Updates on the medieval hall

 Before leaving France last month, I added wood panels to the medieval hall. They were designed by Arjen Spinhoven, who created them for this room. It gives the room more warmth and authenticity, I think.

What do you think?

Le bistrot and the Japonese room.

 Last month, I decided to recreate a French bistrot. In my mind, it was a small local café, like thousands we had in France. Most of them have disappeared today. Before the 70's, almost every street had one bistrot or more. Workers would go there before work for a glass of wine. At lunch time, neighbours and friends would gather for an "apéritif", and later people would come for a "café noir" we call espresso today. Amazone didn't exist then...

There was one opposite the house where I grew up. I can remember its odor, even 60 years later. That bistrot was also a small grocery store. 

Some tables, chairs, mirror, a counter and shelves. That was it, no juke box or TV screen. Large cafés sometimes had a French billiard. 

This is my bistrot...... Do you like it?

And the last one.... I created the main room of a Japanese house. I have never been to Japan but I searched Pinterest for pictures. Most of the structure is wood and rice paper. While I was building it, I learnt a lot about Japanese houses.

Some Japanese on Instagram told me that it really looked like an authentic Japanese room... Here we go.

Don't forget to leave a word as a comment, even "Hi from....." so that I can see if anyone reads my post. A big thank you!

The medieval suite

 Hello everyone, I've just realized I haven't posted anything for months.

Is that another Post-Covid effects? I noticed that the number of posts of miniaturists has dropped enormously. 

Have people lost interests in blogs and prefer Instagram with shorter posts and more pictures.

May I ask you something? If you read my post, could you please send me a "I still follow your blog" message in the comment section? That will allow me to decide whether I stop or continue posting on ajarnpatrick.blogspot.com.

Do you remember the medieval cuisine? Then, I added the main hall and the bedroom.

The hall. 

The bedroom, with its secret door.

The three rooms connect with each other.

I tried to recreate the atmosphere of medieval French chateaux which are located in the Loire valley, where I come from. Was I succesful? I don't know. What do you think?

You can follow my work on Instagram. Search for Patrick Courdouzil. I didn't change my name , it's my late mother's maiden name. 

The Herbalist

 I built a shop called the "herboristerie", a pharmacy selling mostly plants and remedies.

Here are some photos:

It was fun to fill all the cabinets with small glass containers.....

La cuisine

 Here is a new creation: the medieval kitchen.

I have in mind to create a medieval building inspired from a real one in my hometown called l'Hotel de La Croix Blanche, here is a photo:

I have started with the rooms on the ground floor. 

On the right is a kitchen, on the left is a large room to welcome visitors.

I will build the building when I have made the rooms. Each room is like a box.

So in the kitchen, I started with a big fireplace then added a stone sink on the left.

Both floors are covered with  clay tiles (made by Henry Bart in France),

 

weathered to make them a littel bit dirty. Each floor is made of about 

2000 tiles!

Then I used my imagination and memories of castles I visited to recreate

 the atmosphere of a medieval kitchen. I asked Jan Grygiel to make the

 table and the benches. I then displayed vegetables and food made by

 Orsolya Skulteti (Orsi's miniatures). The clay poteries were made by

 Elisabeth Causeret. That was the fun part of the project. 

Here are some photos:

I have modified the main room on the left. Before, it looked like this: a narrow room with a window on the left side. 

But I was not 100% happy with the layout so I built another room:

The place to display the medieval furniture is wider. 

A short amateur video at night:

To be continued......

La patine (ageing a project)

 Ageing a building or a room is one the most difficult exercise I know. If you cut a piece of wood too short, you can always cut another one. But once the pigments have reached the wall, they'll stay.... Number2, you have to work quickly. Layers of acrylics dry fast.

Yesterday, I started with the fireplace. I had a good photo on my computer.

The smoke had stained the mantel of the fireplace...

Here we go....

I use large brush, little color, a lot of water and a sponge. The rest is luck. As I work alone, I can't make a video but I'll try one day.

Today, I will do the hearth. The fire looks a little bit small. I know... I will have to use bigger logs.

For the walls, I used a pale yellow tone with burnt sienna in it. The colours tend to be brighter the 1st day because they need to dry. If it is too yellow today, I will put a white wash.

Ageing takes a few days until you're perfectly happy. 

The wooden floor is temporary, as well as the table. I have a table at home in France. I'll bring it with the tiles next March. Tiles are quite heavy to send by post and the price of sending parcels is outrageous today. So you will have to wait.

I only have photos of the two tables

The first one is for that room, the second one with the benches for the kitchen, next project.

 

The kitchen table

Both were custom-made by Jan Grygiel, whom I met at the SIMP in Paris. Unfortunately, he doesn't have a website.

I like this corner:

On the other side, not much. I put a mirror behind the door so that you can imagine, there's another room next to it.

I will have to find something to put on this side....

The mirror trick is something I used in another box, the actor's dressing room under construction.

I haven't finished this box but you can see that on the right, behind the tulips is a mirror that gives the impression the room is bigger. This box is waiting for chairs. They're in France as well.

I discovered this in Le Musee de la Miniature in Lyon, a must-see if you ever visit that beautiful city of Lyon.

Today, I wanted to finish by showing something I enjoyed making a few years ago. The Chinese pharmacy.

I wish you all a great weekend.....

I tried to start a shop with Ecwid, let's see if it works

<div id="my-store-69585762"></div>

<div>

<script data-cfasync="false" type="text/javascript" src="https://app.ecwid.com/script.js?69585762&data_platform=code&data_date=2021-12-15" charset="utf-8"></script><script type="text/javascript"> xProductBrowser("categoriesPerRow=3","views=grid(20,3) list(60) table(60)","categoryView=grid","searchView=list","id=my-store-69585762");</script>

</div>