Louis XVI Bergère Chair

by Christine-Lea Frisoni from her book "Le Grand Livre de la Maison Miniature"

(this has been translated from her french site)

Supplies for the shepherdess Louis XVI

- Bristol-board (1mm thickness)

- fine Bristol-board

- double sided foam tape (0.5 cm thick)

- double sided foam tape (1 cm thick)
I have tried to come up with the most likely translation of "carton plume" as double sided foam tape. If someone has a better translation, pls let me know!

- 2 wooden staircase dowels

- 2 round wood dowels

- cotton canvas cut to A4

- embroidery yarn

- woodworking glue

- white paint (acrylic Matt) or Gesso

- model paint Gold (Humbrol)

- scissors


Trace and cut out the forms on a 1mm thickness bristol-board. Make 3 copies of each

- glue each form together until it reaches a thickness of 3mm. The Bristol-board makes it easy to cut using scissors


- For the legs, I used staircase dowels, recut to a height of about 3.1 cm





shape the bottom of the leg, thus
make a small ring cut from Bristol-board using 2 pieces of 1mm x 1mm to give an approximate height of 1cm. This is placed 0.2 cm from the end of the foot.


Order of assembly



note the curves...

the arms are made of 2 pieces, assemble, glue onto the chair & if need be, adjust with small pieces of wood

allow the glue to dry thoroughly

- paint the first coat using Gesso. This will act as protection of joinings before using gold modeling paint (Humbrol) containing solvent. The solvent will otherwise dissolve the glue holding the bristol board together.
- When the Gesso is quite dry, dry brush with gold paint, allowing the white to show through It is possible to consider a hand embroidered tapestry (in this case to envisage a fabric of the silk gauze and fine embroidery cotton) however, to remain in the practical and fast spirit, for this project, the tapestries will be printed on a fine cotton fabric unbleached or white.

To print fabric, it is enough to cut a piece of fabric to an A4 size, and to pass it like a sheet of paper in the printer. If the fabric is too flexible, attach it on a sheet of paper with adhesive taped along the edges. In this case to cut the fabric a little so that it is smaller than the sheet of paper.

When printing choose printer settings: the highest resolution + special papers My first photocopied fabric was done in 1999 and the color has not faded.

- cut the following shapes of double sided foam tape


remove the film from the top of the seat shape and press the printed fabric down. Bring your fabric around underneath. Remove the bottom film and stick the seat in place on the chair.

Arms:
the finished measurement for the arm cushions should be an oval 0,5cm X 1,5cm in size

Cover the back of the chair in a similar manner using the printer fabric in front and plain fabric in the back.


- Cut 1 m of embroidery yarn. fold in half, twist it, and fold up it into two, it will be twisted on itself to give a fine braid. To keep it from unravelling, spread a thin layer of paste over the entire length and glue along all edges of your fabric at the front:




Your shepherdess Louis XVI is finished