Room for silver...

During the summer months I have been busy making another roombox to display 17th and 18th century silver miniatures.  The inspiration for the 17th century interior of the roombox came from several paintings by Pieter de Hooch and Emanuel de Witte. 

I made the floor from paper which I painted to look like marble.  The tiles in the hearth are also paper.    I turned the columns of the fireplace from pear wood on my lathe and then marbled them.  

The beams on the ceiling are oak, as is the mantle on the fireplace.  The walls are plastered, painted grey and then aged.    

On the walls hangs 'gold leather',  embossed and gilded leather panels.  In this case the panels aren't real leather, but a type of foil, printed especially for me by my nephew who specializes in art printing.  

I mounted the foil on panels, just like the real gold leather. Even though the printed panels already looked good, I still used several layers of paint, archival varnish and wax on the panels and emphasized the golden embossed raised areas with gold wax.  

Depending on where the light hits the panels, the gold has more (or less) shine.  

The two windows have glass window panes with a kiln fired leaded pattern on them.  

The curtains are silk.  

It was a beautiful summer's day when I took these photos, so the light streaming through the windows was wonderful.  Of course I had to play with some of the pieces from my own collection and take a couple of extra photos.  

Enough of my playing.  The roombox was made for a collection of antique silver miniatures, which gives it a very different atmosphere.  Next weekend I will show you some beautiful photos of the room with the miniature silver in it.