Puttering in the Study

Study Ceiling: Winston Churchill

The world history stack was filling up, so it did a friendly takeover of the adjacent shelves (medieval history and reading/libraries) and moved British and French history onto that two – shelf stack.  Of course that got me thinking about who to put in the roundel above.

I had thought about Winston Churchill for the military history stack a couple of years ago, but after reading Nigel Hamilton's FDR at War series it became clear that although he was on the right side of history, his military management skills were abysmal, and he actively attempted to sabotage Roosevelt's D-Day invasion plans, then rewrote the relevant history in his memoirs.  Oh, and he actively resisted giving Britain's colonies the self-government rights we were ostensibly fighting the war for.  So I went with George C Marshall. 

But if you're just talking about the leading figure in the history of Britain and France, it becomes a much easier choice.  While, as I said, Churchill's military skills and instincts were atrocious, in the summer of 1940 he was the sole figure in the British government that was willing to resist Hitler, and had the political skills to bring his country around to his way of thinking.  I just finished Eric Larson's The Splendid and the Vile, and it reminded me again of Churchill's gifts.

So Winnie is up there between the pope and a Byzantine emperor - which he would no doubt find completely appropriate.  The boys are trying to get me to put the French knight from Monty Python and the Holy Grail on the parapet over him as I did with the Beatles, and I'm still mulling it over. 

Liriodendron Tulipiferia

One of the good things about working from home is that I get to spend the day looking out my study at my tulip poplar (liriodendron tulipifera). It’s a historic tree - we got it as a sapling through Historic Trees of America from a tree at Franklin Roosevelt’s home in Hyde Park, New York in 2001 after touring the home and learning it was FDR’s favorite tree.

It was a favorite of our founding fathers as well, with Washington and Jefferson putting it in places of honor at Mount Vernon and Monticello. Jefferson’s retreat at Poplar Forest outside Lynchburg, Virginia also has them - here’s a picture of some of the old bulls still around - and they are still replanted at the site. (The plastic sheeting is covering archaeological excavations of the original circular drive).
Ours spent three years as a 3’ tall sapling in our back yard on South Washington before we transplanted it to our new home on Harris Lake Road in 2004. I’m sure it’s just a coincidence that it was planted so it’s precisely in the middle of the center French door as I sit at my desk. Surely I’m not that compulsive-retentive. But the house - Poplar Hill - was actually named for it, so maybe so.
It is slower growing than the red maple to its right that I planted in 2002, but it’s probably 30 feet now. Last week was the first time I’ve seen it blossom and it certainly looks like its cousin at Springwood’s (blossom close-up). The blossoms are high in the tree, and this is the first year I knew where to look (from upstairs) and when. No, I didn’t site my bathroom so it overlooks it. That is absolutely just a coincidence.

Study Ceiling - Pop Demmer

Finished the east wall today by adding Pop Demmer over the family scrapbooks, which begin with Mom & Pop Demmer in 1918 (separately, oddly enough).

There was no contrast in the portrait photo I used, which meant that the face was too white, but as the second color is the wall color, I can't easily slide into that.  But after a few minutes looking away from it, it didn't seem the glare nearly as much, so I'll try leaving it alone a bit.

New cove lighting for study

The burned out sections in the cove lights in the study were getting annoying, but even so, I had no idea how bad it was until I took the original (2004) lights out this afternoon to replace them with new rope lighting. Entire sections were black and most of the rest had burned areas, even if the lights were working.

The new lighting is warm but not orange-red, and instead of just laying haphazard in the cove propped up intermittently by wood blocks, making the lighting intermittent and hitting the bas relief portraits in the cove at a really bad angle, it’s held in place with plastic brackets that keep it level and closer to the ceiling. That eliminates the raking light on the portraits, which had the unfortunate effect of accenting the orange peel texture on the sheet rock, instead of the portraits.

Admiral Nimitz already looks much less grumpy.

Model workshop table finished

  It's not exactly a secret that my study has a secret door - the shelves for science fiction open into my model workshop.  For most of the time we've been in the house the first thing you saw when you opened the door was a stack of sawdust-covered wood and cardboard scraps. 

