Orange Chair, Take Two

Well, the original front legs on my orange chair were never going to make me happy, so I ended up pulling them off and trying again.  I think what really bothered me is that they weren't truly cabriole legs; they were squiggly legs.  On my first couple of efforts, I just couldn't wrap my brain around the geometry for making cabriole legs.  You're really starting with a square bit of wood (width x depth) and carving away good-sized chunks of it, but your pattern lines up along the diagonal.  I kept getting confused by how to apply the pattern to the other two sides. 

Plus, you're applying this two-dimensional pattern to a three-dimensional object—bits of wood get carved away on all four sides.  One site told me that, in cutting a full-sized cabriole leg blank, I would be making nine cuts to make one leg, and all I could think was "where?"  It didn't help that my first piece of wood was 1/8" x 1/8", which didn't leave me much room for carving.

I ended up using a flat alternative, but it just didn’t look right.  Blergh.

This past weekend I gave it another shot, and as I began carving away, something finally snapped into place and it all made sense.  I started with a piece of ¼" x ¼" bass stripwood this time and used various small files and sanding twigs (which have to be some of the best things ever invented for miniature work) to make two actual cabriole legs!  You can see the difference below.  (After taking this picture, I ended up removing more of the back of the legs at the top.)  Once I got the hang of it, it was actually kind of fun, and the second leg took about half the time of the first leg.

Here they are on the chair.  They're still not exactly dainty, but I am much, much happier with them because the shape is right.

Here is the chair in the room.  I have put another printie rug under the two chairs, so that you can see them against the floor.  This will also get replaced with a cross-stitch rug.

And that's it for another week.  Not sure what I'm going to work on next.  I've ordered the textured paper for the ceiling, but I really need to finish the books first.  Getting the things on the mantel was surprisingly hard just with the valance wall in. Once the ceiling is on, getting my hands in there to the back (while still trying to see what I'm doing) will be difficult.

Have a wonderful mini week, everyone!