Furnishing the Pawn Shop Part 1

For many years (oh, how many!), I've had dozens of House of Miniatures kits lying around, waiting for me to become proficient (hah!) at finishing miniature furniture. There really is a reason why I enjoy the Tudor period....

At any rate, the Pawn Shop needs some furniture, and in going through the many kits, I found some that I think will work in the small space of the shop. For practice, I did a bedside table with a drawer, which has my favourite Ipswich Pine stain that will in all probability be covered up with cream paint, and then be crackled, aged and grubbied up. I made a bit of a mess with the drawer, but light sanding soon took care of that problem; apparently a small blob of hardened glue in my gluing jig knocked the parts out of balance, requiring a bit of sanding to make everything fit again.

Not bad, if I do say so myself. I will have to be very careful painting around the handle and its escutcheon, though. Having done this, I tackled a Chippendale hanging shelf, which I plan to put on the back wall of the Pawn Shop to hold some nice little silver pieces, and the like.

This was shot at an angle, to show off the fretwork sides; unfortunately, they will be mostly invisible once installed in the shop. These drawers actually fit without the need for sanding, as I cleaned the old glue out of the corners of the jig. The pierced sides are mahogany, which meant using mahogany stain on the other components of the shelf. Below is a front view:

The shadows are quite harsh, unfortunately. I am quite pleased with how this piece came together; all the parts fit with minimum sanding, even after using the oil-based stain.

There is a small square-topped candle-stand  I want to use to hold a miniature Limoges vase, and a grandfather clock that would also look good in the shop. Somewhere in my stash, I have a broken-off china Buddha head which I can mount on a block like an old art piece, and a rather heavy silver-plated punch bowl which may also work nicely. And a lovely, hand-painted tray I purchased some years ago, when the artist was just starting out and prices were reasonable, will look lovely propped against the back wall on the top shelf.

That just leaves some things to put in the window of the shop. Once I am back from camp, I can try to make some clocks, a barometer, and other small items one might expect to find in a pawn shop. It will be fun to sort out and place bits and pieces to make the inside of the vignette come alive.

Why the push? Well, I am taking the Pawn Shop to Camp MiniHaHa on Sept. 24, to place it in the display room at camp. My version of last year's project was the prototype on which the actual project was based; I stuck with the smaller, more compact version. If any of the other ones show up for the display, I will take photos so you can see how inventive our Campers are.

Camp MiniHaHa and the Local Campers

Just heard that a fifth person from my town and area is coming to Camp MiniHaHa this year; it starts on Sept. 24, so I am working hard on finishing gifts and tidbits that add so much to the fun at Camp. Funny how you think you are miniaturing (is that even a word?) on your lonesome, then one other miniaturists moves into the area, your husband turns out to have  worked with another, and a third finds out about the camp at the Montreal Show this past spring. She had a friend who was interested, so now there are 5 of us, with another one possibly getting together with us one of these days.

We hope to get together to work on whatever we happen to be working on at the time, and just enjoy the miniaturists' ambience together.

Back to work on stuff for Camp, now.

Rainy Day at the Local Flea Market

Sunday was a very rainy day, but my daughter had the day off, so we decided to while away an hour by visiting the local flea market. It was also a good excuse to walk off some of the sore muscles we had acquired at the huge, outdoor flea market. The Sunday one was under a roof; however, it is about to go on hiatus again, as they no longer have a space in the place they have been using.

While I am all for unions, helping people to have decent wages and benefits, when a union decides that a local group, not-for-profit (entry fees assist a number of local sports ventures) needs to hire a union employee to set up and take down all the booths, at double time of course as it is a Sunday, we have gone far from the sublime and right down to the absolutely ridiculous.

Anyway, there is one vendor who regularly carries some mini items. Sunday was ten items for $5.00, so I picked out: a bunch of flower pots, always useful; two small wash tubs, good for floral arrangements; four filled glass jars to go into my Tudor apothecary; and a delightful little resin pig toy on wheels that will go into my children's shop.