But after I cleaned it up last fall I realized that this was the perfect place for a narrow wall table - a place to put a phone or iPad when I am working in there.  I couldn't find a table with exactly the dimensions I wanted, so I after I got the new workbench for the wood workshop at the lake I built one from new lumber, with shelves underneath for storage.

The design was based on the shelves Daddy and I made for my paperbacks (the same ones on the shelves in the photos above).  Since I didn't have the ability to rabbet the shelves into the sides, and biscuits wouldn't provide enough support for a 48" long table, I used poplar cleats to hold the shelves in place.  

When I put it in I realized that it was the perfect place to store the model kits from my stash that I actually intend to built.  I have many more than those shown here, but aside from the large ones that wouldn't fit here, they're older kits that I have already decided aren't going to be built because there are better kits available now. 

The table also lent itself to a lamp, and although the photos don't show it, I have moved the Alexa and wireless speakers there as well.  And it provides a great place to display my framed naval aviation and NASA artwork, which I expect will get moved around from time to time.

I decided the paint the shelves themselves to match the room's "Divine White" trim, but built a top from old pine boards from the Hub Shoe Store.  The boards that made up the top weren't edged or planed, and were just held together with biscuits and glue.  The finish was Minwax Colonial Oak with several coats of hand-rubbed satin polyurethane.  It provides a rustic touch - and matches the wood-tone formica top of the model workbench.

Model workshop table with unfinished top from old lumber

I built a 12" x 48" side table for the model workshop over the last three  weekends.  The intention was to have a place to drop bag, keys, and other stuff when I got in the workshop, but as soon as I put the unfinished shelving in place I realized it was a great place to put the model kits that I actually intend to build, as well as reference books that are in the workshop temporarily from the study  next door.

Design

The basic design of the table is the same as the shelves made from 1x6s that Daddy and I made for my paperbacks years ago - which I still use for BluRay disks in the movie room - which means solid shelves and sides with a recessed toe kick at the bottom, but the dimensions are far larger - twice as deep and twice as long, with an overhanging top screwed on.

Since I was not sure whether I would be staining or painting it I didn't want exposed screws, so I used a technique which I learned building my large Bartley shelves - cleats.  As the photo shows, I use 3/4 x 3/4# poplar strips as cleats to hold the shelves and top to the toe kick and the top cross-pieces.  I chose the poplar because it is harder than pine. The cleats were pre-drilled with countersunk holes for the screws, then glued and screwed into place.  One dried the the shelves were attached, which was easier than I thought now that I had a workbench I could securely clamp the pieces to.

But I wasn't happy with the 12" x 48" craft board that I used for the table top (at right), and decided to build a new to-be-stained top from multiple smaller boards (final at left).  After realizing that I had enough boards of the right size from the old Hub Shoe Store already set aside in the garage, I decided to use those, since the wood - which is at least 50 years old, and potentially 90 , is far better than new stock.

Determining the age of the old boards is interesting.  Each of the 1x4's were actually 3 5/8" wide, which means they predated the 1961 standarization which reduced the width of 1 x 4s to 3 1/2.  Their standardization means they weren't likely from the original store, which would have made them 120 years old, but since the store hadn't been modified since the 1950's, they likely date from the 1940's-1950's - possibly as early as the 1930's.  In any event, very good old wood, although still nothing compared to the old shelving, which dates from 1897, making it old-growth East Texas lumber.

I started by choosing boards with no major defects and cut them to the required lengths, then used my plate joiner to cut holes for biscuits in the sides and ends of the boards. Next it was time to glue them together and clamp them securely while they dried.  

I was going to add a second thickness around the edges in the form of a "lip" that would make the final product look ticker, but decided against it.  

My plan is still to paint the base the trim color of the room - a cream color - but I don't think I'll sand or stain the top - just oil it and enjoy the natural wood color.  But as it isn't attached I can always go back and plane or sand it down if I want. 

