Loft Project Radiator

The last two Wednesday virtual mini meetings I was able to attend, I worked on the radiator for the Loft Project apartment. This is the result, finished during our session today; it will be spray-painted a nice ivory enamel colour, to counter all the darker, autumnal colours I hope to use in this project.

The radiator is made of paired, glued craft sticks with decorative ends made from inexpensive wooden fan blades; I had a lot of those, as they were what the spiral stairs were supposed to be made of. (I still haven't completely given up on the stairs, but am  weighing my options there.)

The craft sticks were drilled to take a piece of brass wire to thread them together, and the horizontal "pipes" are flat round wooden spacer beads cannibalised from an old necklace. Two brass, knurled beads cover the upper ends of the wire. The "pipes" are made of plastic kit waste, which I actually managed to drill with my pin vice, to take the ends of the wires that hold the radiator fins together. The faucet is made of sewing pin bits and beads, again drilled in place on the plastic waste pipes. I did not drill through my finger tips, but admit that I did poke my finger with my awl blade....

Knitting is going on; one and a half socks, three knitted slippers, and half a mitten are on the go right now. There are also some partially finished, small knitting projects left over from pre-Covid, that I fully intend to finish (i.e., my intentions are good, we'll have to see if I achieve them!)

 

It May Be a While

 Because Christmas is fast approaching, witness the birds leaving here, the trees already turning colour, and the cool nights and mornings, I decided to get a bit of a head start on Christmas gifts. That means I may not be posting on the blog as often, but I hope you will check in once in a while. Due to the pandemic, mails are slow right now, and I think I should send any gifts off before the middle of November.

I am back at my volunteer job one day a week, for four hours only right now, and the knitting group has started up again; the huge donation of yarn that arrived on Monday means that the needles will have to click madly to use it all up. We are doing some knitting for charities and they need their supplies for the winter sooner rather than later.

The blinds are installed in the Loft Project, and I think I have what I need for the hardware on the windows. The next big job is pipes and wiring; decent weather is required for me to spray-paint out of doors, and with all the tropical storms/hurricanes, there has been a lot of wind up my way lately. We are also dealing, this far away from the west coast, with smoke from forest fires! 

Stay well, please; consider Hallowe'en patterned masks, and holiday season ones, as it looks we will have to wear them for some time to come. And we may as well have some fun while wearing them....

Window Blinds

I decided to add some window blinds, rolled up of course, to the two windows in the Loft Project. As well, I papered the two ceilings in the project. The photo below shows what I found to use;



The ceilings are an ogee-patterned, textured scrapbooking paper; two sheets were plenty to do both ceilings, make a mistake, and still have paper left over for some future small project. The paper was from Michael's. I also used odd stuff to create the blinds; a piece of wallpaper frieze, about 4" or 10 cm wide, that I had picked up from the freebie table at camp, thinking it might make good wainscoting for a witch or wizard scene. Combined with fringe (selvedge of a piece of natural cotton muslin), mini braid, gold embroidery cord, and a jump ring and tiny bit cut off a jewelry finding, all rolled onto a skewer, created the blind in the photo below;



I like it, as does the Carpenter-in-Chief! Tomorrow, I'll hang the blinds, and put hardware on the windows.

More Progress

The lower edge has been finished, again with a file folder cardboard strip faux painted to match the stained oak floor finish. Originally the space between the pillars was going to house the spiral stairs, but I am still not sure about those! The pillars will be enamel-painted in cream, with some aging to give them character. They are made from the wooden inside of some commercial tassels, and some doweling; remember, this building is intended to be cast iron construction.

The table, chair, ottoman and rug were originally intended for this project, and I still like them in this space. The vase is an inexpensive Mexican ceramic, with some very old (like, among the earliest I ever made!) grasses and plants in it; the colour works with the overall autumnal effect I associate with steam punk interiors, and I've always loved mossy green glazes.



The upper level is still bare; I will likely re-purpose the pencil sharpener Victrola with a wooden base and some more interesting colouring, but it would suit the setting. The interior window openings are framed, the windows are glazed, but not yet fixed in place. The lower one will be partially open. And the outside of the window framing has been "rusted" and aged.

The project is developing its own character; it represents a corner of the loft apartment of the owner of the book shop in the books. As space is limited, I have to think seriously as to what is needed to give the effect I want. I am kind of interested in trying a steam punk desk or chest of drawers, based on a framework of match boxes; there are a number of very interesting ones on the internet. The walls will, of course, have "stuff" on them, like shelves and paintings and pictures.

Ideally, I'd like to do some steam punk piping, again in cream enamel, and add a radiator and assorted dials and gauges where they seem appropriate, as well as a coffee table or something; I am still looking at possibilities there. Right now, I mainly want to finish this structure. The outside walls will be brick, with the slanted roof sheathed in verdigrised copper. I intend to light this structure, which will be a bit of a challenge, given the lower level ceiling height; I may have to resort to wall sconces and a floor lamp there. Battery packs will be hidden in a removable roof, with the handles being disguised as chimneys; I'm thinking of a small weather station on the roof as well, and will have to see what is available for things like a miniature anemometer.

And I am thinking very seriously of doing more portions of this project in materials like matte board, foam core and the like, with faux finishes, of course.

Some Progress

The spiral staircase, which was a major part of this project, and the reason I came home with a pretty much unfinished building, is now hanging on by a thread - I may assign it to the burn pile! However, in the meantime, I did do some work on the Industrial Loft Project, aka the Steampunk Apartment Corner Vignette. My idea for this loft is that it is cast iron construction, so lots of metal to fake up....



My decision was to take baby steps. Yesterday, I cut fine strips of file folder card, and used it to make a finished edge around the second floor; it was faux-painted to match the stained boards, and I am quite happy with it. The same finish will eventually go around all the raw edges of the project. Above is one of the windows in the process of being glazed. The Carpenter-in-Chief said I should not have the wide muntins of the window on the outside, as rain would collect in the metal corners and the window frame would rust out. OK, I agreed, and decided that I would cover the outside edges with fine, painted strips of sturdy scrap booking card. The purplish thing is the closest I came to black, so that was the colour I chose. I think a fair amount of card will go into this construction!



It's taken most of today, but one of the windows is in place, ready to have the interior framed glued in place. We were going to make the central section swivel out, but that requires, a) pin hinging and b) pin hinging having to be drilled in a laser-cut window where you can't get your pin vise in straight. I've given myself permission to make is simpler; the upper pane will be permanently closed, while the lower one will be permanently open. It is currently under weights awaiting the glue drying. You can see the nice finish on the edges of the second floor.

I would like to suggest hardware on these windows, and will have to research that. Also, I'm thinking that roller blinds would be an interesting touch, as this loft is now a home; they would be rolled up, of course, so not too difficult to create, and could have interesting hardware too. And perhaps I'll look for an interesting dark tiny tie print for the blinds.