Things Are Being Sorted Out....

...in more ways than one. I am NOT making furnishings for this loft corner yet, but helping friends go through years' worth of mini stash did turn up that Gothic window at the left; I had seen a rather spectacular steam punk hall tree while browsing for inspiration, and it needed a Gothic window sort of thing. There were three in the stash we were sorting out, so serendipity strikes again. It is quite an inexpensive laser-cut plywood window, and I made it more useful for my purposes by carefully cutting out three further, horizontal bits to open up the base. The finished product will actually sit at this level or very close to it.

For those who are new to this blog (welcome to my new followers!), the furnishings in the photo pre-existed the actual creation of the corner vignette, except for the radiator. The chair and rug gave me my colour scheme, and the tall black table with the vase on it will be my take-off point for making the hall tree. I'd also like to make a side table to hold wine or coffee and a book, and who knows what else will be created, in black and whatever I find that will add to the steam punk look!

Last Wednesday afternoon was sorting, and this afternoon will be spent on doing more stash sorting, as Marilyn (Charminis) is currently housing all the containers and needs them out of there. Who knows what other odd and interesting items will turn up? I rescued two tiny, tank-like things from the garbage last week that will serve very nicely as air tanks or other weird steam punk stuff....

Working Away Rather Unspectacularly....

 One of the UFO's from my previous post has been worked on. This is a re-purposed industrial,  steam punk loft corner, with two floors, that was a Camp MiniHaHa project some years ago. One of its more interesting components was a spiral staircase; well, it has driven me to the point where I've decided to do away with it altogether - I just cannot fit it realistically into the space I wanted it in!

What has been done is that the building carcass is now glued and pinned up, which means I can begin plotting the lighting; there is a purpose-built false roof to hold the batteries for the LED lights. Yesterday, while helping clear out a stash of  a friend's miniature materials, I found some small brass bells, which make great tops for industrial lights, and that is what this vignette is intended to get. I have some wonderful textured brick paper for the outside, and will do the roof as verdigrised copper, as originally planned, with a faux finish on card. It will look rather like the roof of Floriana (q.v.) but I'd like to drag some verdigris drips down the walls here and there....

With the re-thinking of how this will go, I've come across some interesting steam punk ideas for furnishings, and have decided to be smart and finish the building itself before I start on the furnishings; I always make way more than the space can hold. It will be a corner of a two-story steam punk loft apartment for the owner (female, as far as I know!) who owns the book shop in the books, also a steam punk project from Camp. I'm heading towards a lot of dulled copper, as I'm working with a very autumnal colour scheme, for the pipes against the cream-coloured walls, and also want to put lots of art work on those walls.

The Book Vignette Lit Up

The above photo is of the CMHH '15 books vignette lit up; the street lamp is also lit up, but because it is broad daylight, it doesn't show. At the moment, there is a small bookshelf outside on the sidewalk, which will be replaced at some point with a rotating book display for selling cheap paperbacks. I have to make it, that's why it is "at some point". I do have instructions for a modern version, but I want to make it look steam-punk inspired, so some thinking is required as to how I can bash my supplies for a good Victorian-looking display. I suspect bits of jewelry findings are going to find their way into that project.

A close-up of the shop interior through the window; I still need to make quite a few more books to fill in the shelves, obviously, although the shelves that show in this photo are, of course, those with the fewest books! Yesterday, I spent a day shopping in Bangor, ME and I picked up the nice little globe there, actually part of a charm, that is sitting on the central bookshelf. The other half of the charm was a pair of scale binoculars, which will get a  leather carrying case and then be displayed in the companion piece to the books vignette, this year's CMHH project (I hope).

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And I forgot to photograph a few items I picked up from an estate sale while at camp, and a hat on a stand which I got in a silent auction there. The hat and the "wicker" ottoman are for my daughter's dollhouse, as it is Edwardian in period. The writing slope will likely go into one of the Tudor interiors; it is a very fine piece, signed "MJH 79", I think. The crate of apples will go into the between-the-wars market scene, while the wool tapestry rug is going to go into this year's camp project. It is a very fine wool piece, at a minimum, 24 ct. I have worked at that count, but only in cotton floss. The wool used is likely crewel wool, it's the only thing fine enough at this scale not to have a mile of wool fuzzies stick up above the canvas base!

