Walking in a Winter Wonderland

Our corner of the world is very much black and white today, and it really is quite lovely. No miniatures, but beautiful scenery.

 

We have had 15 cm (6") of snow over the past 36 hours, and as you can see from the white sky, more snow is on the way.

The only real colour in this photo is a small patch of light brown birch bark, which has peeled away, near the top left of centre.

The Carpenter-in-Chief, heading back uphill getting rid of the snowpile the snowplow left behind. We will shortly try to drive in this heavy, wet and sticky snow.

But it is very beautiful.....

Still Here and Still Doing Minis

Real Life keeps getting in the way of my pretty much favourite pastime,  but I haven't stopped making stuff despite that. It's just that I keep having to put the minis on hold in favour of things that need to be done. It has also been difficult to get together for Mini Wednesdays due to Real Life, like snow storms and illness, getting in the way of fun.

Although it doesn't look all that spectacular, this is the beginning of a small, two-room up and down cottage that is a late 19th century book bindery. The cottage's carcase is being provided by Santa, aka the Carpenter-in-Chief, and is a regional, wooden structure known in The Netherlands as a Zaans Huisje. or a little house from the Zaan River area, north of Amsterdam. You can look up an outdoor museum, De Zaanse Schans, where examples of these little utilitarian cottages as well as a number of windmills have been placed along the banks of the Zaan as a sort of recreated village. I first visited this museum in 1970, on my way home to Canada from the Middle East, when it was quite new and there weren't all that many buildings and mills in place yet. Most recently, I visited about 5-6 years ago with my older daughter, who wanted to see the country I grew up in. The museum had expanded dramatically in the intervening decades, and we both loved our day there.

The table is the work table, and the top of it needs an appropriate edging put on it. I'd like to try half-round for that, and think I have the correct thickness in my stash. If not, I may try sanding wooden skewers to make my own. The other pile of stained wood is the actual work bench, which fits across the back of the cottage. It has a couple of interior dividers, and a single shelf. 

The plans for the cottage are in Dutch, so I have to do some translating for my spouse. It will be finished in boards, horizontal as well as vertical, and painted in the same green colour as the trim on the wooden shoe workshop (waiting for the lights, there!), with white paint on the various architectural details. 

But, right now, I'm working away on nearly finished Christmas gifts, as they have to be in the mail next week to guarantee delivery (well, that's what the Post Office claims, anyways!). One of the reasons for the lack on entries here has been the fact that I was asked to work two  days a week at my volunteer job for "a couple of weeks", which turned into a month and a half of very physical, hard work. I admit now I'm too old for that sort of work. Last week was my first one back at one day a week. That I can still handle....

My sincere thanks to "Huibrecht", of the blog Huis ter Swinnendael, who was kind enough to send me the plans for the tools and furnishings that will create the book bindery!

Sort of Saw That One Coming....

Earlier this week, I was informed that I have cataracts in both eyes, and that it would be 3 to 4 months before surgery would be scheduled. I knew it was coming, but I had been told more than a year ago that I might have a cataract. It took 13 months to get an appointment with the eye specialist; the medical staff in our little province is worn out from Covid-related cases, and staff is retiring in massive numbers, without enough replacements wanting to come to our lovely but admittedly quiet little backwater.

I think we have only about 800,000 people in our province; Toronto alone has more than three million! Many are elderly, as our young people tend to migrate to the "bigger cities" for their careers. All three of my children live further away from me, in our own country, than the distance to here from Europe....

The downside of the wait is that my glasses are not very useful any more, and there seems little point in getting a new prescription when, in 3-4 months, I will need a completely new one  again. My sight is getting blurry, which is not so great for the detail work of miniatures....

I am doing small things for short periods, in the hope of stretching out the eye use - and as I am a person who needs something in her hands, it is a learning curve! I also read a great deal, and that is becoming a little more difficult all the time; I may have to check out large print for a while. Winter is also on the way, and I really don't like being cold, which means that I usually spend much of my winter indoors, doing things with my hands and eyes! I do, however, love to sit by my window looking out at the snowy world from the comfort of my living room, as the sun usually shines in vivid blue skies here during our coldest months.

