Ice, Snow and Sand Have Arrived

I have added a skirt of glossy varnish all along the newly applied snow boundaries, and then followed that up by dripping triple thick varnish in some of the spaces between the cobbles. It is more visible in person, but the idea is that this is a European market stall, there is not that much snow, and it is melting quickly. The proprietor of the stall has swept the area around her stall clean, and the meltwater is gathering in the cobble seams here and there.

In front of the stall, where the customer stand, the ice has been sanded. The sand is freshly ground pepper, which adheres nicely to the freshly applies gloss varnish....

Now I need to make a stiff broom, which I will place by the door at the side, to complete the story of the base of my market stall.

For the inside, I have three tilted bins that will hold Christmas decorations, a tall bin with a cut-away front for rolls of wrapping paper, and a flat bin for a collection of Christmas gift bags. It's coming along, but there is lots more to do still. I'd like to make a portable shelf unit, for example, to hold the two crates of moss balls and giant pine cones. The stand will likely be an A-frame, with a couple of shelves for the crates, and a handle on the top to allow the proprietor to move the unit inside easily at the end of a working day.

But I am still missing an important item, the name of the place! Suggestions for that will be gratefully accepted and seriously considered. It can't be too long, as it has to fit on the fascia over the opening, and it has to make it clear this is a Christmas decor shop. I need a name!

 

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

The decision I'm pondering is whether I need to add more snow along the edges of my vignette base; I wanted the scene to look like the snow had been removed, just remaining around the edges of the stall and the posts. However, I am not sure I am giving that effect. Any ideas, please?

I made a trio of crates last Thursday, that will eventually go onto an inclined plinth and will hold the many Christmas tree decorations I made. None of them are small enough to fit into the boxes, and there really is not a lot of space on the shelves for hanging displays. 

We have been going from snow storm to snow storm here, which has kept us in the house most of the time. It has also been quite dark because of the overcast, and I've wanted nothing as much as being able to hibernate like a bear and ignore winter altogether! Most of my time has been spent knitting or sewing, but I did sort out some more stuff to put together for the market stall. And I still haven't got a really good name for it....

 

And Back to the Christmas Market Stall

 

Today I was finally able to wire up the lights of the market stall to my satisfaction, and this afternoon in our virtual meeting, I was able to mount some of the stock onto acetate bases, which will eventually be glued into place.

I remembered that I had a box of Christmas items suitable for miniatures sitting somewhere, so I found it and one of the results is the little Christmas creche on the counter shelf; the floor and the back are pieces of tongue depressor, reinforced with a card hinge on the back. On to that I glued a tiny Baby in the manger, and an equally tiny Mary next to that. There is also a sequin star, with gold wire rays, which is not so visible here; it may be enlarged for better viewing, I hope! There is also some "straw" here and there on the base, made from tiny snippets of fine raffia. I do like the way it turned out.

In the box I found some other items I'm now working on, including a half dozen gift bags, which need a crate to sit in. That is on my list. As well, I intend to make some shallow crates or boxes to hold loose Christmas tree decorations. 

The lighting consists of two strings of dollar store Christmas lights, one around the opening and one around the perimeter of the setting. It took three tries to get the opening swag arranged to my satisfaction, as I didn't want clusters of lights and large bare spots. It also wore out two swags of plastic holly leaves - I've left trails of them all around the house, they're very staticky - and am not sure if I will ever use those leaves again; they were so very fragile!

All in all, I am happy that I can now work on filling my little market stall with merchandise....,.

Progress on Another Front

 No progress has been reported on this since September 1, apparently! I decided to go back to filling in the corner motifs on this carpet, and just did the last one. Now the inner, wide border, which is about half done, is up for completion.

We are once again in complete lock-down here, thanks to the meteoric rise of the Omicron variety of Covid. Our hospitals have more than 100 people in ICU, and provincially, only 200 can be accommodated; my annual mammogram was cancelled, and it will likely be months before my new eye specialist can see me, and then there is another long wait that may need postponing, after that, if surgery is needed. I did fine, until today, when the colours on my embroidery chart started blurring and changing again. I'll give it a day before trying again....

As far as the market stall is concerned, the wiring for the perimeter is in place, and the wiring for the stall itself - a lighted swag around the front opening - is ready to be placed. That's next. I've decided to try and finish some half-finished, small projects while I am under pandemic "house arrest", just to keep my sanity. I am doing a minimum of 10 rows daily on a current sock project (one is done), as wool socks with temperatures well below zero seem a good idea! With the wind chill, we are dealing with -30 C.

Stay well and healthy!

Merry Christmas 2021

No, I did not get it finished! I have tried, but it is very difficult to find enough time for some of the very time-consuming tasks left to do. I have got the garland that will go around the front and sides of the market stall ready to install; that is one of the tasks, part of which included figuring out how best to attach the garland to the building, and yet allow it to be removed if necessary. 

