it at Halloween without snow, and in the Summer there will be flowers.... so I have been reluctant to choose only one Season for this garden! And I am quite proud of my changeable garden "pods" I constructed for this very purpose when I built all those brick paths a few years ago!

Where you see the pile of "bricks" in the above picture
 is where the Lilac bush will stand... 
and if you look closely you will see
 a fine line in the "ground" under those bricks.....

Here you can see it closer.....

With the pile of bricks moved....

The section of Garden lifts out.... carefully cut to be removable!

And I made patterns all those months and years ago, 
so I could duplicate the garden shape well enough....

To make replaceable exchangeable garden "pods"..... 
each with a different Season of plants!
And the Vinca which is a hardy evergreen ground cover 
will disguise the remaining sections of the gardens
 that don't change with the seasons!
(The nail inserted in the pink foam is so the pods
 can be easily lifted in and out while
 the gardens are being constructed)
And all those"bricks" in that pile are for making an edging
 to the pods to disguise the seam which would be visible otherwise.

Finally I glued them in place!

On both sides of the porch!
(That blob of pink foam is standing in for
 a possible boulder.... design in progress...!)

And I finally made all the "duplicate pods"...

and carefully labeled them with the season they will "grow"....
And decided for sure that the right side garden
 will not have any bushes like the lilac on the left side garden!
Which needs to have Four identical "bushes" built.... !
Yikes! What was I thinking?
Meanwhile.....
The bricks were made from terra-cotta colored sculpey....
but needed to be painted a color closer to the dark red of the other bricks.....


You can see they also edge the lower section of the garden....
which will have vinca as its primary cover....

With my few small samples standing in 
for the eventual ground cover they will be.

And the little bird bath too....
and there will be plenty of moss... 
and the bricks still need to be "dirtied up" a bit more!
But all of this is just a prelude, Dear Readers,
 to the building of the Lilac bushes!
Because, while shopping at Michaels on my vacation,
 I came across some wonderful paper covered florist wire
 that answered all my lilac stem needs perfectly!

Because I wanted my lilac bushes to resemble
 these old shrubs at the place where I work.... 
although these were badly damaged by an ice storm last year....

Here you can see a closer view of the gnarled old stems I am trying to recreate....
they have a beautiful twisting texture to the bark.... can you see it there?

Well, Dear Readers, I started trying to see
 how well the paper covered wires would work
 if I glued smaller wires to them for the smaller branches.....

I am relying heavily on "the glue trick" here.....
using the bulk of the dried glue to form part of the
 "shape" of the branch where it connects to the stem, 
as well as the glue simply attaching the pieces. 

And especially where the smaller wires 
need to attach at the top of the thicker stem....
Eventually they will all need to be painted to unify the color too.

And once the stems are "planted" in the "pod"......
it gets harder to work on them... 
but I have to be careful to make the two...
 three.... um four versions all the same!

And this is before we get to the stems that are really gnarly...!

But we have to test them for fit in the garden....
mindful of the roof eaves on the porch which overhang half the "pod"!
It is really a tiny space for such a bush.... 
but I want that overgrown ancient feel...

There will be many more stems... 
and the smaller branchings still have not been added to any of them!

But it is the gnarly old ones that really add the character....
and have to be "planted" right away
 in order to get the angle and position correct.....

and then have to be "duplicated".......

Which is not as easy as it sounds!
While the glue is drying the "pods" need to be on their side....
 somehow supporting the joined wires while they dry....

Here is the second "pod".... 
not all these stems are attached yet...
I am still working on the shape for them.... 
and have not started adding the smaller branches... 
which probably should be done before
 all the stems are attached to the "pods".

Here's the "duplicate pod" next to the initial "pod".....
And I have barely begun three and four....
because I ran out of that wonderful paper covered wire
 and must go back for more!
But I am determined, Dear Readers,
to make all the bushes for all the Seasons....
No matter how long it takes.... 
Because I want to be able to show you
 The Folly Garden in Winter
 as well as Spring and Summer...
Because whether or not there is snow on the ground,
 the Winter Garden is all about those gorgeous old Stems!

Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Building The Built-in Shelves.....




And the Spiral Stairs.....

I had a week off from Work, Dear Readers, and I can assure you that I spent as much of it as possible reveling in my myriad mini projects and I have So much to show you that I don't quite know where to start! But I think it would be unkind if I did not show you the second set of ornate brocade curtains that I did complete for The Folly Living Room! Above you can see the panels completed, with their wires sewn in the hems and the gold braid fringe added. These are for the larger window, so they needed to be wider and show more of the blue flower pattern, which works perfectly with the colors in this room.

Here they are installed with the pelmet which has the wider design too.
I may need to make the pelmet trim go "around the corner"....
 because you can see that side from this angle.

And with more furniture... 
I think it adds to the cozy feel of this room 
and brings the blue into balance.
Without a Doubt..... 
these curtains transform this room!

