A Friend Gave Me a Book....

 ....and it is a book on miniatures that I had never come across in my decades of working with minis. The friend was, once upon a time, thinking of getting into making minis (she's a fantastic Real Life furniture maker!), but never did. As she, like me, is down-sizing wherever possible, a week ago at my volunteer job she passed a bag of mini things on to me, including a number of books. Three or four of those I already own, and will be passed on to friends in turn. But one was new to me: Building Miniature Houses and Furniture, by Dorie Krusz, published in the US in 1977, about 20 years before I got immersed in miniatures. The book features a modular method of house building, with the example being a Georgian/Colonial multi-story house and lots of appropriate furnishings for it. 

And there were half a dozen or more charts for making miniature rugs! Well, I'm currently working on 3 miniature rugs at the same time, and have begun finding appropriate embroidery thread colours for several more. That's why it's been quiet....

Also, of course, at this time of year most organizations and groups wind down for the summer, and that has been keeping me busy also. I did, however, finish the blue and white runner - which is coming up the wrong way around, and I can't find the edit button. Hmm, the Carpenter-in-Chief did some scans for me last night, so I'll have to figure out how to get my edit button back!

I will have to redo one of the fringe rows, as I did it  upside down. That's for another day.

I also made a tiny cushion cover, on 22ct hardanger, and at some point will make a few more, as my stock of cushions and rugs/mats/carpets is getting low. This one took quite a while, as it has lots of colour changes.

Here are the works in progress, on top of a number of sheets of scrap booking paper I found on the secondary market, which will work very nicely indeed for quick vignette settings; two types of script, one of which is medieval, some nice tile flooring, and some plank flooring. The Chinese rug and the diagonal tile rug are from the newly acquired book, while the dragon rug is from a very old pamphlet; I am not entirely happy with the colours, but it is very near finishing. Currently, I'm working the diagonal basket-weave stitch for the background on this one. The tile rug is getting its diagonals done, and the Chinese rug is ready for background and borders. These I can do without having to carry books etc. around with me, and will give my hands something to occupy them as we (hopefully) get in a few short trips this summer. Each piece in a ziplock baggie with its needle and floss, and only a tiny pair of scissors needed!

Also in the bag of things my friend passed on to me were some beautiful cedar shingles, lots of plumbing-type hardware in brass, and many types of hinges, as well as some minis, tiny ceramic tiles, and a package of MagicSton. I've never tried the latter, and this may be a good opportunity to do so.

I'm still leafing out the grape vine for the vignette, as well as researching how to make convincing grapes without having to do a lot of polymer clay work, but that may be too much to hope for....

A Bird House and Painted Paper for Grape Leaves

The apple basket has been aged and given a handle; the "wooden grip" is rolled paper, with some 20 gauge galvanized wire for the handle. My stash turned up a nice rusty watering can, which should also feel at home in this setting. The strawberry jar may get strawberries, just have to see if I can make polymer clay into convincing strawberries of the ever-bearing variety, the only ones that would still be around in the autumn. Otherwise, it may just have strawberry leaves starting to go red at their edges, and perhaps some runners.

The wood and burlap wall pocket might work for a door ornament, I'll have to see. Made in 2020 at the height of Covid, it does seem a good fit for the scene, and would look nice with a couple of leafy branches, berry branches and sunflowers. And finally, a bird house that is more in scale with the scene; it's a 1/2" (13 mm) square section of dowel, trimmed to make the roof peak, with a piece of moss ribbon for the roofing, and an end of painted wire for the perch. I aged the moss a little with some dry brushing in orange, as it was very summery green.

I've painted some paper for the autumnal  grape vine leaves; this is a nice variety, and I can add some red to some of the punched leaves, or some green for deep veining, using a sharp colouring pencils. The "fancy" leaves will, naturally, be the more visible ones at the front of the scene. I'll start punching this evening, while watching TV, and begin with 25 of each size and colour....

Now I'm going to attempt a bushel basket made of card stock for the potatoes, complete with little wire handles. And I'd also like to try plant pots made of cardboard, as my stock of resin and wooden pots is getting more than a little low. It's coming along!

Just Can't Seem to Get the Best Bird Shelter

There have been two attempts at a suitable birdhouse for this little vignette, but both seem out of scale with the size of the setting. I'm still working on it, but other work is going on nevertheless. One birdhouse was made of wood scraps, the other, smaller one of cardboard, but they both still appear too big when placed in the setting.

The vine is ready for painting; it is made of a framework of brown, cloth-covered floral wire, which is then wrapped around with brown floral tape. The tape was also used to give the appearance of branches getting thinner near their ends. In the original, the vine is against the wall of the shed, but I prefer to have it framing the scene, while not extending outside of the eventual frame. Grass grows in the corners, moss is dotted on the roof shingles, along with some orange and yellow lichen blotches (dots of paint dry-brushed out for effect), and there is moss and weeds along the foundation.

 In the corner of the step is one of my treasured Bonnie Lavish dandelions; I bought a kit for these years ago, and am using them rather sparingly in various settings. Another one appears at the front of the Provencal scent shop, elsewhere on the blog, next to the blue fence.

The vine will likely hold grapes. The bottle cap basket has its first coat of paint, and will be aged and given a bail handle with a wooden grip, and will hold apples harvested outside the boundaries of this vignette. I think a chrysanthemum plant in a pot will look good, so that may appear soon. The gardening tools are very new-looking, and need dirtying and aging, to better match the somewhat dilapidated look of the shed.

I think the little grapevine wreath would look better on the shed door, with a sunflower and some autumn leaves tucked into it. Yes, the scene has decided it wants to be autumnal! Now I have to make grapes and apples, potatoes and orange, yellow and green vine leaves, and I can't forget the tendrils for the vine; these will be made by wrapping fuse wire over a darning needle....

Yes, miniaturists are crazy!