Recent purchases including Shearwater show items

Here are my purchases from the Shearwater show.  The parasol is by my friend Paula, and the dress is by Linda, the lovely woman at the next booth. (I also bought some pieces of very fine linen and the porcelain doll from her, as well as a wealth of tiny scale trims.)

Here's a close up of the dress -- isn't it beautiful?  It could even pass for mid to late 17th century (except it should be off the shoulders) -- the first era of the bustle!

 I managed to pick up 10 wineglasses and 8 beer mugs from a lovely lady who was destashing.  The tiny wheel-thrown jug is made by Jo-Ann Shaw who is an extraordinary craftsman. Check out her chalices and cauldrons (as well as her saddles) at her website, Kilnworks Minis.

I lost the business card for the maker of this lovely easel, which I'm going to use in the WAMH in my artist's studio:

I also did a swap for a gorgeous hand-turned wig stand :)

And this isn't from the Shearwater show, but I love it -- it's a turned lidded box by UK Artisan Dave Williams of Harvington Miniatures who sells on Ebay under the name smallartist:

Knitwits tomorrow -- the girls' houses proceed apace and I'll try to post some pictures!

Busy weekend at the Shearwater Hobby Show

David and I had such a great weekend at the Shearwater Hobby Show in Shearwater, NS!

We had a table set up to sell our minis (our first show!) and happily shared it with another member of MESS (Miniature Enthusiasts of the South Shore), Paula, who brought beautiful little parasols and feather fans to sell.

I made tons of little non-opening books for the show and they sold really well, as did the bookshelves David made.  These are some of my old fashioned books ...

And these are the shabby/modern ones -- including tons of Penguin books :)

I'm hard at work on a couple of kits to make these, so hope to have them for sale, soon.

I made a screen for my first piece of original crewel work ...

 And had quite a few framed reproductions on offer, which sold very well.

But the best part of the show were the people I met.  It was wonderful spending time with Paula, who's such a smart, funny, creative woman.  I met Linda, who makes the most exquisite costumes and who is going to join MESS in the summer, when she's at her cottage.  She was so kind and generous to us!

I also met a glorious crew of people from Halifax, Dartmouth and Fredericton, including some extraordinary artisans, and am looking forward to Camp Mini Ha Ha in September and maybe driving up to a few meetings in Dartmouth.

All in all, it was a lovely, lovely weekend!

Armenian Gendje carpet finished, being blocked!

I finished stitching the miniature Gendje carpet (from the McNaughton's first book) last night!  Hooray!

It's now being blocked, and I shall finish it with fringe over the next few days.  So glad to see this little thing done, and I'm so happy that the mistakes I made I either picked out or disguised :)

Fireplaces for William and Mary dolls' house attic

 These two little fireplaces are for the attic rooms in the William and Mary House.  Each is built into an angled chimney breast that will accommodate the slant in the hipped ends of the roof. 

While they're both built of the same moulding, the moulding was put on the chimney breast differently in each case -- totally by accident.   I sort of liked that they were complementary but not matching, so I left it that way!   The top one has been trimmed with coffee stirrers and lengths of mini turnings, and the bottom one just with coffee stirrers. 

They will have brick firebacks.

Finished 1690 sampler designed by Annelle Ferguson

I finished the sampler kit from Annelle Ferguson last night -- as you can see I decided to fill in the background, which I think was totally the correct decision :)

I love this little thing, and will be framing it soon.


MESS (Miniature Enthusiasts of the South Shore) had its first meeting today, and we are going to have a BLAST!  Paula and I brought our libraries of books on minis, we worked out an initial list of projects we want to try and got to meet Mary-Anne's awesome menagerie of little dogs :)  A great day!

I'm also hard at work on items to sell at the Shearwater Hobby Show on April 14th, as well as working on the brickwork and slating of the WAMH.  More to show you guys, soon!

Miniatures retreat this fall: Camp Mini Ha Ha in Nova Scotia!

I'm so excited that I'm going to be going to my first real-life miniatures retreat:  the 12th annual Camp Mini Ha Ha in Cornallis, NS, which takes place at the end of September!

