Two Posts in One Day!

The cat is out of the bag; if you want to know what our group project is, please go and visit Charminis blog, which you can click on at the right of the page.

And since she has key words, I will see if she will help me set them up at some point for my blog! That way if you are interested in anything in particular, you can go right there.

The Group Project Moves Along....

Yesterday, we managed to work for about two hours on our group project, when we had to dissolve our get-together due to bad weather; it had been snowing, but the snow had turned to freezing rain, and the visibility was not that great. But I did manage to "invent" a rusty tin can, using manila file folder cardboard, a large sewing needle, glue and lots of paint and varnish. An old chequebook donated a corner that with the aid of a leather cover and a bit of gold paint, became a bible.

 I took the bit between my teeth today, as I couldn't go to work because of freezing rain and a driveway full of snow, and roughed up the leather of the bible and the binoculars case. The table got its drawer knob (cut-off quilting pin), old tea stains were left in the bottom of the mug, and the corrugated metal roofing was rusted and aged.

The tin can, mug and corrugated metal all use cardboard; I love this stuff, with several applications of paint and then varnish, it becomes quite sturdy. I'm thinking of some other ways I can use the can experiment, perhaps as a container to start a bunch of seedlings....

Oooh, I think there are tea canister and milk carton printies available on the internet. That will have to wait, though, as this project takes priority. Other projects are jostling for attention, so as my work table is currently quite tidy, perhaps I should make some bits for some of those UFO's littering my storage shelves!

I Really Have Been Working

The last few days have involved some appointments, some bad weather, and a lot of knitting, which has cut into my mini time somewhat. I did work on the group project on Wednesday, and there was even discussion of another group project, once the current one is done. I can't wait!



Before Christmas, I began working on some Christmas florals; this is one of them, and I am quite pleased with it. It still wants a couple of candy canes, but I have to find striped paperclips somewhere as I do not intend to make mini canes out of polymer clay.



This is a pair of table decorations, in silver and gold, very simple but quite nice. Putting micro glitter onto beads to create Christmas decorations is a bit of a pain, though. I think I will have to use some multi-sealer on the next batch, as every time I touched them, I lost glitter.



And then there are the works in progress, see above comment re glitter on miniature Christmas decorations. They will be done, before the next miniature show, I promise.



Assorted florals and yet more Christmas decoration pieces, including some of the worst of the glitter balls. I think they will need to be re-done. The amaryllis flowers are ready to be bound together and planted on their bulb; sadly, my real amaryllis didn't do anything again this year, I will give it one more chance and if it doesn't bloom, it goes into the garden, either to bloom or to become compost!

I have to re-write part of a knitting pattern now.

Some Things I Did Manage to Finish

The angel is made from a brass cone, with filigree wings I picked up at the Arnhem Dollhouse Expo some years ago, and a tiny jewelry ring for the halo. It stands 3.5 cm (1 3/8") tall. As the base of the cone is uneven, I will make a card underskirt to make it stand up better. It is intended for the Advent calendar project from Christmas 2017.

The candle display measures 4 cm in length (1 5/8"), made with lycopodium, gold beads,  red no-hole beads, paper holly leaves, and half scale candles; it will sit on the windowsill of the Advent calendar project. The smaller candles fit better within the general setting of the project than tall ones. This
project has to be finished within the next few months, as it will be delivered by hand sometime in the late spring, to my younger daughter, in southern Alberta. (That's several thousand km away!)

As all too often happens, I saw the perfect wall shelf on Pinterest recently, a Real Life one that would translate nicely to minis. Of course, I can't find it again! So I will have to rely on memory. It was a series of five small shelves in graduated sizes, on a green back panel, with Christmas decorations on each shelf. Should be fun to re-create, but much easier if I could find the original inspiration! There was an elf on the smallest, top shelf, and I think there may have been some tiny trees and putz houses on the shelves as well. I could always make a Noel sign out of alphabet macaroni....

Some Other Bits of the Group Project

I'm going to keep it a secret until we are further along, but we are mainly following instructions from one of the European magazines. I have more small bits to create to add to the scene; the other participants are doing other pieces of it. Eventually, to finish the project off, we will likely have a workday in which we are all going to be working on the same things.

The table base is an old one, re-purposed for this project and provided with a new, old-looking and rough top; it is made of spruce, stained in golden oak and then liberally gone over with antiquing gel.
I still have to put a knob on the drawer. The binoculars were made over a pair of dowel forms, the candle holder is a popped jeans rivet (I think), and the mug is recipe card cardboard. I still need to dirty that up some more.

You Shall NOT Pass!

Yes, Gandalf is 1/12 scale, I also have Gimli, complete with weapons. No, this sandbag wall will not hold back a Balrog, but I wanted something to show scale.

So here are about one quarter of the sandbags we need to make for our group project. The top for the beat-up farmhouse table will dry overnight, then get distressed and put on to the apron/legs of the table.

More tomorrow!

Hello Again, I Think I'm Back....

First of all, Happy 2019 to all of you who stuck with me during my very long absence. Life kind of caught up on us this autumn, but I do believe I am ready to go on with miniatures and the blog again. My youngest daughter has moved permanently to western Canada, like so many young, well educated New Brunswick young people they have to leave for work opportunities. All three of my children now live at the feet of the Rocky Mountains, more or less, while we are far, far away close to the Atlantic Ocean. We can actually travel faster and cheaper to Europe than we can to visit our children in our own country!

Christmas did  bring me a few minis, a jug from my youngest daughter, and a new saw blade from the Carpenter-in-Chief, the third in my mini career. I wear them out....



We are in the middle of a blizzard/snowstorm - what else is new?

I haven't stopped working on minis, there just is not, as yet, anything finished to show. Today, I began making sandbags for a group project, and learned something about tea dyeing - you need to put the objects being dyed right side out in the tea dye!



I put them in inside out, then baked them at 260 degrees for 20 mins, and left them in the warm oven for another 20. Result, lovely dark, dirty sandbag covers. Then I turned them right side out:



They are back in the tea dye, a new, stronger batch as I need them to be quite dirty. This is perhaps a quarter of the bags we will likely need, but doing them in smaller batches makes the task less daunting. We are using recycled fitting muslins left behind by my designer daughter.

Now I have to go and find wood for a beaten-up, old farmhouse table top.