My Scullery Room Box Is On Display!

For the past 15 years, I've been a volunteer at Kings Landing Historical Settlement, an open-air museum about 25 km from where I live. I started out weeding a spectacular garden, was asked to set up an in-service library, then when space restraints meant the end of the library, I went to work doing museum accessioning. That means I get to handle the artifacts, and I've been quite happy doing that.

This year, I was asked to assist the exhibition team from June until October, when the site closes for the winter. I love this opportunity, as we are able to pick and choose lovely items from the collection that rarely get seen; the mandate of the museum is featuring United Empire Loyalist settlers, most of whom were farmers and artisans, like smiths, carpenters and the like. (For those of you in the US, the United Empire Loyalists were people who came north to Canada around the time of the American Revolution, or as planters.) They tended to own the bare minimum of "stuff".

One of the full-season exhibits this year is the business of laundry; all the tools etc. for hand-washing the family's soiled clothing. The scullery room box below is part of that exhibit this year, and I couldn't be prouder!

There is a long, wide corridor that leads to the washrooms in the Welcome Centre, and that is where the washing exhibit has been placed. Something for Moms and Dads and kids to do while their families use the washrooms! The scullery room box has most of the washing tools displayed full size in it. and is being used as a narrative for the work involved in keeping your clothes and so on clean before the advent of  washing machines and dryers, and no-wrinkle fabric finishes.

A closer look at the scullery room box. Just about everything in this box was made by me; it began with the mangle in the right back corner, and then took on a life of its own. Lots to see, and a story without words.

Our first guest of the summer has headed back home, and another is arriving in August, to be followed by our third child and his wife in September. It is so lovely to see all our children in the same year; it has been 3 or 4 years, pre-Covid, that we saw the two older kids. We've missed them!

Another Week, Some More Work

While still trying to do catch-up on all my UFO's, Real Life took some time this past week; this means that I don't have a lot finished yet, but I did start finishing things.



This is a very tiny sewing basket from a kit; there are three more rings of wood to go on top of these, then I have to tie on the cover. The kit is lovely, but I can't remember where the heck I got it! There are very basic instructions with it, but no maker. I think perhaps I picked it up in England several years ago.



The table legs are assembled, now I have to place them. I hope to use this piece in the Tudor Apothecary Shop, so I should really make a slatted shelf below this, big enough to put some carboys -
large bottles in straw baskets. They could hold all sorts of mysterious potions....



Done! Another old kit, an antique wash tub with soap shelf, laundry forks, and stocking stretchers. For now, these will go into my scullery/laundry room, if I can find space for them. This kit came from Camp MiniHaHa some years ago. I am still attempting to figure out how to make the washboard without the suggested  window framing; I think a wood sandwich should work. There is also a wash dolly, which requires drilling half a dozen holes at an angle, plus a central hole for the handle, in a very, very tiny wooden disc. I am working up to it. The instructions are in an old Nutshell News magazine.



And finally, the bottom of the wall shelf is ready to go, and the new cupboard unit that replaces the bottle holder and narrower unit is ready for gluing. I hope to have this Camp MiniHaHa project 2019 assembled and partially furnished for the beginning of May, the Moncton Miniature and Doll Show. It doesn't have to be finished, but it should give a good idea of the finished project.

I think the counter top will have to be faux marble; the back will likely get Delft tiles; and the floor should get a strip of encaustic tile. On the gluing jig right now, besides the little sewing basket, is an octagonal side table. I am gluing and then sanding the rim pieces, one at a time. A bookshelf awaits my attention....

This scullery roombox grew out of the mangle in the right back corner; two friends and I meet irregularly to "do minis", and one day we did this. It was so  much fun, we kept on going, and a room box got started to hold it all. The sink and copper came from Carol and Nigel Lodder's book. The folding drying rack and the 2-position folding ironing board were my original designs. I especially like the pine settle; it was the first time I did faux painting in miniature, adding light graining and knot holes. Again, air-dry clay was widely used, even for the copper which is hiding under the wooden lid. The floor is water-proofed with exterior matte varnish, and grouted with dry-wall compound. Since this photo was taken, some vintage laundry product boxes were added, including "blueing" which I remember from my childhood.