Chippendale Armchairs
Armchair set, finally ready!
In 2018, an exhibition of Thomas Chippendale’s furniture was held in Leeds (I hope I haven’t bored you yet by mentioning this name here and there). Every exhibition usually comes with its own catalog. And I usually buy these. So, in this catalog, there was a wonderful screen that I had already managed to make and sell, and there was also a wonderful armchair with tapestry upholstery. I searched the internet, found a few more not-so-great photos, and decided to tackle a set of two armchairs.
For those who missed it and haven’t read previous posts, let me remind you that this is already the third pair of armchairs. The first two ended up in the trash: the first for its carving and design, the second for its clumsy gilding.
With the current armchairs, everything seems to be fine. I really like the gilding now, the upholstery didn’t cause trouble, and the casters were relatively easy to make, although I did manage to break several 0.5mm drill bits. But these are just part of the process, and I really need to get to the lathe more often and make something else.
And, perhaps, in the next post, I will talk about some nuances of embroidery at this scale.
Anglo-Japanese Style Nightstand
This was one of the most interesting projects recently – a nightstand, a companion piece to my long-standing project, a bed in the Aesthetic Movement and Anglo-Japanese style. Generally, the style that the Herter Brothers developed in 19th-century New York. In one of my videos about this project, I already talked a bit about this style. And in the next video, I talked in more detail about the finished project.
So, for my client I decided to make a small series in this style, there aren’t many original pieces, but all of them are beautiful in their own way. A cabinet and an ottoman are in the plans for now.
The nightstand has many notable details: carving on the legs (black hornbeam, by the way), marquetry on the side panels and the table drawer, a working lock in the cabinet, casters with rubber rims. The original top was made of marble, but I made it from a very durable type of plaster.
The most difficult stage in the work, oddly enough, was assembly. I changed the order of operations and redid it several times. My favorite part was making the lock and key, the lock thickness is about 0.7 mm, I didn’t increase the thickness so that, first, it would be easier to install, and second, to stay more or less in scale. The casters are standard, except I added rubber rims, grooves were made in the brass casters themselves for them. It seems like a small detail, but it looks less ordinary.
The prototype nightstand is in the New York MET museum
Finished! The sofa.
IT’S FINALLY DONE! 🪑✨ Meet my newly finished sofa.
I didn’t want to leave the original design — so I changed the proportions completely. Less depth, shorter length. I wanted it to feel lighter, smaller, but still nice and cozy. 
The weaving of the seat took FOREVER.My eyes are tired, but I loved every second of it! Look at that texture! I love the feeling of the finest silk texture.
Now? Deep breath. And then… on to the next project. Because I already have too many ideas floating around. 😅 Tell me — would you dare to weave a whole seat by yourself? 🙌👇
Французский игровой столик – закончен.
The project I needed to finish two years ago. A French Game Table, the first one went to the auction at IGMA school. I was going to make two of them actually, but I didn’t have enough time to finish it. Besides, I realized that I needed to improve the overall design of the brass mounts, my porcelain painting skills needed an upgrade as well. The inside mount is designed and stitched by me on a 72 count silk gauze. The insert of such a complex form made me cry several times while mounting it, I’m still not very happy about it, but here it is. Sometimes I felt overwhelmed with the whole thing to be honest. I’m happy it’s done. Time to turn the page and move on.
Petit point and a drawing
I’m busy making a new drawing for a French game table top, the inside part of it. Petit point insert is mounted on a cardboard already, the inside part was finished too, but I looked at it couple days ago and didn’t like it. I wanted to add some details, maybe change a color palette as well.
I really like this new version, I think I’ll use pear wood for the background, something bright like maple or birch for decoration and makore wood for the outside border.
Meanwhile, the porcelain plaques are finished, at least I think they are for now 🙂 But I don’t have the photos yet, stay tuned.
It’s been a long time…
It’s been two years since my last post here. This year was full of events. Events that were so unbelievable, that I couldn’t get back to my workshop again. All my thoughts, concerns shifted to a real life, my family. Through all these years I was making posts in other social media platforms, it seemed at the time that it would be always like that. I’d go to the shows in April-May, then IGMA school, maybe another show in autumn, or even exam to pass. Anyway, most of my plans don’t matter anymore.
But I still make miniatures and intend to do so in the future.
I’d love to show some of my miniature projects that were finished quite some time ago, but weren’t shown here in my blog.
Let’s start with these two Italian footstools, you can find a process of making them in one of my videos on my Youtube channel.
The first painted lacquer cabinet, that was made for PIMA awards at Kensington Dollshouse Festival, the second one was made later.
Another Italian project, and armchair, quite complex carving, lots of gold and oil painting.
One of my favorite and one of the smallest projects:
Another favorite, lots of details, that I thought I’d never be able to achieve.
Another Italian piece, this time in scagliola technique. I’m really proud that I was able to make it in miniature.
A French side table, made for IGMA school auction.
There’s so much more to show. Till the next time!
A drafting table.
As I wrote many times I hate working with metal, but this is the only thing that interests me now. Funny enough, I love brass casting, maybe because the only thing I have to do is model making.
Anyway, one day I notice those wonderful vintage drafting tables and architect’s tables and fall in love with them. It’s a very unconventional item, not many people want them in their dollhouses, but it was a chance for me to try metal construction. It became so easy for me planning a piece for woodworking purposes that I thought metal would be something similar for me. Oh boy, I was wrong, big time.
The table I made is simple, but there are couple of things that maybe not so easy to make – gears for height adjustment, table top angle adjustment. The parts are quite big, so you cannot just solder them together (and of course I thought I could when I was making a 3d model).
Here are casted pieces
Adams Style Table.
It’s done!
The carved elements were gilted, the rest of the table is painted with acrylic gouache. Later during Chicago show I was lucky to speak to Robert Dawson, who suggested that inner parts of the table, a vase and the flowers were made of bronze. So I decided to make a new version of this table. With the real marble table top and cast bronze parts. But it’ll be a different color. I think that both table and marble top will be beige.
Adams style table
I’m a fan of on of the books on European furniture, almost every piece there is on my to-do list. This table happened to be the first one I actually made.
A bit of process below, I made several carved elements, all of them gone to my “virtual” trash bin. I wanted the carving to be more expressive.
A Bookcase in eclectic style.
This bookcase was commissioned in the end of 2018. I found the reference drawing of it in one of Russian books on furniture history. I always wanted to make something in this style, these moldings were one of the reasons. I used to hate making them, but it was years ago. Now it seemed like a very easy operation. It’s always interesting to see how my feelings on different techniques changed over the time.
