Window Blinds

I decided to add some window blinds, rolled up of course, to the two windows in the Loft Project. As well, I papered the two ceilings in the project. The photo below shows what I found to use;



The ceilings are an ogee-patterned, textured scrapbooking paper; two sheets were plenty to do both ceilings, make a mistake, and still have paper left over for some future small project. The paper was from Michael's. I also used odd stuff to create the blinds; a piece of wallpaper frieze, about 4" or 10 cm wide, that I had picked up from the freebie table at camp, thinking it might make good wainscoting for a witch or wizard scene. Combined with fringe (selvedge of a piece of natural cotton muslin), mini braid, gold embroidery cord, and a jump ring and tiny bit cut off a jewelry finding, all rolled onto a skewer, created the blind in the photo below;



I like it, as does the Carpenter-in-Chief! Tomorrow, I'll hang the blinds, and put hardware on the windows.

More Progress

The lower edge has been finished, again with a file folder cardboard strip faux painted to match the stained oak floor finish. Originally the space between the pillars was going to house the spiral stairs, but I am still not sure about those! The pillars will be enamel-painted in cream, with some aging to give them character. They are made from the wooden inside of some commercial tassels, and some doweling; remember, this building is intended to be cast iron construction.

The table, chair, ottoman and rug were originally intended for this project, and I still like them in this space. The vase is an inexpensive Mexican ceramic, with some very old (like, among the earliest I ever made!) grasses and plants in it; the colour works with the overall autumnal effect I associate with steam punk interiors, and I've always loved mossy green glazes.



The upper level is still bare; I will likely re-purpose the pencil sharpener Victrola with a wooden base and some more interesting colouring, but it would suit the setting. The interior window openings are framed, the windows are glazed, but not yet fixed in place. The lower one will be partially open. And the outside of the window framing has been "rusted" and aged.

The project is developing its own character; it represents a corner of the loft apartment of the owner of the book shop in the books. As space is limited, I have to think seriously as to what is needed to give the effect I want. I am kind of interested in trying a steam punk desk or chest of drawers, based on a framework of match boxes; there are a number of very interesting ones on the internet. The walls will, of course, have "stuff" on them, like shelves and paintings and pictures.

Ideally, I'd like to do some steam punk piping, again in cream enamel, and add a radiator and assorted dials and gauges where they seem appropriate, as well as a coffee table or something; I am still looking at possibilities there. Right now, I mainly want to finish this structure. The outside walls will be brick, with the slanted roof sheathed in verdigrised copper. I intend to light this structure, which will be a bit of a challenge, given the lower level ceiling height; I may have to resort to wall sconces and a floor lamp there. Battery packs will be hidden in a removable roof, with the handles being disguised as chimneys; I'm thinking of a small weather station on the roof as well, and will have to see what is available for things like a miniature anemometer.

And I am thinking very seriously of doing more portions of this project in materials like matte board, foam core and the like, with faux finishes, of course.

Some Progress

The spiral staircase, which was a major part of this project, and the reason I came home with a pretty much unfinished building, is now hanging on by a thread - I may assign it to the burn pile! However, in the meantime, I did do some work on the Industrial Loft Project, aka the Steampunk Apartment Corner Vignette. My idea for this loft is that it is cast iron construction, so lots of metal to fake up....



My decision was to take baby steps. Yesterday, I cut fine strips of file folder card, and used it to make a finished edge around the second floor; it was faux-painted to match the stained boards, and I am quite happy with it. The same finish will eventually go around all the raw edges of the project. Above is one of the windows in the process of being glazed. The Carpenter-in-Chief said I should not have the wide muntins of the window on the outside, as rain would collect in the metal corners and the window frame would rust out. OK, I agreed, and decided that I would cover the outside edges with fine, painted strips of sturdy scrap booking card. The purplish thing is the closest I came to black, so that was the colour I chose. I think a fair amount of card will go into this construction!



It's taken most of today, but one of the windows is in place, ready to have the interior framed glued in place. We were going to make the central section swivel out, but that requires, a) pin hinging and b) pin hinging having to be drilled in a laser-cut window where you can't get your pin vise in straight. I've given myself permission to make is simpler; the upper pane will be permanently closed, while the lower one will be permanently open. It is currently under weights awaiting the glue drying. You can see the nice finish on the edges of the second floor.

I would like to suggest hardware on these windows, and will have to research that. Also, I'm thinking that roller blinds would be an interesting touch, as this loft is now a home; they would be rolled up, of course, so not too difficult to create, and could have interesting hardware too. And perhaps I'll look for an interesting dark tiny tie print for the blinds.

Time Sure Goes Quickly....

...even when you're working on several things at once, as usual. I finished wickering the little doll's bed, just need to design and make the rockers (which were missing from my package (an estate sale purchase) and the cutlery carrier is ready to crackle and age. I've been working on sorting - again - and trying to find a punch I need that I seem to have lost or misplaced. I've also embroidered a small mat, and am glad I have an optometrist's appointment in two weeks as my eyes probably need new glasses - my vision gets blurry after about an hour's work, and then I have to stop for an hour or so.

As I would like to get back in the mini groove, I dug out an old CMHH project, from 2016 I think, which has been a bit of a thorn in my side for the past several years. It is the least finished project of all the camp projects, with the exception of the castle, as I ran into many problems in the course of trying to realize my vision. It is meant to be steam punk to match the bookshop in repurposed books project; the owner of the bookshop lives here, so I hope to have a desk with parcels ready to mail out, and all the stuff I can fit in that will add to the steam punk vision. It's pretty small, the footprint of the base is 9 x 9" or about 22 x 22 cm.




