Happy New Year!

To all my lovely followers, old and new........

 

 

The Laundry is finished.

Netherton now has a complete and fully operational Laundry.   The purchases made at the recent fair I attended are now in place.

 

 

Interest has been added by way of slim dividers.   One at the back of the room to the left of the drying closet (right hand corner) and one half wall just behind the washing machine.   Hopefully, in a small way, these take away the plain rectangular shape of the room.

 

The drying closet - Laundry was placed on the rails, wet.   The doors, which ran on wheels and a track, were closed and the laundry dried from the heat created by stoves.   In some places these drying racks were open-ended.   Wet laundry in one end and pulled out the other when dry.

 

 

 The servant's eye view.

 

 

 

 

 

Some close ups.  

 

 

The pegs in the bowl were made by me and the book is The Laundry Book from Dateman Books

 

 

 

 

 

 

A very warm welcome to all my new followers.   I'm very pleased to have you here and hope you like what you see.



 

 





Back from Miniatura

After a very exciting weekend at Miniatura, Birmingham I've got some minis to show you all.

I love the little canteen of cutlery (it has decorative inlay on the lid) and if you look closely, the stamp picked out by the magnifying glass is actually shown larger.   The Butler will be pleased I managed to snag him a bottle of brandy!

At last, here are some finishing touches for The Laundry and some bits for the kitchen.   The dustpan and brush set is a marvellously fine piece of work.

 

 

I was after some dining room chairs and was pleased that I managed to get exactly what I was after.   The little rocking chair was a bonus!


 

Just a peek!

 

Nothing has happened with Netherton these past few weeks as I wait for my trip to Miniatura at the end of the month when I can stock up on accessories for The Laundry.

 

In the meantime, and while the Butler is concerning himself with household duties, I see he's left his door open............

 

 

The Iron Stove

I'd seen a couple of these stoves at fairs and was sorely tempted more than once but they were quite expensive so, at the time I left it.

I don't know why, but one day when painting, I looked at the pot and thought "Yes!    An iron stove"

Can you see it too?

I don't have a photo of the next stage but I added some banding (wood strips) around the top of the pot and around the centre.   Used the top pointy bit of four spindles to give me legs, fashioned a door from balsa and filled in the hole on the top.   I have no idea what the funnel started life as, it just seemed perfect for the task.

Next the whole thing was given a couple of coats of my favourite metal effect Humbrol paint then a quick buff when dry.

And here's the finished article.



It's not a phenomenal masterpiece but I like it and it does the job.

Did you know that the Laundry Maids used to colour code their irons?   Obviously to prevent one person from taking the hottest one all the time!

More about The Laundry

In my last post I asked if anyone had any ideas what the copper had been created from -

Well, I'm sorry but you were all wrong!   It was made from this, a gravy granules pot.

I'm sure there are loads more uses this size of pot can be put to (I just have to think of them).

The steps were a preformed set I already had in the stash and the gap was just filled in with some wood, shaped to fit and painted all a stoney grey colour.



I had an inspirational photo to work from

which gave me the shape of the opening and a little shelf affair was added to take the coals.   A couple of bars across the front, a bowl created in the top to take the water, a fitted lid and there you have it.

My washing machine is probably the grandest item in The Laundry.   It was purchased at a Miniatura Fair from Harlands of Hedon

It's a beautifully detailed item and has working bits on the lid and when the handle is turned, there's a paddle inside that rotates.

I really wanted an airer in my Laundry room and the only way I could do this without taking up much space was to place it against the back wall.    It's basically just a length of wood with a handle and wheels.   Attached to the back of the "door" and the wall are pieces of cocktail stick to take the laundry.   A few pieces are included for show.

Another item I'm particularly pleased with in my Laundry is the stove for heating the irons.  

Now.........can you guess what THIS was made from?

The Laundry

The work done on the Laundry took place some time ago and was the first room tackled inside the house.   The room is a pretty good size measuring 16" square x 8" high (40.6cms square x 20.3cms high) but because I will never do a house as big as this again I decided I wanted everything in it and so I chose to divide it into two spaces.   (As if I didn't have enough rooms in this house - I still want more!)   One side measures 6.5" wide (16.5cms) and the other - the Laundry - 9.5" wide (24.1cms).

Since that picture was taken, the dividing wall has been moved slightly to the left and is mdf and not foamboard.   The partition comes out from the back wall and ends up in line with the door to the left and the decision was made to stop the wall short rather than have two long skinny rooms.   These spaces could probably have been filled easily enough but this arrangement gives a better feeling of space.

The initial plan was to have a Gun Room to the left of the Laundry but that idea has since been replaced with a Butler's Pantry.  There may yet be one squeezed in elsewhere but for the moment I'm happy with this arrangement as quite a bit of time was spent jumping from one idea to the other before making the final decision although it would be a shame not to have one, wouldn't it?

Having decided on the width of each room, the spaces were then decorated - the Butler's Pantry with good old lining paper and emulsion and the Laundry with a brick finish paper.

The cylindrical item to the left hand side of the Laundry will eventually be the copper.   Can you guess what it was originally?