Picasso gallery in Paris

Karin Corbin has blogged about Picasso art in her home town. My husband and I are also Picasso fans and so visited the gallery when we were in Paris. It was undergoing renovations whilst we were there and so they had erected a giant mirror to hide the renovations. The mirror reflected one half of the building, so it looked like a whole.



It aligned with a false wall on the inside also, so from the inside, it looked like the whole building had been sliced in half by a giant sheet of plaster/glass. It was very clever.

It was also interesting to note that the interior walls were all false and it was obvious that they sat away from the original walls. We guessed they did this to preserve the original building.

French restoration and renovation is light-years ahead of any such practices we have in Australia. Most large public buildings being renovated had large sheets of some sort of mesh over the scaffolding with printed life-size images of the building that was being renovated on it. Very clever.

My favourite...

Thanks Karin for the beautiful picture of the Belle Epoque villa - I love it and look forward to seeing more pictures. I loved the rustic French cottages, especially the stone ones. But my favourite one from our trip to France was this one:



It is not a good photo because we took it from a moving bus! It is in Vannes, which was a very cute seaside town in Brittany. We didn't have time to get off and take proper photos so we had to rely on the camera's sportsmode! We managed to get enough for a rough idea of the front. I will one day make this into a 1:12 mini version with an art nouveau interior.

And Linda, have an amazing time in France and Italy. I look forward to seeing your photos and some tips for travel in Italy!

Yay! Pics uploaded this time!

So here is another shot of the study with the sewing room through the door.



This is the chair I covered. Not sure about the table accessories though. I think I need a pot plant.



The bookcase I finished and mantle. I need some flowers for the urn, or a topiary. The cute triple picture frame is from Cynthia Howe, but it doesn't stand properly (my fault - made the hinge too short!).



And lastly is a table I made with some accessories. Might need to antique the boxes a bit?? Otherwise a good start!

More on the French shop

I know I have been pretty quiet of late, but I have been working on my minis. My husband and I had a week of holidays at the snow (there wasn't a lot of snow, but lots of sunshine!) so I took the opportunity to get some mini-ing done. I don't seem to be having much luck with blogger this afternoon - my photos refuse to upload. Will try to upload them later for you to see.

I have made some progress on the French shop. I made some books and filled the bookcase for the salon with them and some figurines I've painted in the past. Also antiqued a bird cage for the table. Also covered a Bespaq chair and sofa but need some cushions now for the sofa.

I have almost finished the study. I am wondering if the floor needs to be paler and maybe dirtier?



The dining room, bathroom, entry and salon are almost done, as is the kitchen, save for a few minor items. I am not sure these will ever be finished - the search for elusive mini homewares is a long and difficult one!

Chantilly stonework

It's been a while and I was procrastinating a bit with the stonework, but it is now done and has some paint on it. Yet to add the verandah and trim, and finish the paperclaying.





Here is an armoire I painted and added fabric inserts to. I think it will have mirror in the centre panel.



And lastly a pic of the staircase - not yet finished. Not exciting, but just so you can see!

Chantilly progress

I am not too far off finishing the shell. I need to do some paper-claying first though before I can add all the trim, and that will be the slow part. I couldn't decide completely what colour to paint all the trim. I knew I wanted it dark. In the end I decided I'd make it look a little like the cottages at Marie Antoinette's village at Versailles and just went with timber.

I meant to take photos before it got too dark, but lost track of time. So apologies for the crappiness of my pics!







The porch roof isn't attached yet. I will remove it to decorate further I think. I just needed it there to get the bay window straight.

I just painted the floors to look like timber, but then I found cute sheets of half scale parquet, which I'd like to use but I'm not sure how well the sheets will join (ie they're too small alone to finish each room). And also, how would I do the stairs to match? I was thinking of maybe covering the stair treads with the parquet sheets and painting all other parts ivory to match the skirting/architrave, or just painting it all ivory, but that may look funny against a timber floor. So maybe I'll tile the salon. Will order the parquet anyways and decide when it arrives I suppose!

Hope everyone has a fantastic weekend. I need to do some sewing tomorrow as a friend had a baby. It's always hard to do something else when you're on a mini roll!

Greenleaf's half scale Chantilly

I have been hanging out for this kit for sooo long. I adore it. And so hence, when it arrived, I couldn't help myself - I had to start putting it together!



It will be French, simple but elegant. I think the exterior trim will be dark brown, the walls will be a beige stucco and there will be a stone base. Many places we saw in France had a hexagonal/honeycomb patterned rocking around the base (or around the walls like in my photo) which I really liked.




The downstairs will have a salon and salle a manger, and the upstairs will have a boudoir and chambre. I am using Bespaq furniture. The half scale furniture available (what little there is) is so varying in scale, you can't mix brands. Such a pain.

As an update on my Gingerbread Cottage, I've hit a snag. I made a small kitchen bench/sink to go in, but forgot to measure the height of the window. The bench is subsequently too tall and can be seen from the outside through the window. I could of course just move it, but I don't like any other options. I may have to ditch it and make a very small sink to fit beside the window. Plus I need more materials.