Carved wooden box no. 2

I admit, I tend to buy in bulk. So when I found another carved wooden box at that flea market, in similar condition and almost as nice (the carving is not as fine, and there's an ordinary hook and eye to close it, but still it's pretty enough), I also bought this one. Here the carving had once been backed with burgundy felt that had now become moth-eaten. I discarded the felt and the moths and mused which colour to use here. The dark red felt too dull for the carved butterfly the lid shows, even though the wood got a little lighter when I sanded it, and I still have some yellow silk left, so yellow silk behind the butterfly it'll be!

Carved wooden box no. 1

At the last flea market I found a really nice, carved box showing a stag, woodland animals and some floral work on the lid and the side panels. The lock is exquisitely sweet - it's a tiny handle looking like a door handle that, if pushed, opens the lid. The filigree elements of the carving were obviously backed with blue paper that must have made a smashing background for the light colour of the carved wood.

 At the time I bought it, the box was in a mild state of disintegration. Only fragments of the paper had remained, the glued-on carving on the solid lid had come off, and one of the lion's paws it stood on, as well as one of the glass stones of the decoration, were lost. The lock, however, was in perfect working condition, and the wood itself stable with only slight damage to the bottom plate.

After some time for inspiration I decided to restore the box almost exactly to its former glory - with some exceptions: I won't use the lion's paws (one is missing anyway, would be hard to come by, and they are kitschyyyyyyy!!!), and I won't use the same royal blue for the backing because I think green will fit the woodland-inspired carving better. And it will be done in fabric-covered cardboard, which won't be as prone to damage as normal paper. As the box will be for one of my larp-characters, I actually intended to stick with the blue and add some golden fleur-de-lys to the inside fabric. But as I recently discovered how simple woodcutting is if you have access to a laser cutter, I can make my own design to match the royal blue. With fleur de lys ;) Of course there's no such fabric at hand, but I happend to buy some stamps in that design and will do my own fleur-de-lys print. Some golden trim as adornment, and also that box will be fit for Madame la Comtesse! ^^ I've been busy making jewelry so she'll need two boxes anyway.

But that's just the plan (or, actually, two of them), and there's quite a long way to get there.

First, the whole thing had to be disassembled and freed of the remnants of the paper. At which point I realized that one of the hinges had been repaired most meticulously by using a small lead clamp to keep it on the broken piece of wood. An interesting thing, but as I want the boox in full working condition and not as a museum piece, I had to content myself with documenting it in some pictures and moving on. I will move the new hinges (the old ones were rather cheap and fragile work) a little more towards the center of the box so they have fresh, undamaged wood as a basis.

Then I started sanding the panels with very fine sanding paper to give them back the natural white colour of the wood without abrading too much of the surface. I quickly moved to less fine paper to get the job done in an amount of time that is acceptable with a human lifetime and a shedload of things to do ;) Especially for the reverse side of the lid where still remnants of blue paper and glue were stuck, the rougher paper did its job very well. Finish will be made with fine sanding paper and wax polish.

Two vintage chairs

...dating from around 1900 (or a bit earlier). If they are slightly damaged, you get them rather cheap, so I decided to invest a little handiwork and would soon have two splendid old chairs to add to my collection of old and semi-old junk.

Or so I thought.

Removing the old layer of varnish from every nook and cranny of the carving by hand was more time-consuming than I thought, so the "soon" will more likely be a "in a couple of years", considering my creative schedule! But let's see...

...and in the meantime I have found two more of exactly the same style, same low price, same condition. I have removed the broken cane (and the gruesome plywood seating surface that must have been a quick repair solution) and am currently looking for an affordable sander as I need the chairs for my new flat and sanding by hand takes ages...

...and I'm not the most patient person...

...and I only got six more chairs just so, not the same style and in even worse condition (covered in worn velvet that has to be removed), but how could I decline the offer of antique chairs and a table for free! So we're currently at a round ten chairs to restore asap, thankfully the table is almost ok...

Advanced furniture restoration...

...or how to disassemble a wardrobe that seemingly has been built for eternity. *wipes sweat*

Well, yes, another hobby of mine. I started small, with chairs and stuff, until I fell victim to megalomania this year and lay my hands on three wardrobes and three tables, each about 100+ years old. I can have them for free - only problem is that they have to be removed from that flat. Which would be easy if it were just chairs and stuff. But those are fully grown wardrobes. No problem... Demounting the four doors of the larger twin-wardrobes was comparatively simple, although I must admit that balancing a heavy, glassed cabinet door on your foot, steadying it with your one hand and your head (having three dimensions into which this darn thing can fall over really is fun!) while you're unscrewing the screws of the hinges may sound a tad bit difficult to people who are not used to multitasking. The boards at the back of the wardrobes were unusable and thus removed quickly by kicking them in. Great fun, and great workout! Yeah, and that was when work really started. Facing a virtually naked wardrobe that still outsized me in height as well as in breadth (ok, that is easy, I admit), I called for reinforcement in the form of my darling, usually not so fond of this kind of work but nonetheless ready to come to my aid - and save me shedloads of time, by the way, because hard-headed as I am I would surely have ventured on also without his help, which might have taken me a few hours or days longer. After two hours of continuous, sweat-inducing work (including the excessive use of hammer and chisel) the basis of the wardrobe was still only partly disassembled and my darling frustrated. I think the other wardrobes will simply be sawn apart along a few strategic lines. Whoever built those things aeons ago seemingly put half a tonne of nails and a bucket of glue into each of them! Sometimes I really like Ikea. So the following day I did venture out alone, due to said frustration of my assistant - and funny, once you know the tricky details of a wardrobe's anatomy, it comes apart almost by itself! Or maybe it was just the effect of psychological warfare because I placed a saw on the shelf beside it? Mwahahaha!

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Update: All parts still sitting in the basement, waiting for me to win in the lottery, buy a baroque villa and put them up there, as they're not meant to be assembled and disassembled all the time and there's no use in restoring them when there's no place to put them.