Perhaps it is time to tackle some of the polymer clay projects waiting for my attention, or some larger miniature pieces, like furniture. We'll see!

Just to Let You Know....

...I have not disappeared from the face of the earth! We had our older daughter visiting for 3 weeks, and she headed back home Saturday morning. This evening we are expecting our son and daughter-in-law for a visit, although they will be touring the Canadian Maritimes while they are here.

There should be more blogging in the not-too-distant future....

Almost overnight, Autumn happened; the mornings are foggy and cool, but the day soon warms up. The trees are changing colour overnight, with more and more orange showing. And our apples are starting to ripen, encouraging a young porcupine to pay our front garden a visit recently. We warned our neighbours who tend to let their small dogs wander!

See you soon.

Small Progress Report

Real Life keeps getting in the way of making minis, but I did manage to get some things done. Currently, I have a box of unfinished kits into which I'm dipping when I have a bit of time to mini. Over the last ten or so days, I've manage to actually finish one of those kits. I made some slight adjustments, as the designer provided two sets of card bases for the lid and I didn't really like the thickness of that arrangements. Which means, of course, that I fiddled with it, came up with a single lid, then had to rethink the hinging arrangements, and while I was at it, I also replaced the silk ribbon ties provided with some cordonnee embroidery thread. The proportions were more acceptable to me.

The fabric provided is very dainty, and I still have some left for another small project, at some time. The bottom of the basket is also covered with a card covered with this fabric. The two halves of the lid lift up, thanks to a fabric hinge which also covered the raw edges of the fabric on top.

The little basket is woven "wicker", made with waxed linen cord. I like it, although I don't actually have a use for it right now, but I suspect it will end up in the scullery room box, currently on loan to a local living museum. There is a basket of mending in front of the settle bench, after all.

As strange as it may look, this is a view down into the bird cage, with the Japanese newspaper covered in gravel secured to the bottom. Next is the bird, and Lady Iolanthe, my older daughter who at times comments on the blog, will be here on Saturday for 3 weeks, so she can help me figure out the best sort of bird to put in the cage. She suggested a Japanese nightingale, but it may be too drab in colour to show up in the cage....

 

What I'm - Very Slowly - Working On

 My camera has been fixed, and I can use it again. It was actually fixed for me by a very nice young lady in, of all things, a record store! The mall directory implied they also dealt with cameras, but I was informed that the mall lumps records, videos and cameras together, for some reason.

  

This is a very old, laser-cut kit that was won as a door prize at either the Camden or the Boothbay Harbor, both in Maine, miniature shows, at least twenty or more years ago. It has taken me a while to get up the courage to assemble it, and at this point, I'm not sure who in the family actually won it. Anyway, I hope I can use it in my Japanese Garden room box once it is done.

This is as far as I have gotten; the instructions tell me I must be sure things are dry before I go on to the next step, and with our busy summer so far, I've got half the roof on the first level. I need to decide if I am going to put old newspaper and gravel in the bottom, and that has to be done before the next level goes on. I'd also like to put a bird on the perch, which goes right across the cage, and I'd like both the bird and the newspaper to be Japanese, to fit with the room box's theme.

There are a lot of very fragile pieces in this fabulous kit, and I have to fight the cat constantly to protect the bits that I've already glued! Another (one-day) trip is supposed to happen mid-week, so I hope to do the newspaper and gravel by the weekend, leaving me time to make the bird before our next very welcome visitor arrives, next weekend, for a 3-week visit. Stay tuned!

Problems!

 Today, I took some photos of a project I'm working on, but I did something wrong with my camera, and can't find the expanded user manual to help me deal with it. So it will be a while before I can get to a camera store to see if some kind person will help me....

I'm getting overlapping small images with all sorts of frames and symbols on them, and the quick user guide is no help in solving this particular problem.

Bah!

My Scullery Room Box Is On Display!

For the past 15 years, I've been a volunteer at Kings Landing Historical Settlement, an open-air museum about 25 km from where I live. I started out weeding a spectacular garden, was asked to set up an in-service library, then when space restraints meant the end of the library, I went to work doing museum accessioning. That means I get to handle the artifacts, and I've been quite happy doing that.

