Still Working Away, Albeit Slowly....

 The Christmas parcels for my children were sent off on Monday, which means I have time to devote to my other hobbies again. My mini friends and I did meet on Wednesday, and two of us are working at filling our Christmas market stalls. Our other mini friend is working on a secret project....

The local office supply store did some excellent copying for me, and the first result is these miniature Christmas plates. The printies came from 1 zu 12, the German magazine, from a market stall project by Belgian miniaturist Iris Arentz (Trezoortjes), who works extensively with paper and card. I am debating whether to cut the rims back a little, as the pressed card plate forms I purchased at Birmingham Miniatura years ago are a larger diameter than the printies. These plates will go at the back of the shelves in my market stall, and will add seasonal colour.

This is just part of the stock for the shop; most of it is finished, but some of the boxes still need filling. It is not easy finding decent supplies, as all the stores appear to be dealing with delayed delivery problems. There aren't enough truck drivers and dock workers to keep up, and the suppliers are also experiencing labour difficulties due to the pandemic.

There is a LOT of space on the shelves for me to fill! The boxes of Christmas baubles will go on the lower shelves, while the various decor items will get pride of place. More laser-cut items are being worked on, but I need fine green glitter for the little Christmas trees. I'm also working on some larger decor items, like Porch decorations; a trio of round dowel Santas are being painted, and a similar trio of square ones need a bit more work on the faces, then they can be stained a nice, warm light brown. These will stand outside the shop, for the delectation of potential customers at the miniature Christmas market.

Currently, I am debating on how to finish the base the stall will sit on; ideally, I'd like a cobblestone (printed) base, covered here and there in painted snow. And I still have to think of a catchy name for my little market stall.Marilyn is way ahead of that

Small Progress Report

 

I've been working, slowly, on creating some more stock for my Christmas stall. The tiny green Christmas trees are made from chenille sticks and glitter, while the brown and white wooden ones were inspired by a Scandinavian Christmas ornament site. The leaping deer, two different kinds, are inexpensive laser cut ornaments from the $store, painted white, mounted on bases, and then dressed up with micro-glitter in white. Some of these will go into the stall, while others will go into my shop in a box, for whenever we are able to have or visit miniature shows again....

There are also two kinds of tiny laser-cut Christmas trees that I will make up for the stall; I need to experiment with the green glitter I have and see if it is small enough!

It is slow going; I think I am worn out  (more than!) a little by the Covid closures. Our small mini group has missed  two Wednesday meetings due to Real Life, but we were able to get together today. It is so helpful, tired of the restrictions as we are, to be able to meet up in person. We hope to work together again next week.

Lots of Boxes and Beads!

We were able to get together yesterday afternoon, and I spent it making boxes, and then today I made more boxes. I also picked up some $ store beads that are very attractive for making more Christmas balls from.

My workspace is shrinking! That, I expect, is something most of us who do miniatures are very familiar with, indeed. I was able to access a lot of excellent printies for boxes, thanks to Amberatti.blogspot a number of years ago. They were professionally printed on photo paper, and I really like the effect. Not cut out yet from that sheet are tinsel, angel hair, snow, and lightbulb boxes, so I have a few more (!) boxes to work on over the weekend.

The little market stall now has shelves inside, as well as a counter, cut down from vintage wooden venetian blind slats; they are sort of pre-aged, and I love the golden brown colour, which will work beautifully with my planned colour scheme. More boxes on the shelves, but these need their dividers as well as the decorations to go inside them. At this point, the plan is that this front part of the stall will be removable, held in place with some tiny, powerful rare earth magnets, to allow access to the interior. The roof will also lift off. However, as we all know, plans are known to change....

I hope there will be lights! Once a week I check the Christmas supplies already appearing in our $ stores; the current crop of LED lights run off batteries, but I'm hoping that I can find some tiny lights that operate with coin batteries, as they take up minimal space.

I also plan to (gasp!) glue down all the items "available" in this shop! Those of you who have been visiting the blog for some years will recall that I don't usually glue stuff down. But these bits are so tiny that, should the cat walk by the finished stall, everything is likely to fall off the shelves.

 

A Few Things for the Christmas Stall

It's not all that much, but I did make a few little things yesterday afternoon during our mini get-together; a crate of pine cones, and one of moss balls, as well as some tinsel packages. It is slow going; however, the shops here are started to sell Christmas items, which means I have to go into town at least once a week to see what I can use of the new arrivals in making minis. I need to go down the trail behind my house and pick some more alder cones.

