French Paper Theater - d'Epinal No.1579 Part 2

In my previous post: French Paper Theater - d'Epinal No.1579 Part 1 

I gave a bit of information about a vintage paper theater sheet originally made by d'Epinal which I digitally: cleaned-up, assembled and then altered so I could have a fun variety of "stages" for some upcoming projects I've got planned.

One of my altered "whimsical" paper theaters based on a vintage sheet originally produced by d'Epinal in the 1800's

 Today I'm posting about the "Whimsical Theaters" I altered based on the original sheet.

 And a series of colorful add in curtains that have been coordinated to work with the theaters.

Some of the curtains can work with several of the theaters so the choice is yours as to how you want your theater to look.

The curtains I've altered to go with the theater are from a 

1924 image produced by the Danish Publication: Illustreret Familie-Journal 

 which I located on line by  Pilllpat (agency-eureka) on Flickr

 There are 9 Theater and 11 Curtain Set color choices to select from.

(9 of which can be seen in the previews below)

Preview sheet showing some of the Theater/Curtain combos possible from the images posted - Open Curtains

Preview sheet showing some of the Theater/Curtain combos possible from the images posted - Closed Curtains

For the above shown previews, I've matched up curtains that I think works best with each; however several of the curtains like the Raspberry, Gold, Old Gold, Copper, Plum and Teal Curtains work well with at least one of the other whimsical theaters shown.

There is also (not shown) a "blue" curtain that works as an alternate for the "Original" color version of the theater (which can be seen in the previous post - HERE) and a "lime" green curtain that was made to go with the "Candy Land" colored theater as shown in the first image on this post.

  Whimsical Theaters & Curtains

 by EKDuncan and Presented by My Fanciful Muse

Enjoy using the images for your crafting pleasure!

See Downloading Instructions and Terms of Use Policy - HERE

Original Theater Colors based on the vintage sheet I was working from

 The original vintage sheet I was working on had an array of vibrant colors predominantly in the Red, Blue and Gold family. So this first theater is a close representation to the colors found on the original sheet that I was working with.

I have two curtain options that work well with the above theater.

Bright Red curtain based on the 1924 version from the Danish Publication Familie-Journal

 The original 1924 curtain by: Illustreret Familie-Journal

was a red one and seeing as many theater curtains are red; 

it seemed only fitting to include on in this collection.  

My altered "Blue" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

I like options so I've also created a blue curtain that works with the theater's original color scheme.

My altered "Aqua and Blue" Theater based on a vintage dEpinal 1579 paper theater sheet from the 1800's

I like to play with colors digitally and found this Aqua and Blue version quite appealing.  

The Red and Blue of the original are now more of a Raspberry and Aqua.

My altered "Gold" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

 I'm showing the "Gold" curtains with this theater; however the Raspberry and Teal curtain sets farther down in the post also works well with the "Aqua and Blue" Theater.

My altered "Turquoise" Theater is based on a vintage dEpinal 1579 paper theater sheet from the 1800's

 I liked the Aqua color from the previous altered theater but I was looking for a way to tone it down and came up this the southwest feel for it.

My altered "Teal" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

This Teal curtain works great with both the Aqua and Turquoise Theaters.  For a different look you could use the "Old Gold" or "Copper" curtains with the Turquoise Theater.

My altered Theater in "Browns" - based on a vintage dEpinal 1579 paper theater sheet from the 1800's

As much as I like bright color there are times I want something more toned down; this one has more of the Moss Green and Russet Browns color scheme to it.

My altered "Copper" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

 I like this deep colored curtain with the theater; however another good alternate curtain is the "Old Gold" curtain set seen with the "Earthy" Theater below.

My altered "Earthy" Theater is based on a vintage dEpinal 1579 paper theater sheet from the 1800's

 This one has a slightly different twist to earth tone coloration. It still has some earthy browns but also a bit of plum and a grey blue for some added interest.

My altered "Old Gold" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

I'm showing the "Old Gold" curtain set as a prime match for the "Earthy" theater;

alternate choices would be the "Copper" and "Plum" Curtain Sets.

My altered "Plum Purple" Theater is based on a vintage dEpinal 1579 paper theater sheet from the 1800's

 This Plummy colored theater has a nice mix of purple, gold and raspberry and works well with a variety of curtain sets in this post.

My altered "Plum" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

 My top pick of curtains to use with the "Purple" Theater is this plum curtain set; however other great options are the Raspberry, Gold or even the Old Gold sets.