"Poet's Corner" Complete

Finished my third Englishman this afternoon - H.G. Wells (for the science fiction stack), who joins Sir Isaac Newton and Shakespeare in a sort of "Poet's Corner" for the study ceiling.  This also means I now have nine consecutive portraits along the west and south walls, plus the unconnected Pope St. John Paul II and Landry/Staubach. (The cartouche over Wells doesn't have any significance - I've started putting those over each as I get time to add a little visual detail).

I am getting faster - I put up the portrait and wrote this post in less time than it took to listen to Jeff Wayne's musical War of the Worlds (which, of course, is based on Wells' book).

Sir Isaac Newton

Shakespeare has company from the adjacent Science shelf tonight. Thanks to Bill Bryson for making this an easy call.

Shakespeare goes up in the library

Every so often I get back to work on the study ceiling.  Yesterday I finished thinking through another medallion, and today I put it up.

English Literature

As I've posted previously, I'm choosing a single figure from each category of books to go over that "stack." The stack this time was fiction, which sits on the left end of the wall that already has Frederick Law Olmsted (landscape architecture) and Andrea Palladio (architecture).  The other walls already have Pope St. John Paul II (religion), Constantine XI (world history), Thomas Jefferson (American history), George C. Marshall (military history) and Chester Nimitz (naval history) on one side, and Tom Landry and Roger Staubach (football) on the other. Think I'[m joking?  See here.

For years I have been thinking about who to put up to represent my "fiction" stacks.  The English literature stack, which contains the best of my collection of fiction has my favorite authors and series, including C.S. Forester's Hornblower books, a shelf full of Bram Stoker and Dracula commentary, H.P. Lovercraft, Christopher Priest, and many others.

But when I thought over who is the single really preeminent author, I decided you just can't not pick Shakespeare - his prose is just mesmerizing, and has had such an effect on the English language.   So yesterday I selected a portrait, prepared the file and marked it up to transfer to the wall.   Then I spent a couple of hours this afternoon putting up the guide marks, and finished the medallion and the name tonight.

It had been long enough that I'd forgotten how to prepare the image, and which paints went where, and during application I change three of the four paint colors - meaning everything but the wall color - to get the contrast right, but that means the next one will take that much less time.

Study ceiling update

I realized this morning that I hadn't posted about the most recent additions to the study ceiling.  So here goes.

Pope John Paul II

Over the religious books - with "Sanctus" in gold lettering.   But he was way to cool for "Ioannes Paulus" so I didn't go with Latin for the proper name.  The picture to the right shows the posterized image I worked from, with the paint color stick.

Frederick Law Olmsted / Andrea Palladio

The landscape and architecture stacks got theirs last year, and I am particularly happy with Olmsted's.

Tom Landry / Roger Staubach

Simply couldn't choose one over the other, so the Dallas Cowboys stack has both.

 

 

Cartouche

The long term plan is to continue to add detail in the form of more panels and "carvings" and other embellishments as I find appropriate models, and the most recent is a decorative cartouche that will eventually be above every section.  It may eventually contain a Roman numeral for the stack, and later maybe a Latin label on a scroll, but at the moment it's just something I am working on getting up and done as quickly as possible using a template that allows me to outline it quickly, and then just sketch in the highlights and shadows quickly.

The Future?

As I mentioned, the cartouche needs to keep working its way around the room - currently I'm doing every other section.  But after that I have a couple of ideas.

Panel Rosettes

The shadowing in the panels (see foreground and background in photo at right) doesn't look as good as I'd like, so I'm considering redoing them with rosettes like the attached.  Principally to redo the shadow detail, but if I can come up with a simple rosette that doesn't take too long, it would add a lot of interesting detail.

Seraphim/Angels/Allegorical Figures

The corners are not symmetrical, and would provide an opportunity for some winged figures to take advantage of the space.  I am still looking for some good models, as well as some appropriate subjects, such as allegorical figures (arts, science,justice, whatever).  A possible selection is the four virtues from the library of Celsus in Ephesus, which are wisdom (Sophia), knowledge (Episteme), intelligence (Ennoia) and valor (Arete).  But I am still working on that.