But the real project I want to show you, Dear Readers, is the building of the Shelves for the Hardwick Hall Attic Reading Room! I had ordered the wood to build these shelves weeks ahead of time, but it was on back-order and did not arrive in time. I was forced to make do by cutting my own wood strips out of basswood sheets, which actually turned out to be for the best because it allowed me to build  deeper shelving units for the far wall, which would be useful for holding larger sized books. So I cut 1" strips for the back wall shelves and 3/4' strips for the side shelves. The whole process was very time consuming because the attic is not exactly square.... (you have to love these kits!....) which required cutting and testing for fit every step of the way!
 And while I was doing that I also had begun to glue the spiral stairs together... (until now they had been temporarily strung on a thin dowel... and fell apart with every shift!) This was also a complicated process of gluing one part then waiting 'til it dried thoroughly before gluing the next one!

This was especially necessary when it came to attaching the spindles to the stairs because they were wobbly and had to align exactly with the curved railing that would go on top.... but the railing couldn't be attached until all the spindles were firmly and precisely in place. And because it was a curved shape.... spiraling upward.... just supporting two ends wasn't enough.... you had to have a middle-point also supported at the same time. I managed to get the bottom two spindles glued in while the railing was balanced on the upper spindle.... but you had to add the spindles one at a time and wait for the glue to dry.... or it all would fall apart! I would add a piece every two or four hours....!


 Meanwhile I was building the bookshelves....
Starting at the back in the darkest corner of the attic....
where I had to measure and fit and test and then glue...

The gap you can see between the side of the shelves and the wall 
is to allow for the depth of the side wall shelving.... 
I made a drawing first so I could do the math 
and get the general measures worked out...
 but all the pieces needed adjusting to fit the actual space.... 

Here you can see the top shelf which
 covers the distance all the way to the side wall....
 and needed to be just the right length and angle.....

Here I am building the basic unit....
 with my cutting mat to help keep them square.....
 (except that the walls aren't square....)

And slowly adding spindles to the Spiral stairs.....
 that folded paper is being a force to push 
the spindle against the railing while it dries... 
without exerting too much force which would make the railing fall off....
 because it is not attached  but is only there for alignment purposes!

Here is the Attic with morning light.... 
showing (sort of) the back two shelf units in position.
 And Madame Durant has come to inspect the work....
there is still a long way to go!


Here you can see an overhead view of the two back units 
and the two sides also begun....
(I know.... it is dark.....)
And then I had an idea.... 
one of Those ideas that wouldn't go away.....
How could we get more light into those back corners? 
Could we add mirrors behind the shelves...?
Or perhaps some glittery silver paper????

Which I had several sheets of.... purchased long ago.....
Shouldn't we at least test it out?
At first, Dear Readers, I thought it was too much....
But the more I looked, the more I liked it...

Especially when the outside spotlight was not shining directly in!
But what about with the books in place... 
would they block too much of the paper...?


Well, we had to try a few books....
(Gosh I am going to have to make/acquire/buy a lot of books!)

Ohhh, I am liking this!!!
And even though the books will eventually cover much of the paper...
 I think it will still be lurking there... a presence... 
like a mist on a meadow at dusk....!

And in the morning light.... with no additional lighting.....
It is simply radiant!


Here you can see the side shelving also completed
 and the top edge trim has been added too.
But all the side trim and end trim has yet to be added....
especially where the shelves meet the bench alcoves.
 
Meanwhile I have completed all the spindles on the Spiral stairs...

And it is time to glue on the handrails
... a much easier task... but still best done one rail at a time!

The shelf units are getting their facing trim....

Always testing the fit of every piece.....
The units will not be glued to each other
 until they are glued into the Attic... 
because of those crooked walls!
And once they are... 
you will not be able to get close enough
 to see this top view.


The trim on the ends has been added too....
 
And Finally, Dear Readers, 
I take my courage in my hands
 and Glue the Shelf units in place!
Because only then can I start to add the trim
 around the alcoves where they meet the shelves.
I have pulled the curtains away to keep them from the glue... 
and I know you can't see it, but I have added the trim in that dark corner!

And the alcove trim on the side alcoves is also being added....

Here you can see where the shelves and the alcove have a gap....

And here you can see all the trim has been added....
Except for the near side of the alcove... 
because those shelves have not been built yet!

And let's not forget the Spiral stairs railings... 
another section attached!

And the attic Shelves are very nearly done....
 (except for those aforementioned units at the front of the attic)
And we can revel in those amazing shelves.... 
and the contemplation of all those books....

By Day and also by Night.....

Especially by Night.... 
can we admire the brilliance added by those silver papers....

And perhaps with the fireplace too.....
Yes, those back corners are going to be hard to see...

Dark and Sparkly and Mysterious!

But my Vacation is quickly winding to a close....

Even the Spiral staircase is Almost complete... 
only the finials left to add....

And I must say, Dear Readers, 
there was even more that I accomplished...
 but I will show you that another day. 
Right now all I want to do is 
Revel in that Attic with those Built-in shelves... 
and Contemplate the next parts of those Incredible Spiral Stairs!