Linda Master's Chip Carved Tray

I wish it was a bright sunny day so these photos were better. We got a few inches of snow last night and today the sky is overcast and gloomy.

I had no idea Linda miraclechicken.blogspot.com/ had planned to give me one of her gorgeous trays for Christmas. Before she ever got the chance, I ordered one from her web site. I knew the minute I saw it I had to have one. I have seen my share of carved wood in miniature but never anything like this. Karin Corbin... I agree with you. This belongs in a museum.

When I opened the package I was totally blown away by how fine and detailed the carving is. The tray is made of pear wood.  Each square that creates the borders design has 36 separate cuts. One mistake and it is all over. Plus, those cuts have to be made at an angle. The tray is just 54 mm long or 2 1/8 inches. OMG! Thank you Linda! I love, love, LOVE it!!!

Merry Christmas Everyone

I started working on these houses at the beginning of November. PHEW! They are Christmas gifts for friends who don't collect miniatures. What was I thinking? They are going to end up on a Christmas trees, clanging around in boxes with other ornaments after the holidays. Oh well... I am ready to clear off my home work space and start a new project. I had fun figuring out how to make the garlands for these houses. I used a heavy dark green thread and covered about three inches of it with Aleene's tacky glue. Then I laid the thread in a pile of super fine Flower Soft making sure all areas were covered. The glittered snow covered tree was decorated with Martha Stewart's no hole beads and tiny holographic stars. Those stars came from Sally's beauty supply and are normally used for finger nails. They are about 1 !/2 mm. I have used them in most of my nutshell houses but they can only be seen if you peek in a window. I bought gold ones but when they catch the light they blink in a rainbow of colors.

I did some tests for the snow. I didn't like the way it looked when I first painted the acorn caps white and applied the glitter (by Martha Stewart) . So I made a paste using the glitter and Aleene's " Easy Flow" glue. I tapped it on the places I wanted it, smoothing the paste with a small dampened artists brush. Once covered I shook on dry glitter. That gave the effect I wanted for the snow covered areas.

Merry Christmas Everyone! I am looking forward to seeing what Santa puts in your stocking. Fingers crossed for that certain miniature you have had on your wish list. Catherine, Kilmouski, Groupie and puffy.
XXX  
http://host-d.oddcast.com/elfyourself2012/?mId=46621015.2

Somewhere In France

Would someone please tell me( in the comments) what is going on with this post today (March 04, 2013) There has been 2,655 views in the last few hours. Just curious about what is going on here. ENJOY! :-)

What a nice bunch of visitors from FACEBOOK! Thank you all for answering my question (ABOVE) I understand now what has happened to my stats. THANK YOU ALL FOR VISITING today and for kindly explaining what has been going on. 

In all the searches I have done looking at French architecture, I have never found anything like this. It is a little slice of magic. I want to move in and plant lots of pretty beds of flowers and flowering trees. And no, I didn't find it in Pinterest (I have never joined). I bet it will be there before the day is over. ;-D

Black Friday

For those who do not live in the USA. The day after Thanksgiving is referred to as Black Friday. It is the biggest shopping day of the year. There are lots of great deals if you are willing to brave the crowds.


It appears someone has been doing some rather posh Christmas shopping today. Chanel, Burberry, Gucci, Liberty, Jimmy Choo, Tiffany's, Louis Vuitton!

I found a gorgeous L V purse, wallets and journal. The journal opens and has blank pages. I have to get busy and make a pen and some pencils.

BTW... No, You're Not Seeing Double...

Though it is hard to see in these photos (frankly, There is so much going on I am almost dizzy looking at them). I have made another 100% silk William Morris wing chair. This one I made to sell. Though I haven't figured out how I want to do that yet. Perhaps in an auction. Or I could send it with a friend to be sold at the show in Chicago next spring.

Happy Christmas Shopping to all!

Lovely Gifts From Catherine. And....

Last summer Catherine from  NINETTE & CO. http://miniaturemaisondesouris.blogspot.com/ sent me a parcel that never arrived. I had no idea she had even sent something for months. Worse, in retrospect... That she probably thought I was so rude I didn't bother to acknowledge her gift. I was horrified!

