The "Metamorphosis" project update: the floor takes shape.

After finishing the huge -and highly complicated- 'Jane of the Attic' project, which took me months to complete, I decided that my next one would be of a more 'modest' scale: a room box measuring roughly 25x30x26 cm (9,8x11,8x10,2 inches) would suffice. 

However, there would be no cutting corners here: the room box was to be designed and built from scratch, in the same way I did the attic, with removable walls and 'unconventional' construction techniques. The walls were to be built around a single, more or less square room with a window and a door; pretty straightforward, really.

This image and below: room box under construction.

The project's name is "Die Verwandlung", which is German for "The Metamorphosis", and is inspired by the famous book of the same name authored by Franz Kafka, and published in 1915. It is a personal tribute to this enigmatic writer, who lived to be only 40 years old, yet has had such a profound influence in European literature.

Today I'll discuss the floor of the room box; normally not such an exciting subject, but I'll do my best to make it interesting all the same.

The base consists of a piece of triplex, topped with a 'parquet' floor made out of popsicle sticks. You can see from the coloring of some of them, that they were actually used as such! Specially the lilac ones clearly show their previous life as a popsicle stick. This proves that even a simple, disposable item can get a second life in a room box. So.... please recycle, people!

Above image: after being put in place, the popsicle sticks were slightly sanded over  to give them more structure, while at the same time making them smoother to the touch. The coloring still shows on some of the sticks, but is much less evident than before the sanding. The sticks were placed leaving some space between them at places, because I felt that gives the floor more 'character'.

Then came the English wax, which was applied unevenly on the surface to create differences in coloring. The uniqueness of the structure of each stick added to their 'individuality', when it was further highlighted by the wax.

Below is a general view of the floor, where you can clearly see its uneven and weathered structure. If you look closely, you'll still be able to see the lilac colored sticks. I could have easily removed it (or simply have used other sticks instead), but I felt that it added to the general appearance of the floor!

The below images show the room's door, which evidently had some weathering of it's own. It's covered by several layers of paint of different colors, that are partially revealed at places.

Last but not least here's an image of the other side of the door, which has a more 'conventional' finish than the side facing the inside of the room.
As you can see here, the (removable) walls still lack their skirting and cornices, as well as some weathering to be sure! Likewise, the door still needs a frame. But that will come. After all, this is a room box under construction!

 
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Thanks for visiting, and see you next time!

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