Tower almost done

I still have to put the lead caming on the windows in the bedchamber and paint and frame them, and the Tower needs a roof and a few more light fixtures, but it's almost done!

 

I haven't really finished dressing the bed, but this is a start.  The little cradle I bought used from an eBay seller. I love the X-chair -- again, from an eBay seller.   The tapestry over the fireplace was my first embroidery.  The crucifix is a resin pendant.  The trunk is from Michaels.

Tower Bed Chamber started

Well, I'm now starting on the final room of the first Tower:  the bed chamber.  I've done the floor, the stair railing, painted the walls and done a teeny tiny little fireplace. I built a wooden frame and used poly filla to make it look plastered.  Then I pressed a stained beam into the "plaster" for a mantelpiece.

Castle Library -- light in staircase and fireplace

Oh, I'm really enjoying this!  As I've mentioned before elsewhere on this blog, I love dolls house lighting -- it just makes everything come alive for me.

I added a lantern in the enclosed stairwell behind the bookcase and wired up the logs/flames unit in the fireplace.

This is the best looking fire I've ever found!

Castle Library almost done

After a few days hard work on the Library, it's almost finished.  I just have to decide how I'm going to light it and drill and connect everything, and it'll be done!

Here you can see the bookcases, the fireplace mantle, the book stand and my new table and chair.  The panelling took a while, but I really like it!

This shows the fireplace in greater detai, plus the painting I hung and the lectern.  The logs/fire in the fireplace I bought from eBay seller Kerby Lane Miniatures.

I bought the small packet of papers you see here in closeup on the libary table from the same UK miniature maker (Pear Tree Miniatures)  who made the Tres Riches Heures open book you see in the above photo, on the lectern.  This Tudor package includes a map, two letters and a list of household accounts. The open book on the table is one I made.

Here's a photo of the library table I bought from UK eBay seller amd5758 who offers free shipping anywhere in the world!  I've bought a couple of pieces from her now and they're all superb.

New chairs for the castle

Happy New Year!

I had several parcels arrive today, one of which contained a set of four chairs.  Now,  the chairs are definitely NOT Tudor (they're Stuart, at the earliest, with really ugly white upholstery), but I'm going to use a couple of them temporarily in the castle until I get my Jacobean house going :)

I bought them in spite of the upholstery on them, in the hopes that I could perhaps recover them.

It took a little more prying than I thought to get the padding off, but in the end brute force won :)

Here are three of them:  the one on the left with upholstery intact, the one in the middle with it freshly pulled off, and the one on the end with the old fabric removed from the thin cardboard and foam backing.

After playing with a few different fabrics and leathers, I've chosen to cover two in a soft brown leather and two in a very pretty, tiny red pattern.  Here they are!

MIniature embroidery

After I finished the big jousting tapestry my fingers still seemed a bit itchy, so I stitched up a small vertical piece designed to be hung between windows.

This Tudor pattern comes from Sandra Whitehead's book Celtic, medieval and Tudor wallhangings in 1/12 scale needlepoint.  I worked it over three and a half days, which made a pleasant change from working on something that took 2 and a half months :)  I changed a few colours and stitched it on 26 count linen with two strands of cotton floss.

Here's Whitehead's version:

It now has a home between the two windows on the main floor of the tower:

The Tower, update

Here's what the Tower is looking like right now. 

The main floor is right where it was a few weeks ago, with the addition of a light between the two windows (I installed that for our Christmas At-Home party on Dec. 20).

The first floor, the Library, has its floor installed, the walls stained and the stairway, railing and bookshelves roughed in.  I have to install the panelling and glue everything together, but it's coming along.  The floor looks great -- Eva scored it with a pen to mark out the wide, uneven floor boards, and then we stained it.

Happy Christmas from the Tudor/Medieval Dolls Castle!

The kids and I decorated the Great Hall for the holidays, and here's what it looks like:

Tiddles hung the garlands (made from lengths of artificial amaranthus sprays from Michaels and clusters of small red seed beads) using Museum Putty.

The minstrel's gallery features a lute (bought via eBay) and a lovely viol da gamba (made by Fred, who's studying violin).  There's also an anachronistic Christmas tree :)

Fred also made the bowl of wassail on the table, next to Tiddles's boar head!  The table runner is a length of fancy trim bought at Designer Fabric in Toronto.

I made a roasting suckling pig on a spit, with andirons, a brick hearth and a drip tray, all created from polymer clay according to the directions in Sue Creaser's amazing book Food displays.

The court cupboard is groaning with treasures:

And last, but not least, I finished my immense embroidered tapestry of two knights jousting today!  I'm SO happy to have this finished -- I've been working on it since mid-October!

A Happy Christmas to all!

The authentic Tudor and Stuart dolls' house

My copy of Brian Long's book, The authentic Tudor & Stuart doll's house, just arrived in the Christmas Eve post, and what a marvellous Christmas present it is!

While there are super projects in this volume, it is principally for inspiration and reference, giving authentic examples of real Tudor and Stuart details of nearly every part of a house, inside and out.

Certainly the most detailed and in-depth book I have on the subject, and I recommend it highly to all!

Medieval tile floor finished

One of the most absorbing aspects of this project, besides the hand work required, which I enjoy, is the research needed to come up with a miniature and theatrical version of a medieval dollhouse castle being lived in by early Tudor-era people.

Learning about medieval flooring has been a real pleasure, and I'm terribly happy that my miniature tile floor is all finished.

Overall, I'm pleased with the effect, particularly from a distance.  Close up, one can tell that the owners of this castle hired blind apprentice tile makers back in the 12th century :)

I think I'll make that part of the story ...

The yellow ochre glaze I used really helped to tie things together.  Then I used a burnt umber glaze to pick out some of the tiles and to muddy things up a bit in general.

There's no grout.  There perhaps should be -- some of the gaps are pretty big!