The Main Bookcase

The bookcase took a full week to make.  The back is pre-made miniature board and batten.  The rest is made from miniature cornice, 1/16” quarter round (the same as I used on the desk), lots of strip wood, and a bit of lace. 

The first photograph shows it lying on its back.  While that washes out the color a bit, you can really see the detail.

I glued the vertical pieces to my back first, using a printout of my plan with the vertical lines extended.  I stuck the board and batten on to the printout using removable scrapbooking tape, then used the extended lines to help me see where to place my vertical pieces, gluing them down with wood glue and holding them in place and at right angles with nano Lego blocks on either side.  (Sorry; no pictures of this.)  To ensure that I had them even along the bottom and top so that I could add the strips there (which are also glued to the backing), I put blue painters tape across my board and batten where those strips would go.

Cutting all those shelves to size and gluing them in took three nights (and don’t even get me started on cutting the cornice; let’s just say I’m really glad I bought extra).  To get the shelves (relatively) even and (relatively) straight, I used spacer blocks.  In the end, I used two sizes.  Even though there is a minuscule difference between the two, using all of one size either made the top shelf way too large or way too small.  The bottom shelf (and top shelf) are the size of the larger spacer; the middle three shelves used the smaller spacer.

Here you can see it upright.  The color is a bit closer to real life, although it’s warmer in person.  In this picture, the little vase (a great find on Etsy) has yet to be painted.  The “bronzes” on top are made from charms and pewter miniatures that I painted an aged bronze.  I’ve had good luck buying very inexpensive charms (between 50¢ and $2 apiece) from Etsy. 

The comparison.  My bookshelf is missing the embellishments and that odd configuration on the second stack, but it was complicated enough as is and embellishments like that would largely be lost in half scale.  You can see I’ve swapped out my original elephant for a tinier one.  I really liked the original elephant, but the elephant on his shelves is quite small, and this one is a better proportion.  I also have a larger panther charm, though it’s a bit chunky. I knew I would never be able to replicate the Russian wolf hunt (second bronze from the left), so I just used two wolves.  None of my bronzes is a complete match (as you can see, I have a bear climbing on a rock rather than a mountain lion; a rodeo cowboy rather than “Sheridan’s Ride”; and a bucking bronco rather than whatever the heck that is on the far right), but I think I’ve captured the general essence.  Still working to find the right charm for the falcon/hawk on the far left.