Highcroft Castle - Week Twelve - Part Two

The Treasury (next door to the kitchen) was also given a few improvements durring the week.  The most important feature of the Treasury is the gate - after all what good is a Treasury if you can't lock the treasure in?  The gate was made from pieces of bamboo skewer cut to length held in place at the top, bottom and at two points part way up by strips of balsa wood.  Wooden beads were threaded on the skewers in an arrow head arrangement to add interest to the bars formed by the skewers.  The top of the gate is a pre-purchased piece of fretwork that fills in the arched doorway nicely.  Once assembled, all this was given a coat of charcoal black paint, followed by a metallic pewter to give the gate a shiny, metal like finish.  Eventually, the gate is going to be fixed in place, but for now it's just leaning in place so I can access the space behind it.

If you use a fair amount of imagination, the space behind the Treasury gate is part of the hallway that connects the kitchen and treasury to the rest of the castle.  In the hallway right outside the treasury two guards are on always duty (although not always the same two guards), guarding the castle's treasure.  As the peoples of Oronia are generally happy and well provided for, and because the treasury is deep within the castle and thus hard to get to, guarding the treasury is a fairly dull job.  So dull, in fact, that the guards are given a table and stools so they can sit and play checkers or dice games to pass the time.  I bought a lovely barrel table and two barrel stools on ebay.  They fit the space well and look fabulous, but in the dim space at the back of the treasury they're very hard to see.  I lined the ceiling and side walls of the hallway space behind the treasury with mirror paper to enhance the light, but it's still hard to see into this space once the gate is on the treasury.  So I painted the bands that hold the barrels together in a metallic copper paint to add some sparkle, which does make the table and stools stand out better, but I still think I might make a quick and plain table and stools and save the more expensive, more decorative barrel table and stools for the next project and for where they can actually be seen.

By the treasury gate, I added a pile of precious fabrics of brocade and velvet and anythings else I had that looked valuable enough to lock up.  The fabrics are just off cuts wraped around off cuts of balsa wood or cardboard to create mini bolts of fabric.  They are piled up rather haphazardly, refelcting the haste with with they were searched through when the new Queen of Oronia needed a new gown as soon as possible for her coronation.

At the front right of the treasury, a weapons rack has been made to fit against the wall.  Again, it's maily balsa wood with a little trim of bronze leather for decoration.  The lengths of bamboo currently housed in the rack will eventually be replaced with spears, pikes, halberds and other suitable weaponry.