Undiscouraged, Catherine sent another parcel, which happily arrived safely. She made this GORGEOUS straw shopping bag and all the vegetables that are in it. I love how many of them are in paper bags. She also made the crusty baguette. I just adore it. Her work is always beautiful!!!

As if that wasn't enough, she sent me one of her lovely paintings of a vase of roses. Thank you so much Catherine I love it all. XXXXXXX

There is also a new acquisition... A garlic braid by Linda Cummings linsminis.blogspot.com . I was so amazed by her work. At first I thought the bulbs had been glued on. The 'dried' stems actually come right out of the top of the garlic bulbs which she then braids together. Astonishing!

Yesterday

How incredibly lucky am I to have friends that remember my birthday. It is so exciting to get an unexpected parcel in the mail.

Linda  http://une-petite-folie.blogspot.com/ sent me a gorgeous vase by Margaret Crosswell,  The painting on it is so soft next to the pretty pink roses. I love the fluted edge around the top. It will be just perfect in the master bedroom.  Thank you so much Linda, I adore it! XXX

Several months ago I shared a story with Linda Master http://miraclechicken.blogspot.com/ about a Paris apartment that was literally a time capsule. Although the rent had always been paid, no one had been inside it for 70 years. 

Linda and I loved a painting that was found inside the abandoned apartment by Giovanni Boldini. Rather than repeat the story, I will let you read about it here... http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/05/09/the-paris-time-capsule-apartment/

Yesterday I was totally blown away when I opened my gift from Linda. It is a miniature copy of Giovanni Boldini's painting painted in oil. Linda used her special router bits to make the frame and then hand carved the design around the edge. Thank you so much Linda! Your talent never ceases to amaze me. XXX

Ottoman

I hated to throw away the silk that was left over from making the chair. There was just enough left to make an ottoman. Not that I feel I have to use it in the house but at least it is an option.

A Sampler Gift & New Chair

Linda http://une-petite-folie.blogspot.com/ sent me a beautiful red and white sampler she bought at SIMP this summer. I have just finished framing it. Isn't it wonderful! Thank you again Linda! I adore it.

I bought the fabric for this chair at the Tom Bishop show in 2010. It is really heavy unlike the silk and made the job a lot more difficult. I thought I would just make another wing chair while all the do's and don'ts of upholstery were fresh in my mind.

Go Ahead... Raid His Closet. He won't miss it.

William Morris Wing Chair

I have wanted to try to make a chair for a long time. Mostly because I wanted to try to upholster something. Sadly, this city has horrible fabric shops! As many times as I have looked, I have always come home empty handed.

When I was doing a William Morris search and found the acorn wallpaper, I also found a man's William Morris (used) silk tie on Ebay. It was in pristine condition and I loved the colors and the pattern.

When it arrived I was shocked by the exceptional quality of the silk. I took the tie apart and realized the fabric was so flimsy I would have to use iron on interfacing to stabilize it. I made the rope twisted cord trim out of cotton embroidery floss. The chair seemed to need a pillow so I decided to use 1/2 mm no hole glass beads to fill it. I thought the beads would give it weight and allow it to look like someone had just gotten up and left it rumpled in the chair.

I have a whole new respect for the prices people ask for handmade upholstered chairs! It took me all of a 3 day weekend just to upholster it.

PS.... We cannot accept liability or complaints from irate husbands about missing ties.



Updated on September 6, 2012

With everything else being symmetrical... The band on the pillow of the seat was driving me mad. I had to fix it! I am much happier now!

Writing Letters

Today's mail brought another wonderful piece by Linda Master. http://miraclechicken.blogspot.com/ It is a gorgeous brass ink well and carved wood stand. The wood has been routered to insure the well doesn't turn over. I have raised the ink well so you can see how pretty it is. She also sent perfect white and a brown quill feathers.

OOPS! I neglected to say Linda turned the brass ink well. That was her first attempted at turning metal on a lathe.

Thank you so much Linda!!!

Someone Has Been Out Shopping In the Rain

That someone is me. And yes, thankfully we are getting some badly needed rain today.



I was wandering around Michael's craft store and found these tiny purple flowers. When I saw them I thought they had been dried. No! Instead they have been preserved by some method that makes them feel like you just picked them. I decided to add them to some peonies I made.

