Monday, February 11, 2019

Learning the light

I spent the weekend mulling over how I was going to approach the tissue box challenge, while doing other things (including, you may be pleased to hear, finding my Filofax paper and passport).

Should I make it completely random: closing my eyes, grabbing a box, and making myself use it somehow in a scene?

Or should I be a bit kinder on myself, and preselect boxes that look like they might be a good jumping-off point?

I went with the latter option, and ended up a good handful of possibilities and initial thoughts to start with a box printed with small pictures of herb plants: easily framed (assuming, of course, I find my saw, mitre box, gluing jig and picture framing strips in time!) and I feel it could build into an interesting scene:
Selection of flattened tissue box covers fanned out with one with a patttern of herb plants in green at the bottom front.
(It was at this point that it dawned on me that, although the light in my new place is quite good, it's different to what I'm used to. In fact, both my studio and the room previously known at The Room of Shame (now retagged 'The Library') face in the opposite direction to my old versions. So in the interests of getting things done for now, I took photos on my bed.)

I was particularly heartened when I found this chair in one of the first boxes of miniatures I unpacked yesterday, as it seemed to fit nicely with the chosen box and suggest a rustic kitchen or dining room.
Green tissue box cover with a herb-plant print with a one-twelfth scale shabby green chair below it.
But then, as I was taking the top photo, these heart-themed designs caught my eye and seemed very fitting for this week.
Selection of four flattened tissue boxes with heart designs on them.
This one in particular...
Green tissue box cover with a blue and white heart print with a one-twelfth scale shabby white chair below it.

Monday, February 04, 2019

Blogiversary and boxes

*Blows into the mic*

Is this thing working?
Carton full of flattened tissue boxes sitting on a table in a garage. In the background is a stack of flattened packing boxes.
(And more importantly, can I remember how to use it?)

Today marks the 13th blogiversary of this blog, and I feared that if I didn't post now the whole thing might just fade away into the dusty corners of the internet. Which I thought would be a shame.

So a quick catch up: I finally moved at the beginning of December and have been unpacking boxes ever since. I have two desks set up in my studio, with one more to find room to erect (once I move the mountain of boxes that's in the way...).

Speaking of mountains of boxes, I had a mountain of boxes of dolls' houses in my bath until quite recently: I figured there would be a good spot to keep them safe from the shifters when they moved the rest of my belongings in.

I have no idea where my tools are (or my passport, or my spare Filofax paper, but that's a different subject...). These are the joys of shifting home: along with $300 grill elements (don't ask).

Back to miniatures: I toyed with the thought of trying to do Daily Dolls House December last year but realised that it was an insane idea on top of everything else that was happening. And since I've not made a scene for over a year, I figured I'd be very very rusty.

So when someone on my (newly) local Buy Nothing group offered a collection of tissue boxes for 'artistic types', I took it as a sign that perhaps a miniature challenge was in my near future: especially as the timing seemed quite serendipitous.
Screenshot from a Buy Nothing Facebook group offering a collection of tissue boxes for an artistic project
So now, to add to my collection of packing boxes both full and empty, I have a collection of tissue boxes (not, thankfully eaten by mice) to kickstart what will hopefully be a challenge to keep me going for the next year (once I find my tools, of course!).