Other than tidying away the stuff I took to camp - some of which appears to have been misfiled by me - is all I have done mini-wise lately. We are coming up to our show in less than two weeks, and that is taking a lot of our attention, to make sure everything goes smoothly. There is a meeting this evening to see how far along we are with the preparations, and still lots to do before the actual day.

It may be a little quiet again on this blog....

Working on a Street Lamp

I've been working on designing a street lamp for my book vignette from Camp MiniHaHa '15 for the last couple of days. It's been a lot of experimenting and fitting, redesigning and refitting, and digging among my bits and pieces for what would work. Some of the trial shapes, in recipe card cardboard, are visible in the foreground.

So the rather wonky arrangement above is a preview. From the bottom up, there is a wooden thread spool, around which have been wound 2 bands of card cut from a rice cracker package, which utilize the inside fold of the cardboard as part of the band design; the wooden insides of a fancy drapery tassel, with another band of the card around it; a grommet; a brass tube; a cube of wood, drilled to thread onto the tube, with toothpick ladder supports tipped with silver plastic beads; a 3-layer stepped base of basswood with a rim to hold the manila file folder cardboard lantern - the lantern's glass is a piece is scored and folded clear report cover; a wood square to keep the lantern in shape; a manila file folder cardboard roof; and finally, a purchased wood finial. The pieces are being spray-painted in black enamel, and won't likely be ready to assemble until tomorrow. They are outside drying and rain is threatening.

I hope to be able to electrify this lamp, using a LED bulb with lots of extra wire, which will go through the entire assembly from the lamp base through the vignette base and to the back where the coin battery is intended to hide.

In the meantime I am producing flower and leaf punchies for friends, as well as having a go at cutting miniature-size hosta leaves for them....

The Matboard Seems to Have Reacted Well....

I decided to bite the bullet and grout my book vignette sidewalk, and I am fairly pleased with the way it turned out. For the grout, I mixed some drywall compound, a dollop of dark burnt umber paint, and an equal dollop of white glue. Then I mixed that to a homogenous mass, and used my fingers to push the grout in between the matboard granite sets. Then I used a damp paper towel to wipe off the excess. And another paper towel to tidy up....


The colour is a bit lighter than I wanted, but I was afraid to add too much paint and have the compound decide not to dry! It looks like old sand/dirt/cement, so it looks like what I wanted it to look like.


If you decide to try this, remember you MUST give your matboard at least 3 coats of outdoor matte sealant (the bottle on its side in the background), letting each coat dry thoroughly. I only had one granite set top peel off, and that can be easily re-glued in place. I allowed the matte sealant to drip in between the individual bricks, so the sides of the matboard would also be waterproofed.


Now I can plant moss and weeds.

Granite Sets Sidewalk

Sponge-painted the sidewalk for my book vignette yesterday, now I have to give it three seal coats and then see if I need grout. The spaces between the bricks are rather too noticeable, right now. I've used drywall patching for this in the past, and then flooded the (sealed) bricks with a dirty water wash to tone down the white compound.


The front right corner is supposed to get a street light....


Today was my working day, so aside from the sealer (I use outdoor matte sealer pre-grouting), it is unlikely I will get anything else done.  The edges of the base will get a nice oak strip finish once the whole project is finished. And once the grout is done, I can plant some moss and weeds at the base of the book foundation.

Paving Going In

The square sidewalk tiles I had planned on using for my altered books vignette just didn't look right; I know I've seen old sidewalks in Europe with these little square gray paving stones, but something was off. So I decided to go with granite sets, or bricks; I think these used to be made by prisoners, the real origin of the phrase, time with hard labour!


I used mat board (mount board) for these, some pieces with a slight texture; I decided that if these sets were made by hand, there should be fine tool marks. The sets were cut with scissors, for an uneven, handmade look, from 1/4" (less than 1 cm) strips cut with an Exacto knife; I wore out two or three blades!

With this method, sets are laid lengthwise to create a kerb; then the rows are filled in in a staggered pattern.