My altered "Victorian Christmas" Theater is based on a vintage dEpinal 1579 paper theater sheet from the 1800's

 This color scheme reminds me of a Victorian Christmas so that's the name I gave it.

 The Cranberry, Evergreen and Gold just have that Old World feel for me.

My altered "Evergreen" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

I choose the Evergreen curtain set as an optimal selection for this theater since it works well and keeps it from looking too Christmas-like.  The Old Gold set works equally well on this theater. 

Red or Raspberry might work but the color in the theater is more of a Cranberry.

This would be an easy color fix for those of you who use digital editing programs in your art.

My altered "Christmas" Theater is based on a vintage dEpinal 1579 paper theater sheet from the 1800's

I started working on this alteration project before Christmas, so I had Christmas on the brain.

Though not quite traditional Red and Green this is more of a Raspberry and Emerald.  

 Once again I know many of your do digital work so if you want a more true to Christmas coloration this is an easy fix.  My thought with the colors was for something that could work at Christmas time but not locked into being for Christmas only.

My altered "Emerald" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

I choose the Emerald curtain as the primary option; however Gold, Old Gold and Raspberry work well with it depending on the look you want.

My altered "Candy Land" Theater is based on a vintage dEpinal 1579 paper theater sheet from the 1800's

This "Candy Land" color scheme was a fun twist on the Christmas colors I had been playing with and is probably one of my favorites from this collection.  It just screams "girly fun" to me.

My altered "Raspberry" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

 I originally paired the theater up with the Raspberry curtain since I was trying to create curtains that went with a variety of theaters; but I just could not resist also creating a Lime curtain as well.

My altered "Lime" Theater Curtain Set is based on the original 1924 version

I love lime colors and though this curtains set does not "play" well with any of the other theaters; I just could not resist adding it in for the "Candy Land" Theater.

 

 So there you have it one vintage paper theater sheet and one vintage paper curtain sheet; have been transformed into a whimsical collection of 9 theater color choices and 11 curtain sets.

Preview sheet showing some of the Theater/Curtain combos possible from the images posted

 I could have kept playing with colors but I think this is a nice collection as is; however I won't be surprised if when I start working on assembling a set for my project if I don't need to customize one to my specific project - grins.

 

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I hope you enjoy creating some fun craft projects with them and would love to see what you create; so if you do... please comment on the post or email me via the "Email Me" button on the right.

I'm working on some other Toy/Paper Theater items for future posts. 

Till then...

 

 FYI for those of you who ask how to get the printable images

Download Instructions:

Click on the image of your choice (left click to select the image) 

- this will take you to another screen where you will see the larger graphic.

Once on the new screen - right click on the image and "save image as" to your computer.

Please note - if you save the image directly from the blog page you will only be saving a smaller thumbnail of the image and not the larger printable image. 

  

French Paper Theater - d'Epinal No.1579 Part 1

I have a fondness for the paper toy sheets created by the French "d'Epinal" company during the late 1800's.  In late 2012 I did a series of jointed paper dolls I altered based in vintage d'Epinal "Pantin" sheets and today I'm posting about my latest project which is one of the d'Epinal Paper Theaters.

To keep this post from being too long I've broken it up in to two parts.

Welcome to Part 1 - d'Epinal Paper Theater No.1579

Enjoy using the images for your crafting pleasure!

See Downloading Instructions and Terms of Use Policy - HERE

My digitally altered and assembled version of d'Epinal Paper Theater Sheet No. 1579

While many paper theaters of the 1800's and early 1900's were available as a single image; 

 others had to be assembled from sheets where the parts were unassembled.

This was the case with d'Epinal No. 1579. 

It is a deconstructed sheet that required reassembly to form the main portion 

of the theater or "proscenium" as it is also called.

As I've stated in previous posts regarding d'Epinal sheets; 

These were inexpensive paper toy sheets and the print quality is not usually very good. 

This sheet was no exception and quite a bit of digital cleanup was needed 

to achieve the end result I was looking for.

The process of digitally building this vintage paper theater

The above image shows the steps I went through to take a vintage paper theater sheet and digitally enhance it to become the theater set I finally came up with.  Once this was achieve I then made a series of them in various color combinations. (I'll post them all for you next time in Part 2).

For this first post I wanted to talk a bit about this vintage theater 

and the process I took to get the "new" look for it.

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Usually d'Epinal sheets are too large to scan in one shot: 

so you either have to scan in sections or take a photograph and work from that.

