Days 194-198, 212-My Own Ancient Living

Picture taken in August when I did my post on alcoves.

I have taken so long with this living room  that even the before-picture has acquired an antique sepia tinge. I was to start on it since end July. A slow and bumpy ride, to say the least but  until this afternoon, with more than 3 months of dilly dallying,  I actually thought I was all done with this room. Sadly it was not to be. 

Picture of window taken in July 2010, decorated by my niece Qesha  with a chisel

The window is usually the 1st thing I tackle before I put in all the other furnishings.   I had big plans for this particular window and after many, many attempts, I thought I had accomplished what I wanted to achieve.  I even wrote a large chunk on what I did  in the draft of this post last night. Then I showed Win a picture of it this afternoon who as good as told me to junk it. I was devastated  but of course my brother was right.  I now shudder at the thought that I nearly posted all that junk. So it's back to the drawing board...and someday when I am brave again, I may even tell you all about The Wind In The Window. In the meantime, I shall try to cheer up by singing to Corrine Bailey Rae..

  "3 little birds sat on my window and they told me I don't have to worrrrrrryeeeee...

 Picture taken for the Children's Day post

Let's backtrack a bit more so we can talk about something good, the stairs. I love my stairs and henceforth will hack all the stairs in all my houses so that they are versatile like this one.  It was some serious bashing job and I took much pleasure chopping and chiseling what was once a clumsy fixture into a multi-purpose, all directional portal machine. My dolls can now go up to the 2nd floor from the living room or the kitchen even outside the house, if they fancy. They can  also use it as a display shelf or the Stairmaster for slimmer thighs.

Best of all, I can use it to obstruct the unmentionable.

 As I was saying, it has been over 100 days now since end July and I didn't do diddly squat for this room. Alright, maybe I bashed together a small shrine, built a quilter's cupboard and even carved  a chest, but they are hardly substantial additions. Especially those 2 shelves that just could not stay up. The biggest addition to the room were Rosanna's bowls and of course, they were not even made by me. Until .......

Day 212 

Saturday, 13th November 2010

This was the day right after I posted about the ancient village house. I was so inspired that I worked from 9am in the morning till 1 am, Sunday, breaking only for 2 meals. This is what  I did that day: 

 

I started by assembling a small  food table for a little cosy corner under the stairs. I painted the S$2 Daiso table. The wrapped foods were bought in Bangkok. In this part of the world, it is common to use leaves to wrap our food. Common leaves used are banana, bamboo and even lotus. Here, we are using the outer leaves of corn cob because underneath the food cover is a 

a plate of corn-on-sticks. These corns were also bought in Bangkok but they came clean and so I painted them charred. These corn are for the curious and courageous who dare move my food cover. 

I made the food cover from a discarded shuttlecock and mosquito net. I just cut off the bottom to the length I wanted, got rid of all the feathers then shaved off the head. I then trimmed a mosquito net to size for the side. The  little basket I used for the top was also from Bangkok. I think the food cover  is distinctively Sans! Strangely, it also  reminds me of a chicken coop.

Next, I painted the brass deities to look like worn wooden ones. Picture on the left shows what they looked like before. The girls may look a little more worn then most people like. It's their heads, I tell you. I wanted them to look less phallic. Don't ask me how I connected worn with not-so-phallic, I don't understand how my brain works sometime.  Eventually, I just put veils over their heads. You will see what I mean later.

I must say I really prefer Ganesh in colour. I sure hope he likes it too. And for the first time, I felt like maybe I could handle painting in smaller scale.

And then,  I had a Cindy moment. This is the moment when you are thinking incredibly small as Cindy is famous for her dexterity in making things for ants.  Anyway I decided to make some betel nuts but unlike Cindy, I am all for cheating. I had kept this dried fruit or flower for the longest time. I took apart a pod or bud (see the single one on plate) and inside each bud were 4-5 stone like seeds that looked like sliced betel nuts. One enjoys betel nuts by chewing them wrapped in a betel leaf till one looks like a werewolf after a meal. So I laid the betel nuts on a piece of real leaf. I sprayed some DesignMaster Basil Green on the leaf hoping the colour would last.

 

I placed the sliced betel nuts on a little coconut husk which in turn was placed on a plate (chopsticks holder) made from coconut .And as a tribute to Cindy, I added the 2 cups of chai she made me. It's no ordinary chai, mind you. True to her dizzying skills,  Cindy had added saffron strips in the tea..enough said!

And what is a narcotic ensemble without my hookah? Of course, I jumped at the opportunity to  make one more so as to complete this scene.

By now, it was getting very late and too dark to paint but I pushed on. I had wanted to make these metal cases for the longest time. They were quite typically used by merchants to transport their wares especially fabric. Cindy, knowing that I wanted to make the suitcases, had bought me these plastic boxes from Daiso when Dale was here in June. Cindy, you da best! And yes, it has taken me this long to start on them! 

It was not easy trying to convert plastic into metal so I decided  I had to badly corrode the suitcases. I was almost painting by instinct as I was tired and it was dark and the cases just looked like a lump of brown after a while. Nonetheless, when I looked at them again the next morning, they didn't look half bad. I guess I can boast now that I can rust plastic with my eyes closed!

.....To Be Continued