As I thought I was done, I realized that I couldn't have a straight edge where the book walls meet the sidewalk, so I peeled the last sets in each row off, and replaced them with custom-fitted ones; and I found a pre-painted kerb I just had to saw to fit, so I could shape the granite stones around it.

Now I have to paint them to look like worn granite brick-shaped stones....

The Show Went Very Well!

We got there early on Saturday, after mostly setting up Friday evening, so we had lots of time to add things, as we had 3 long tables for display and another for sales. As I ended up being the only one with things to sell, I just needed part of  a table. Marilyn is placing some last-minute deliveries. The little step stool under the table is for children; we put the miniatures, as much as possible, at adult viewing level, so children need a little extra help to be able to see.

Three of our CMHH 2015 projects were on display; this one is by Louise, called "Wine and Word", a book shop that also sells wine and cheese plates. I believe this one is pretty much finished; Louise was unable to come, as she had hurt her back. She built a patio onto her books, complete with flowers and flamingos (her trademark), with a tile floor and an iron railing. I could only photograph it from the front, but at some point I will get a side photo of it to share with you, with a better view into both the shop and the patio area.

This one is Marilyn's; her book vignette is an attic, and represents the book, The Picture of Dorian Gray - the man who never aged, although his portrait did. Marilyn placed an angled mirrored wall to the left of her vignette, so that when you look into the window, you see another whole room, which reflects the right side of the vignette, where the portrait is. It is also pretty much finished, she will add a chimney to cover and protect her lighting wires. This gorgeous window is the one which came with the project; I will have to think of somewhere to use mine. The wonderful bare light bulb in the attic
room really adds to her scene. Her walls are lath and plaster, with the plaster oozing out.

And here is mine, still unfinished; the lighting is provided by a small LED flashlight taped to the ceiling at this point! The books are glued together, but not to the box, and I think I will keep them that way to allow me access to the inside. The window display needs some fine-tuning, and I have to make about a linear meter more of books to fill the shelves inside. A small weathered copper mansard roof over the window is also in my plans. And like Louise's, I'd like to add a base so I can have a sidewalk around the front and door sides of the vignette; I am itching to add a Victorian street light to my scene....

There were some wonderful pieces on display; the artist's studio below was brought by Susan, and represents the studio of Tom Thompson, one of Canada's Group of Seven famous painters. The inside cover of the book tells viewers his story.

At this point the sun had come up, so I had someone stand between me and the windows so I could take a clear photo. We had quite a bit of snow on Thursday, so the reflection of early morning sunlight off the snow was somewhat blinding!

This wonderfully crowded book vignette was also brought by Susan, the sun is slanting across it but things can still be seen. It is amazing how much you can fit into one of these book boxes, and they are so nice to transport to shows, as everything is fixed in place and the whole just closes up like, well, a box!

I hesitated a bit over this photo, as the angle for it taking it wasn't very good, but I just had to include Susan's tree house; two little boys are inside, eating a pizza (one of mine, I think!). Their games are scattered around and one bicycle rests against the foot of the tree. I love this little scene, and just wish the photo had been against an uncluttered background. Perhaps I will get a chance to re-do it some time. It is quite tall, so I had to get some distance to get all of it into the photo.

We had a lovely display, and lots of interest at our table, and I even made a few sales which was rather unexpected as this was mainly a show for model railroaders. We may also have recruited new members for our club, as several people took the information slips we had on the table. Now we will have to see if new people will show up at our next meeting, in January.

Happy Saint Nicholas Day! He left lots of goodies to eat in my wooden shoe this morning....

Books Vignette Progress Six

Today I had a good day for getting work done on my miniatures; quite necessary, because next Saturday is the model railroad show and I have some things to get ready for that. First of all, I did paint and "tile" my fishmonger's stall, and tried some of the fish my older daughter made for me to see how it all looked together:

The silvery fish look pretty good against the tiles, although I think some of the smaller fish products need to be in trays or tubs; however, the bigger fish should look quite good piled across the table. This should work nicely. I'll try to make a couple of trays tomorrow.

