Sunday, August 22, 2010

More Extreme Kit Bashing & The Dilemma




Over the years I have cast more of these Chrysnbon cook stoves than I care to remember. There is one in the Miniature Museum Of Kansas City I cast.

When I first became involved in miniatures there weren't any good stoves at all. The only one that was remotely in scale and acceptable was the Chrysnbon cook stoves in plastic. The first time I saw one I bought a dozen kits with the intention of casting them all. It may sound like it is fast and easy, but I assure you it isn't. I won't bore you with all the details of why and how so many things can go wrong when you cast one. Then there is all the clean up after the pieces are cast and they all have to be silver soldered together (with a torch). It takes several days just to get all the pieces sprued up to be cast. It also takes good size flasks to hold all the pieces to be invested for casting. Five flasks usually. I have always cast them in bronze.

For some reason today I am getting awful photos so you probably cant see that the parts I chose to polish are bronze in color. They look like nickel here. I could still plate them to look like nickel, I will have to see. The stove has been oxidized and waxed. It isn't painted.

My dilemma is what sort of stove do I want to use in my house. I would hate to pack this away never to be used because it is not an English stove. Maybe the answer is to create a space where I can have either interchangeably?

My grandparents had a cottage in Wisconsin when I was growing up. They bought it in 1917. I loved going there because we had 30 acres on a big lake. To this day we still have a wood burning cook stove we use that is almost like the Chrysnbon one here in this photo.

16 comments:

  1. Oh Catherine!! I LOVE what you have done with this stove! It really looks fab made out of metal. I have been disappointed too with the stoves available and want to try my hand at making one.....did you see the wonderful stove that Bozse made last week that looked like it was enamel? I loved it!! I think her blog is My Tiny World!! Check it out when you have time. It is a wood burning style too.

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  2. This stove is beautiful! I have problem with kitchen stove too. I will try to make one, if I will have a little bit free time, and a little more brave. :o)

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  3. Catherine your stove is a masterpiece in my opinion, I would love one but surely couldn't afford to pay for all the work you put into it. I think people buy a stove they like and even back in the early 1900s there were probably European items for sale in the UK and USA, as well as here in Australia, with many immigrants from those countries. So it would be feasible to use it in your house.

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  4. Esta estufa es una maravilla, si no va bien en tu cocina. Es tan bonita que podrias hacer una escena para ella cómo elemento central.
    Besos Clara.

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  5. It really is lovely. :) I had often wondered about the different styles of stove available and this has explained why. I agree with Margaret about people having items that have come from other countries, perhaps it is more likely here in Australia because we are so young as a European settlement, but surely items travelled as useful ballast in ships from all countries?

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  6. you really must use it.. it is gorgeous!! i am sure that it will work, people order and buy items that they desire for their homes!! this i am sure is true, even in the mini world... and why would you settle for less, when you have a stove as lovely as this one?

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  7. Catherine, this stove is beautiful! I surely don't have the equipment or know-how to cast mine, but seeing your piece I'm thinking I could spruce my plastic one up a bit by highlighting the "carving" bits on it. Thanks for the inspriation!
    Cynthia

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  8. Hi Catherine.....me again!!
    I just wrote you that huge email and forgot to mention your stove....I think it is amazing, but you may have to wait to see how it will sit in your house to know if you will be 100% happy with it....I know what it is like, it doesn't really matter what others say about it, it is how happy you feel about it yourself....But it certainly is a beautiful piece and you have done an amazing job of it....as always...lol!
    Linda x

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  9. Catherine,
    What one sees currently in the movies and on TV and in miniature stalls is not all that there was.

    The American cast iron stove makers were actually making copies of the European fashion in stoves.

    You will love "The Stove Book" ISBN 0-312-76376-X St. Martin's Press.

    Out of print but used from amazon for under a dollar.

    Love the ones in the book by the Belgium company "Devine Moine & Co. (Auvillers Les Forges, Ardennes)

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  10. It is just brilliant! I believe it is hard work to make it to looks like that but the result is brilliant!I hope you will find a perfect place for it:)

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  11. That is a gorgeous stove!!
    You have done such a beautiful work at it!!

    Years ago I had an antic stove in my real kitchen , built in 1910 and I loved him, he gave a charming touch to the kitchen .
    I like it to use different typs of furniture, or kitchen utensiles with each other to mix,why not?
    Hugs,
    Karin

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  12. Dear Catherine, this stove is wonderful, no ifs nor buts.
    Rather, by the world began, things have always traveled with the people, carrying of fascinating stories ...
    Can we think that an English family in the eighteenth century, has moved in the Americas to seek his fortune and several generations later, descendants are transferred back to England on a ship loaded with all their belongings, in the early twentieth century .
    Here is justified, a beautiful American stove in a kitchen english :-)
    Your photos are always beautiful and full of emotions...
    Mini hugs, Flora

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  13. Catherine, es una estufa fantastica!!!!
    Como bien dice Flora, todo puede pasar y la estufa a viajado de America a Inglaterra.
    besitos ascension

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  14. Maravillosa, una preciosidad. Realmente es una estufa impresionante.
    Besitos, May

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  15. Beautiful! What an amazing work. I would love to look over your shoulder when you're casting this. I could learn so much from you. Too bad I'm all the way in the Netherlands!

    groetjes Evelien

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