Saturday 27 February 2016

Crossing the Finishing Line!!!!

Honest - I really am going to show you details of my finished Mardi Gras lamp today! Would I lie to you???? Of course not!

But...before I do that...:D... I'd like to welcome Wanda to my followers list. Another very talented miniaturist herself, Wanda also does interior design in her real, big-world life so is a great person for advice on finishing touches. I will definitely be picking her brain for ideas (but don't anybody tell her - she might change her contact information before I can reach her!) :D :D

So, my last post left off with pictures of my lamp before the door trims had been added or the furniture and accessories added. So, here goes....




Here you can see the doors have been trimmed and a shelf added above the door. I found that bead in my stash that looked like a beautiful little pot and was the same colour as the doors. I thought it would look good on the shelf and repeat the door colour for consistency. Now you can probably see the trim I was talking about yesterday. Rather than a 90 degree angle of a usual corner trim, this trim was a perfect angle to fit around the diagonal wall. The problem was then how to fit the flat, upper trim into it properly. Well, as you can see if you click on the picture to enlarge it, - I didn't exactly accomplish that. Oh well, you should see the trim in some of the rooms of my real house!
Do you remember when we started this Mardi Gras journey, I said I had to develop the story before I could imagine the room? I also promised I would share the story with you at some point. See - I do keep my promises! So here's the story about this little room:

This little 2nd floor apartment is in a beautiful old building in a beautiful old section of New Orleans. It's owner, Martine, is a lovely young woman in her late 20s, born and raised in New Orleans. As an adult living in this fascinating city she has come to appreciate the dichotomy of the steel and glass buildings of modern New Orleans while never forgetting the underlying wisdom and superstitions of the old. She thrived on the stories and skills learned at the knee of her grandmother and honours all those who had gone before by finding a way to blend the old with the new. Lately she has been completely engrossed in planning for her upcoming wedding to one of the handsomest, most wonderfully attentive men she has ever met.

However, in the last few weeks something strange has been going on that is distracting her from her planning process. She has begun to hear little whispers behind her back...conversations stopping when she enters a room, people she has known all her life treating her with kid gloves and giving her looks which, if she didn't know better, she could swear looked like sympathy. She started paying closer attention and pieced bits together here and there. There was a disturbing trend for sure. It seemed that people were talking about her wonderful soon-to-be husband and she began to worry that perhaps he wasn't as wonderful or as attentive as she had thought.
Since it was the week before the beginning of Mardi Gras and masked and costumed people were already starting to fill the streets in anticipation, Martine decided to go through her old costumes and, using a different mask every day, she would follow her love and confirm he was indeed what she thought he was. Unfortunately, she had seen enough to give her great pause as she contemplated her future.


But - enough of that for now. Tonight was a special night and she was going to celebrate. She mixed her favourite drink and gathered her favourite chocolates and was going to curl up in her favourite chair with a good book for a wonderfully peaceful evening where she could forget all her doubts and worries. However, after placing her drink and chocolates on her chair-side table, she heard a commotion outside. Running out to her balcony she saw a crowd gathering in the street about a block away. In the middle of the group she glimpsed a body lying on the sidewalk- limbs akimbo, face apparently frozen in horror and, most definitely dead! Oh my, it was indeed her betrothed. On shaking limbs she stepped back into her apartment. She needed to sit down but first..........
.......perhaps, she thought, a slight smile beginning to form on her beautiful face, first she should move that voodoo doll she had thrown into her chair a few moments ago.

So - there, my friends, is the story, and here is the finished project.
Yes - I know I'm a sick puppy but hey, that's the way I swing!

Next post, I'll try not to be so macabre :D. I'll tell you then about the details within the room before we move on. I promise! TTFN!

2 comments:

  1. That is a GREAT back story!
    Maureen

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Maureen. Like I said earlier, once you have the story, everything else is easy(ish). - Marilyn

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