For reasons which should now be clear, I've decided to assemble a miniature scene from my Gorey items. Specifically, I will make a small Goreyosity Shop. The pieces I chose will fit well in this setting.
As a back drop, I found an antique wood/paper litho toy store from Ruby Lane. It was described as circa 1870, which seems right, but I did not have it authenticated.
The store arrived filthy, but in good condition for its age.
The wood was mostly bare, and part of me wanted to paint the walls bright, fun colors. But instead I made a conscious decision to keep the original finish. First, I was terrified of destroying something so old, and second, it seemed an appropriate way to display Gorey's things. When we visited the Gorey House, the tour guide explained that Gorey had deliberately left the original unrestored stenciling on his living room walls, shown below.
So I removed the filth with water and dish soap. Then Megan helped me apply a protective layer of clear (and removable) Minwax. (Thank you, Megan!) The result is below:
It looks like the walls were once red, and the color came through nicely. The litho paper is also well preserved:
For the base, I chose a plain piece of wood from Home Depot. We stained it red to bring out the color of the walls. (Thank you, Megan!)
The hard part now is waiting for everything to dry. Then I can start composing the scene!
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