I took a number of very big breaths, did some calming thinking, and actually CUT INTO my book covers. The first cut was for the clerestory window, high up in the end wall. There is also "glass" in the window, now, although I still have to make the window frame inside the book vignette.

It fits and there are no huge gaps on the sides, thank heaven. Cutting through book board is very hard on knives, I used a dollar store folding box-type cutter with razor blades in it to do this job. The window is designed primarily to bring light into the interior of the box, although there will also be a set of LED lights inside.

This is a general and messy view into the book box, from the back side. The panelling for under the bay window is going in with double-sided tape, as I think that will hold better than glue in the long run. I seem to leave gaps when I glue, although I spread the stuff using an old credit card! The bay window also has glass, now, and you can just see the side door into the shop. The framing for inside and outside of this door is drying in the photo. Cutting the opening for the door took some more calming breaths! You can also see the clerestory window, minus its inner frame. And white dust, where I had to do some sanding....

For putting the plastic "glass" into the window frames, I used tiny self-adhesive double-sided glue dots; these things are tough, and they should hold the windows in place. I first used these dots (the local brand is called Zots) to glue items onto the shelf liners in my Provencal scent shop, and more than a year later, they are still holding tight. They are pretty much invisible, once they're in place.

Tomorrow, the inside window frame...

Books Vignette Progress Five

Tadaa!

So the window works; it still has to be glued up and have the "glass" put in, but it works. I only had to re-do the decorative framing five times, I think? And the wooden inner frame exploded on me and also had to be re-glued.

The books are still loose, so they are being held together around the inner box by a piece of heavy elastic. The base of the window gives me more than 1 1/2" (4 cm approx.) of display space, which is a good thing, as the inner box is very narrow and doesn't have all that much display space. Now I have to design a small "copper" mansard roof for the window; a friend suggested a potato chip can might help with this, as I would like the little roof to have a bit of a curve to it.

Guess I have to go out and buy some potato chips; too bad, isn't it?

Books Vignette Progress Four

....well, some progress has been made, but there are also more difficulties to deal with. At any rate, I made the three sections of panelling, which I will detail here:

Above are the three sections in their base coat of terra cotta paint. The front wall section now has to be re-done, as I made it backwards; i.e., the window is not centered in the wall, as the book spines are different thicknesses, and I papered and panelled the wrong side....

The same panels, with the larger pieces now dry-brushed in dark burnt umber, and sponged in the same colour with first, the coarse sponge and then the finer sponge. The small panelling piece has not yet been sponged in this photo.(Sponges are in the photo below.)

On top of the dark burnt umber, I dry-brushed on a deep mustard colour called Antique Gold, (not a metallic gold). This adds a nice depth to the pieces. The upper piece is not yet brushed with the gold colour; you can see it looks more reddish.

The last coat of colour is a wash of diluted brown iron oxide, to blend the colours. In this photo, the two upper panels have been washed with the oxide, the lower one has not; you can see how the iron oxide wash blends and tones everything nicely.  Once it is dry, it can be given a coat of satin varnish.

Laid out on the floor, it's looking pretty good.  (But remember, the left-hand section will have to be re-done as I did it backwards.) The white strips are where the panel sections fit together; a space has to be left as the cardboard used for the panels has some thickness. The wallpaper doesn't add any appreciable thickness, so it doesn't need trimming.

I did learn a very valuable lesson; the shiny printed side of the packaging cardboard I used (a  cereal box and a carton that held frozen waffles) will not glue to the walls unless you first sand it to create some roughness. The plastic of the gator board also needs to be sanded to allow the glued panel to adhere to its surface. Then it has to go under weights overnight to dry thoroughly. I used a Bostick glue stick to hold my paper to the plastic; hopefully, it will hold well. My sample is nicely stuck on, so it ought to work.

Now I have to re-paper the correct side of the front wall, and make another section of panelling. And one good thing, I was so frustrated that I gave my work area a thorough cleaning!

Books Vignette Progress Three

Well, I had hoped to get the bay window done, but unfortunately, it exploded while I was sanding it; I think my glue has deteriorated. However, I did take a very big step, and cut the window openings in the gator board inside box.

