Tower of Magic

The 'Tower of Magic' (or ToM for short) is a series of independent roomboxes that stack together to form a 'Tower'.  (At this point I either need much higher ceilings in my house or it will actually be several towers side by side!).  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 rooms of the ToM to date are: The Crystal Garden, The Library, The Great Hall, The Lab, The Master's Chamber, The Sorceress' Chamber and work in progress The Observatory.

There are further photos of the ToM on my Flickr here or scattered through my blog.

The Crystal Garden

A normal garden just isn't right for a tower full of wizards and sorceresses, so instead the ToM has a 'crystal' garden where sparkling gems and crystals grow on stems of wire.  The garden has four beds arranged around a central fountain.

The Crystal Garden has glass tiles on the floor, rear wall and surrounding the garden beds.  The side walls are decorated with faux leadlighting paints to resemble large stained glass windows.  The plants growing in the garden are made from a mix of beads; crystal, plastic, glass, shell and gemstone chips.  The central fountain is topped with a geode slice.

The Library

A well stocked library is essential for any group of magic workers and with over a thousand hand made books on it's shelves, this library is sure to hold the information any wizard could ever need to know.

A piece of mirror paper reflects the shelves in the back corner to give the impression that the rows of shelves continue on behind the curtain.

Most everything in the Library was hand made from the shelves and furniture to the books and the old wizard asleep by the fire with what must not be a terribly riveting book on his lap.

The Great Hall

The meeting place of the various residents of the ToM, the Great Hall is dominated by the large fireplace and hammer beam ceiling.  The box used for this room was not cut down in height in order to create the space for the hammer beam feature.

Perched among the beams is a handmade clay dragon among other forgotten items and sneaky creatures.

The Lab

The Lab is a place for the resident wizards and sorceresses to create potions and mix up spells.  The walls and floor are bare stone to help resist and fire related accidents that may occur.  The room is well stocked with countless jars and pots full of vital ingredients as well as plenty of cauldrons, bowls and utensils.

The stone walls and floor of the Lab were created using pollyfiller.  Most of the furniture is made from balsa wood with accents in laser cut panels and pre turned spindles.

The Master's Chamber

My least favourite and I think least successful room of the ToM to date is the Master's Chamber.  It was intended to be the bedroom of the master wizard in charge of the ToM.  Instead it's just all around . . .blah.  I do love the fabric ceiling though but otherwise this room is a total flop.

The Sorceress' Chamber

 After the wreck that I call the Master's Chamber, I wanted to create a good bedroom for the ToM and so the Sorceress' Chamber came to be.   Too bad it's only a mild improvement on the Master's Chamber.  My problem with this room is largely in it's dimensions; the room just needs to be at few inches wider to work properly.  There is also absolutely no trace of magic to the room at all, so I'm not certain whether to count it as part of the ToM or as a separate, independent roombox.

The bed is draped in silk dupion in tones of gold and puce.  Naked it would be far less impressive as you would see bare balsa wood posts supporting half a cardboard tube.

The Observatory

The observatory is strictly a room of science, but has a very magical feel to it.  Observations of the sky can be made from the balcony at the rear of the room or through the roof itself which is retractable to allow an unrestricted view of the stars.  Okay, so the roof is permanently retracted and doesn't actually move, but it's good to pretend.

The centre of the room is dominated by the 'main array'.  This structure combines a choice of three telescopes, a reclining seat with footrest and a writing surface for making notes.

The Bathroom

The bathroom is still in progress . . . . check back later.