A room of ones own

This is the first post for my new project: recreating in miniature the writing rooms or studios of modernist women. My plan at the moment is to create Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas' living room at 27 rue de Fleurus. From the photos it is clear that Stein wrote there and Toklas clearly worked there as well. I've also begun to get together bits and pieces for Virginia Woolf's 'garden shed'. Vita Sackville West's tower room at Sissinghurst and then Vanessa Bell' room at Charleston are also on my list.

I've searched the web and found five photographs of the living room at 27 rue de Fleurus. I have found most of the furniture on the web. I spent the weekend making a slip cover for a Bespaq armchair (rather shoddily made I must say) from fabric I picked up at the V&A quilts exhibition in June. It took me two days to complete but am quite proud of it. It will suit Gertrude to a T. The furniture so far consists of two Hansson Victorian armchairs for Alice, a tavern table and sideboard by JBM and a gramophone table and aforementioned armchair by Bespaq. Yesterday I found a good approximation of the fireplace on ebay. It's a Jim Coates one so have ordered it. I'm waiting for a Bespaq Wexburgh Saxe chair which is the closest thing I have found to Gertrude's writing chair. Once the fireplace comes I'll be able to build the room around its proportions.

The original inspiration for the project came from the paintings--wondering whether they had ever been itemized or inventoried. The project combines my longstanding interest in modernist women writers and artists and a new found obsession with miniature furniture. It gives me a chance to combine these with some research into the paintings and lives of these women. Just trying to find the furniture has been interesting. So many different chairs. Not surprising on reflection since they had all those writers and artists around 

That's all for now. Still figuring out how to do this.