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!