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!

Merry Christmas 2021

No, I did not get it finished! I have tried, but it is very difficult to find enough time for some of the very time-consuming tasks left to do. I have got the garland that will go around the front and sides of the market stall ready to install; that is one of the tasks, part of which included figuring out how best to attach the garland to the building, and yet allow it to be removed if necessary. 

It is my hope that the posts on the four corners will also be lit; I do have another string of lights for this purpose. However, first the posts have to be stained, and then I have to stick them in place and re-do the cobbles at their bases. They look rather tall right now, but they will go down into the base and then be about as high as the roof. 

I still have to come up with a name....

The shops open up again on Tuesday, but I think I'd better wait a day or two before going shopping for supplies: snow paint, masking tape, Christmas trees,. and matte outdoor varnish. With the supply difficulties the stores are experiencing, I will likely have to give several hours to this task.

The time-consuming task I'm currently working on is the installation of the rustic shingle roof; these are being cut, individually, from large dolls' house shingles that I had dyed in walnut stain some time ago. By varying the amount of time the shingles spent in the stain, I got a nice variety of colours. I can glue down three rows and then I have to let the glue dry, otherwise everything slips out of alignment on the roof. That has been, and continues to be, today's task. I was going to use a corrugated plastic roof sheet I picked up at least 20 years ago, but it was too short to fit....

I wish you and your loved ones a Very Merry Christmas, and I hope Santa brings you minis!

 

The Roof Is On....

 We are having a snow/rain/freezing rain storm today, so our weekly meeting took place over the internet. I've managed to fit and paint the roof, and to install the brackets that will hold the lights and the garland (I hope!).

I put together another Erzgebirgte bow as well, this time I tried a manger scene:

Yes, the baby Jesus is a little large, but so is the Christ Child in our antique German creche scene. I may give Joseph a staff, but will see how a section of fine antique brass wire might look. If you enlarge this photo, you will see that the glue on the "candles" is still wet....

There is a series of wire brackets all around the roof of the market stall; I hope to use these to string the evergreen/holly garland and the light string. I also want to experiment with poles on the corners, as mentioned in my previous post, and will try to string some lights there as well.

Obviously, the merchandise in the market stall will NOT be finished before Christmas; I have to go and stand in line in whatever weather presents itself tomorrow to get my Covid booster shot, and have no idea of how much actual time for minis I will have. We do what we must!

And the Cobbles Are In Place

The next step is to make the roof; I hope to fit it like a lid, with lighting and a garland around the edges. It needs to be removable as I will surely want to replace the contents as I learn new skills; it was pointed out to me when I first started working on miniature settings, that a setting is never truly finished....

I am pleased with the look of the stone paving; it will need a couple of coats of matte varnish, which I have to go out and buy as the two large bottles I bought years ago have now separated.  The front and back supports of the base  will go underneath, hopefully tomorrow, to make a space to hide the batteries for the Christmas lights. The edges will then be finished with an iron-on veneer banding.

I'm going to see if I want poles on the four corners, to string yet more lights around; I could perhaps use the posts themselves to display wreaths or similar decorations. I'll have to ponder that!

 

Cobbles Going In

 I decided to take the time to make my own, bread-loaf shaped cobbles for my Christmas Market Stall, and began yesterday. The first thing was to paint the mossy green pieces of mat board (mount board) a spotty gray;

The next step was to sponge paint on the gray base, using both a sea sponge and a cellulose kitchen sponge; I couldn't find my cosmetic sponge, which is usually the last step. I used two shades of darker gray, and white to do this.

And I have no idea why the photo is suddenly sideways! It looks oddly spotted, but the next step is to cut the card into approximately 1 by 2 cm long pieces. Once cut into rectangular shapes, the corners have to be nipped off to appear hand-hewn; this work of making cobbles was often the hard labour that prisoners had to work at!

The edges of  individual stones then have to coloured dark gray, which I did while watching TV and with a washable gray felt pen; I always get pen all over my fingers doing this!

The flash has not been terribly helpful today, but here are the stones cut from the first piece of painted mat board, glued into place. I have finished cutting the second piece of board, and will now colour in the edges, again while watching TV. That is a rather boring part of making these stones....

Cutting up the painted mat board means the colour areas get jumbled up enough that the finished stones appear to have been individually painted.

The bread-loaf shape of stone is one I remembered from my childhood; there were small, rounded stones about half the size of these, called "kinderkopjes" (children's heads), that are often laid in semi- circular patterns, as well as regular rows of them. That's how the market in my Dutch hometown, Maastricht, is laid out; however, I'm not sure whether that is traditional or whether it is modern, as a few years ago, when I visited, they were busy re-laying the cobbles in one of the main roads, and it was being done in semi-circles. I recall these rectangular stones being on some of the older, i.e. medieval, parts of the city. 

Once the stones are laid, I'll give them a few coats of matte outdoors varnish, and see if I need to fill in the gaps between them. Usually, these cobbles are laid in a deep bed of sand.

I really hope that I can have the outside of the Market Stall done for Christmas, as I can always fill in the merchandise later....

Wow! That's Tiny....

Offerings for today; a Christmas tomten and an Erzgebirchte bow ornament. The tomten was cut and sanded from a bit of left-over jumbo craft stick, while the bow ornament was made of scraps, beads, fancy toothpick tops, beads, manila file folder and white floral wire for the candles.

This one has been an experiment, and I would like to try a couple more. It's just that they are so very tiny!The angel has paper wings and a jewelry finding halo. The shepherd has a paper headdress, and a floral wire shepherd's crook. 

Up close it looks rather odd; however, from a bit of distance the shepherd's crook really does not appear all that large....And the photo is still out of focus, my camera batteries are dying. It is less than 3/4" or under 2 cm tall! On the shelf in the market stall it might look more convincing, I hope.

 

And A Couple More...

Two sets of porch Christmas decorations; the varnish on the square ones is still wet. Now I have to let that dry, and then I'll put a seal coat on the base, prior to painting that.

I did say in my previous post that I have a little more time now for minis!