Dreaming Of Spring

I had forgotten how perfect Braxton Payne's terra cotta flower pots are, until Linda Carswell reminded me. I bought several from him many years ago at a show in Chicago. These are ones I ordered from him not long ago. They are so thin and they even have a drainage hole in the bottom of the pot. Yes, they are kiln fired! http://www.braxtonpayne.com/HomePages/HOME.htm

I have admired Pascale Garnier's flower kits for a long time. This weekend I indulged my self in putting together two of her Geranium kits. I know it won't be long until I order from her again. I really enjoyed making them.

Yancey... That is not a fire hydrant! ;-)

The Chandelier For The Kitchen

For so long I've had this chandelier I made stored in a box. Today I had some time to play and I just wanted to see what it would look like up.

Usually after I make something I decide I would rather have something else instead... One step forward two steps back. (?) Now that I see it hanging with some of the other things that will be in the kitchen, I know I will use it.

It is going to be a bit of a pain to get it positioned so that the arms are at the right angle. I didn't bother with trying to get it to do that today.

I plan to spend all this week designing a house... It is waaaaay past time.

Meet Loire!

I started him when I thought Yancey and kitty were lost forever. Which is the reason I made another West Highland Terrier. I gave him a slightly different cut than the other ones I have made. The fur on his face is a bit longer. I wish he was photogenic... He has a very friendly, sweet look on his face.

I do not need two of these little dogs in my doll house. So I have decided to sell him. He has agate eyes and a very soft Alpaca coat. Loire is exactly 4cm tall to the tip of his right ear. More photos can be sent to you on request. If you are interested you can email me at the address just under my profile on this page. His price will be consistent with other artists that sculpt OOAK animals.

I delete most emails I do not recognize, so please let me know in your email title that you are inquiring about the dog. :-)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!

Thank you for all your visits and contributions to my blog this year.

Catherine X

Gingerbread Houses

No, this is not my gingerbread house. I just thought you might enjoy seeing it. I have been doing a lot of baking though. Next year I am going to have to try one of these. I just thought this one was so exceptional I had to share it.
I also love this one for it's wood texture on the gingerbread. I really do like them best when they are not covered with candy .

Beautiful Miniatures From Peiwen

eiwen
No... The lost kitty and Yancey didn't go to Paris to bring me home some Laduree treats.

These beautiful miniatures were made by the lovely and very talented Peiwen. Aren't they beautiful!!! I could open my own patisserie she was so generous. I love the big bottle of Champaign, I can see bubbles inside the bottle. The tiny macaroons are perfection!

She has so many new things in her ETSY shop. You must stop by and have a good look around. :-)
http://www.etsy.com/shop/OiseaudeNim?ref=seller_info

Thank you so very much Peiwen, I love them all!

It seems that kitty and Yancey fell in their carrier box between the pillows in my friends sofa. Christmas cleaning revealed their hiding place. I am very happy they have returned home today.

So Many Ideas.

I am beginning to understand why people end up having more than one doll house. Once you choose a style you have eliminated everything else.

How cute is this! I would love to have it 1: 1 or 1: 12 scale. Something about the texture of the stone reminds me of barnacles. I love the shape, height and number of chimneys.

Oct 31, 2011 Yes! I have added several more houses lately.

Making A Crystal Chandelier

I have been finding the most wonderful supplies. I think making those lamps started somthing.

I have always wanted to make a crystal chandelier but I wanted a certain look. I have found what I had in mind. First these 3/8" cupped glass doll buttons. They look perfect for holding the candle shaft and bulb which will hide the drilled holes from the top but allow wires to go through them. Also these will work for crystal candle sticks. I would share the link but I bought them all in ETSY.
These are 2mm round Swarovski beads which will be perfect for swags on the chandelier. I had no idea Swarovski made them so tiny. http://www.etsy.com/shop/twinkledropz/search?search_query=150+pcs+CLEAR+5000+2mm+Swarovski+Crystal+Small+Round+Beads&search_type=user_shop_ttt_id_5626531&shopname=twinkledropz

