The Mystic Path....Part 3

First, thanks everyone that has started following me and thanks to Victoria for the very nice post about my blog on her own blog http://darksquirrelminiatures.blogspot.com/! Girl...you are awesome and so are your creations!! I have threatened to do a project with her and she hasn't run away so we'll have to see what happens in the future.

I'm sorry that there has been a lapse in my postings, but I had a friend in town and not everything can be miniatures. Sometimes real life steps in and in this case, it was a great visit!

I think we left off last time with the completion of the trim work on the shop space on the first floor and I promised to start telling you about the upstairs space, also known as the fortune teller's room.

When I think "fortune teller" my mind immediately goes to a dark room, plush with unusual lighting, creative furnishings and a general feeling of mystery.  That is the look and feel I wanted to create on the second floor of my roombox.  First thing I did was created an interior wall with a bumped out doorway. I wanted the viewer to feel they could exit the room and explore beyond the doors if they were allowed. 

Following the same procedures as the first floor, I created the walls with foam core and then attached the wallpaper to the mat board and attached that to the wooden walls.  In this picture, they are still loose and not attached because you shouldn't put up your finished walls until after you have completed your ceiling.  Always work from the top down....trust me, i have learned the hard way.

Now it was time to decide what I wanted to do to the ceiling.  I thought about papering the ceiling, but felt that it was just too boring for my eccentric lady of the house.  I was looking through some pictures and came across a photo of a bedroom with a pleated fabric ceiling.  THAT WAS IT!  After finding just the right colored Dupioni silk to match the wallpaper, I sat down and created a fabric ceiling for my lady, but I didn't want to do the entire ceiling. Call me silly, but that just seemed to be a bit busy for me.  Then I had another thought.  What if the room was divided into two separate areas.  In the larger area to the left would be the table with the crystal ball. I had already determined that and made allowances in the floor to even light the ball.  On the left I decided there needed to be an area where the clients could be greeted by Madam Aspen and led into the "inner sanctum".  not only would that allow me to break up the space, but it would also give it a bit more mystery. 

Now that it was decided only the left would be for fortunes, that is all I made a pleated ceiling for.  This is how that turned out.  First picture shows it before installation and the second shows you what it looks like in place.

Oh...you noticed the light huh?  Well, of course Madam couldn't have just a simple chandelier or ceiling fixture. I made a lamp and give it an old world (pseudo Moroccan) feel.  At least that is what I wanted it to look like.  The cylinder in the center is made from an aluminum mesh (the kind used for sculptures) and the top and bottom are buttons I found at a local store. I drilled a whole through the top button to run the light through.  The fun part was putting dot of glass paint in each of the tiny little diamonds on the mesh. Pictures really don't do justice to this fixture.  One day I will get a good picture showing the variety of color.

Now you say, you must have installed the crown molding and the baseboard.  Well, normally I would have, but I wanted some more custom lighting in the room. I just could not find any lights or electrified candles that I liked so I would have to make them.  Before I could attach the wallpaper I would have to finish my lighting and get it all installed. 

Next on my list of light projects was a table lamp with a cutout shade and some fun fringe. It just screamed eccentric to me and I'm LOVING it.

Now, what good is a fortune teller without some candles.  I looked online and in the stores and all the candles that were ready-made had these HUGE flame bulbs on them that just looked seriously out of place to me.  What can I say...I'm really picky.  I set out making some custom polymer clay candles and then electrified them with some tiny Micro bulbs that were only 1.5V.  Well guess what? Anyone? Anyone?  I'll tell you what.  When you plug a 1.5V bulb into a 12V transformer, they blow up and are then useless pieces of glass with some wires attached.  ARGH!! After a nice chat with the local mini store owner, I was taught about an amazing creation called a "resistor". WOOHOO! All I had to do was attach the resistor to one of the wires on the bulb (new ones of course) and then wire as normal.  Well I'll be damned...it worked.  Not being an electrician, I was more than pleased with my work.  The candles aren't much to look at with bright photo lights are on, but in the darkened room, they create the perfect subtle look I was hoping for. (sorry it's so blurry).

At this point I still have not installed the trim work and I also have to created the beam/curtain holder that will divide the room, but it is slowly starting to look like something.

Oh, and I intentionally left the doors at the back cracked and put a bulb in the outer "hall" so there is some light spilling in from the back.  It's that whole "illusion of more" thing I love so much about the Thorne Rooms.

This post gets you all caught up with how the room looks now.  Everything from here on out will be shown as I finish it.

Till Later!