I also couldn't resist the William Morris acorn wallpaper I found. I guess I have had acorns on the brain lately ;-) The umbrella was a ETSY find. It is just perfect. http://www.etsy.com/shop/FranMadeMinis The the fabric has wonderful fluffy folds at the top.

The Egg's Nest (Nutshell Cottage)

The Egg's Nest features a second floor furnished bedroom that can be seen through the surround windows. Those windows were made from 8 double windows, four of which had to be cut in half to make this octagon shape. There is a cup and a vase of flowers on the night stand next to the bed. There is also a chair in the room. I am afraid you cannot see that in these photos.


It is a gift for a special friend, Linda Master http://miraclechicken.blogspot.com/ . Linda has made so many beautiful miniatures for me in the past year. I wanted to make her a house that would reflect her love of birds. She gave up sitting out on her porch this spring / summer because several robins and barn swallows kept deciding build nests there.


All the "timbers" are made of real twigs and the 'daub' is opaque embossing powder. Filling the areas between the twigs with glue and powder is a very tedious proposition. It requires several careful fills to bring the 'daub' up to level with the 'timbers'. I think filling those spaces gives a much more realistic appearance then paint would. The twigs insure I do not have uniform looking timbers.The nests are made of the tiniest acorn caps I have ever seen. I made polymer eggs to put in them.

When I posted that I was totally out of acorn caps, it was Linda who went out and searched for early falling ones and mailed them to me. I couldn't believe it because unbeknownst to her, I was already working on her house and I had to have more caps to finish it.




Thanks also to Tom, who provided the big acorn caps from his yard in Parma, Ohio. "Kilimanjaro"(AKA Kilmouski) and I look forward to your fall crop!



The village is growing!

I Want Him So Bad I Can Taste It

He'd be soooo delicious with a little garlic butter.

Waiting For The Trees

I have been busy making another nutshell cottage. Cutting the braces for the roof (over the front door) was a bit tricky. They are about 6 mm long and had to have a 45 degree angle cut on both ends.

This house will have a furnished bedroom on the second floor. Visible through the octagon 360 degree surround windows. Just one problem... I am totally out of acorn caps in all sizes.

While I wait for supplies to fall, I thought I would make some stick pins using the front entrance of this cottage design. They will be just over one inch tall. I thought it would be fun to wear on the lapel of a wool jacket with jeans.

The Winner Of The Walnut House Is....

I want to thank all of you who entered the Nutshell cottage Give Away. It was great fun to read all the fabulous names you thought of for it. I was really surprised at the number of entries since the piece is not a 1: 12 dollhouse miniature. ;-)


This morning I used the random number generator to select a winner from my 594 eligible followers who named the house and left a comment.

Congratulations Debora!!! http://petitpunt.blogspot.com/ Who named the house Nutty's Observatory. I will email you through your blog for your address details.

Name The Nutshell Cottage To Win. Have Fun!

The above photos are bigger than the actual size.

I would like to thank all of you who follow Kilmouski & Me. Particularly all the new Followers and those of you who contribute so often here.

If you wish to enter the nutshell house Give Away you must be one of my 594 Followers.

I have named all the nut shell cottages/houses I have made so far. There was Twigs & Berries, Nutty Crest and Sparrow Hop. Now it is your turn. Please name the cottage when you leave a comment here if you wish to enter. Just a bit of fun to make things interesting. Also, it will let me know who is just leaving a comment verses the people who want to enter.

I will use the random number generator to select a winner on July 08, 2012 and announce the name of the nutshell cottage and the winner. Good Luck!

This cottage has a huge bay window in the back. For star gazing I presume.

For Mother's Day & Some Silver

Kilmouski is very good at choosing Mother's Day gifts. I think he is trying to tell me that I shouldn't neglect my embroidery projects. These are the most beautiful embroidery scissors I have ever seen.

I have been weaving and forming 10 gauge sterling silver wire. Talk about tough!!! Forming it isn't a problem, it's the weaving. There is no way I could do this with anyone else around, it makes you say some seriously bad words! Now all I have to do is carve a spike out of African Blackwood to go through to two end pieces then I can wear it in my hair.

Happy Mother's Day Everyone!