Can We Become Other Than What We Are?
This is a special edition diorama, inspired by and dedicated to the world of Frédéric Fontenoy, a photographer living and working in Paris, France.
One evening, on one of my trips to Paris, we talked about my miniatures over dinner.
And that is when I got the idea to create a diorama that could have been an FF-scene. Our worlds were a great match!
Can We Become Other Than What We Are was completed in 2017, and is an homage to Fontenoy and his art.
The room
This was the first time I tried to create a room that already excisted, and It was important it would look as much like the original as possible.
I started with the fishtail parquet floor, made from popsicle sticks that I stained in a variation of nuances.
The camera
Having already been through the process of creating a camera for the Ectoplasm-scene, the process was a bit easier this time.
The characters
I worked a lot on the positions and the actions of the mice. It had to be unmistakingly Fontenoyian, at the same time I wanted it to be a new scene, and not an exact replica of his photos.
Sketches
The sofa
For the sofa, I wanted to use leather I had after my great grandfather.
He was a shoemaker, among other things, and he had prepared pieces of leather that he never got to use.
I wet the leather, then stretched it over a piece of padded wood, and sealed it with small nails. The backs were not easy to make in the leather. To get the right fluffy look, like a real Chesterfield, I ended up sculpting them in polymer clay that I painted and tinted to give them a leathery look, as close to the rest.
The folding screen
Wetplates by Julie Loen
Details
Every piece of furniture, I studied them carefully and tried to be as true to the original as I could. Like here, with the rugbeater. A classic Fontenoy prop that needed to be included. I sculpted it in polymer clay.
A few of the other items I created.
The chessboard
Sculpted in polymer clay, and using little pearls.