This project was a digital "piecing" game for starters.

Once I had a full digital sheet to work with on the computer I moved on to cleaning up the image.

Before and After Alteration Examples

The original theater had blunt edges at the base and I wanted them to look more like the footed columns they were, so I digitally extended them. They could easily be cut off if they proved a problem when assembling a theater but I think they add a lot aesthetically and will enjoy having them there when I use the image in digital projects.

The original sheet also has a bit of a side curtain at each column; a red one on the left and a blue on the right. Personally I thought the looked better matching so I made them both blue. There was a substantial amount of color work that needed fixing throughout the parts and while I did not want to take away from the "charm" of the original I tried to clean up or enhance where I could.

This is what my final sheet looked like when I finished all the digital work

Now then I first attempted to assemble this theater, I got it totally and completely wrong.

Prior to this sheet the paper theaters I've worked with were assembled ones or those that formed an "arch" opening with no footer, so that's what I thought I had here - an Arch.

Boy was I wrong and I thought I'd share my giggle with you 

by seeing how I originally constructed this sheet.

Correct Assembly vs Incorrect Assembly

The large outer image is how I incorrectly put it together the first time.

I did not realize that this sheet (in the black box) consisted of 4 pieces and not 3 as I originally assumed. The top piece on the sheet is actually 2 pieces with a very slight separation between them.

These two sections form the middle header and footer (circled) of the theater and are flanked by the columns on either side to finish it off; forming a lengthwise theatrical rectangle.

Boy did it look so much better when assembled the correct way.

So - how did I discover my mistake...

I was looking at some of my other theater sheets and noticed some of them had small "assembled" diagrams in the corner of the sheet to assist the builder in doing the job correctly.

This d'Epinal sheet did not have that perk, yet when I re-studied the image I quickly realized where I got it wrong and then started looking through some of my reference images of  "unknown" paper theaters  and discovered this very one.  I just never associated the two since till now.

Here are a few images of those vintage theaters.

A vintage assembled version of the d'Epinal Theater at The German Ordensmuseum - image found HERE

The colors were so different on this version that I did not readily 

see this was the same theater on the sheet I was working with.

A view of the vintage theater above with out the scenery and fashion figures - image found HERE

I know on occasion d'Epinal sheets can have differently colored versions of the same No. sheet so I'm not sure if that is what happened in this instance or if this is due to sun exposure and fading.
Since I don't know the history of the above assembled theater; It may have been on display for years which would account for fading but if it was stored away then it was probably colored differently.

Here is an earlier 1854 d'Epinal Sheet of this theater with a very strong color scheme

This is a 1854 version of what later became the No. 1579 Theater Sheet

 This early version of this French Theater sheet by d'Epinal has much stornger colors and the print/color process is much higher quality than what was found in the later sheets.
There is even metallic gold ink trim on this example.
This image is from the French Library System - HERE

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I also wanted to add a curtain in for my theater to finish it off and while trying to discover what d'Epinal curtain my have originally come with the theater, I discovered this tantalizing site that sells reproduction sheets in Europe.

Many vintage paper theater parts are available in reproduction form as is this set from www.papiertheater-shop.com

This web site (http://www.papiertheater-shop.com/) sells reproductions of wonderful vintage theaters; they even had the curtain that should be used with the theater.

 Using images from their site I digitally constructed what their d'Epinal theater with curtain would look like and this is what I came up with.

Sadly I do not have the correct curtain, so I came up with a nice substitute

 that worked well enough for me. 

Vintage paper theater curtain from the Danish 1924 Illustreret Familie-Journal

I only had 2 d'Epinal curtains and since I did not like either of them for this theater;

I selected this vintage treasure from the Danish publication of Illustreret Familie-Journal

The vintage curtain image I started with was downloaded from Pilllpat (agency-eureka) on Flickr

Once again I did some digital alteration and clean up to the image I was using to arrive 

at the curtains pictured on the right of the above image.

While Red works great with the Theater I also wanted a blue curtain for it;

so a bit more alteration and I had what I was looking for.

Blue version of the vintage curtains.

Add the curtains in with the theater and I get this new look.
 

My version of the d'Epinal Theater with Familie Journal Curtains

Naturally I had to create lots of color versions of these which I will share in Part 2.
Click HERE for Part 2

 

Preview of theater color choices with closed curtain backdrop

Preview of theater color choices with open curtain backdrop

 
I hope you have enjoyed today's post and join me next time for the conclusion.

Till then...