However, eventually I wanted a more permanent, more versatile setting. When Jack began making my diorama cabinet, I knew that I wanted the bottom floor to be the Ballroom. Consequently, we made that level of the cabinet the highest, so that I could have columns and a grand chandelier. Here is the Ballroom in relation to the rest of the rooms in the cabinet (on the bottom level):
Creating a more permanent formal setting required more permanent materials. For this ballroom, we used real wallpaper, tile, and trim. The floor is made from kitchen tiles purchased at Home Depot, with a faux “marble” effect. I know a lot of people use cardstock to create the marble tile effect in their dioramas, but I have never been able to find anything like that in Canada (grrrr!). To fancy up the ceiling, we again used wallpaper available from Hope Depot, and the centre detail is achieved using a photo frame, painted to match the ceiling. The chandelier was meant to be the focal point of the Ballroom. This chandelier was made using a hanging candle holder from Michael’s and a chandelier-style Christmas ornament—the two are wired together to create one unit:
Originally, the bottom piece was all silver, and I had painted the ornament to match, but I decided that the Ballroom would have gold rather than silver accents, which entailed removing EVERY SINGLE split-ring on the chandelier and replacing them with two smaller gold split rings, as well as painting the chandelier frame gold and repainting the ornament. I used a plastic plate from a set of Barbie dishes as the ceiling fixture (and also painted it gold):
Another important feature would be the columns—Jack made these out of wooden dowelings and squares of molding (used for trimming door frames and windows). The columns can be moved around in the room to wherever I want them placed:
As with the previous Ballroom scene, I wanted to add a few details, but overall keep the setting fairly minimal and the focus on the dolls. This way, I can add things (like a piano, a sideboard with cavier and champange, etc.). I also had the My Scene staircase in here originally, but decided to remove it. Again, I used the mirrors and the tables from the earlier version (new mirrors, same tables), and added a couple of paintings (pictures cut out from the backs of old calendars, placed in fancy gilded miniature photo frames). The mirrors are again photo frames painted gold with mirrored cardboard inserts, and the tables are made from wood scraps. The detailing comes from braided ribbon I glued on, as well as some fancy buttons and plastic pieces that I purchased from Michael’s (I cut off the shanks before gluing them on). Then I spray-painted everything gold. Here you can see the tables and the “paintings” in more detail (the paintings, mirrors, and tables can be moved around or removed—they are not permanently affixed):
Again, I added a curtain treatment, this time in gold fabric, but only on the one wall. There’s no actual window behind the curtain:
Last, but not least, I’ve put a couple of marble busts in the corners. The busts are available from Eric Hsu on eBay (http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZachung20). I bought some plastic wedding cake columns to place them on, and put the columns on top of wooden blocks, which I painted white:
So far, I’ve only posed dolls in this setting as if they were in a Ballroom; however, you could easily turn it into an art gallery, Great Hall, museum, formal entranceway, etc. It makes a good background for photographing the dolls (although awkward for me, since I have to lie on the floor to take photos at this level! LOL). Here are a few shots of my dolls in their Ballroom:
