Art nouveau house

Hi everyone!

I'm still in the progress of making cabinets for the sofa, well, to be honest, the parts are on the workbench, and I haven't touched them in weeks.  The reason for it is quite good - I started building a house! :)  At first, I was thinking about roombox, something small, something that would be good for the sofa. And it would be art nouveau again.
Somehow, I'm building the whole house, all in art nouveau style! Isn't it fantastic? I'm making it from scratch, the first plan in Sketchup looked like this:

And it's really huge, I'm using 18mm plywood, so the walls have realistic thickness. It has four rooms, and the size of it about 90cm long and 40cm deep. That's how it looks at its current stage:

And from the back:

I'm super excited, the whole project was started only because of the sofa I made :)
Also  I'm practicing making plaster moldings:

I hope to use them for some rooms too. Besides, I tried carving on plaster, and was really inspired - you can work with tiny details, it's a very interesting material to work with. Also I'm working on lighting  and chimneys now. Hope to show you the result pretty soon! :)

A bit of carving

Yesterday I started planning and drawing the carving patterns for my two side cabinets. I'm using pear wood agaim, and it's perfect for tiny details. Here's what I made, I need to make another five! And then four more carved pieces, it's all about roses now:)

It's a little upgrade to my carving skills, I'm almost happy with the result.

Offtopic - yesterday my husband sent me invite to Google +, playing with it since then :) Who's in it too?

Art nouveau sofa.

I've finished this sofa last week. It was a hard work, but I love the result. In fact, I need to make two side cabinets for it! :)
This project involved carving, marquetry, embroidery on silk :) 10 different types of veneer for marquetry, mahogany and pearwood for carving and a frame of the sofa. Aaand I had 3 options for upholstery - embroidered cotton fabric, velvet and silk. In the end, I used silk and Chinese silk threads for embroidery.
For cabinets - I'll make "stained glass" imitation and carving too.

Art Nouveau roombox.

It's been such a long time since my last post, sooo many things had happened. These two months were very busy, I had no free time at all! I have 1000+ unread messages in my Google Reader, I'll be happy just to look through some of them.
I took part in two exhibitions in Moscow, the first one was "Art of the Doll" ( it was said it was the biggest doll exhibition in the world, hehe) - it was very, hm, unusual event. Lots and lots of beautiful dolls, only 2 or 3 stands with dollshouse miniature, and I was one of them.

On such kind of exhibition people there are for dolls, so some of them saw the miniature for the first time, they were asking if it was some kind of interior decoration or just a toy, why it's so expensive (actually, any price was too high for them :)). So we felt that were at the wrong place in the wrong time. The second exhibition in December was almost the same thing :)

Anyway, it's been fun to meet some very cool miniature enthusiasts who came just to see my furniture and roomboxes, so I can't be ungrateful. For these two events I've made several items.First of all, I've finished my art nouveau roombox, well, for me it's never finished, I just love adding new things from time to time:

 I've changed the mirror, this one is more "art nouveau"-ish to me :) It was very simple to carve it, it's made of mahogany.  I also changed the carpet:

 I've added the painting, and couple more details:

 The room looks very romantic to me, hope you'll like it. I'll show the new great piece of furniture tomorrow and 3 shadowboxes later:)

Art Nouveau Table

Finished this table today.

Again, I used the project from Popular Woodworking mag, also Gustav Stickley's adaptation, though I made some changes - the shelf was supposed to be just the same as the top. I thought that carving the flower would be more interesting and give it more elegant look. Here it is:

I just love this flower.
Also the legs weren't supposed to be carved. Well,  I think the table looks great in the room, I used it for the bird cage.

Bridal chest.

I saw this chest in Popular Woodworking old mag and just loved it, so I decided to make it in inch scale. It's an adaptation of Gustav Stickley piece from 1901. Don't know if I'm using it in my roombox, but I'm pleased with the result.  I used mahogany, basswood and cherry wood for this project.

 I also made a vase and some small stuff for roombox:

Bench.

