"Tearing Off"

In upholstery, "tearing off" is the step where all the old upholstery, webbing, fabric, springs, and the myriad of tacks are removed from the piece. This particular chair felt like a multi-layered archaeological dig.

The first thing to be removed was the top fabric, which is some sort of brocade of leaves on a dark background.



When I flipped it over, I was very surprised to see how colourful it once was (however, keep in mind that the colours would be the opposite on the reverse: all that pink and light green would be very minimal on the front side).



I tried washing a section to see if I could revive the colours a bit, but the fabric is simply too faded. You can catch a glimpse of the original colours from this edge. It shows some nice tealy-blue-green, a dark background, and highlights of small pink and light green flowers. All the orange spots are rust from the tacks.



I flipped through my old furniture reference books, and I was surprised to see nearly the same fabric on this 1840's Empire sofa:



Under the top fabric was a very thin cotton cover, and I noticed part of a faded logo on the side.



Through the magic of Photoshop, I was able to enhance it. The photo is B&W because otherwise it would have been neon blue-green since I had to mess around with the colours.



The design reads "Royal Household" Trade Mark Registered. I assumed it was from a flour bag, and I was correct! Google turned up several results.





Under the cotton was what I can only guess to be a layer of wool?



Followed by straw...



Then the very shredded/mangled remnants of jute...



And the springs, which are not exactly properly tied, and have a few torn lashings.



The actual "webbing" was a joke. I assume that this was an early DIY repair, since I can't imagine that proper webbing would have been that expensive. These are machine sewn with several decorative patterns used over/across the pieces.

Cotton fabric scraps were never designed to be load-bearing, and they eventually failed, causing the bottom of the chair to be torn out.



Yesterday I mentioned "chair number two", which I also picked up a few years ago at the road while doing yard sales with my Mom. This one has an early French-Quebec style look to it. I thought it would make a fairly easy repair project since it's already almost down to bare wood, and had already been stripped down to the frame.

The front bar with the springs on it popped-off while I was bringing the chair up from the basement.





Both chairs partially disassembled.



I'm hoping that our local fabric store has a lot of the materials I'll need for these chairs. I hate to have to mail-order a bunch of the supplies and pay for all the shipping. I know they have upholstery fabrics, linen, possibly some jute, and MAYBE the webbing.

More soon.

Random Side Projects

As some of you might know, I'm a clockmaker, but the house has pretty much taken up all my spare time and energy. For several months, I've had a longcase clock that I started working on for a client (the parents of a friend), and I've been lazy/side tracked. For two months I've done *no work* on it, which is pretty lame of me. I decided to get back to it today.

Since I'll be working with animal hide glue for a lot of the longcase clock's repairs, I also decided that I would simultaneously work on 2 (3, 4, 5?) other side projects that require hide glue repairs. The first of these is this antique chair (see below). The second is yet another chair (I'll share photos tomorrow). 3 is a very quick repair to the mirror stand from my antique walnut bedroom set (already done), and 4 & 5 will be to fix 2 clock tops that were damaged in the move back in 2010.

This chair is actually a trash find (which means it was free!) I was walking home one evening on garbage night (or possibly the evening before), and this chair caught my eye, so I took it home. It wasn't too heavy, and luckily it was only 2 blocks away.



The chair is mahogany with its original crackled shellac finish. The old upholstery was in TERRIBLE shape, but overall, I thought it could make a nice piece once restored. The shape is also a bit unusual. I can't say that I've ever seen another one with this type of shape on the back rest.

When I brought it home and had a good look at it, I noticed that it was actually stuffed with STRAW! It was also apparent that the last person to upholster it didn't do the best job, and had several "make do" pieces, like the sewn scraps of fabric for the webbing (shakes head).



They just don't make furniture like this these days. Not a single piece of wood on this chair is flat. Every single piece has curves and bends, and precisely cut angles and joints. Also notice the nice edge ribbon detail.



Here are the scrap fabric webbing pieces (which failed). They are sewn with a sewing machine, but the repairs and upholstery job look VERY old (I'd say early 1900s).



I spent about a good hour this afternoon tearing off all the old fabric, ripping out hundreds of tiny little upholstery tacks, and dealing with all the old straw stuffing. It was kind of a mess.

