Corona Build 3

 

No, this obviously isn't a miniature, unless you count 1:1 scale. But it did involve design and craftwork, and I have nothing else to show for recent weeks, so here you go. This is roughly what the rest of my Saturday School classmates will see, with my head in front, on Saturday morning this week in fact. The point being that this mantelpiece is directly behind where I sit in front of my laptop. 

Before this, like the backgrounds on Zoom of the rest of the class, the wall was empty, all anyone saw was a few objects on the shelf. I was inspired to do this after noticing the tendency of all those politicians and celebrities being interviewed from home, to place themselves in front of a bookcase prominently displaying all the books they hoped you would think they were reading. Let's be fair, I'm sure some of them have been read. However, sometimes the line up of books is simply too neat and well ordered to have been recently troubled by any household member coming along and pulling out one of the volumes. Other times, knowing the type of book it is, and looking at the celebrity concerned, I think, 'They've never read that...'

Well, I haven't yet read one or two of these. Notably most of the Finnish language fiction on the second shelf. But in the course of time, all being well, I'll have a go. Apart from those, I've certainly made a lot of use of various histories and guidebooks to Finland and Helsinki, and the various language books on that shelf. So yes, there is some reason to have these books to hand while I 'attend' Finnish lessons. What else? On the top shelf, various books connected with other languages I've been interested in, mainly French and Italian. And on the bottom shelf, brought down from being hidden in other parts of the house, books by some of the authors I've been reading a lot recently, Keith Waterhouse, St-Exupéry, and Gene Wolfe.

I was telling someone about this earlier, and all they could say was, 'Is it properly fixed? It won't come collapsing down on you?' Uh no, it's not fixed to the wall. But as far as I can test it, the mantelpiece is incredibly solid, and I arranged the supporting felt pads underneath the bookcase to make it comfortably flush against the wall. I think it would take someone behind with a sledgehammer to make it tip forwards. I can be pretty paranoid at times, but I'm okay with this situation!