Guess who I visited over the weekend?

Giveaway result

The winner of the Adelaide Cann giveaway 

is Kyle Lefort

(can you email me your address, Kylie?)

Modernist Molly, I'm also still waiting on address details for you for the Typo magnet giveaway. Can you flick it to me?

Pinning it down

On Thursday night I went to the opening of ANCA's brooch exhibition PINup. It was a great night, with a fabulous range of brooches but this series by Kendal Murray were the ones that (oddly enough) caught my eye the most:

Home Run, Re-Run

Cheek, Squeak, Tweak & Speak

Petite, Offbeat

Squeeze, Appease.

They reminded me a lot of Slinkachu's Little people: a tiny street art project.

(For a video of Kendal's work, visit the ABC Art Nation page.)

Industrial disease*

Remember that under-coated sleigh bed?

Remember my remark about 'simple Scandinavian style'?

Ha! I must have still been overcome with IKEA fumes or something when I wrote that post, because this is the scene that ended up coming together around the bed:

(OK, maybe there's a bit of Scandinavian influence in there but I'm mainly feeling New York loft.)

The industrial shelves, long on my eBay watch list and now added to my collection were a major influence in the direction the room ended up heading (I'm still looking for the Toy Island version, as seen in Mini Modern's blog,  if anyone sees any spare...)

The cinching factor was an experiment I did with my last piece of bamboo runner, a coat of undercoat, followed by a coat of chalkboard paint and a play with my mouse sander:

(I'm ever so pleased with the effect!)

Don't Mini Dork's cushions work perfectly with the colour palette?

And look what's tucked away on the shelving unit...

(*In case you need a soundtrack to this post)

You know, some people use their kitchen only for food preparation

I say 'What a waste'.

(The microwave method of getting the tops off wasn't working and I got bloody-minded...)

I know I Cann, I know I Cann...

So I might not have included everything I bought in at the Sydney show in my Sydney Show stash post.

I also picked up a few laser-cut sets from the very talented Adelaide Cann:

Some of Adelaide's sets are ready to go* straight out of the packet:

some need a little bit of simple work first:

 while others are a little more involved.

Putting together her version of the iWood laptop is quick and easy. Punch out the pieces, colour in one side of one piece with a permanent marker, wait until it dries

then glue the three pieces together (I stuck mine through my Xyron because I was to impatient to wait for glue to dry.)

(Quick tip from experience. Put the chalk piece somewhere safe and don't leave it in the packet until later. Because you might forget it's in there and toss it out.)

The cars and planes are fiddly. But we're miniaturists so we should be used to fiddly, right?

 Adelaide suggested using paint pens to colour the pieces in. (Did you know paint pens are illegal in The Australian Capital Territory? Neither did I until I went to the hardware store to buy some. Luckily the local art supply store didn't seem to know about this ruling)

The instructions suggested keeping the pieces in the template while you colour them but since I wanted to display the planes in 2Limited, I removed them.

And since I didn't start working on them for a few days I forgot that suggestion and so tried painting the wheels after popping them out.

Which meant that one of them popped out of my tweezers and onto the floor somewhere, never to be seen again. Adelaide has said she will include a spare wheel or two in future cuttings for klutzes like me and in the meantime will send me a spare. 

 I learnt my lesson and painted the car pieces while they were still attached.

(And am using double sided tape to hold them steady while I paint the edges.)

Because I want the toys to have the look of the classic Playsam pieces, they're taking a while as I'm using several coats of paint.

Now, remember that asterisk up near the top of the post? I bought a couple of extra sets to giveaway. First up is the red plastic kitchen set. If you'd like to add it to your collection, leave a comment and I'll draw a winner on Friday. I'll post anywhere in the world.

Oh, and if you're interested in Adelaide's sets, drop her a line and ask her to add them to her shop...

Sydney Show shots

A late start at work today

means I've finally finished sorting and loading

most of the rest of the pictures I took of the Sydney Show displays

up to my FLICKR stream.

(And realised I probably need to put some time aside to split and sort my FLICKR dolls house miniatures set into smaller chunks...)

Kupjack on Kickstarter

Did you know that Henry Kupjack is currently fundraising for a project on Kickstarter?

Henry aims to publish a high-quality coffee table art book depicting 72 of his favourite miniature rooms created by himself and his father, Eugene.

He says:

Over the last 30 years we have received many inquiries as to when we would create a book of our miniature room artworks. There have been photographs in publications and exhibition catalogues over the years but not a comprehensive volume showing the range of the production at the studio by Eugene and Henry Kupjack over the last 60 years. 

As a consequence, we have decided to create a book of 72 miniature rooms out of the approximately 600 that exist, many from our collection, some from museums and a few from private collections. This book is a major undertaking which will include new large format photography and extensive historical and archival research. This first volume will include several color photographs of each room, historically appropriate explanatory text and biographical information on us and the studio presented in chronological order from ancient Greece and Rome up to the present. This book will be over 200 pages with several hundred photographs in a large, 9 by 12 inch, horizontal format coffee table book in hard and soft cover. 