I also knocked-apart the chair and later in the evening I glued it all back together again while I did one or two small glue jobs on the clock case pieces. More photos tomorrow. I'll also share a detailed photo of the original (or second upholstery job) fabric, ribbon, and the other chair. Both these old chairs will likely be used in the living room.

Living Room :(

Well I've had a full day to look at it, and think about it, and I definitely hate it. It just doesn't blend-in well with all the other colours in the house. I'll either be repainting it, or I might try some type of stencil over it? Thoughts?



Viewed from the office:





The colour appears to be a bit more "quiet" or soft in this photo (closer to what I was hoping for).







:(

Living Room Painted

I painted the living room today.

I have mixed feelings about the colour. I am trying to decide if I love it, or if I hate it.

- It's not too dark, which is nice, but it's BRIGHT.
- The shade of green is alright, but it might not be the best shade for the living room (which I wanted to be a bit more formal).

If I had to pick a few words to describe the colour: Pistachio ice cream.

I'll do the touch-ups tomorrow, and then post photos.

Pain in the Neck!

Alright, so this is the first house related (progress) post in quite a while. This afternoon I painted the rest of the original tongue and groove ceilings on the main floor (those being the ceiling in the main hallway, and the ceiling in the living room). It took about 2-3 hours, and I went through about 1/2 a can of paint (I finished one and had to start on another), but it's finally OVER.

I've been both looking forward to, and dreading this job for about a month now, but now I can go ahead and paint the living room (tomorrow or Sunday).

I actually started around 1:00pm but I ran out of green painter's tape, so I had to run out and buy more, so I think I got back and was painting just before 2pm, and I finished around 4:30ish (including cleaning the paintbrush and putting things away).

Hallway:



Part of that time was also spent emptying out that bookcase in the living room. The cabinet is only 50" squared, but you wouldn't believe how many books fit in there! The weight of all the books (almost all large hardcovers) must be at least 500lbs or more.





The ceiling in the living room was the one that had the most dramatic transformation. I think it was only painted once or twice, and for the most part, a bunch of the old orange shellac is bleeding through the paint. It actually looked like nicotine build-up, but I tried washing a spot, and it made no noticeable difference, which is why I assumed it was shellac.



This was the last strip to be painted.



The finished ceiling. I notice that in the photos, it's more clearly visible where the lighter white repaired boards are. It's not really that noticeable in person. I'm NOT doing another coat.

Watercolour (Done)

I didn't think I would finish this watercolour this quickly (I prepped the paper and did the tracing on Monday, then the moth on Tue, and the rest last night).

The flowers went fairly quickly, and initially they were done in just a single magenta colour. Later on, I went back and added darker shading to them in a darker pinkish-red.



The leaves also went fairly quickly. Oddly enough, one of the nicer shades of green I have is from that giant set of 6 "pucks" which we used to use in schools as kids. I also used the black from that same palette to shade/tint the green, and for the background.

I took some artistic liberties to stretch the image a bit, since I wanted to fill-in a bit more over the top flower, and under the tails. I also made some of the leaves just a tad brighter than the original photo (which you can see more clearly in my print-out that I used for the tracing.



Lastly, here is the finished piece. The only thing left to add is my signature, but since the background is a saturated black, I want to sign it with a gold pen. I can't find the one that I had several years back, so I'll have to get a new one.

I like how it somehow evokes the look of old fashioned wallpaper, as well as old European paintings where they always used a black (or very dark) background.

Watercolour Progress

I painted the moth portion of the painting this evening. It needs just a few touch-ups, but it's basically done.

Here is my hoard of watercolours. I love art supplies, and some of these are old (from when I was a kid), and some are yard sale finds.



That's just the watercolour stuff. I also have tons of coloured pencils (literally thousands), charcoal, oil pastels and dry pastels, lead pencils, oil paints, acrylics, gold leafing supplies & powders, calligraphy sundries, and a bunch of other stuff too.

Here's the progress. I think I worked on this about 1 1/2 to 2 hours, but I honestly didn't check the time when I started.



