anonymous-manor

[anonymous-manor]

And here is the exam room! When he’s not deep into the occult (or deep in the dirt stealing a corpse), Dr. Kenneth Benton is a renowned optometrist and ophthalmologist. He sees patients right in his home, and he’s a wonder in surgery and sedation.

The bottom pic shows the whole room from the front. Above are some fun details like the surgical tools and microscope.

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[anonymous-manor]

Cornelia’s room is finished! Bottom pic shows the whole room best. I chose to give our maid/housekeeper white wooden furniture (apart from the little stool with the Virgin Mary picture.) She keeps tidy, making her bed up and her nightgown hung on a hook. It’s *almost* proportional.

[anonymous-manor]

Let’s get a bit reacquainted, shall we? I’ve been working on small stuff and sewing lately, and I’ve forgotten to take my photos. :) I have Cornelia’s room and the smoking room in progress. The big news, though, is that THE OFFICE IS DONE!

It has the exact vibe I want, and I hope you can feel the creeptastic energy when you see it. A bit of Jekyll and Hyde, some Downton Abbey, Poe, Barnum, Sherlock, sprinkle some parsley on top…

The curio cabinet has been hell to get right—it was lost in the mail, took forever to re-ship, then had to be painted and varnished and filled… It was a good thing I’d had so much time beforehand to prep all the little curios themselves. I want the collection to put out an air that the doctor is very smart and interesting and well traveled and a good modern scientist… but it’s clear he’s put a pretty penny behind all those trips and acquisitions of those treasures. It might be an ancient artifact. Equipment for finding a new element. Last week’s teacup gone crusty. Or the umbrella lost in the sack of femurs.

I hope these close-ups of the office corners give you a better view of the finer details. Two jade canisters and Aladdin’s lamp live in the cabinet (with some precautionary garlic, of course).

The desk is nicely accented with our friend the skeletal raven, a cask of unknown chemicals sits in the corner, and the doctor’s is pistol situated atop the traveling case, which must be “handled with care.”

[anonymous-manor]

Another progress report on the Dr.’s office/lab—the largest of his 3 personal spaces in the sub-basement.

I added the traveling trunk, revolver, a large apothecary jar, and the map picture. Also notice the upside down crucifix affixed to the wall above the battle axe.

The desk arrived in the mail! I filled the drawers with some essentials (and a creepy skeleton hand). The top of the desk features some advertisements and papers, a gas lamp, and a set of test tubes.

I’m anxiously awaiting the arrival of the curio cabinet so I can add the rest of the curiosities/artifacts and glue down the furniture.

[anonymous-manor]

Today’s accomplishment: I finished the hand stitched linen nightgown to go in Cornelia’s room (housekeeper/maid). I cut a very generic pattern of my own invention, then added detailing and lace until it looked, well, like the photo. It’s far from perfect, and the scale is slightly off, but it’s destined to hang on a miniature hat rack, so I’ll probably wind up tacking it in a “neatly cast off” kind of way.

[anonymous-manor]

Dr. Kenneth A. Bolton is not only a medical doctor, but also an avid researcher in the fields of anatomy and anthropology. Though progressive and fair, the doctor is a man of his time (1872). He’s fascinated with phrenology, artifacts from cultures far and wide, and abnormalities of the human body. He has visited PT Barnum’s American Museum across the pond, and though he’s a bit skeptical of the front man, Dr. Bolton can’t deny a predilection for things mysteriously grotesque. His private office/lab plays host to curios and collectables from around the world, as well as a space to carry out some of his experimentation and research.

Here’s my progress on Dr. Bolton’s private office/lab, located in the sub-basement below the servants’ quarters:

I’ve got the room floored and wallpapered, chosen some Tim Holtz ephemera for the wall, and created a couple of framed pictures (Mr. Kite poster and framed map).

The umbrella stand features a black and gold brolly (sculpey and painted paper) and a few femurs (Tim Holtz).

I built the shelf with craft sticks, turbo tacky, black paint, and mod podge glossy. The items on/in it are glued down with turbo tacky, but the shelf itself is still mobile so it can be moved to accommodate the rest of the furniture when it arrives.

