Inspiration from 'The King's Speech'

While watching 'The King's Speech' (2010, Tom Hooper) over the weekend one of the sets inspired me with ideas looking towards how we will decay the wall behind the screen. Lionel Logue, speech theropist to George VI had a very unique office. Much of his work took place within this huge empty sparce room, with one baroque style sofa against a wall of torn and damaged paper/paint. The layers of destressed colour are a maze to the eye, almost as if an animal has agressivly attacked it or that over years and years of weather and wear the layers of the rooms past have been exposed. In our corner this same technique would be used but for a darker morbid affect. Death is destroying his house from this corner like an animal attack that is stripping Ivan's soul away layer by layer exposing his fears. The film also had many examples of palace interiors likening to the paintings of the Winter Palace in my early research. The pictures below show and example of production designer Eve Stewart's original drawings for the room, against the final set still.

pictures sourced from

www.icgmagazine.com/wordpress/2011/02/02/eve-stewart/

www.flickr.com/photos/addictive_picasso/sets/72157625882741604/detail/

www.mydeco.com/blog/the-kings-speechs-oscar-nominated-eve-stewart-on-set-design

Friday 13th May

Today was a mixture of getting many little jobs done before the weekend. Rob and I purchased some styrofoam blocks, 2x (300mmx600mm) at 50mm thick for £8. These would be used to create the legs of our screen. By tracing around the MDF legs Rob was able to use a band saw to cut out the shapes. At the bottom of the screen panels, lengths of pine were cut on the band saw and routed to curve them these added another 3d detail to the screen and gave us a thickness to shape the legs to. Using a scalpel, mouse sander and sand paper we were able to shape the four legs to fit the MDF ones. I used a scalpel to carve out the feet/toes and dew claw (mimicing a dog or lion foot that was popular in the baroque movement). Once they were sanded they were applied to the MDF with pva.

Fiona continued to paint her tiles, Chloe and Dan painted their book shelf and began on the doors for it. Nicky and Callum constructed two double skinned flats for the double doors into the drawing room. Abbie upholstered her pouffe and Rhyan Jenny and Vicky continued to stencil the drawing room and study. Their stencils were taken from designs that Rhyan found in a William Morris book, photocopied and traced using acetate then cut out with a scalpel and using sponges the paint was applied to the walls.

London Borovick Fabrics and the V&A

On Thursday 12th May , Fiona, Callum, Nicky and I went up to London to a fabric shop in Soho. According to Henry Jones this particular place is used by many people in the industry so it would be important for us to get out there and experience the places we would soon be working with on projects. Borovick Fabrics in Berwick Street was our destination to find fabric for the baroque drapes in the drawing room. We were aware that we have two windows to get fabric for and with the mass of material needed to gain the richness of folds and drapes we would need a lot of fabric. We decided as a group that we were not making usable drapes, to lessen the price we would only make false drapes that do not close but remain open. To cater for both windows we would need at least 8-10 metres. When we got to Borovick we were shown many fabrics, some thinner silks others thicker rich curtain fabrics ranging from £15 - £36 a metre. At 10 metres this would be well over what we wanted to pay. Eventually we had the choice of three fabrics, one pastel pink, thin silk with a very faint pattern. This was the cheapest by the metre but we did not want the curtains to be this colour it did not inkeep with the baroque richness we were looking for and the thickness of the material would not have hung properly. The other one we rejected was a beautiful thick shiny muscle pink with a swirly embroidered design. at £360 for the 10 metres and it was slightly too modern so we decided against it. The final fabric was a rusty pink with an appropriate baroque goldern design. It was cheaper at £24 a metre but we agreed that instead of having two curtains one on either side of each window we would have one large drape going across (shown below). This lessened the amount we needed by almost half. In the end we purchaced 5 3/4 metres of this (all left on the roll) and a couple of metres of a pink tafeta to blend the rusty pink into the wall paper colour. The man in the shop helping us was haggled down by our charms and Nicky's cheekiness so we got all of this for £130 much better than the original quote of nearly £200!

pictures from http://www.costumeconsultant.com/ and http://www.luxuryhomedecors.posterous.com/