As I need to get cracking on items for Camp MiniHaHa the end of September, I am finishing up a number of non-mini items that just need a few more minutes' work on them. Then it is back to minis, with regular posts, of course!

Flea Market Report

...and it will be a short one; no minis! I can't really believe it, but all I saw was a tin dollhouse and plastic furniture for the same, some undistinguished odds and ends, and a "wrought-iron" mug tree with 4 red mugs. Nothing to show for it, miniature-wise, but boy am I sore from all that walking.

With camp happening in about a month, it is time to get back to miniatures quite seriously, so I hope to report some finished projects soon.

Part 3 of My Wonderful Recent Mini Finds

This is also the last part of this particular topic; next week I am off to an all-day giant outdoor flea market some hours from here, with my younger daughter, and I hope to encounter more interesting finds there.

This, for me, was the piece de resistance! This little Tudor bench has 12, count 'em, 12 of Philip Aitken's miniature pewter pieces attached to it. I intend to un-stick them, as I have any number of settings they would go into.

My belief is that this was Mr. Aitken's display piece for shows. There is a large tankard, a small mug with a handle, two pitchers and two goblets, a ladle, chamber stick, plate with the New Brunswick provincial coat of arms on it (I also have one of these with the State of Maine coat of arms on it,) a knife, large candlestick (which is in need of straightening out), and a rough, woollen place mat. As I had been collecting his work on the secondary market, to find such a large trove of his pieces in one place made me feel as if I had won the lottery! Each piece has his mark stamped into it, so tiny you need a magnifying lens to see it clearly.

Perhaps some of these pieces will end up on M. Ramet's refectory table as part of a Tudor banquet some day....

Part 2 Of My Recent Wonderful Mini Finds

The first part was yesterday's post, although I didn't title it Wonderful Mini Finds.

This is an unbelievable trestle table and bench set in 1/12 scale. It is pegged at all the joints, and as you can see, the ends of the table are dove-tailed on, as well as pegged. And, this set is signed:

 

It was made by Quebecois miniaturist Pierre Ramet in 1986; the little green sticker says the original price was $60.00 - that was nearly 30 years ago. The other sticker is the Aitken's Pewter sticker I mentioned in yesterday's post. This store still exists, and still uses the same sticker. I was so pleased to find this set! M. Ramet still makes his miniature wares, he was listed for the Montreal show in 2013, and again this year, I believe.

This furniture set calls for a medieval banquet to sit on top of it - something to put together over the next winter, perhaps.

The bird's eye view shows the tiny pegs in the table and benches. I consider this quite a treasure....

The Machine is Working Again: Part 1 of Wonderful Mini Finds

I mentioned in a previous post, I think, that I had found some nice pieces at a local second-hand store; this is the first one, and I will try to get the others on in the next couple of days.

This little hutch is likely a kit, and I suspect it might have been a Daisy House kit, it kind of has that feel about it. As you can see, the back panel on the top is not quite sealed; however, the finish on this little hutch is wonderful. One of the knobs for the doors is missing, it is likely a 1/24 scale doorknob, and I hope to replace it one of these days, when I track down some replacements.

The wear on the drawer and doors was very nicely done, and the drawer itself moves very smoothly.
My instinct is that this was a piece made to display miniature pieces; the other pieces I picked up bore the Aitken's Pewter stickers. Philip Aitken was making miniature pewter in the 80's, and showed at a number of big shows both in Canada and abroad. At the time, I wasn't yet doing miniatures, as I was working and raising kids, but I worked on some church banners with Mr. Aitken's wife, and on one visit to their house I was invited to see Philip's miniature workshop. Not long after that we moved out of the country for a few years, and on our return, we learned that Mr. Aitken had passed on. Mr. Aitken was an engineer by training, and he just might have made this little hutch. His son runs a very successful Real Life pewter business here in town.

The computer has been back to the repair shop; there is an incompatibility of some sort with the various programs on it, and that has been causing all the trouble. We now have a crib sheet to fix the problem ourselves, should it recur. So, here's hoping we can keep the blog going.....