Best of all... These tiny top drilled teardrops. This means they are not drilled straight through the side of the bead at the narrow point. The hole is drilled straight in through the top and stops about 2.5mm into the crystal. Ooooh that is fantastic!!! They are 6x4mm a perfect size teardrop! http://www.artfire.com/modules.php?name=Shop&op=listing&product_id=257098

Making Lamps

I just thought I would add to this post. So many of you have already left such kind comments. Thank you!
I wanted to photograph the lamps in the right setting to see how they looked. I was hoping they would look like marble. I am pretty happy with them.
Still no feeling back on that spot on my thumb.?




I have been busy working on all sorts of things. I managed to finish two lamps today.
They were more work than I ever could have imagined. There is now a spot on my thumb that has no feeling in it at all. It has been that way for three days. I hope it comes back to life. LOL

I bought the Blue Lace Agate Beads for the lamps on ETSY. I loved the color and the oval melon twist! However, there was a problem. They had a very tiny hole in them. I thought... No problem, I'll buy a diamond bead reamer. http://www.etsy.com/shop/EurekaEureka?ref=seller_info

I also bought solid brass heishe beads on ETSY. Same problem, I had metal reamers though!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/mintdestash?ref=seller_info

Then I decided I wanted 8mm Swarovski crystal black cube beads for the base... Same problem a tiny hole. Plus I was told you can't ream out Swarovski crystal beads without breaking them. I never listen to stuff like that, it went fine. I didn't break any and it went a heck of a lot faster than those blue agates!

I bought some metal findings thinking this would speed up the process. ALL of those had to be altered. Plus I realized suddenly I needed to have a metal tube run through all of these pieces. And they have to line up in all directions. UGH!

The GREATEST new find was the watch makers glue I bought. It has a built in hypodermic needle tip. It is for gluing watch crystals and any non-porous pieces together. OMG! That stuff is FANTASTIC! I was told it never goes bad and the needle stays clear.

I really wanted white shades but I when I held up all the white papers I had to the lamps it looked awful. So I made temporary shades out of black paper. When finished they looked funny next to that black crystal bead! I decided to spray paint them black for a deeper shade. Are there shades of black?

I will take some better photos of the lamps in a proper setting in a few days. I hope you like them, cause they really tried to kill me.

Bringing In The Harvest, with KIVA

I have admired Kiva Atkinson's work for a very long time. I knew that I would order from her as soon as I thought of something I really wanted. It turned out what I really needed was a lot of loose vegetables. I wanted to be able to arrange different set ups depending on what I was going on in the kitchen that day. ;-) It seems like someone is going to be cooking a sauce for pasta today. (gorgeous pasta box by Carol Cook).

Kiva made me potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, corn on the cob, cauliflower, yellow onions, a red onion and garlic. Do you see how one tiny garlic clove has been removed. :-) I love how the onion has sprouted a couple of green shoots. She even thought of something I forgot... Mushrooms. They are perfect! What a lovely surprise!!!

Thank you so much Kiva, I love it! Your work is just beautiful!!!
http://kivasminiatures.blogspot.com/

Halls Clock

Jenny Halls told me in an email that she is Malcolm's biggest fan. As his wife I have to yield and give her that spot but I am absolutely his second biggest fan! She made me laugh so hard when she told me she goes into his work shop and pinches his clocks for her doll house. He knows exactly where they went and goes and gets them when an order arrives. LOL

His beautiful clock came in yesterdays mail. It was too late for me to call them in England from the USA. Malcolm answered the phone this morning. I called to let him know the clock arrived safely and ask some questions. I wanted to know how to care for the clock, take the back off to set the time and change the battery.

We had a nice long chat. He told me he engraves all the metal parts (clock face, decorative panels). He also makes the hands and the articulating handle at the top. OMG!!! The wood is burl walnut and it is simply beautiful! I am afraid my photos don't do it justice at all.