After we had completed the task of buying fabric we head to the V&A to study some of their baroque furniture in the British and European 1500 -1900 section. I observed tables, frames, mirrors, chairs, panelling and tiles as well as smaller props like clocks and ornimants. They all follow a similar pattern of over embelished extravigantly carved gold. Much of our furnitire could be discribed as subdued baroque. We have used a lot of dark woods in the furniture we have made and aquired but not much is gold. I believe we are slightly intimidated by this furniture movement, on a small budget, with little experience in sculpting, and furniture construction/ restoration we did not want it to look cheap or tastless opposing everything that baroque ever stood for. Looking at these magnificent pieces or craftsmanship it is clear gold needs to feature in our room more, the fabric we bought today will hopefully inject some richness of texture back into our subdude designs.

Beginning of the week: Screen details

When adding the details onto the screen such as swirls and raised carvings we had to consider weight. If too much weight was added to the front of the screen then it would topple over or need the extre weight re enforcement box applied to the back of the central panel. polystyrene and paper mache seemed the cheapest, quickest and lightest option. I purchased a range of sized polystyrene balls in the university shop for 50p each. Cutting them in half and applying them with pva to the wood added some enhanced detail on the shaped frame. A piece of thick string and cord/braid was easily appied once drenched in glue, it was manipulated into swirls and borders. All these details were held down with two or three layers of pva, water and blue tissue. We used ble tissue instead of newspaper because it would sink into the small swirls and not hide the detailing underneath. The flat pieces of MDF had a final layer of newspaper added to stop the ridged texture of the tissue showing through the paint later on. While layers of the tissue were drying Rob and I tacked the crimson velvet in place using a stapel gun. By holding the two pieces of the screen together we were able to draw around the inside of the top frame, indicating where the fabric had to stretch to. In the original design only the outer panels had fabric inlays but we had enough spare to cover the central panel too so we did as we prefered this textured finish to just a painted effect. On the sections of the screen that had the smashed hole we merely notched the fabric with the intention of pinning it around the back later.

During this first half of the week the wallpapering was completed and dulux paint purchased in pale and darker shades of dusty pink and green so stenciling could begin. Before Rhyan and Jenny commenced with cutting out the stencils they painted the lining paper first with a thick coat of the lighter pink in the drawing room and darker green in the study. Fiona began painting the 60 tiles for the heater in the blue and white traditional pattern. Once a batch of tiles were completely dry they had a few coats of glaze to illde to ceramics rather than the wood they are made from. Callum and I gave the heater a rolled on layer of white emulsion to ensure once the tiles were applied that no MDF was visible beneath. Dan and Chloe and Nuria began construction of the bookcase in the alchove. By measuring out the sizes of the shelves and drilling positioned blocks they were able to arrange the plywood shelves and create a false front which the 'draws' woud be applied to later. Abbi and Nicki sanded down a coffee table they had purchaced over the Easter break for the central focus of the drawing room.

End of the Week, Screen, Tiles and other furniture

Towards the end of the week I left the chaise until Nicky found some braid and continued working on the screen. Before the Easter Holidays Rob and I had cut all the seperate pieces out with the jigsaw. Now using my mouse sander we were able to sand these pieces. While they were clamped to ensure both sections were the same size. Using some card I created a template for the legs and drew them in place on the MDF. These were then cut out and sanded. At this point we had six pieces of MDF that layered together to form the basis of the screens three panels. Now we had to consider how to bulk out the flat surface making patterns and details found in the 'carved wood'. To sculpt out the winged hourglass detail I used a powder called 'Art Mache' which when mixed 1 part mache to 3 parts warm water created a paper based pulp that was easily shaped and dried in a few days. Once dry it could be sanded and painted. I built the details of the wings and the glass out with this pulp applied straight onto the MDF. The mache had to be made larger than the necessary size as once dry it would have shrunk slightly. The mache was not toxic or harmful so I needed no PPE.

Other members of group 2 were continuing with the rooms. Rhyan Jenny and Vicky were still applying a layer of paste to the plywood skins then wallpapering over the top with the plain liner. Fiona with help from others was transfering her tile designs from tracing paper onto the primed white MDF tiles. Chloe and Dan were putting the final ideas together for their bookcase before beginning construction the next week. Construction of furniture was slowed down at the end of the week as we were waiting for a wood order. Nicky reupholsterd her desk chair as it was felt her first attempt was too neat and taught, it needed loosening so she stripped down the fabric and reaplied the staples and braid.

