The Fireplace

While waiting for the wood for my floor to come, I started work on the fireplace.  For the pillars, I cut various bits of strip wood and shaped them using a file, my mini files, and sandpaper.  The curved supports took the longest, as I started with ¼” x ¼” strip wood and had to carve out a large portion.  I’m pleased with how they turned out shape-wise. 

I wanted to carve a little wheat pattern into the supports, but my Dremel attachment was way too large.  I tried making my design by hand with some carving tools on a piece of scrap wood, but, when I was done, it looked as though the cat had been chewing on it.  Not the look I was going for.  So I took wood veneer designed for the Cameo and punched out little petal shapes with a daisy punch, then arranged them to look like a head of wheat.  They don’t show up quite as well as I’d like them to, but the carving on the real fireplace is pretty subtle, so I guess that’s OK.

The fireplace surround was made from egg carton stone.  I also wanted to incorporate the sunflower tiles from the original.  According to what I have read about the historic preservation of Sagamore Hill, the sunflower motif was used throughout the house and appears in numerous tiles and decorations on both the interior and the exterior.  I knew I’d never be able to exactly recreate those tiles, but I wanted to at least try.  On a recent visit to a new bead store that just opened in our neighborhood, I found two small sunflower charms.  I clipped off their rings, filed them down, then rolled out some polymer clay.  I placed two strips of 1/32” thick wood on either side of the clay on my rolling surface, then rolled until the clay was flat and so thin that the rolling pin was rolling along the strips on both sides.  Then I cut two half-inch squares, pressed the sunflowers in, straightened out the sides (which bulged when the charms were pressed in) and baked. Not identical to his, but they should work. 

As you can see, I laid out my grid using Word and printed it on card stock.  I did something similar when I was laying the stacked stone for the fireplace in the Merrimack.  I find it much easier to lay things out properly, and then I know exactly where to glue my “bricks.”  I painted my egg carton a greenish gray, then drew out the lines for my bricks using strip wood of the correct width (and my little triangle to keep things running straight and at right angles).  I cut the bricks with my utility knife.

Here you can see the bricks in place, after being coated with “matte” varnish.  I seriously don’t understand how they can call it matte.  I’m not worried on this piece, since grouting and touch-up paint will take care of the shine, but this varnish has always looked glossy to me!

You can also see that I’ve painted the sunflower tiles, and added a ring around the centers, using a gold enamel paint pen.

Once I’d finished grouting and painting, I put my inset into my mantel, holding it in place with strips of tissue paper glued to the back.  I didn’t want to use anything thick; I wanted to make sure my mantel would still fit tightly against the wall.  I finished the front with strips of .0208 x .0208 railroad lumber.

The vases are painted charms, and I made the little clock.  It has real tiny watch hands on it, so I can change the time.  I had no idea what his two portraits were, so I got the cleanest screen captures I could from pictures of the library, fed them into Google images, and immediately came up with Maurits, Prince of Orange by Pieter Tanjé and William I of Orange, also by Tanjé.  Now that’s something I couldn’t have done 40 years ago!  I then got clean copies of the prints off the Internet and framed them with railroad lumber.  I am not sure yet how I will replicate the birds’ nest candelabrum, but would love to figure out a way.