So, after taking the stereo unit to pieces that corner looked a little bare. Ken suggested putting in a glass corner shelf and having Diana properly up on display...
Diana was another of my lucky finds. When we lived back at the flat in Totterdown (before we bought the house), there were a couple of second-hand/antique shops on the Wells Rd that I used to haunt. In the second of them, one fortuitous Saturday, I spotted a pair of identical lamps that looked suspiciously
art deco to me (
art deco being one of my favourite art styles). Going in for a closer look I realised that one of the lamps was damaged, but the other was almost perfect.
Turned out it was genuine - though not of a particularly good or high quality - made of spelter (zinc), and still had its original glass! As I'd given them a fair bit of trade in the past, the shopkeeper was willing to split the pair for me - a little on the pricey side but worth it as far as I was concerned. She's very pretty: in case you can't make out the figure, it's a half-nude woman pulling off the top part of her clothing, her head shyly tilted and resting on her shoulder, her arms crossed over her chest holding the fabric to her. We call her Diana because the first time I saw her she made me think of
Diana bathing.
We then paid five times as much to have her silver-plated. We did daft things like that back then...
I spent half an hour with the Goddards silver polish while Ken put up the shelf - then we found that the switch didn't work. Cue Ken traipsing over to Focus for a new one (he picked up the Black Velvet Satin gloss for the radiator and woodwork out here at the same time). The light works now, as you can see. (I've added the pic at bottom right as I rather like the effect: I took the photo head-on and the reflection is quite something.)
I still have to tidy up the cabling under the shelf and repaint the corner where the paint pulled away from the speaker cable, but that can wait: it's not an obvious mess.
I also made another cushion cover, the floral one in the top pic, using the old curtain fabric from out here, and repaired and recovered my old stool with the same old curtain material and foam from one of the old sofa cushions.
The stool is over 20 years old, and I've recovered it once already: I thought about getting rid of it, but it's so damned useful - it's seen service as something to stand on when painting ceilings, as a table to rest trays on, as a barrier to stop Quyn getting through the door, additional seating when we have guests, and even (gasp!) as a
stool for me to sit on when using the sewing machine in the lounge - that would be a really silly idea. It looks reasonably smart again. Though the wooden frame could do with repainting...
So we're nearly finished. I should be able to do the glossing tomorrow. Then next week - if it ever stops raining - I
have to get going in the garden. The rain's made the grass shoot up, and I now have carrots that need lifting from the veg patch (and onions ready to go in). Not to mention my poor skimmia, which is almost completely swamped by meadow... A couple of afternoons should be enough to restore order. I hope.
Labels: Art Deco, decorating, garden
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Joules *Dances with Haddock* Taylor
pontificated this at 12:15 am
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