This year, I was asked to assist the exhibition team from June until October, when the site closes for the winter. I love this opportunity, as we are able to pick and choose lovely items from the collection that rarely get seen; the mandate of the museum is featuring United Empire Loyalist settlers, most of whom were farmers and artisans, like smiths, carpenters and the like. (For those of you in the US, the United Empire Loyalists were people who came north to Canada around the time of the American Revolution, or as planters.) They tended to own the bare minimum of "stuff".

One of the full-season exhibits this year is the business of laundry; all the tools etc. for hand-washing the family's soiled clothing. The scullery room box below is part of that exhibit this year, and I couldn't be prouder!

There is a long, wide corridor that leads to the washrooms in the Welcome Centre, and that is where the washing exhibit has been placed. Something for Moms and Dads and kids to do while their families use the washrooms! The scullery room box has most of the washing tools displayed full size in it. and is being used as a narrative for the work involved in keeping your clothes and so on clean before the advent of  washing machines and dryers, and no-wrinkle fabric finishes.

A closer look at the scullery room box. Just about everything in this box was made by me; it began with the mangle in the right back corner, and then took on a life of its own. Lots to see, and a story without words.

Our first guest of the summer has headed back home, and another is arriving in August, to be followed by our third child and his wife in September. It is so lovely to see all our children in the same year; it has been 3 or 4 years, pre-Covid, that we saw the two older kids. We've missed them!

A Couple of New Plants

 Among the items in the things from our mutual miniature friend was a punch for split-leaf philodendron leaves, so I had to try it out, of course. But first, paper needed to be painted, as I'd gone through almost my entire stock of leaf paper. Marilyn was putting together a fuchsia kit here Friday, so I painted on the other side of the breakfast bar. 

I do like the leaf, but wish I had more than one size; the more sizes of leaf one has, the more convincing the finished plant. This one is intended to go into a planter, which has disappeared - and I'm blaming the cat, who has been batting around every tiny thing she can find! I think she may be heading into a sort of second kitten-hood, as she is 12 years old....

I mentioned a pansy kit; the finished product is shown below. I found I prefer my own method, and there were some things about the kit I rather didn't like. For one thing, the paper is very soft, and didn't take well to my colouring pencils. For another, the pot had plasticine stuffed into it, so the oil in that got into the wood, which will not take paint now. I did the best I could, adding a wee bead of orange paint in the centre of the yellow to add a bit of depth to the flower. (A better thing to use for "dirt" in miniature plants is something like Crayola Model Magic, an air-dry clay that takes paint and glue very well!)

There were only five pansies, so I added a bud. The kit had absolutely no room for mistakes; five heart punchies in purple, fifteen teeny white circles, ten leaves, and five 1" (2.5 m) stems. When I've taught flower making, I've always included practice punchies and longer wires, for those inevitable mistakes newbies  tend to make....

I'm still experimenting with the lily and Schefflera kits; my conclusion at this point is that I should quit while I'm still sane, and see if I can reproduce both of these very well-designed plants with some of my own paper. (I do believe I still have a Hanky-Panky lily kit that I've never assembled.) The laser-cut pieces of the lily and Schefflera are perfect, especially the lily stamens and there are some punches in my collection that I may be able to trim to the desired shapes - except for those marvellous stamens; they could only be made with a laser cutter. 

My younger daughter arrives this week for a nearly 3-week visit, and the day after she arrives, the Carpenter-in-Chief and I have to drive to Quebec City, for a funeral delayed due to Covid. We'll drive the day of the life celebration, stay overnight and head home on Saturday, and our daughter can look after that darn cat while we're gone! She will likely use my car to visit her best friend not far from here while we're away.

An Experiment in Rehabilitating Paper Plants

We did some more sorting of our mutual friend's miniature stash, this time we dealt with landscaping materials and a variety of flower-making materials. Among the stash were a number of plant kits, very well done laser cut kits, that Marilyn and I shared as Louise is not about to try making plants when she knows people who can make them for her....