A lot of what’s on the shelves is Tim Holtz ephemera that I’ve had for a long time. It might be from assemblage, idea-ology, or holiday collections. Some of it is probably Found Objects from Beads landing. Other bits I pulled from my bag of random unknowns or made from scratch.

The bell jar contains a drawing model’s severed hand dressed up with sharpie coloring and mod podge glossy. I painted the dragon fossil (it was previously antique gold). The pile of white floral/fungus came from my wax seal kit (I almost never use pressed flowers when stamping my mail). I thought it was a bit of a laugh to add a Maui-style hook leaning casually to one end.

Here are some more prepared bits and pieces I plan to place on/in the curio cabinet when it arrives:

I hope you can see this stuff ok; the camera really did not want to focus.

The plague mask skull, bony raven, compass, and bell jar are found objects from beads landing. The bell jar contains a “taxidermy” of a frog charm (dunno where that came from), colored and patterned with sharpie. The pistol is poetic spirit (with some dark burgundy liquitex added to the handle). I pulled the pendant ring off the deathly hallows and painted the bright silver dark grey for a more antiqued look. The skull is Tim Holtz, and I aged it with ink from a dark brown brush pen. Finally, the pile of amber rocks is, well, a pile of amber rocks (beads) constructed with turbo tacky and affixed to a 1:12 tea saucer painted metallic silver.

[anonymous-manor]

My first big accomplishment: the doctor’s secret room in the sub basement. He allows no one to enter; he retains the only key. His most gruesome experiments and dissections can be performed in complete secrecy, and it gives him a place to store his…acquisitions. Perhaps a sack of fingerling potatoes not yet ripe for eating. Or a similar sack of unwieldy proportions, stained with mud and muck from being dragged up from the village cemetery…

I’m so happy with how it came out! The background screens and paper tags are Tim Holtz, and the rest of the furnishings are handmade with either cardboard and craft sticks or recycled Playmobil parts. The brain is a hand made and hand painted sculpey creation. The knife is from a 1:12 kitchen set.

[anonymous-manor]

Welcome to Elzbietta House, home to the eccentric Dr. Kenneth A. Bolton and his small crew of indispensable staff. Here are their mini biographies:

The doctor spends his days seeing patients in the exam room on the first floor. He is a general practice physician, though he specializes in optometry and eye surgeries. In the evenings, the doctor spends the majority of his time in the sub-basement where he has a spacious office, private smoking room, and a mysterious room where no one but himself is permitted. Dr. Bolton is generally soft-spoken and polite despite his position of authority. He has two alter personalities, though: one a lame drunkard, and the other a viscous vigilante.

Mr. Bartholomew Dimm is the butler as well as Dr. Bolton’s personal servant and confidante. He’s quite gay and merry, but Mr. Dimm has a keen knack for knowing what’s meant to be public and private information. A good man he is, but he receives occasional admonishments for singing too loudly as he moves about the house.

Cornelia Post is housekeeper and head maid. She is young, but very professional and diligent in performing her duties. She’s sometimes known to be abrupt and snappish, but she graciously escorts patients to the procedure room and does not complain when called upon to help clean up unfortunate messes.

Mrs. Burlington is the cook. As far as anyone in the house knows, her first name is Mrs., and it is unknown whether she was previously married or had children. There’s no telltale ring on her finger, but that may be to prevent making dents in the pastry. She’s a bit on in years, but still spry as a spring chicken. She gets on well with Cornelia and is perpetually amused by the antics of Mr. Dimm.

James Jiles is Dr. Burlington’s driver and stableman. He, his wife, and their son reside in a private guesthouse on the manor’s property rather than living in the basement apartments with the other servants. Jiles is rich in street smarts, and he functions as much as a chauffeur as he does a getaway driver.

Wolfgang is an elderly villager who Dr. Bolton regularly employs to tame the garden. The doctor himself is quite the horticulturist, and he keeps a rather odd array of plants growing year round. Wolfgang may be slightly disturbed, always muttering to himself and speaking to apparitions, but he does good work with a hoe and rake, and Dr. Bolton compensates him well for it.