Friday, January 20, 2017

Finish it off Friday

Three brown gift boxes tied with black and white twine next to a cone of twine and an open box. At the bottom left is a matchbox calendar, a pair of spotty scissors and a spotty pen.
Does this count?

(Especially if I pinky promise to try and finish my Finish it off Friday projects from the past two weeks before the end of this weekend. Or the end of this cool spell. (Whichever happens first?)

Monday, January 16, 2017

Monday: making a date*

It's been two years since I last made a calendar (which isn't so bad when you realise it was three years before that when I made my first). I've been tossing up if I should make one for 2017 and had almost decided that the answer was no...

Until a friend sent me a copy of hers. It was her birthday over the weekend just passed, and I decided that the least I could do is make one for her in return.

I was all set to use this year's Shutter Sisters template to create another one to fit in a CD case, when I spotted the matchboxes that I'd pulled out of a drawer to sort it out. And suddenly it made complete sense to make a miniature calendar of miniature scenes.
Matchbox, ruler and knife on a cutting board next to pages of a miniature 2017 calendar.
 (Much quicker, too!)
Pages of a miniature 2017 calendar on a cutting board with knife and fingers for size.
Of course it seemed silly to waste paper by only printing one set of pages on an A4 page, so there will be more than one calendar.

Now I just have to decide how many I can stand making before going completely bonkers. And who else I should give them to...

(*or two...)

Saturday, January 14, 2017

Oh, the plans that I had!

This week was going to be productive, according to my plans at least.

I was going to finish the two Finish it off Friday projects that have been hanging round, and blog on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Since I had the day off on Friday it made complete sense to pull out a big project that has been sidelined for almost a year and commit the weekend to finishing it off.

But, as usual, I completely neglected to factor in the heat. And how tiring it is to train a new starter at work. It didn't help that I spent Wednesday and Thursday feeling like I was coming down with a migraine (although Doctor Google tells me it may have actually been a silent migraine, so the headache never arrived).

So instead of spending yesterday being super-productive, I spent it bumbling around. And napping. Oh well, that's what holidays are for, right?

I did get excellent mail, though:
Box of dollhouse gig posters nestled in tissue paper in a postal box.
My not-Christmas present to myself: a set of letterpress dollhouse gig posters from Starshaped Press
Selection of letterpress dollhouse gig posters and a single record displayed around the presentation box they came in.
which should be great inspiration for some mini scenes in the near future.
Detail of two dollhouse gig posters on their presentation cards.

Monday, January 09, 2017

A weekend in the country

(Which is why I needed a small and portable project to work on).

And I did: on the kitchen table
One-twelfth scale miniature basket weaving kit in progress on a country kitchen table.
and in the garden.
One-twelfth scale miniature basket weaving kit in progress on a table in the garden opposite someone sketching a leaf.
The next step is to split the remaining twine into three and plait it: something I thought better done at home.
One-twelfth scale miniature almost-completed basket weaving kit.
I bought miniature souvenirs while I was away: these three laser-cut panels by this papercut life at the Sturt Gallery shop are destined to turn into a miniature screen.
Three laser-cut wooden bookmark-sized black panels with Australian flora designs.
And the tea trolley? I'm still making slow progress (although I now note that the basket struts aren't straight so may need to re-glue them...)
One-twelfth scale miniature Alvar Aalto trolley 900 kit, partly constructed.

Friday, January 06, 2017

Finish it off Friday: small and portable

Printed instructions for a one-twelfth scale 'Quick and Easy Basket', with the kit pieces, a pair of scissors and a darning needle laid out on top.
Those were the parameters for this week's project, and this 'Quick and Easy Basket' kit that I picked up cheaply at the last AMEA Convention fitted the bill nicely.

I note that I planned to use some different thread, but since I'm not quite sure where I stashed that for safe keeping (and don't have the time to look right now) I'm going with the original thread followed, possibly, by some spray paint if necessary...

Monday, January 02, 2017

Monday: making a start

My excuse for not getting to this yesterday was that I'd banned myself from the internet. And my studio. Which doesn't actually make any sense (the excuse, not the banning), as I work on things like this downstairs on the workbench in the kitchen. Where I'm not banned at all.
One-twelfth scale miniature kit pieces for an Alvar Aalto trolley 900, laid out with the instruction sheets and a photo of the original for reference.
 *shrug* I really just needed a break to focus on other stuff.
One-twelfth scale miniature kit pieces for an Alvar Aalto trolley 900, stained, painted or varnished and laid out to dry.
But now I've stained the wooden bits (but not the papery bits as when I did a test on the bottom of the basket it came out much darker that I'd planned: so I just varnished those to deepen the colour a bit), and undercoated one side of the wheels.

And then we wait for things to dry so I can deal with the other side of them. Then wait some more. And then, finally (and hopefully) glue it all together so I can admire its beauty, and make it a scene.