It is my hope that the posts on the four corners will also be lit; I do have another string of lights for this purpose. However, first the posts have to be stained, and then I have to stick them in place and re-do the cobbles at their bases. They look rather tall right now, but they will go down into the base and then be about as high as the roof. 

I still have to come up with a name....

The shops open up again on Tuesday, but I think I'd better wait a day or two before going shopping for supplies: snow paint, masking tape, Christmas trees,. and matte outdoor varnish. With the supply difficulties the stores are experiencing, I will likely have to give several hours to this task.

The time-consuming task I'm currently working on is the installation of the rustic shingle roof; these are being cut, individually, from large dolls' house shingles that I had dyed in walnut stain some time ago. By varying the amount of time the shingles spent in the stain, I got a nice variety of colours. I can glue down three rows and then I have to let the glue dry, otherwise everything slips out of alignment on the roof. That has been, and continues to be, today's task. I was going to use a corrugated plastic roof sheet I picked up at least 20 years ago, but it was too short to fit....

I wish you and your loved ones a Very Merry Christmas, and I hope Santa brings you minis!

 

The Roof Is On....

 We are having a snow/rain/freezing rain storm today, so our weekly meeting took place over the internet. I've managed to fit and paint the roof, and to install the brackets that will hold the lights and the garland (I hope!).

I put together another Erzgebirgte bow as well, this time I tried a manger scene:

Yes, the baby Jesus is a little large, but so is the Christ Child in our antique German creche scene. I may give Joseph a staff, but will see how a section of fine antique brass wire might look. If you enlarge this photo, you will see that the glue on the "candles" is still wet....

There is a series of wire brackets all around the roof of the market stall; I hope to use these to string the evergreen/holly garland and the light string. I also want to experiment with poles on the corners, as mentioned in my previous post, and will try to string some lights there as well.

Obviously, the merchandise in the market stall will NOT be finished before Christmas; I have to go and stand in line in whatever weather presents itself tomorrow to get my Covid booster shot, and have no idea of how much actual time for minis I will have. We do what we must!

And the Cobbles Are In Place

The next step is to make the roof; I hope to fit it like a lid, with lighting and a garland around the edges. It needs to be removable as I will surely want to replace the contents as I learn new skills; it was pointed out to me when I first started working on miniature settings, that a setting is never truly finished....

I am pleased with the look of the stone paving; it will need a couple of coats of matte varnish, which I have to go out and buy as the two large bottles I bought years ago have now separated.  The front and back supports of the base  will go underneath, hopefully tomorrow, to make a space to hide the batteries for the Christmas lights. The edges will then be finished with an iron-on veneer banding.

I'm going to see if I want poles on the four corners, to string yet more lights around; I could perhaps use the posts themselves to display wreaths or similar decorations. I'll have to ponder that!

 

Cobbles Going In

 I decided to take the time to make my own, bread-loaf shaped cobbles for my Christmas Market Stall, and began yesterday. The first thing was to paint the mossy green pieces of mat board (mount board) a spotty gray;

The next step was to sponge paint on the gray base, using both a sea sponge and a cellulose kitchen sponge; I couldn't find my cosmetic sponge, which is usually the last step. I used two shades of darker gray, and white to do this.

And I have no idea why the photo is suddenly sideways! It looks oddly spotted, but the next step is to cut the card into approximately 1 by 2 cm long pieces. Once cut into rectangular shapes, the corners have to be nipped off to appear hand-hewn; this work of making cobbles was often the hard labour that prisoners had to work at!

The edges of  individual stones then have to coloured dark gray, which I did while watching TV and with a washable gray felt pen; I always get pen all over my fingers doing this!

The flash has not been terribly helpful today, but here are the stones cut from the first piece of painted mat board, glued into place. I have finished cutting the second piece of board, and will now colour in the edges, again while watching TV. That is a rather boring part of making these stones....

Cutting up the painted mat board means the colour areas get jumbled up enough that the finished stones appear to have been individually painted.

The bread-loaf shape of stone is one I remembered from my childhood; there were small, rounded stones about half the size of these, called "kinderkopjes" (children's heads), that are often laid in semi- circular patterns, as well as regular rows of them. That's how the market in my Dutch hometown, Maastricht, is laid out; however, I'm not sure whether that is traditional or whether it is modern, as a few years ago, when I visited, they were busy re-laying the cobbles in one of the main roads, and it was being done in semi-circles. I recall these rectangular stones being on some of the older, i.e. medieval, parts of the city. 

Once the stones are laid, I'll give them a few coats of matte outdoors varnish, and see if I need to fill in the gaps between them. Usually, these cobbles are laid in a deep bed of sand.

I really hope that I can have the outside of the Market Stall done for Christmas, as I can always fill in the merchandise later....