Today I picked up another box of laser-cut mini ornaments. I already have one, but there were a lot of small pieces that can be used in miniature, as standing decor items. Also, Louise had pointed out to me a set of three very fine bead chains, that will fit very nicely on a miniature Christmas wreath or garland. A few more cut-outs are waiting to be assembled, as well as some tiny wooden and beaded figurines in the making.

And what is this, you might wonder? I had shown Marilyn a companion piece to the wooden shoe workshop, a candle workshop from the same historical era. The workshops are two of a series in the Dutch magazine, Poppenhuizen en Miniaturen, that ran in 1999. I have only two of these, the klompenmakerij and the candle factory. They were all designed to fit into the same basic room box, just individually designed; the very first one was a school. 

This is a table that held the dipped, paired candles to allow them to harden. It is in a new state, as I would likely age the piece when (or if!) I get an opportunity to build that room box as well. I had another birthday this week, and this is my birthday gift from Marilyn. The rods are removable, and fit across the beams which are also removable. (The candle factory photo in the magazine is very dark and dreary-looking, as it likely would have been.) The tray is also loose. But I MUST finish the many projects I currently have on the go first!

The floor of the market stall has been painted; beige with cream and pale green spatters. The shelves have been cut, and will soon be installed, but I need the Carpenter-in-Chief's assistance with the shelves and screwing the MDF building together. In the meantime, I can make shop stock.

 

There's a Lot of Stuff to Finish....

 

The fourth Serendipity rug is finished; I think it has something of a Victorian air, perhaps due to its colours.

Fiddly, but I've been saving a printie of these boxes for years; they are from the December 1996 issue of Nutshell News, and I think I need two more copies. They're fiddly, but if you follow the instructions carefully (!), they go together quite well. I need more small beads for ornaments....

The Dutch door is now glued into the back wall of the wooden shoe workshop; although it won't really show, I needed to fix it securely in order to prevent it swinging open (and breaking off) if the workshop is ever displayed. (I'm feeling a "bit" worried that there will ever be shows again.)

And a few "fancy" tree ornaments, which I hope to display on a hanging rack on the inside of the door to the Christmas market stall. I have still to design a sensible rack, and many more ornaments need to be made. I wonder where I can find bags of mixed beads? This may be a chance to roam around a few second-hand shops, although I am worried about getting Covid; I'm due for a booster, but they are currently only giving booster to seniors in nursing home settings, and to people with underlying conditions. And winter is coming....

The Christmas Market Stall Has Doors

The doors are Faux, as access will have to be through the front opening and the roof, which has to be removable.

Inside and out. Today meant a lot of waiting for both paint and glue to dry, so this is about all the progress there is.

The wooden shoe factory is in the process of having the door framed in on the back, and a stoop installed there. Again, waiting for glue to dry....

 

Christmas Market Stall, Continued

This is the front portion of the Christmas market stall I began a couple of weeks ago. I got caught up in Real Life things, and haven't had much of a chance to work further on it.

The stall will sell Christmas decorations, of all kinds, many for dressing Christmas trees. The colour scheme is cream and pale green, with (hopefully!) gold accents. Today I cut out and decoupaged some of the "paintings" on the front of the stall; the printies came from the January 2012 issue of Dolls House Nederland. The take-off for the design of the stall came from my memories of old carousels, which are always beautifully pastel in colour and very vividly accented. The space between the two round appliques are going to have the shop name, once I think of the perfect one....

There is almost another Serendipity rug finished, this one in reds and greys, accented with black. A few other items for the Christmas stall are in various stages of work, and I hope to get some of these ready to show on the blog; we are once again in our area in a Covid lock-down, which is sitting badly with a lot of people (all those, like me, fully vaccinated!), who are not even allowed to have family to share our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner on Monday. My family lives too far away to visit, but there are a lot of unhappy New Brunswickers around right now. The news this morning, in the paper, is that we are likely looking at another Red Level, i.e. complete lock-down, very soon unless the numbers of Covid cases go down drastically.

The supermarkets are reporting that the sale of small turkeys is very high, while the larger turkeys are not being sold. The carpenter-in-chief and I are sharing a chicken....