Quick update -- stairs, floor tiles and Masters Miniatures!

Hello!  I miss you all so much -- as always happens, the opera workshop has taken over my life :)  I had a day off yesterday that I was LONGING to fill with miniature making, and I was just so tired that every time I thought about doing something other than sleeping, I couldn't summon the energy.

But I got a number of packages last week, and I thought I'd share the contents of two of them.

First of all, here's the staircase unit for the hall:

I still have some touch up work to do, but that's basically it.  I used a real door for the closet, which made things easier :)

In front of it you can see the gorgeous faux marble tiles I bought from Graham at Traditional Elegance Tiles.    They're called "Marlike", and they look absolutely perfect, and they're perfectly made, which will be a bonus :)  I ordered four packs of the diagonal tiles, which include half tiles which will make the whole installation much easier.  Once I get the walls in, and the stair unit installed, then I can cut a piece of cardboard for the floor and install the tiles on that.

And I got a package from Masters Miniatures which exceeded my expectations (and I was pretty damned excited about them, anyway)!  Look at these beauties:

Here's a Charles II hall chair. I may already have mentioned that I've got a bit of a furniture fetish for barley twist legs :)  I think it's very important when doing a period space, even when it's as relaxed in attitude as this one, to have a few pieces that are really iconic of the time.  This is such a classic chair, that I couldn't resist!

This is a fire screen, and it's SO charming!  It's actually adjustable up and down, too :)

And, finally, here's a tiny wooden flute.  I've been looking for period-looking instruments for some time, and Masters makes all sorts of lovely pieces.  It's just perfect.  I would feel confident ordering anything from them -- this is first class work and, if you check out the site, it's very, very reasonable for handcrafted pieces of such quality.


Okay, I must drive to Halifax now to direct some opera, but I'll surface when I can!

(If you want to see the sort of thing I'm up to, you can visit the Halifax Summer Opera Workshop site.)