Tuesday 4 November 2014

More gold leaf pen and chandeliers

I know I finished the last post with the promise of saucepans next time but who wants saucepans when you can have chandeliers.?

click to enlarge

You may remember I recently got these from Petworth miniatures.  I had been looking for chandeliers for the salon and the dining room and generally haven't been able to find anything I like.  I have seen only one I liked but it would mean a second mortgage on my house so I gave up on that idea.

I then saw these by Petworth.  To be truthful I thought they looked a bit hefty and rather Tudor(ish) but thought I could maybe take a look and see if I could use them some other way if they wouldn't hack it.  No need to fear: Petworth being Petworth has come up trumps.


Those of you practiced in these arts and seeing the dressmakers' pin nearby have already grasped that they are a bit fiddly to assemble but are well worth the effort.

Handy tip as always - obey the experts.  Gayle suggests in her instructions that you hold the pieces as you cut through the tab which holds them in their frame so they don't ping away.  Why would someone as talented and intelligent as me need to do that?  Plus (using a magnifying glass to work with) the pieces are a fair size so not a problem!  Ping! one of the little candle cups (circle beneath the candle) 'disappeared'.  There is a propensity for these things to defy the space/time continuum and leave their frame as a giant gold circle and become the size of a speck of dust and change its colour to that of any background it chooses to land on.  It doesn't just land of course, it roams and when you find it you spend forever saying "How did it get there?".  Moral of this story:  Do as you are told by people who know better.


The secret of success with this piece is getting all the verticals vertical and all the horizontals horizontal and there are a lot of them.  Quick drying glue is pretty much a must and something to hang it on as it dries between steps.  This pin went into a piece of sytrene packing leaned up against a mug on my desk.


.....  and here it is finished and drying.  This picture doesn't improve much on the picture on the packet.  This small stuff is hellish to photograph flatteringly (kudos to those who do)  As always the real McCoy is so much nicer than this.  I am just a bit concerned that the small rooms of  Les Roches may not cope with a grand chandelier.  If not. it just means I will have to make something else some time to accommodate it.  My usual method of 'saving money' - to save wasting five dollars (cost of this item) I will spend a few hundred to wrap something around it.




The 'basket in the centre is just fabulous as it means I can light it with a chip LED.  I love this light.


Here's its little brother - no way to add a light to this, but as it is for the salon I can have wall lights, firelight, table lamps so not a problem.  Here in Florida many rooms don't have centre lights - why not the same (on this occasion) in France?

May second coat the gold and the candles and black tip the candles for a burned wick.





4 comments:

  1. I am doing Hungerford Manor (from Petworth) and have done a couple of the lamps/candle sconces included in the kits and I can second your comment about holding things in place while snipping the join :) and also about how nice they look when finished. You have done a great job of yours, it will be nice to see them installed.

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    1. Thanks Sandra. Ooooh - the manor - how wonderful. That must be a lovely thing to worth on each month and a nice steady pace too with a beginning and an end. Mind you it is all the accessories that slow me down. As I said I was pleasantly pleased they weren't clunky - always do like Gayle's stuff. Marilyn

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    2. sorry for typo... 'work' on each month ....

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    3. You are right, it is a great project to work on. I've just finished making the furniture for the library including a great little chess table. Love this manor house, every room is a delight to work on.

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