This is the structure and all its belongings; electrification stuff, the pieces of the roof which is meant to have a space for hiding the battery pack, rotating windows currently held by tape, sticks I am not sure what they are for, etc. I think there may be a set of library steps somewhere in that pile of small wood pieces! The box it was  stored in had an awful lot of unidentifiable scraps of wood, dowel and foam board in it.




That ladder thing is the beginning of the spiral staircase, made of fan blades. They're why I got so little done on this project, I think I had to make them twice. I've been studying other people's spiral stair projects, and perhaps I have figured it out. We'll see! (The steps rotate around the support pole.) The second level has to have supports at the cut-out corners of the stair opening, that's next. Once I have that sorted, I can continue on with the stairs. One tutorial I looked at used supports every four steps, and I kind of like that idea, as it creates a space under the steps that would be perfect for the imaginary inhabitant's cats.

This project is currently held together by painter's tape and gravity. I need to plot piping and electric conduits over two levels, and figure out if the battery can support the lighting needed, before I can glue it up. Here's hoping I can get my construction mojo back....

Yes. Still Plugging Away

I have to admit, I am having difficulty sticking with my self-imposed task of finishing some of those things that have been lying around forever, but boy, is it slow going! The constant bad news takes some dealing with, and with the library open again with limited hours, I am doing far too much reading, I'm afraid.



After looking through all my stuff, I was unable to find the lantern part of my street lamp, and I am blaming the cat. She definitely swiped the peak of the street lamp! So I decided, now or never, and went on-line to find the original tutorial; well, here we go again! The photo is there, with the diagram for the lantern portion, and a sample shown on the background of a cutting mat, but guess what? The site has apparently been hijacked by a Real Life lighting company, because when you click on it, you get normal size, manufactured, fluorescent lighting offered to you. Are you as ticked off by all those wonderful tutorials and DIY's that are no longer available as I am? There are a lot of pirates on that internet! I spent the morning re-designing the lantern based on the base and the peak measurements, which I probably should have done in the first place.



This needs staining and a coat of paint; it is a colonial cutlery caddy. Chances are this will end up in my pioneer room, lamp base vignette; I do have some pewter cutlery, and that vignette is where I display my pewter miniatures.



This is a lovely little dolls' bed being woven, from an old kit; I am almost done with it. I will admit that I am finding it difficult to distinguish between the wires I am weaving through, and those on the other side; my eyes are definitely changing, and not for the better. This will be done soon, I am determined! It was missing the rockers, so I have to design those. (The base is 2.5 cm or 1" wide.)

I also  finished the rest of the groceries I was working on; they will go into my kitchen stash for eventual use in something or other.  As well, I'm cutting out and finishing a La Casa Miniatures vintage Valentine card kit. And reading good books. And continuously looking for things that I put in a "safe" place....



That's it for now!

Some Work Happened

There hasn't been much work on minis the past week, but there were some repairs. A beam dropped out of my little flower shop vignette, perhaps due to the very hot and humid weather we have been having. That is fixed now.

I repaired a small piece I picked up from an estate sale; it turned out to be signed by Alice Zinn, a lady who has been making her livelihood from hand-crafted miniatures for some years.



The little frog stool had a leg loose and a leg missing, but I was able to replace the lost one. This is a child-size stool, destined for my toy shop (another mini I hope to get to "one of these days".) The box is still being glued up, it is a cake box with a transparent window, from an Ann Venture kit I had picked up at the same estate sale. Addendum: Lady Iolanthe, in her comments, said it was a toad stool rather than a frog stool; I trust her as I am her mother! And it makes a very good pun on the part of the maker of the stool!



It is a very nice kit; the only thing I haven't put together yet is the milk carton. The paper is lovely quality, both matte photo paper and glossy paper for the two cartons. The components of this kit will, hopefully, find homes in things like food prep scenes.

I tidied up my work space yet again, but there is more cleaning up needed!

Okay, Things Are Changing - Again!

My effort to post here this evening resulted in the new blogger which everyone is apparently very unhappy about! With Marilyn's advice, I have reverted to Legacy Blogger, in the hope that they can fix the glitch that doesn't allow me to post photos.

With summer in full swing, and things opening up a bit, we haven't worked as often on minis; however, we did get a face-to-face last Wednesday, as our wood shipment had arrived. That means that I can soon (I hope!) get to work on the staircase for the Klompenfabriek.

In the meantime, I did sort out the books in the Book Shop in Altered Books, a CMHH project. It involved gluing books together....



Except for two shelves, they are are more or less permanently stuck. The ones that aren't are "real", i.e. opening books with text and illustrations in them. At some point, these will be replaced by other faux books. As this is a book store, the books are now in groups, like they would be in a real bookstore. Now all I have left to do is re-make the lantern for the street lamp, check out the wiring, and then this project is - mostly - finished.

In the meantime, I am working on some semi-finished projects. "Semi-finished" sounds better than UFO's! Among them is this little bench cupboard, a FAME project that Marilyn taught. I am changing it somewhat, to make it fit with some of my other furnishing items.



I also made up a puzzle box, which has a real puzzle in it; it was a "Bits 'n Bobs" project from Ann B., a British camper who came to our mini camp for a couple of years. Another SFP (that's semi-finished project!) being worked on is a lovely upholstered easy chair, for which I used the last bits of one of my favourite fabrics. This one is also a CMHH project, from Janet H. of Maggie Melinda, another former camper. I'd like to finish both the bench and the chair by next week. We'll see!