The clerestory window is painted, and is sitting inside the partially finished wall; the wallpaper is in place, the bottom half of the wall will be panelled. This window has to remain as a friction fit, as I will have to remove it if I need to take the inner box out in order to repair wiring or replace batteries, eventually. I also papered the back wall.

The opening for the front window has also been cut, but not as yet papered, as I am testing glues; the Weldbond I used on the other two walls and the floor has a tendency to ripple as it is applied, so I am trying some other glues on the gator board scraps. Cutting into the board was a great leap of courage for me; I am glad that I finally did it! However, I still have to cut an opening in the two side book covers....

The window frames for the bay window are made and painted; I think I must have made them 3 or 4 times, before I was completely happy. My carpenter's glue has some mould in it, and I think I need to replace it, as it just doesn't seem to want to grab. Tomorrow I will make a quick stop at a hardware store. Now I just have to hope the frame holds together; it will have a bottom to sit on, with a small lip all around, and likely a flat top on which I hope to build the little roof. But the inner frame has to be rebuilt, as it needs to be deeper,  3/4" (approx. 2 cm.) to fit both the wall of the gator board box and the wall of the book spines.

The display shelf and flat roofing piece will need to be cut on the table saw, likely out of plywood, if I have it in the right thickness; otherwise, that is something else I may have to pick up tomorrow. I would really, really like to have the box ready for wiring by our miniature group meeting on Tuesday evening. Tomorrow is another day!

Books Vignette Progress Two

Today I began work on another version of the bay display window for my altered books vignette. I had thought of doing a round window, but decided that for my first window attempt I should probably follow a set of instructions, so I reached for my book, The Dolls' House Shopkeeper by Lionel and Ann Bernard, published by David & Charles. Their design for a toy shop had a nice rectangular bay window, and I decided that I could use the decorative muntins  used for the door to make the window match for the shop front.

 

So here are the two side panels of the bay window, with the framework for the window and the display shelf, in the gluing jig. I made lots of mistakes as I went along! Although I was making notes re sizes and measurements, I forgot, for example, that I had to subtract twice the 1/8" measurement for the height of the side windows. So although they were glued, I had to take them apart and cut them down 1/8" and then re-glue them. As a result, I only got the two side panels made. The front will, hopefully, be added tomorrow.

The books are not yet glued together, so they are being held in place with round elastic. Here are the two side panels, with the decorative muntins, in place in the window opening; friction fit only at this point, I won't glue again until I am sure I did it correctly! Come to think of it, I will have to add a  inner window lining once I cut the opening in the gator board inside box, unless I can figure out a way to wrap the wallpaper around that opening....

My hope is still to make a small sloping roof over the window; ideally, I would like to faux finish it to look like verdigrised copper. My thought right now is to shape the roof from balsa wood, and then add a paint and paper finish to make it look like copper. We'll see if I can manage it.

There Is a Door

Well, I am really quite pleased with how the door for the books vignette has turned out. The original design for the door came from Le Monde Creatif de Catherine, while the design for the door plate and handle came from Cinderella Moments. I added a handle and plate on the inside, although the door will be non-functioning, as you will be able to see inside and it would be strange not to have an interior handle as well.

The door plate is cereal box cardboard, painted to resemble weathered brass. The base coat was burnt umber, with a dry-brushed coat of antique gold, which was then dry-brushed with a metallic old gold colour. The handle is made from antiqued brass, 26 gauge wire, 4 strands twisted and shaped.

I wanted a door that would maximize the amount of natural light coming in to the vignette, although it will also have LED lighting, and this one fits the bill wonderfully. The dark blue matches the book cover on the side the door will go into; the clerestory window that goes into the opposite end, will be a dark brownish-red colour, to match the book cover on that side.

Yesterday I was able to pick up another sheet of the scrapbooking "wallpaper" for inside the vignette; I was concerned that one sheet wouldn't be enough, but they only had the one left over at that time. Fortunately, they got a new shipment.

Now I have to go back to making wall panelling; I'd like to have a piece long enough to cover the entire back wall, about 11" or 27.5 cm, so I have to find a fairly big piece of packaging cardboard. The samples I had made up earlier won't fit; I forgot you have to measure and match your panelling to the size of the wall....

