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.

I Found a Box Full of Body Parts....

....and now I'm feeling very guilty. While attempting to sort our my work space, I discovered some little people I had  begun years ago, which I had completely forgotten about.


Some of these were made quite a few years ago, for the market scene and the first big project I began, the artist's studio. As well, there are two dolls intended for a park bench vignette; a pregnant mom and her toddler. There was also an elderly lady who was going to share the bench with them - they were supposed to be at a bus stop - but the old lady ended up as one of the shoppers in the market.

So now, aside from at least two more dolls for the Tudor market, I also have two or three left for the other market. The baby had movable arms, but I managed to break the shoulder joint. I guess I just put them out of sight, out of mind.

While trying to cut down on my enormous hobby stash, I also found two dolls I had forgotten about, larger size; one is a reproduction china head, the other a Chinese baby with a broken hand and in need of some new joint elastic. This is on top of a couple of practice restorations on two antiques, an Armand Marseille child and a china head Highland Mary, that I acquired very inexpensively a couple of weeks ago.

When I say to my friends that I need to live to be 150, in order to finish all my projects, I am now underestimating!

I will get back to minis soon....

This Weekend....

...is our provincial Highland Games Festival. It starts off this evening with music and a reception (and smoked salmon, but I musn't be greedy!), continues on Saturday, when I will be slinging haggis is The Haggis Cafe (fundraiser), and on Sunday. The highlight for me on Saturday and Sunday will be the massed bands at the end of the day, bagpipes and drums by the St. John River, next to a very old (for Canada) Lieutenant Governor's mansion. Once upon a time I worked in that building, when it was the provincial Royal Canadian Mounted Police headquarters.

We are in another heatwave here, and there is also very high humidity. A cyanobacteria algal bloom outbreak along parts of the river has already claimed the lives of three dogs; this algae kills within fifteen minutes or so. That means no swimming in the river for local dogs.

The heatwave is bound to affect the highland dance competitors, as well as the pipe bands; I expect the St. John Ambulance crews will be kept very busy.

But on August 1st, I am doing minis with a few friends! Now that the doll display I worked on this past Wednesday at Kings Landing is done, and pretty much everything has been tidied away, I can do miniatures again! Well, I still have to re-string a couple of dolls....

Catching Up Once Again

It may again be a bit quiet on the blog, as I am in the throes of organizing a miniature and doll show for the fall. Right now it is registrations, which take quite a bit of my time. Also, we are once again in a heatwave, and my energy levels are low....

I am doing a doll display this coming week, with the provincial Highland Games over the weekend; usually I spend a day at the Haggis Cafe. Yes, we made haggis again this year, and expect to serve about 200 haggis on a bun at the event. One of these days, I must do a little Scots vignette to give to the Carpenter-in-Chief, as he is the guy with the Scottish background!

Primroses

My camera and I are not getting along that well these days; it eats batteries, which means I have to leave the battery port open, and it is a struggle to close it every time. It also does not interact with the computer to rotate photos any more, much is the pity, as I had a better photo which kept insisting on going sideways even though I had rotated it straight up.

Here is the flat of primroses I mentioned in an earlier post; if you click on the photo, you can see that there is a tiny lady bug beetle on the leaf that is hanging over. Some years ago, I was given a sheet of lady bugs; during my last mini vacation, I think I figured out how they were made. You need stained glass pens and the backing of something that is self-adhesive; I've saved the backing of a sticker that states, Miniaturists Work as Little as Possible....

The sticker itself lives on the back window of my car. To make the lady bugs, you need to make a dot of red stained glass paint on the backing sheet and allow that to dry. Then make an even tinier dot of black stained glass paint next to the red one for the bug's head. You don't need to make the dots on the bug's back at this scale! Dot a tiny tacky glue dot on the leaf, place the lady bug, and allow to dry.

It adds some fun realism to miniature plants and flowers!

Catching Up and Minis Again

I was able to have a brief, mini holiday with like-minded friends. While there, I began work on a commission for roses, to fill an incredible silver repousse vase. Today, I delivered the commission; below you will see the photo, taken at our club meeting this evening:



You can click on them to see them close-up. I am kind of surprised at how well they turned out! There is a baker's dozen of roses in the vase, along with three sprigs of baby's breath, and some rose foliage.

Before going on holiday, my younger daughter and I took a day off from working on minis, in my case, and from packing, in her case, to make a flying visit to the Guild School in Castine, ME. We hadn't planned on going, as this was just after the political brouhaha regarding our Prime Minister being castigated by the President, but we were so tired of what we were doing that we just went. Two ladies I had met in Edmonton were students at the school, as well as a number of alumni of Camp MiniHaHa. I just love seeing the displays at the school, and the people there are always very friendly and chatty.

 My daughter and I had a lovely day out, and were able to return to our respective jobs with renewed zeal. Since then, she has moved back to Alberta, and I am slowly getting things tidied up and things finished. Stay tuned, I also finished a flat of primroses, complete with ladybug on one of the leaves, and have begun an amaryllis plant for the flower shop's summer display.