Guild School Auction

As I mentioned in my last post I am busy making a furniture piece for IGMA's Guild School auction. Well, I finished the stitching this morning, the chart comes from the book Berlin Work Samplers & Embroidery by Raffaella Serena. I stitched it on 60 count silk gauze with Pipers Silk using cross stitch. I had to finish the stitching first before I start with the woodwork as I needed to know the exact finished dimensions.



The embroidery was made for this fire screen, here is a photo of the original, it is from the 18th century. I am using a pattern from the book Construction of American Furniture Treasures by Lestor Margon, when the book was published in 1949 it was in the Metropolitan museum of art but my search of their data base was fruitless so I guess that after 60 years they might not have it anymore. Of course this is a late 18th century screen while the embroidery dates from a 100 years later, so the story is that the silk fabric disintegrated after a 100 years and that the new owner who loves embroidery replaced it with the newest craze in the Victorian era, who said miniatures can't have a history too!!!!!

Off to work now as I only have 15 days left before I fly out from here, I sure hope the vulcano in Iceland doesn't cause any air traffic disruptions like last year.

Elga

Queen Anne Chair: Update

At last I have two chairs, I spent the last month building the second chair and taking the finish that I didn't like off the first chair. I went with my instincts this time and diluted the stain and put on two thin layers instead of one thick one, it is actually a bit darker than what the photos show. By the way, eye shadow applicators work wonderful for putting on stain.



Hope you like them, I started a tilt-top candle stand that will stand between the two chairs. I am working like crazy at the moment, I have only 3 weeks until I fly out to Castine, Maine for IGMA's Guild School. As a Scholarship student I was asked to donate a piece for IGMA's auction and am hard at work on a special piece for the auction which I will show to you as soon as it is finished.

Elga

Antique Fair

It is a month since I posted, Wow, where did the time go, my second chair is almost finished, so I will show them to you soon. Today we had a public holiday here and for me that usually mean that there is an antique fair somewhere close to me. Sometimes I find nothing, but today was a good day for the mini people.



The little jug measures just 1 1/4" high, I took the picture in my doll house parlor.
The trinket box measures 3/4" across the widest part and is Limoge from France, it is going to be perfect for a French bedroom that I have in mind.



Here is the trinket box with its lid lying next to it on a walnut desk that I made some time ago.

Elga

Queen Anne Chair: Color transformation has begun!!!!!!!

The chair is finished as far as construction is concerned and I just stained it to look like walnut, I think it is going to look just like I pictured it in my mind's eye.



Tomorrow the oiling process will start. Can't wait to see how it is going to turn out.

Elga

Queen Anne Chair: Almost done

The chair is amost done, once again I made a jig for the back splat's profile. I cut it from 1/8" thick wood, after I had cut it out I used the drum sander on my moto tool to reduce the thickness and get the desired curve plus a lot of hand sanding. The shoe was made by routing the front with a small ball cutter, the sides I just cut with my scroll saw and once more a lot of shaping and sanding by hand.



I just need to turn the last little stretcher that goes between the two side stretchers today and then I can finish gluening it together, at the moment an elastic band is holding it together.



I couldn't resist putting my petit point on the chair, it was stitched on 48 count silk with DMC. Well, I am going to spend the rest of the day in finishing the final construction, then it still needs to be stained and finished with Danish Oil.

Elga

Queen Anne Chair: Crest rail

Yesterday I spend a big part of the day working on the shaping of the legs, because it is the horseshoe shape chair, there is a lot of wood to remove from the square post. Inbetween I started making the jigs for the crest rail and cut that out last night and glued it into place.



This morning I worked on shaping the crest rail, the middle part needs to flow smoothly from the front bottom edge to the top back edge, so the sharp edges needed rounding.



View from the back, well I am going to try and finish as much as possible today, except fot the staining and polishing.

Elga

Natalia's Commission

I am happy to say that my first commission is finished and has arrived at it's destination safely and within 15 days. Natalia, I am glad to say is happy with the end results, it was rather stressful since this was the first time that I accepted a commission and I am very much still in a learning phase with all of these new (to me in any case) techniques. These pictures were taken in the dining room of my Victorian Dollhouse. The fire screen works similar to a tilt-top table.



Of course, now I have to wait to see what petit point she is going to stitch for the diiferent furniture pieces.

Elga

Queen Anne Chair: Cabriole legs and knee brackets

One thing is sure, dressmaker's pins are quite handy for miniatures too.



I used some in gluing the side rails to the front to keep everything in place. I used the pattern as a guide in gluing everything together.



Well, it is starting to look like a chair!!!! The right leg still needs its knee brackets and a lot more shaping. The back isn't glued on yet, that will only happen when all the stretcher bars are finished, I had a mental block for woodturning today, so hopefully that will happen tomorrow.



I still need to refine the rebate where the upholstered seat will fit in. In this picture you can see how flat the top part of the right leg still is, a lot of carving and sanding still to be done.

Elga

Queen Anne Chair: Shaping the Cabriole Legs

Oh well, you can see I had fun today, I have done quite a bit on the shaping of the left leg. It still needs a bit of work but I am going to glue it to the front rail now, it will be easier to do the final shaping with the seat rail in place.

Elga

Queen Anne Chair: Cabriole legs the feet

Right now I am one very happy lady, I chucked the leg back into the lathe ( I am very green at turning) to see if I could curve the bottom of the feet with my new favorite tool (nail filing pads). the leg on the left is done while the other one will be done soon, but I wanted to show you the difference, all I need to do now is to cut off the "handles" and finish the shaping of the legs by hand.

Elga