One kit had been finished, but in the moves and with the packing, it had suffered; that one was easy to fix, as you can see below:

This is a gorgeous caladium kit. When I got it, there were several bare stems, and a stem with a leaf that was just in the box. While sorting, I found the missing leaves, so they were duly glued back on to their stems. The stem with the leaf was replanted in a bare spot, and two stems that were too tall were cut short and now look better. Easy!

These are most of the stems and leaves for a Schefflera (Umbrella) plant. The paper used is much softer, and the baggie in the foreground contains some of the leaves that had come off the laser cut leaf rosettes. I've more or less repaired the leaf at the extreme left, strengthened some of the very tiny ends of the leaflets with a dot of tacky glue, and given the leaves some shape. The larger leaf rosettes should have nine leaflets, while the progressively smaller ones have seven and five. All of them need strengthening and shaping or re-shaping. This one is rather more of a challenge....

I don't know about this poor thing! There should be at least seven lily stems, but this is all that was left. I can probably re-do the petals by trimming a similar punch I have, and there are lots of leaves yet to release from the laser-cut sheet. But, I don't have the stamens, which are very delicate dots on the end of tiny stems; one is all that there is on the bare-looking stem. The leaves on the finished stems are placed rather too close together, and I am not sure sure how I can get those off; I may have to carefully cut each leaf rosette off the stem, and then carefully glue it back in a better position. Again, the leaf paper is very soft, and therefore very fragile. Sigh! I love these lilies, and would very much like to make them "come alive" again.

The hydrangea kit hasn't been put together, but I found the tiny blue blossoms everywhere while tidying up! I hope there are enough to finish the plant. Everything but the wires were present in this kit, but I have lots of that kicking around. The iris kit is complete, made in a different way from my technique, and I'm interested to tackle it.

The last kit, by a different manufacturer, is a pansy kit. Again, this kit uses a different technique from the one I use, and I do want to add some additional colour; the kit has little purple hearts and tiny plain white circles for the flowers, and they will require some additional colouring work to look good. This one came with a pot.

All the kits came with their own "dirt"; I use unused tea leaves, so I'm interested to see what the dirt in these kits is made of. I am not sure if any of these kit makers are still producing flower kits. One of the kits Marilyn got is a fuchsia, and I'm very curious as to the shape of the flower parts the designer of the kits used; all the magazine and on-line instructions I've seen make flowers that are rather out of scale.

I do have some kits in my stash that I haven't made up yet; another UFO project, some day!

The last container of mini stuff we have to sort through is a heavy load of polymer clay....

 

Now Where Did I Put My Heart Punches?

I actually started this physalis or Chinese Lantern plant a week or more ago, but have somehow managed to lose all of my heart punches in some weird place. However, during our sorting process of a friend's stash, there was a triple heart punch the right size. Just one small problem, the actual die-cast punch part is in the plastic housing the wrong way around. This means punches have to be extracted from the works with tweezers. Things can get a little complicated, sometimes....

However, yesterday our meeting did not happen due to other things, so I decided to work on the plant. It is in a pot because, although very decorative, it is also very invasive! The original instructions came from a Jicolin Advent Calender in 2011, by Minipat, a French blogger. She used tissue paper for her flowers, which I usually replace with coffee filter paper. The backwards punch would not punch this light paper, so I decided to use computer-weight coloured paper instead. The flowers are made of a seed bead in the colour of the flower, glued to a stem. Two hearts are applied points up, and when they are dry, two half hearts are glued over the sides of the "heart sandwich".  

As my paper was stiffer, I creased each heart down the centre and then rounded out the lobes of each heart. The half hearts are also rounded out before being applied. Although not entirely successful - the seed bead shows in some places - I am pretty happy with this version of a Chinese Lantern in miniature. It would look good in miniature "dried" flower arrangements. along with lotus and milkweed pods, which I have made in polymer clay in miniature....

We miniaturists are sort of crazy....

 

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.

Good Intentions and Certain Roads....

Spring has sprung, and the St. John River is giving us its annual flood. I have bright yellow crocuses up in the garden, the first of the new bulbs planted last fall, and I hope the others we planted do as well. We also had our first real guest in two and a half years, so maybe things are getting back to normal? We are expecting our younger daughter to be with us for nearly 3 weeks in June, and our older daughter is planning a visit in late summer or early fall. Our son's ability to travel has much to do with his work load, but he too is hoping.