Due to the tremendous costs of such a project, we have decided to enlist our many fans to assist in this endeavor on Kickstarter which has shown to be so successful in funding all types of artistic projects. 

We will be offering several levels of premiums, including copies of the book, to our Kickstarter funders, all the details of which will be listed on Kickstarter and Kupjack.com. Our web site Kupjack.com will update our fans and funders as to the progress of this book as well as our planned upcoming exhibitions and links to the various museum collections of our work.

If successful, the book will be available later for sale at our exhibitions, museums and on the internet. Then we all will be able to show the art world publishers how popular, viable and mature this art form has become. So please visit Kickstarter soon for complete information and how you can participate in the next 30 days. I thank you in advance for your interest in our work and consideration of this project. 

Henry

Hello, Huffington Post

Well that was an exciting start to the day...

(FYI: Huffington Post are currently running a series on tiny homes full of wonderful inspiration)

Sleigh(t) of hand

So.... this should be the post where I share the rest of the photos that I took of the displays at The Sydney Show.

But it's not. Because in the time I should have spent this morning sorting and correcting photos I was turning this:

 into this:

It's supposed to be the undercoat before a coat of colour but I think I might leave it like this for at least one scene: it's channelling simple Scandinavian style to me. (I blame my visit to IKEA last weekend)

Did I forget to mention?

This wee beauty followed me home from the show:

 Not within my collection development policy at all, but as it sat on the stall behind me waving and whimpering (OK, maybe I was just imagining that bit) I felt I had to give it a good home.

 Besides, it was only $20.

And Rebecca, when she visited, identified it immediately as a 1969 Chad Valley and mentioned she'd just photographed an ad for it in a toy trade magazine at the National Library:

I offered it to her but she already has one, so it came home to become the first tin house in my collection.

Sydney Show stash

I did very well again this year: I think being at the show the full two days and being able to dash out and revisit stalls several times helps, as does being able to see the stalls when they're not crowded.

 Introducing a quiet corner of...

2Limited! (Yes I know I said three monthly...)

Shall we see what's new?

 A lovely vintage suitcase from Rule of Thumb ($15) and a couple of vintage hats ($5 each).

 The sleigh bed was a gift from Jennifer and will be meeting the spray paint can very, very soon. The doilies were $1.50 for the set.

 Black and white daisy tea set ($5) from Cardstone Miniatures. I bought two. Jug cover ($3) from Faery Fantasys (sic). Sock monkey ($20) from Helen Palenski. Retro tomato sauce bottle, a gift from Judy Foster. Dolls house ($10), metal picture frame with picture ($1), five jars of preserves ($4) and set of gold shells and fleur-de-lys ($2 the lot) from the rummage box of a stall whose name I forget. Alphabet block set ($2) from Lyn's Tiny Corner, sticker, part of a grab bag ($3), toy airplanes from adelaide's miniatures by design ($8, including 5 toy cars, not shown) and the crate was free from Minis To Di For (and matches the one I picked up at the ACTME show last month!)

 The dresser ($10) matches the one I already have and I plan to renovate it somehow when I decide what style. The bolts of fabric and the bead tin were freebies from Minis To Di For.

 The flowers were also freebies and the stickers were part of the $3 stash mentioned earlier. The table is one of two I picked up from Minis To Di For ($4 each) which will also be meeting the spray can soon.

 Finally, a close up of the dolls house...

which opens!

Potty!

Long-time readers of this blog may remember the beautiful hand-knitted vest I bought from the Sydney Show back in 2008.

Helen's been busy since then: this year she was offering quarter-inch scale hand knitted and decorated tea cosies.

Yes, you read right quarter-inch scale. Here's the evidence:

 (That, folks, is my pinky. And if you don't believe me, here's the same tea cosy on an Australian $2 coin, which is 2 cm across:)

I bought this wee chap off Helen, after eyeing him up last year and somehow forgetting to go back for him:

Yep, a perfectly knitted 1/12 scale sock monkey.

Helen knits a range of other toys (There are some good photos on the Exquisite Miniatures blog. Let me know if you'd like Helen's email address.

Stalling...

I've been home from Sydney for just over an hour. I've unpacked the contents of the car onto the lounge floor. I've fed Mr Nibbs (who is trying to tell me he's starved all weekend). I've downloaded the 107 photos I took today (107?! How did that happen?) from my camera. And I've put my PJs on.

Before I start sorting through my photos and putting them into blogging order, I thought I'd share a photo of my stall at this year's show:

 (a bit more professional than last year, yes? Thanks go to Jennifer (for the black table covering), Vistaprint, the Typo factory outlet store and IKEA (for the lights))

And for those who enjoy seeing behind-the-scenes pictures: this is the view from my stool...