So sorry, I didn't have much time to read all the posts.  Thank you so much for your comments, it means a lot to me.
Yesterday I passed my final exams! Yay, I don't have the words to express my feelings, I'm sooo happy! This will be my second diploma (my second university, omg), and I hope the last one:)
But back to work - I've finished the bench with cabriole legs for the roombox.

I'm pleased with the result - I wanted the bench to look a bit worn. Next on the list - textile for the bed, and couple pieces of furniture.
I hope to post more furniture howtos from now on.:)

Morning in the bedroom.

Finally I have finished the nightstand for my roombox:

This stand took about 2 days, but it was worth it. Looking inside:

As you can see, I also bought Tiffany lamp. Sometimes I need to buy things, not make them:)

Folding screen for art nouveau roombox

Finished! I really love this screen, the roombox will look more art nouveau-ish with it:)  Again my favorite marquetry, this time I tried three colors.

To be honest, I just love the result, though I didn't like the wood I was using.:)


Moving on to rombox itself, and I should think what piece of furniture I need to make next.

I thought that there would be enough space for chaise lounge and a wardrobe,  but when I put the bed and the screen on the roombox floor I realised  - I can make only one or two small things, like nightstand and a table, for example. We'll see!:) I guess I'll make several pieces and then choose.

My review of the week. Art Nouveau - links.

A bit of pictures to draw your attention:)

 

Okay, as I started this talk about art nouveau, I'll post some links about this beautiful style.

Besides, Casey asked me to post some links too.:)

Some basic information - here in my favourite Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Nouveau

Architecture - first of all, Gaudi, check this great site, you can spend hours there http://www.gaudidesigner.com/
Then fantastic works of Hector Guimard  http://lartnouveau.com/artistes/guimard.htm.
Victor Horta (http://www.hortamuseum.be/, http://www.cupola.com/html/bldgstru/artnouv/artnouv1.htm)

Sculpture -

Aristide Maillol ( http://www.ilovefiguresculpture.com/masters/maillol/maillol.html)

Camille Claudel (http://www.aworldtowin.net/reviews/CamilleClaudel.html)
Rodin, of course (http://www.rodin-web.org/works/default.htm)

Glass works (mind-blowing works)

Émile Gallé, he was also making furniture (http://www.kunstpedia.com/articles/318/1/A-practical-guide-to-Galle-furniture/Page1.html , http://www.worldcollectorsnet.com/emilegalle/index.html)
Also link from Russian site with furniture from different French cabinetmakers - http://www.stmeb.ru/hist/modern_fr.htm
Louis Comfort Tiffany ( http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tiff/hd_tiff.htm, http://www.marktwainhouse.org/thehouse/tiffany.shtml)

Jewelry

René Lalique (http://www.museu.gulbenkian.pt/nucleos.asp?nuc=a11&lang=en)

Furniture

Louis Majorelle (http://www.antiquitiesweb.com/designers/louis-majorelle, http://www.onlinegalleries.com/art-and-antiques/detail/52855, http://artdecoblog.blogspot.com/2006/08/louis-majorelle-nnuphar-table-lamp.html)

Some basic links - http://www.artnouveaufurniture.com/,
Perfect reference from Victoria&Albert Museum  - http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1157_art_deco/about/starobjects/
General reference - http://www.artdecocollection.com/stock.htm

As for the pictures I posted before - it's Russian movement , you can find some at russian site http://www.rusmodern.com/ (click on the left menu, there are lots of items.)

and here - http://www.feryaev.ru/vitragi_2.php, and here - http://www.rbc.ru/reviews/elite-furniture/chapter1-parad-21.shtml, also here - http://www.liveinternet.ru/showjournal.php?journalid=2129370&tagid=5829, some scans here -http://www.liveinternet.ru/users/la_belle_epoque/post110252976/

Russian modern was popular, it was trying to combine art nouveau with traditional Russian style. So you could see characters from Russian tales in woodcarving, paintings, etc. The artists of that time were creating amazing houses, furniture, interiors in this style. But I think I need some time to find best examples of Russian modern, I'll post it later on.