The photo is of at least 3 of the UFO's (UnFinished Objects) in my house that are trying to make me feel guilty, but I have, in fact, been finishing up UFO's in my other hobbies. My sewing machine and serger needed some work, and for that we had to travel two hours up the road to find a qualified repair person. 

Our little mini group of 3 has been getting together, and little things have been worked on, but not enough work has happened to make it worthwhile to share with you. However, hope springs eternal, and I do hope to get at least one of those projects DONE soon!

There is, however, some springtime garden maintenance that needs doing, removing piles of wet, rotting leaf mulch from all the flower beds, and as our days seem to alternate rain with sunshine, so it may be a little while yet....

My intentions have actually been good, but the carrying on is sometimes harder to achieve. Thank you all for sticking with me, and do stay tuned to encourage me to keep on going on!

 

Just Checking In!

Since the  Russian invasion of Ukraine, I've been unable to concentrate on much, and have spent far too much time reading or watching news programs. Some years ago, I sponsored a boy in Ukraine; Olek is now in his mid-teens, and I worry about him and his family. They became eligible for sponsorship because the family were internal refugees following the 2014 annexation of the Crimea.

I have done some mini work, but it is not really worth blogging about. But on Monday night, when I just could not sleep, I took photos of a fairly unusual house-plant bloom. At least 25 years ago, I purchased a very large old Sanseviera (Mother-in-Law's Tongue or Snake Plant), at a yard sale, split the thing into two separate very large flower pots, and both of  them now bloom regularly. I was told that the plants have to be quite mature to bloom, and mine are well over 30 years old!

This is the living room plant, the other one lives in our sunny front hallway, which has lots of south-facing windows and a terra-cotta tile floor that captures the sun and heat from the skylight. The flowers are night-blooming, and are likely pollinated by bats and moths. When we lived in Jamaica in the early 90's, I'd regularly smell this incredible scent at night. I discovered that it was sanseviera, which is often used as a hedge in there. The scent is like orange blossoms or jasmine, very lovely, and comes in waves.

The blossoms are very delicate and beautiful, and grow in spikes. They also produce a lot of nectar, so the plants have to be kept from walls and furniture, to prevent the nectar getting on walls and upholstery. As I was sitting in the living room, drinking chamomile tea in the hope of getting some sleep that night, the scent came and went, just gorgeous.

I hope to get some mini work done this weekend, as I'd really, really like to call the Christmas Market Stall finished.....

Ice, Snow and Sand Have Arrived

I have added a skirt of glossy varnish all along the newly applied snow boundaries, and then followed that up by dripping triple thick varnish in some of the spaces between the cobbles. It is more visible in person, but the idea is that this is a European market stall, there is not that much snow, and it is melting quickly. The proprietor of the stall has swept the area around her stall clean, and the meltwater is gathering in the cobble seams here and there.

In front of the stall, where the customer stand, the ice has been sanded. The sand is freshly ground pepper, which adheres nicely to the freshly applies gloss varnish....

Now I need to make a stiff broom, which I will place by the door at the side, to complete the story of the base of my market stall.

For the inside, I have three tilted bins that will hold Christmas decorations, a tall bin with a cut-away front for rolls of wrapping paper, and a flat bin for a collection of Christmas gift bags. It's coming along, but there is lots more to do still. I'd like to make a portable shelf unit, for example, to hold the two crates of moss balls and giant pine cones. The stand will likely be an A-frame, with a couple of shelves for the crates, and a handle on the top to allow the proprietor to move the unit inside easily at the end of a working day.

But I am still missing an important item, the name of the place! Suggestions for that will be gratefully accepted and seriously considered. It can't be too long, as it has to fit on the fascia over the opening, and it has to make it clear this is a Christmas decor shop. I need a name!

 

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions!

The decision I'm pondering is whether I need to add more snow along the edges of my vignette base; I wanted the scene to look like the snow had been removed, just remaining around the edges of the stall and the posts. However, I am not sure I am giving that effect. Any ideas, please?

