Obadiah Fisher's Miniature Silver Work

I don't think anything is as beautiful as polished metal. ;-) I suppose that had some part in the reason I became a metalsmith. Also nothing looks so nasty as badly tarnished silver. So now you may ask why am I showing you these pieces. Hopefully, you will look beyond the state they are in, to see what I think was the finest work in miniature silver that has ever been done.

Obadiah was a friend. It has been many years since I have spoken to him. I can't find anything on the Internet about any recent work made by him. If anyone knows what happened to him I hope you will let me know. I hope you enjoy seeing his work.

Mail Today From Colin Bird

Please forgive the temporary set up for this photo. I wanted the furniture to show up in the picture.

I have made and collected lots of things for a bedroom and a kitchen. Now I am working on making and collecting things for the living room.

This lovely high back Windsor chair arrived today from Colin Bird. I am so pleased to have it. To say it exceeded my expectations is an understatement. Colin's skills are everything they were reported to be. He is a true master! I certainly will be ordering from him again soon.

I made the brass lamp, Frank Whittemore made the blue glass shades and hurricanes for it. The glass is a much prettier color than it appears in this shot. It is a royal deep blue. The little violets on the stool were stitched on 60 count silk gauze.

Making More Copperware

Oooh...Someone has been using the knife and strainer I made to make lemonade!

These are some copper pans I made plus a rack. I am not sure I want to use the rack in my dollhouse, this is just a temporary set up. It will depend on how I design the kitchen. I have also been making some bigger covered pots and doing some Chasing and Repoussé on them. Long ago I saw some "real" size Italian kitchen copperware that had a lot of this kind of work on it. So I have a fish poaching pan that I have been working on that has a fish in relief on either side and sort of a tiered lid with a design on each of the three tiers graduating down in concentric ovals.

It is sort of funny that most of us want to see some age on our furniture, house, roof tops and so on but everyone wants their copper gleaming with a brilliant polish.

The Winner Is...

Congratulations Linda of Une Petite Folie!!! "Buttons" is a very lucky dog to be going to such a fine home.

I decided over a week ago I didn't want to do the drawing myself. I asked my neighbors (Mr. & Mrs. Evans) if they would do the honors. Mr. Evans stirred and stirred the little pieces of paper in the bowl this morning before he pulled one out.

Thank you all for participating. I appreciate all of your visits, kind words and contributions to my blog.

Inspiration photo & Lamp by Scott Hughes

For some reason I have saved this magazine for years. I loved all the other rooms in this house as well. It is my inspiration photo for the bedroom I am planning in my dollhouse. I like all the plates and other things resting on the wood timber behind the bed. It adds a cozy feeling to the room. I also love the dried herbs/flowers hanging on the wall in the dormer.

The second photo shows the other lamp I bought from Scott Hughes. Which I plan to have on the night stand in the bedroom. The beautiful round box was made by Bill Helmer out of wooly mammoth ivory (an ETSY buy this week). The pink bud vase is by Francis Whittemore.

I bought lots of fabrics and French lace for the bedroom too, they look perfect with this wall paper. I may only be able to have paper on an interior wall because of the wood timbers.

I want antique framed embroidery over the bed. Maybe some framed antique lace. I will have to find photos I like and print them on fabric with my computer.

Tom Bishop Show Purchases

Please click on the photos to enlarge them.

These are a few of the things I bought at the Tom Bishop Show in Chicago. I am thinking about replacing the two armless chairs to match the ones with arms. It didn't matter to me at the time I bought them because they had already sold the matching ones. I really loved the chairs and wanted them for my kitchen. The wood is beautiful. I am not sure you can see that fact in the photos. I am either going to make or buy a farm table to go with them.

The lamp and sconce (by Scott Hughes) I also plan to put in the kitchen with the chandelier I made (seen in a pervious post). I think they will go very well with it.

The spice chest drawers all open and are made of the same wood as are the shelves and chairs. I also bought the coat rack with shelf from them. The table I am sure you recognize. I just bought it for photo shoots. I have no idea if I will ever use it in my dollhouse. I rather doubt it.

There is more but it will have to wait. We are having a gorgeous cool day and I have to get back to planting my garden. I bought six flats of flowers and I have lots of seeds to plant.

All the furniture is from... http://smallerthanlife.com/

Happy Mothers Day Everyone! XXX

Crocheted Baby Dress & Hat

I made these for a friend who is making a shop for babies. She has a pram, crib, and a gorgeous hand painted chest (she painted) in it. Sadly she doesn't have a blog yet.

It has been a long time since I have done any crochet so it didn't go as fast as I thought it should. I am pretty happy with it considering I'm a bit rusty.