A Hobbit Hobby

 

The Great Seal

 My previous life

In my previous life I was a carpenter. In these modern times I have decided to roust my latent skill. It’spart of my heritage: My great-grandfather, Matt McCarthy (paternal), worked with his hands his whole life and his artistic expression survives  in handsome bookshelves, round tables, bureaus, long tables,and assorted chairs. Jesus Christ was a carpenter before he made his name known to chroniclers. It is a nobel skill to pursue.

A Chance Discovery

Autumn has set in here and my wardrobe should be getting heavier. We have sweatshirts from the 90s in the storage closet high up on temporary shelves. I found a handsome Nike sweatshirt with the bold ensignia of USA Track & Field stiched in red in gold. I then found another precious gem under a pair of sweatpants. The X-Acto House of Miniatures Chippendale Chest on Chest/Circa 1750-1790 in its original packaging emerged as an early Chirstmas present.

What is Chippendale?

For the layman, this is just a model kit of a dresser. But not just any dresser. Chippendale, I was informed in the concise background information, was Thomas Chippendale, an early 18th century carpenter who designed pieces of furniture that came to define colonial style in the Mansions and Plantation homes of the Empire’s American elite. After the Revolutionary War England ceased exporting Chippendale and other furniture of fine craftsmanship to the Americas.

American craftsmen, without the latest styles for inspiration, continued immitating the Chippendale style. It became as ingrained as an oily polish in our crafts heritage.  Today these pieces are considered national treasures and are worthy of display in the Smithsonian.

Hobby Kits

Now they are recreated down to  doll-house scale and sold in kits for the hobbyist. The House of Miniatures series by X-Acto provides over 100 pieces of furniture from the colonial to the Victorian age. They offer an outstanding website that still keeps a detailed catalog all the way back to 1978 when the series was released. The model I have is actually from that innaugural year, which may mean it is  an antique of an antique.

I have a little experience in model building. When I was in middle school I started making model cars out of die-cast kits. Then I moved on to plastic kits of WWII era fighters. I still have the P-51 Mustang and the British Spitfire.

The Builder

This immitation of reality is an art. The gifted model maker can create a piece to look tarnished and used. This is the exponent that when increased can make the toy plane into a believable miniature relic. I was just aiming to follow the instructions to a T and trying to keep track of the microscopic pieces. I considered the finer points of pre-sanding and adding multiple coats a tedious step for a novice builder. I was apparently missing out on the real fun that the builder should decide to parttake in.

And I say builder because that is recquired of me. Thinking like the carpenter and investing time and patience is part of the pride that comes out of a well made piece. The Chippendale Chest on Chest (ConC) requires sanding, drilling, staining, finishing, and gluing. All arts in themselves that require a half dozen specialed tools that were intended for a person of Thumbalina stature.

Patience and Thouroughness

And they are all sold online. Hobbyists like to have the right tools and relish the thouroughness in their work. For instance, the instructions advise me to lay out all the pieces (around 150) including the precisely milled lumber and the brass hardware. Then I put it all together with out gluing to make sure it fits together. After disassembling it, two kinds of sandpaper must be applied for the benefit of a more realistic finish.

Then the real skill comes in: gluing. The glue must be stained. This process involves slowly mixing the staining agent and the glue in a plastic bottle-top. Before you glue you must make only the most precise and acurate placement of the wood to avoid the unprofessional warped look. A magnetic jig holds the pieces tightly together at  right angles. Patience is required when waiting for the pieces to dry. Work is piecewise and culminates in gluing the subsections together. Perhaps the most dificult pieces to keep true will be the five drawers which are the most dainty of the pieces.

Staining is then next in the order and the most improvised aspect of the modeler’s dilema. More sanding is required to get the right look. Then a varnish is applied to give the piece a nice sheen. Let dry and add the hardware (drawer handleds) and the thing is complete. A functioning scale model of a piece of our heritage and craftwork will make a wonderful present for a hamster.

Of course this is what I’ve read and this CoC has already been built in my mind. I don’t know if I will actually open it but the sooner I do the sooner my inner carpenter comes out.