I made a trio of crates last Thursday, that will eventually go onto an inclined plinth and will hold the many Christmas tree decorations I made. None of them are small enough to fit into the boxes, and there really is not a lot of space on the shelves for hanging displays. 

We have been going from snow storm to snow storm here, which has kept us in the house most of the time. It has also been quite dark because of the overcast, and I've wanted nothing as much as being able to hibernate like a bear and ignore winter altogether! Most of my time has been spent knitting or sewing, but I did sort out some more stuff to put together for the market stall. And I still haven't got a really good name for it....

 

And Back to the Christmas Market Stall

 

Today I was finally able to wire up the lights of the market stall to my satisfaction, and this afternoon in our virtual meeting, I was able to mount some of the stock onto acetate bases, which will eventually be glued into place.

I remembered that I had a box of Christmas items suitable for miniatures sitting somewhere, so I found it and one of the results is the little Christmas creche on the counter shelf; the floor and the back are pieces of tongue depressor, reinforced with a card hinge on the back. On to that I glued a tiny Baby in the manger, and an equally tiny Mary next to that. There is also a sequin star, with gold wire rays, which is not so visible here; it may be enlarged for better viewing, I hope! There is also some "straw" here and there on the base, made from tiny snippets of fine raffia. I do like the way it turned out.

In the box I found some other items I'm now working on, including a half dozen gift bags, which need a crate to sit in. That is on my list. As well, I intend to make some shallow crates or boxes to hold loose Christmas tree decorations. 

The lighting consists of two strings of dollar store Christmas lights, one around the opening and one around the perimeter of the setting. It took three tries to get the opening swag arranged to my satisfaction, as I didn't want clusters of lights and large bare spots. It also wore out two swags of plastic holly leaves - I've left trails of them all around the house, they're very staticky - and am not sure if I will ever use those leaves again; they were so very fragile!

All in all, I am happy that I can now work on filling my little market stall with merchandise....,.

How I Finish My Rugs or Carpets - Photo-heavy!

Here's hoping this is of interest to you, my readers. Over the years, one of the refrains I hear all too often at miniature shows in my part of the world, is "I can do that myself, and it will be way cheaper". Minimum wage here in my province is around $13.00 per hour. It takes me an hour, on average, to work a square inch (2.5 x 2.5 cm cm) of carpet  or rug, depending on the intricacy of the pattern and the colour changes. This rug measures 4 5/8" x 7 1/8" (11.7 x 18.2 cm), not including the fringe, representing about $375.00 hours worth of embroidery work. The edging would be another $39.00, and the finishing and  fringing a similar amount. We are looking at upwards of $450.00 for the work alone. As costs of thread and backing aren't huge, I'll forgo material costs here.

Offered for sale in my part of the world, I would charge $75.00 - more than that people would not pay. Hmmm! Here's how it's done:

The edges of the embroidery have been trimmed, and the corners mitered and stitched down. 

( The photos insist on being vertical, so I'm sorry, we can't figure out how to get the photos to behave. I've gone to the editing function and flipped and saved them but it isn't carrying over to the blog.) Anyways, the edges are then sewn down using a herringbone stitch, which is flexible; this is important because the continental stitch, the main one used in the rug, pulls on the bias. It is necessary, once in a while, to re-align the sides by pulling and then gently pressing with a steam iron. The diagram for this stitch is in the book, which is of course sideways.... The red centre of the rug is worked in basket-weave stitch, done diagonally and alternating vertical and horizontal rows, which minimizes the bias stretch of the canvas.

This is a view of the long-arm cross-stitch I use for the edges; it gives a braided effect, helps with a crisp folded edge, and doesn't show any of the white background fabric when the carpet is on the floor.

Another vertical photo! I give up. The fringe is formed by wrapping floss around a ruler, and then cutting it off along one edge of that.

This one remained horizontal! (There are gremlins in my computer for sure.) Front side of the carpet, with some of the cut floss fringes. These still have to be separated into bundles of 3 strands of floss each, see below.

 I lay these out on my knee.