Side note: the moth in the photo has a bit of a greenish tint, and I did mix-in a touch of green on some portions of the wings, but it's more subtle than I had anticipated. That said, however, these moths don't really have any green tint to them normally, so it's not a big issue.

Parts to fix are the bottom wing tips, and a few of the shadows on the main wings.

Misc

I was planning to go and buy the green living room paint today, and get some cheap shower curtains and paint drop-cloths (dollar store), but I forgot that today was Victoria Day.

I'll go tomorrow.

Tomorrow I might just do the paint/supply run, but this week I'm planning to get the hallway t-g ceiling painted, as well as the living room t-g ceiling and walls painted. It's a lot of painting, but it should go pretty quickly.

That's not the only painting project I'll be working on...

For months now, I've been itching to do some sort of artwork. I was going to do a gouache (acrylic) on a prepared canvas, but the canvas that I have on hand is a bit large, and it's an odd size for framing (I think is 12x16 or something and there aren't that many available frames in this size).

Instead, I'm doing a watercolour. I love watercolours, but I tend to use them in an over-saturated way, where only the very pale colours are transparent. My art teacher hated this about me, but I really just strive to get a colour match from the source image I'm using, and if it has black in it, I want pure black, rather than a translucent back.

The image I'm using is an internet find. It's a photo of a beautiful "Madagascar Moon Moth" or Comet Moth. These are similar to the large "Luna Moth" but are yellow rather than a soft green.



I actually just managed to track down the original photographer who took this photo, and I contacted him to see if he would have any objections to me using his photo. Most people don't mind if permission is asked, but sometimes you just never know.

Cornwall Homes - A Fabulous Victorian

Not only is this house fabulous, it also has a TOWER! Not many Cornwall Homes have towers (I know of only 2 or 3 off the top of my head).

The details on this house are just jaw-dropping, especially to a woodworker like myself.

First off, the house is massive. It's pretty clear to anyone looking at the house, that the portion on the right is a later addition. It also has 3 address numbers on it: 121, 123, and 125. I don't actually know if it's divided-up on the inside.





The addition is not new, and it's been there for as long as I can remember. It may be 100 years old. Whoever built it did a very nice job of blending it into the older part of the house, and matching the 1880's aesthetic details. Note the bracketed cornice, the similar sized window (compare with the side of the house), and of course, the use of beautiful complimentary gingerbread trim. This newer section, and that one side of the house on the left are newer siding, but the rest of the house appears to be the original and recently repainted wood siding (except the tower, which hasn't been repainted yet).



The front porch, and the bay window boast some of the most ornate and beautifully executed porch elements I've seen from this period. You can sort of see part of the front doors as well.



It's unfortunate that the new windows are not correct. These should all be 1-over-1 windows (like the old 4 in the upper tower). I wonder whether or not this one originally had a curved top or not (they often did, but not always).



Just look at how gorgeous this is! Seriously! Why does no one bother to try to build anything as nice these days? Everyone seems so content with ugly plain boxy designs with no character or visual interest.



Look at the details on these columns. They have a beautiful 8-sectioned crown, and below are 8 "ribbed" (rounded) flutes. I'm not even sure if they were made from 8 sections glued together, or if they're cut/carved as a solid piece. The bottoms of the posts look like they might have rotted and been capped (plainly).

Also note the triangular slatted/ribbed/detailed top board. This is a detail that I see very rarely.

The fancy brackets, however, are not nearly as special (although they are gorgeous). They are simply made with 3 cut pieces glued together, and I see those on dozens of other Victorian porches.



Gingerbread trim. This is quite a lively design (more fun and flowing than others that resemble lace). Note the original turned rosettes and finial(s) on the tips.



I also adore the look of a nice stone foundation.

Wow! Awesome Video

You guys!

This video was featured in one of my YouTube subscriptions, and I had to share it.

This video is a music video for A-Trak & Tommy Trash - Tuna Melt, and it features a long and extremely complex run of dominoes and fun gadgets, but in addition to this, it's all done in an absolutely breathtaking Victorian house. You get to see quite a lot of the house as they follow the dominoes around, and it's well worth a look.

A-Trak & Tommy Trash - Tuna Melt from Pomp&Clout on Vimeo.