36 Hour Classes
INSTRUCTOR:
Peter Kendall, Fellow
COURSE:
Interior/Exterior Room Construction
PROJECT:
Federal Ship Captain’s Parlor with Widow’s Walk
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
This structure was inspired by a Charles Wysocki painting, “Yearning for My Captain”—a woman, with a look of anxiety, standing in the widow’s walk atop her house, peering out to sea under a foreboding sky. A widow’s walk was a small stand or platform on the roof a New England house near the sea where the captain’s wife could look for returning ships.
In addition to the interior, students will make the exterior of the structure, featuring the widow’s walk and paneled balustrade around the roof. The widow’s walk will be made in a scale smaller than 1", to give the effect of being seen from a distance. Students will also make the fluted pilasters and the plinths on which they rest, as well as the stone foundation using acrylic gels and paints. Clapboard siding will complete the exterior side walls.
The interior is a small federal period parlor with plaster walls, a fireplace with neoclassical decoration, and wallpaper of a nautical mural around the top of the room. The mural was painted by Mary Grady O’Brien and is based on the painting Crowninshield’s Wharf (at the Peabody Essex Museum), depicting the Salem, Massachusetts waterfront in 1806. Students will make the fireplace, aged floor, and the plaster walls. The decorative elements on the front of the fireplace are based on Samuel McIntire carvings and have been cast by instructor. Baseboard, chair rail, cornice, and molding below the mural will be supplied, to ensure having sufficient time to work on
the exterior of the structure.
Interior space of the parlor is 13" W x 11" D X 10" H. Exterior measurements, including roof overhang and the widow’s walk are 15-½" W X 12" D X 15" H.
TIME:
36 hours. While completion is unlikely, students will go home with all the techniques and materials to finish on their own.
POWER TOOLS:
table saw, shaper
SKILL LEVEL:
Intermediate and advanced
MATERIALS FEE:
$275