a room of two's own; a room of two zone

Long time between posts partly because I've been trying to figure out a way to upload gadgets from the ipad. Haven't cracked it so am on the pc. One of the few drawbacks of the ipad. That and the lack of Flash.

The visual catalog worked well, and showed me how poor my visual memory for detail is. Am going to have to replace some of the furniture with more accurate replicas. Will try and post an excerpt, although several attempts so far haven't worked.

Lots of progress, however. Last weekend went and bought the materials for the salon. $61.00NZ bought enough mdf board for an 18 x 18 x 13 inch roombox, plus sealant and paint. There's enough left over for most of another room box as well. Painted the walls Resene's Dim Night' -- a lovely grey-blue, with a wainscoting of Paeroa with a little Dim Night mixed in. Matches the slipcover blue perfectly. Very pleased.

Yesterday, Doug and I made the floor. We etched lines 2cm apart from the back wall to the front with the edge of a fine chisel. Then we rubbed red and green shoe polish, unevenly, onto the mdf. Next we made cross-cuts on individual boards randomly at 4 cm. Doug then put in nail marks using a small hammer and the tip of a sharp screw.Final step was to rub the whole floor over with brown shoe polish and polish to perfection. It looks fantastic: glows like old wood and doesn't have that nasty polyurethane shine.

In the meantime I went to the library and got out four books on Gertrude and Alice which identify about 20 of the paintings on the walls, as well as giving references to places where more complete lists are published. They also contain some other pictures of the room which I will scan and add. I had a real Wizard of Oz moment when I found a Youtube clip showing two of the paintings (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FasbBkzbnNE) . I suddenly realised how colourful that room was. I have gotten used to thinking abut it largely in black and white.

Decided on the title for this part of the project when I realised how their rooms, life,  everything really,  was their project. Alice clearly worked in the studio/salon alongside Gertrude, as well as organising the whole conduct of their life (not well expressed but  am thinking about that).

Raw floor

Finished floor