Private Client, de Zalze Estate, Stellenbosch

This was a lovely project for a private client in the exclusive de Zalze Estate outside Stellenbosch. The antique mirrors were specified by Eben Rall Architects of Somerset West, and the joinery was by Sylvan Furniture, also of Somerset West. The mirrors were aged fairly heavily and darkened towards the top and bottom edges. They looked particularly dramatic in an otherwise mostly white interior.

Kitchen cupboards with antique mirror insets

The full kitchen unit...beautiful!

Detail of antiquing

Antique mirror panels framing the fireplace in the living room.

Dark Antique Mirrors for John Jacob Interiors

I've spent quite a lot of time perfecting a much darker, more aged-looking antique mirror for John Jacob Interiors. While I fuss a lot about the antiquing effect- the grain in the silvering, achieving beautiful creamy, almost "bright" silvering,  John was far more interested in the quality of the reflection that the mirrors achieved. He wanted people to appear almost silhouetted in the mirrors, like the one pictured above.

Now to achieve this in straight silver is easy, but to manage it in two layers - one silver, one copper -that's quite tricky. Copper has a tendancy to overpower a thin silver layer, giving you a bright, coppery-pink mirror.  Yet an oxidised copper properly worked into the silver creates blooms of brightness and gives my mirrors their unique atmospheric signature.

To get John's mirrors right, I thinned out the silver substantially, maintaining the weathered 'speckling' that makes antique mirrors look aged. To retain the cuprous layer that gives my antique mirrors their unique feel, I completely reworked the formula and application of the copper backing. The resulting mirror looks great. People reflected in the mirrors look silhouetted, almost candle-lit, Rembrandt-esque. I'm looking forward to seeing these mirrors framed in their respective interiors.