Each little bundle of 3 floss strands is doubled, pulled through 2 threads of the edge canvas, and then pulled through the loop formed, using a very tiny crochet hook. These fringes are placed in every second hole in the canvas.

We flipped this one, but it wants to be vertical. Oh well. The fringes are all in place, but are way too long; the next step is trimming them.

The fringes are brushed out nice and straight with a toothbrush, then taped in place, ready for cutting to scale fringe size. Below is a photo of the advantage of doing it this way.

The cut-off bits of floss stick to the masking tape, making them very neat and tidy and easy to dispose of!

And this is the finished rug. Altogether, I spent about 5 hours today, finishing the braided effect edge, preparing and placing the fringe, and bringing things to this point. And my customers balk at spending $75.00 for all this work....

Many miniature rugs have fringes made of frayed out fabric, glued on to the ends. Many also have glued hems, rather than sewn ones. I find that glue eventually darkens and ruins the work, and prefer to work with an eye to the longevity of my handwork. I enjoy seeing the lovely little carpets and rugs grow as I work them, which is probably why I continue making them....

Hope you found this photo essay, gremlins and all, an interesting one! I now deserve a cup of tea and a cookie.  

Progress on Another Front

 No progress has been reported on this since September 1, apparently! I decided to go back to filling in the corner motifs on this carpet, and just did the last one. Now the inner, wide border, which is about half done, is up for completion.

We are once again in complete lock-down here, thanks to the meteoric rise of the Omicron variety of Covid. Our hospitals have more than 100 people in ICU, and provincially, only 200 can be accommodated; my annual mammogram was cancelled, and it will likely be months before my new eye specialist can see me, and then there is another long wait that may need postponing, after that, if surgery is needed. I did fine, until today, when the colours on my embroidery chart started blurring and changing again. I'll give it a day before trying again....

As far as the market stall is concerned, the wiring for the perimeter is in place, and the wiring for the stall itself - a lighted swag around the front opening - is ready to be placed. That's next. I've decided to try and finish some half-finished, small projects while I am under pandemic "house arrest", just to keep my sanity. I am doing a minimum of 10 rows daily on a current sock project (one is done), as wool socks with temperatures well below zero seem a good idea! With the wind chill, we are dealing with -30 C.

Stay well and healthy!

Non-Miniature History....

Sheila's and Huibrecht's comments on the Christmas creche set has set off some memories. As we are in a lock-down here again, due to Covid, I don't know if  I will have minis to write about today. So here are a couple of interesting stories, for those who might want something to read.

The creche figures and the original paper and wire grotto were kept in a Red Cross box. This box was a heavy, wooden affair, painted light grey and with the circle and cross on top. It was probably parachuted down into the occupied Netherlands during the WWII, and found a new life for a family treasure, eventually crossing the ocean to Canada. I have absolutely no idea where it is now, as I think Dad passed it on to someone when he moved from Ontario to Vancouver Island, BC at the age of 87.

(I should mention here that my father was transferred to Canada from The Netherlands, which meant that we could bring most of our household effects with us, as well as flying  - 12 hours (in 1956) in a KLM Clipper,  via Reykjavik, Iceland because Shannon, Ireland (refuelling stop) was fogged in, rather than travelling by boat. We were very fortunate, judging by stories from other immigrants at the time, who came with what they had in their suitcases and with legally limited amounts of money; my memory thinks about $100 per person back then,  travelling 8 or more days on board a passenger ship.)

My father's earliest memory was of standing on the bank of the Maas river, with a large man in a greatcoat and a spiked helmet checking his mother's papers, so that they could cross by rowboat to Belgium. This would have been around 1917, as my dad remembered he was about 3 years old at the time. The trip was because his step-grandfather had died in Liege, and my grandmother needed to deal with some family matters there. My father's older brothers (he was the baby) always teased him that his birth, on August 1, 1914, had been the cause of the outbreak of the first world war.

My only brother has an interest in history, and somewhere, as a child, he purchased a pikkel-haub helmet at a rummage or yard sale. (One of those black helmets with a visor and a brass spike on the top.) A few years ago, he discovered that there was a name under the sweat-band of the helmet, so he looked it up. It had belonged to a German poet, with a museum in his memory in his home town. The helmet was offered to the museum by my brother, and it is now on display there.