4th May continuing with the chaise

The next steps for chaise was to create the rounded head rest end. We initially used just foam wrapped over but there was no structure to the middle so the foam sunk in the middle. Wadding was our solution to this, bulking out the foam and making the whole structure much firmer, then the foam was tucked underneath the other already made cushion.

The fabric was then applied over the foam in the same way as before with a stapel gun. tucked down the front between the two cushions and then stapelled to the old wood that went up and round the detailed columns and down across the beam at the back. Again we tried to create some creases as the head rest would be worn and stretched where Ivan is lying heavily on it.

The last section of padding to be added was the long tube for the arm rest at the back. I created a tube of wadding by wrapping string round it binding it together. We stapelled a length of the fabric along alternating sides but made sure to make the thickness of the wading uneven. This was all according to where Ivans arm would have pushed down on it over a few years or where his head may have rested. To be certain where the human body naturally lies on this piece Nicky positioned herself on the chaise in a comfortable position. I then drew round her form with a fabric chalk this showed us where we could sand and distress the fabric later on. This is where construction stopped for a few days until Nicky located some thick enough braid to finish off the edges neatly then cut the fabric.

Other members of the team were starting to apply the wallpaper. Instead of purchasing many rolls of already designed wall paper (which was very expensive) Rhyan and Jenny purchased lining paper and paste for around £40, this meant we could paint the paper any colour we wished and then stencil the appropriate baroque design on top.Dan and Cloe were continuing to apply the braces of 90 degree panels to the backs of the flats. This enhanced the strength and stability of the walls also making then stand straighter.

3rd May The Chaise Lounge

On the 3rd of May Nicky and I came in to make a start on our allocated piece of furniture the chaise lounge. Nicky's Grandfather provided us with an old frame of a dark wood Chaise. Our first job was to create a plywood base that fits across the wooden frame, this would give us a secure surface to apply the foam and fabric to. We started by using paper to make a pattern to translate to a template on the plywood.

Once we had the appropriate pattern on paper indicating the various notches for the legs and other pillars that the base layer had to sit around. We translated this pattern to the plywood then proceeded to cut the shape with a jigsaw (wearing goggles and tying back hair). This first atempt failed as the ply was the wrong shape, some how the paper pattern had twisted so the overall base panel was also twisted on the chaise. The net time we drew the shape out onto the ply we didnt use the paper, instead we measured the various leg posts and translated that straight onto the wood. After cutting with the jigsaw this piece fit perfectly, with some minor adjustments to the posts of the end legs, this allowed the board to sit flat and level ready to be attached using a stapel gun. Stapels that did not fully sit in the wood were hit into it with a small hammer.

The next stage was to consider the foam cushion. The foam on the chaise was to be seperated into two parts the main seat rectangle and the folded head rest that would tuck under the main cushion. By laying out a thicker piece of foam across the chaise, using a marker the basic shape was marked and then cut using a sharp scapel. The foam itself was not attached to the chaise, only in one place it was stapled at the end of the arm rest where the fabric would eventually have to fit around.The fabric (an axample of a green William Morris print I provided) was also cut roughly to shape but with plenty of excess to stretch the fabric over the foam this meant that the edges of the foam would not be square but nicely rounded. We discussed the state of the piece at the time of Ivan's death. It was the chair that he died in and had spent hours and days lying in before hand. It would be worn, the fabric faided where he was lying, slightly loose and creased from movement pulling the fabric from the fastenings. To create these creases we held the crease in and held it taught while the other person stapelled down the fabric. It was important to make sure the fabric was stappeled down with a flat neat finish. Areas such as corners caused some trouble where fabric naturally wanted to pleate but these had to be pulled taught. In intricate areas up under a leg pillar or other section of wooden frame hammered in pins were used in place of stapels ( the stapeler could not fit in these areas) Sometimes the fabric would have to be snipped slightly so it could fit tightly around these tricky areas. By the end of the day of the 3rd this cushion was finished excess fabric not cut yet until the braid was attached later.