Nothing in miniature I have ever bought has impressed or thrilled me as much.
http://www.hallsminiatureclocks.com/

Another Copper Teapot and Glass Repair

I had a little time this week so I made another copper teapot. This one has a African blackwood handle and knob. I drilled the knob so I could put a brass pin (rivet) through it to insure it so it wouldn't come off once glued. The wood handle also has a pin the runs all the way through it.

The glass canisters I bought a long time ago at a show in Chicago. They were very crudely cut, meaning they had awful raw edges. So this morning I decided to stone off those jagged edges off the canisters and their lids. Now they look much better! I filled them with flour, sugar, tea and pasta. I must find a substitute for the real thing. I don't need weevils hatching and creeping around. LOL

Please CLICK on photos for a much closer look.

Sterling Silver Portrait Buttons

I am home, having had a wonderful week in the mountains. The fall colors were magnificent! I see I have a lot of catching up to do with my blog reading.

I was asked by a friend if I would make some portrait buttons of her five children. They will be on a sweater she wants to knit. I asked her if she would mind if I sculpted them sleeping. I hate the look of vacant eyes in metal. She said she rather liked it when they were all asleep. LOL I also thought it would be kind of creepy to have five sets of eye balls staring out from a sweater.

The first two have had the shanks soldered to the backs and have been polished and oxidized. The third one is dull because it hasn't been polished yet and still needs a shank on the back of it. The sculpting was done in wax with a hot tool. Most of the small details had to be done with a needle. They were built up rather than carved out of hard wax. Then of course lost wax cast in sterling silver.

I am delighted that my (at home) bench is finally together. I am going to love having a place to work at home on some miniatures.

Wilbur

Meet Wilbur. I am afraid I broke his neck this morning, no problem he can be fixed. He is a doll sculpt I made for the little girl that visits my shop. She asked me to make her a funny man with a big nose. I suppose I will have to dress him now and put some color on his face and give him a few hairs. What do you think he should be wearing? lol

Experimenting

I found this image on someone's blog recently and saved it (no not a miniature blog). Now I can't remember where I found it, so if you remember please remind me.

I liked it so much I decided to try some fabric printing. I had to buy new ink for my printer to do it because mine had all dried up. The only things I ever print are in black and white.

I thought I would try to make a bed with an upholstered headboard. I only had time to make the panels today. I have no idea if I will use the bed when it's finished. This image might end up on a wall behind the bathtub before it's over or in the bin. It was just something I wanted to play with. Sadly once again my camera has gotten the colors wrong. The trees are all in a nice faded green and the sky is a blue-gray.

It looks like a nice place to go to sleep. Sorry for the VERY ugly back ground paper I photographed it on. YUCK!

Fairy Cakes

I couldn't resist these fairy cakes made by Lory. I thought... If I saw those in
1: 1 in a bakery I would have to bring them home. These are much safer to have in the house. They won't be calling to me or waking me up in the middle of the night.

OPPS! I forgot Lory's link. http://www.etsy.com/shop/64tnt

CORRECTION July 27, 2015 ....A. THEDE made this embroidery frame.

CORRECTION.... This piece was made by A. THEDE.


Long ago at a miniature show in Chicago I discovered furniture by Roger Gutheil. He made beautiful things. Not exactly in my budget at that time but I managed to buy two pieces from him. The drop leaf Queen Anne dining room table in the back ground is his.

I also bought this embroidery frame. It is a really wonderful little piece, everything on it is adjustable just like it is on the 1: 1 piece it was copied from. I had no idea at that time I would be doing any embroidery work myself one day.

I am hoping I will be able to work out a trade with a lovely lady that does beautiful petit point. It will be a work in progress that I will have to stitch on the frame when it arrives. There only needs to be a small amount of work on the canvas. I say canvas but it in miniature it will be worked in # 60 count silk gauze.

I don't think Roger is still making furniture. I have Googled his name and found some of his work still being sold. The prices now are much higher then they were when I bought these pieces.