My younger daughter purchased a couple of vintage suitcases, to turn into bedside tables for the steampunk-themed guest room in her house,  two or so years ago. In the lining of one of the suitcases, she found an identification bracelet with a full name on it. With the aid of my older daughter, who has a degree in Museum Science, they traced the name back to a Canadian soldier. Research turned up no descendants that they could discover, and I'm not sure where the bracelet is now. Had they found family members, they would have given them the bracelet.

Things hold memories; no matter how humble, a box, a helmet, a bracelet, history unfolds and tells us a tale. It's good to reflect on memories....

A Different Sort of Mini....

 

I inherited my family's Christmas creche, which from the appearance of the shepherds - the youngest is a bit of a matinee idol - dates from the twenties. Over the last 90 to 100 years, this plaster set sometimes develops a few little dings; this year, the ram came out of its wrappings with a broken neck. However, a quick visit to This to That, the excellent gluing site, had him almost as good as new. I can't ever remember our camel not having had a broken neck!

The group at the right with the ox survived the last Christmas;however, the group on the left all needed tiny touch-ups. Our Baby Jesus looks far too old to still be in the manger, he appears to be school age.....

There are three kings with a camel and a gentleman to hold on to the camel, three shepherds, the ox and the ass, half a dozen sheep - one ram, one lamb, and several ewes - along with a dog to take care of them all, and of course, the angel, as well as Mary, Joseph and the baby. Our original stable was a grotto, made by my father from a wire mesh frame covered in brown paper, and then painted and aged. A manger hung on the back wall, and there was a cooking set-up made up of a small tin can cauldron on chains hung a wooden tripod; these survived our move to Canada, but the grotto never made it to my house. We now have a simple wooden frame stable.

(I'll let you in on a secret; I had a crush on the young kneeling shepherd when I was a child, but thought the standing one was pretty cute too. The kneeling shepherd is an older man.)

It took a fair bit of paint mixing to retouch everything! The king in the orange cloak has gold-tone boots, and as one toe was chipped, I replaced the black undercoat and then used my finger to spread a bit of gold. Now, once they're dry, they can go back into their boxes until Christmas 2022. 

The set is quite large; the standing figures stand 9.5 to 10" (24.5 to 25.5 cm); I guess the camel must be a special, smaller breed.....

To a Happier 2022

My mini friends and I got together electronically on Wednesday, as the pandemic is hitting new highs in terms of infections. We had been warned that things would likely get bad post-Christmas and New Year, but 2,500 new cases in a province with less than 875,000 population is very alarming. Too many people out there have not gotten their vaccinations....

While I  did get some mini work done Wednesday, it was unspectacular; installing the light poles on the corners of my market stall base (geez, it is hard typing with a cat on your lap!), and sealing the pavement, as well as a little painting on more stuff for the stall.

This is the sun coming up on Tuesday morning, through the birch and hemlock trees, and our small, south-east facing,  front garden apple orchard. It is too bad the sparkles on the new-fallen snow don't show. We are having a snow storm, that is, 30 cm (a foot!) of snow is forecast, along with 70 to 80 km wind gusts. The snow started about twenty minutes ago, and is supposed to continue tomorrow (Saturday). It is the kind of very fine, powdery snow that tends to swirl up into serious drifts....

This is the view from my living room windows, across our back garden, much of which we have left natural (or wild!), over the Saint John river valley across to the bank on the north side of that river.

The local people call the river, Woolastooq, and there is a movement to give it back its original name, rather than the one given to it by an early explorer. (It may have been Samuel de Champlain, who hung around in these parts.) The mouth of the river empties into the Bay of Fundy at the modern city of Saint John, the river likely getting its name for being "discovered" on St. John the Baptist's feast day, several hundred years ago.

It was cold on Tuesday, -16C, and when it gets that cold and the sun is out, our sky is the most beautiful shade of turquoise blue, sometimes greenish at the horizon. This wonderful winter light is what makes this overly long cold season bearable for many of us.

May the New Year be a better one than the two that we have just endured, and happy mini-ing!