I've Been Busy, Honest....

We got home from our Montreal trip late Thursday, but the travel in Quebec is such a chore, that I needed a day to recover. I've been working steadily for the last three days, so I thought I would show you the progress. They are far from finished, though.

 I have three projects on the go; this one, the bay window for the book vignette, did not turn out as well as I hoped, so I will be redesigning it. It needs more depth, as it goes quite a way into the book spines. And I think a round display window might be extra interesting. So back to the drawing board on that one. I used mat board for my experiment, so haven't wasted any wood.

 Project two is the faux door (non-opening) to go into the book project. I found a design I really like, on a French blog, (Le Monde Creatif de Catharine) and am trying to more or less replicate it. The door is being made like a sandwich, in 3 layers; the window fits into a recess in  the door, so I won't have to use power tools on thin wood. The 3 layers are all 1/16" (about 1 mm, I think!), so the finished door should be 3/16" or .3 cm thick. Right now, I am gluing in the edging pieces. It's one of those glue things up and then wait projects....

And here is the progress on the trunk kit; the slats were stained using  a stain marker, and I really like the colour contrasts. I'm going to try and hinge the trunk. It may end up in the second steam punk project, the one I have to make to take the overflow from the book vignette. (The commercial door under all the wood and the pencil is there for me to use for measurements.)

Working is slow, as my sprained finger hurts all the time. I have to remember not to bend it too much. Knitting is out at the moment, as casting on appears to use my little finger. And here I thought our pinkies, like our baby toes, were mostly vestigial!

Fun Weekend

We had a trunk workshop at my house on Friday night; two visitors from Nova Scotia came for the weekend, and one of them made up the kits and taught the class. The trunk is not finished, of course, as time was required for staining, but we all got started on it.

Mine has the leather binding on the edges, and the leather straps across the top; next come the lighter colour slats, and before I can put those on, the slats and the trunk need staining. Then I also want to line the inside of the trunk with paper: my choice right now is one of those designs one finds inside envelopes from banks, or charge card bills, lovely free boring paper!

Here are some of us, working away; our teacher was Jo-Ann S. (Kilnworks by Jo-Ann). The next day, 9 of us went to a miniature show in Bangor, Maine, USA - about a 4 hr. drive from my house. I didn't buy any miniatures for myself, although I had a shopping list from my daughter, but the others certainly did! I understand there was some competition for some of the items... My trunk effort is the light, striped item at the edge of the photo at the left. 

And, I am so glad, Jo-Ann brought her mini table-saw, so the window has been cut into my book spines. By good luck, the window size I decided on just fit into the spines of the three centre books, much easier than cutting out two slices of the sides of two adjoining books.

Now I have to design some kind of bay or bow-front display window to fit that space. And of course, the white inner box needs to have a matching window-opening cut into it, but I have to go and buy a better knife to do that.

I am off to Montreal for the next 5 days, so no posts for a while. Hopefully, the snow will hold off.

Window

Despite a badly sprained pinky finger, I managed to make a pretty good (for a first attempt) clerestory window to go into the CMHH '15 project. I still need to make at least the framing for the bay display window, as I am hoping that a friend will cut the openings in the book spines and the covers for me this weekend. The window is made like a Houseworks standard window, with a 3/8" (approx. 1 cm) depth, to go through both the book cover and the gatorboard box. I made the mitered frame just a tiny bit too big. I did, however, cross-halve the muntins; you can see an extra one to the side.

My pinky is taped to the next finger, and displays a most depressing range of colours; purple, blue, green, dark red and yellow....

This weekend, a group of friends are coming to do a miniature workshop; we are also going on a road trip to Bangor, Maine, USA, to visit a doll and miniature show and shop for wood, paint, and other such things needed to keep us busy during our long winter. I will try to get a photo of the workshop in progress, and of the project we'll be doing.

Constructing the CMHH 2015 Project Part 1

I had glued the wooden feet onto the inner box base a couple of days ago; it is my hope to get the flooring paper in place later today. The instructions for the  project arrived, so I began the very messy job of gluing the cut pages of the books together. I can only do 2 at a time, as they have to be clamped.

