Leave Well Enough Alone.......

Now why would I do that? This morning Buttercup spit out a House of Miniatures kit for a Chippendale corner chair and demanded that I make it for the second floor.


I looked at it and decided that if it were going to be a "real" Chippendale it wouldn't have just sanded down cabriole legs....No sirree! It had to have ball and claw feet and a scroll at the top of the legs. One catch....There were four of them. I have done ball and claw feet before. They are a lot of fun. Usually they are just on the front two legs of a wing chair or something similar. With a corner chair you have to make at least three out of the four ball and claw, and......they all have to be the same. I knew that there was a catch! Here is the first one roughly cut out and started(no scroll yet).


I used the trusty Exacto knife, needle files and an Emery board cut into quarters lengthwise and then crosswise. This is one of the handiest tools that I know of when you are trying to rough sand small pieces. Being stiff, the corners that you cut can get into places that regular sandpaper can't reach.


Here is the leg that I am working on a little further along. The leg at the right is what I started with. That's the thing I like about House of Miniatures kits. Their blanks are generous so that if you want to do something like this there is plenty of room to play.

Of course now that I have decided on ball and claw feet and scroll knees. Yes, the part at the top is really referred to as a knee. I will have to do some fancy work on the back slats too. In the Chippendale Directory these are usually carved to look like woven ribbons going over and under.

Who was the idiot that got me into this mess? Oh wait. I remember now. It was Buttercup. Stupid bookshop! Why didn't you stay up on the top shelf and sleep longer? At least I have someone to blame other than myself. See you tomorrow, hopefully with four carved legs.......