Taking a Break From Reality

Really, it must be something of a record for me.  Since finishing work on Dawncrest Castle at the end of March last year I have worked on miniatures set in the real world.  OK, so there was the Dragon Wizard and his Lair and I suppose the Steampunk Inventor's Workshop is fantasy too, but they were more like sidetracks than real projects so they don't really count.

It's time to brush off all that reality and break into some fully fledged fantasy!  For some time I've been planning to make a 'Tower of Magic' (or ToM for short).  The ToM will be comprised of a series of independant roomboxes that stack together to form a 'Tower'.  I'm using these boxes from Fantastic Furniture: Buzz Cube.  I'm cutting a couple of inches off the heights of the cubes to lower the ceiling heights in the rooms.  Each separate cube can be joined to others by way of dowels supplied with the basic flat pack. The beauty of this is that I can work on one or two roomboxes for the Tower, then work on something different, then come back and add more rooms to the ToM later on.  The danger is of course that I will forget that at some point I have to stop adding rooms . . . .

The first room I'm working on for the ToM is the 'Crystal Garden'.  The garden has four raised garden beds and a central fountain with a faux doorway in the back wall.  The garden beds will eventually be filled with magical plants made of beads and faux leadlighting paints and whatever else I think of that works.  The paths and back wall have been covered in dark glass tiles while the sides of the back garden beds have mirror tiles glued in place.  The plan is to add more mirror tiles to the front beds (as soon as I buy some more) but I may go with something a little less . . . glitzy.  I want the garden to sparkle, not burn holes in the sides of bank vaults.

The frame around what will be the doorway is the firesurround I took out of Dawncrest when it was renovated last year, a lesson in why you should never throw anything out.  The plants that grow in the garden will be made out of crystals and beads, much like the gemstone tree in this photo of Highcroft Castle: Wizard's Room or the gem bonsai in this one: Mai's Shop.  (Unfortunately, it seems I can't add photos directly to my blog from my Flickr account anymore so you'll have to follow the links to Flickr to see them.)

As I ran short of tiles for the Crystal Garden, I made a start on a second room for the ToM, the Library.  The floor and ceiling of this room are covered in scrapbooking paper.  All the shelves have been made, but still need some fancy trim on their fronts.  As Dan retired to Bellerose House, my new test model, Harry, is standing in what will be the doorway.

The ugliest chairs ever will not be staying in the room permanently, they're just there to prove there is space for a pair of chairs infront of the fire.  In the back left corner at the end of the two opposing bookcases I am planning to put mirrors to create the illusion that the shelves of books continue on into the distance.  Yes, you can expect a lot of swearing when I try and install the mirrors and make it work.