The end of the book that will remain open is at the back, with a map visible on the inside cover. I hope to add a non-opening door here, to allow more light into the vignette. The L-shaped section in front is one of the inner books; there are 5 of these that all need their pages glued down. The glue has to be massaged in with my fingers, and since it is Fast Grab Tacky, it gets everywhere! A bowl with a damp paper towel at the side allows me to rinse off my fingers. But I have to wait for each section to dry thoroughly before I can do another one, as I don't have enough clamps.

So I thought I'd put up some more photos of what I purchased at the Kensington Dolls House Festival in May; I forgot to post the rest!

I do like kits, and I picked up several. Three of them are from Art of Mini: a series of antique boxes that are going into the nursery shop, a small box for the Christmas stall, and a complimentary set of 6 coasters with clock designs on them. There is also a lovely brass-inlaid wooden box from Templewood Miniatures in the UK, reddish wood and  a tiny garland of brass ivy leaves.

I also purchased a kit for a St. John's Wort (Hypericum) for the Tudor apothecary garden. This is a Pascale Garnier kit, and was a bit of a disappointment; the packaging has a smaller photo of both flowers and berries, but the kit is just for the berries, with the berries having to be made from glue by me. So I paid 14 euros (nearly $25) for some wire stems, tissue leaves, and instructions! I was so happy to find the St. John's Wort that I purchased it without really checking the package out. Fortunately there is a tutorial for the flowers on one of the French miniatures sites, allowing me to add some in.

 The last kit is a Nicola Mascall kit for an intricate Tudor cushion, done on 40ct silk gauze. I've always admired her work and thought I'd take the plunge into petit-point with this gorgeous kit, and it will surely fit nicely in one of my Tudor settings.

Fall has come to the Atlantic Provinces of Canada; in the last three days, the trees have begun to turn red, orange and gold. While it is very beautiful, it also means winter isn't far behind, and our winter lasts from mid-October to mid-April. People who predict the weather are suggesting it will be another very snowy winter. I am not a winter person....

The 2015 Camp MiniHaHa Project Components

I picked up the components for my kit on Friday afternoon, and unpacked them and looked at them. Help! I am going to need a lot of it, from my friends who went to camp; this one is hard to figure out, without instructions. They have promised to show me how to do it. So here they are:

This is going to be the outside of the vignette: the books are upside-down, because they came pre-hollowed; there are no pages in the bottom at all.

This is the inside, also upside-down. The book sections will need to be glued together, then a box has to be built to go inside them, the actual room box. My greatest fear is cutting the opening for the window through those wonderful book spines. I am not very good with power tools....

And here is the rest of the kit; 10 lights, lots of foam core and a piece of cardboard, 2 windows and a window blank, little wooden pieces, and a metal piece which might be a battery. Oh boy, now to figure out where everything goes. The first thing I have to do is build the inner box, out of the foam core pieces.

So you can all follow my efforts, I will post progress photos on the blog. This could take a while, but we are all hoping to have our versions finished for early December, when we intend to display them at a local hobby show. Five local people have started out with the same components, but the end results will all be very different.

In the meanwhile, we have begun planning for next year's camp.

In the next few days, I will also post photos of some of the gifts I got in the gift exchange. The people who attend the camp, whether beginners or "old pro's",  are marvellous miniaturists.....

Lectern and Medieval Book and Pamphlet

It's dark, and the flash was not quite as good as I had hoped. Anyways, I made up a lectern stand, and found a kit I had forgotten about, for an illuminated medieval book and pamphlet. The book is open on the stand, while the pamphlet is on the little fretwork stand, now sitting on top of the book truck.
The stand and small bookshelf are painted and stained, and I used a metallic gel pen to draw a design on the print holder.

One of the sets of books I was given is a set of 10 non-printed books, with the most gorgeous gold spine titles and decorations. They should look good in the vignette. Another gift set is the series of Harry Potter novels; for now, they will go into the vignette, but they may move to the nursery shop when I get it finished.

No minis tomorrow, as I have other things that need doing all day. I hope to get back to minis on Sunday.