Two Miniature Steampunk Pieces

Here is the steampunk radio. I got it finished today, requiring me to go to Value Village and pick up a bead bracelet to cannibalise, for the little coggy bead around the central control button. Why is it that when you need certain beads etc. they are no longer available? I was lucky to find that bracelet! Of course, you probably recognize this as a design from www.1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com, her
cathedral radio. Made of matboard, cardstock, acetate sheet, jewelry findings, gold embroidery floss, beads and imagination, it stands just under 1 1/5" or 4 cm high, somewhat smaller than her original by about 1/8 of an inch. The handle for the crank - you need that when the power fails, to start it up again - is a painted teardrop pearl bead on a silver head pin.

And here is the steampunk  clock, made from wood scraps, baguette beads, brass sequin pins, jewelry findings, scraps of ancient gold paper seals, a printie and more acetate, with a "marbled" finish. It is actually based on an old clock from my Dutch childhood, the style being, I think, a Napoleon clock. (That one didn't have the tubes and coils on it, of course!) It is about the same size as the radio, because of the height of the bead resistor tubes from which the coiled wire springs. The back of the clock face bead was filed flat by my carpenter-in-chief, as the bead is the kind you put another bead in the middle of; i.e., the "catch" and "hinge" used to be the tube where the beading thread went.

The radio was the first steampunk mini to spring into my mind, with the clock not far behind. Now I have to finish the hot plate for the water kettle, and some of the other weird stuff my imagination keeps presenting me with. A book truck - the sort of little wagon on wheels used in libraries to cart books around - is partially finished, waiting for the wheels to go onto the axles. That will likely be the next piece to be finished, and is a mirror image of the one in Dolls House & Miniature Scene #250.

I dug a bookshelf kit out of my stash, and the carpenter-in-chief can make me another to go with it, to hold the books in the bookshop. Part of the kit shelf has to be cut off, as it is 1" or 2.5 cm too tall for the interior of the altered books project. I also found another UFO kit, this one for a small mahogany book and magazine rack (a Cheryl Kerfoot kit), which comes complete with printies for making some books and magazines to go into it. As a few UFO's are being finished to go into the 2015 Camp MiniHaHa project, I can pat myself on the back for reducing my unused stash! Boy, do I feel virtuous!

I'd like to welcome my new followers, hope you enjoy the silliness on this blog!