I'm looking forward to five days working, learning and playing with other miniaturists at this great event, which is only two hours away from me, in the beautiful Annapolis Valley.



And here's a little peek at a delicious-looking plate of Stilton cheese, bread and grapes by Amanspeak Miniatures in the UK that just arrived: 

Nice work, and suitable for any period!

My roof slates arrived as well, from Richard Stacey, and I've been slating like a mad thing.  More photos of the house, soon!

1690 miniature sampler by Annelle Ferguson

I finished the main stitching for this sampler last night -- now I'm just deciding whether or not to fill in the background or leave it as is :)

This is a gorgeous kit designed by legendary miniature needleworker and IGMA Fellow Annelle Ferguson, based on a 1690 English band sampler.  It's on 48 count silk gauze making it the tiniest scale thing I've ever stitched (it's just under 2 inches long :)  I can handle this count with my naked (nearsighted) eyes, but any smaller than this and I think I might go a bit nuts.  Or need a magnifier.  Or both.

It's a beautiful design and was a pleasure to stitch. I made a couple of mistakes and I lost Annelle's red thread (so continued with a different shade) but I love it, my imperfections and all :) It's a beautiful design.

I'm going to frame it and it'll go in the WAMH, as a souvenir of my 1:12 scale alter ego's late 17th century youth!

What I bought from the March Online Miniatures Sale

All the little lovely things I bought at the March Online Sale have arrived, so I can share them with you!

The beautifully-made string of onions (and the loose ones) are by Canadian artisan Cheryl Hartlan (cherylgbc@ns.sympatico.ca
They're perfect for my WAMH kitchen!  Thank you, Cheryl!

The blue bowl hand painted by Elizabeth Chambers in a Chinese style is from a very fine dealer, Lovely Things, and of course is destined for the Blue and White room :)

And the period ephemera are by Monserrat Folch, and are just gorgeous in person! Each piece has its own texture and detail and they will look wonderful in the house!

How to make a simple fire/ember unit for a 1/12 scale dollhouse

Here's how to make a simple (and very inexpensive) electrified fire/embers/coals unit for your dollhouse.

Tic Tacs are a pretty worldwide candy. If you live somewhere where the orange Tic Tac box is orange (and the mints are white - like Canada) then you have an almost instant source of the right coloured material to make a fire! 

(This will also work if you only have clear boxes -- get some transparent or translucent glass paint and paint the plain plastic the colour or colours you want your glowing embers.)

You'll also need black paint and a 12 volt bulb -- I'm using a pre-wired frosted grain of rice bulb.

Cut off the bottom 1/2 inch or so (15 mm) of the candy box with a saw or even scissors. (You can also cut one of the sides down, if you need a shorter unit -- the one I actually made for my kitchen grate needed about 1/4 of an inch taken off one side. ) Cut a slot or drill a hole where the wires will exit at the back of the unit.

 I just dabbed it with thick globs of artist's black acrylic paint for coals, but you could also glue on logs or bits of real coal or even black beads for verisimilitude :)  Let it dry.

I drilled a hole in the back of the kitchen grate and placed the bulb inside.  I then put the fire unit on top of the bulb inside the grate and taped the wires securely at the outside back of the grate.  Then I fed the wires through a hole in the back of my fireplace nook and added an electrical plug and plugged it into my electrical board.

Early Georgian kitchen range and shelves

On the weekend I made a set of pieces for the kitchen fireplace -- together they make a sort of early range.

I made a hob-style grate using this tutorial by Carol Clark, which looks almost exactly the same as Brian Long's instructions from his Georgian Doll's House book.

Then I made a "cast iron" bread oven and fire box for the left hand side of the fireplace -- David's going to remake these for me in patinaed brass, but they'll do for now.  I haven't added the door to the fire box, but there will be a fire inside :)  I'm also making a fire for the grate.

 I made a few little shelves with some sections of full-size moulding, whose profile looks just right for 1:12 scale brackets!  One can never have too many shelves ...

I have a busy theatrical time this week, so I don't know how much I'll be posting.  Talk to you soon!