Call of the Small studio visit: Robert Boot

I arrived at Robert's studio this afternoon to discover he was ready to give us a demonstration of how he turns his miniature bowls!

He starts by choosing a length of acrylic from his stash: (good to see boys have stashes too..)

He mounts it on his lathe:then turns it into a cylindrical shape.

He starts shaping the bowl, outside... and inside...

Then it's time to shape the base of the bowl:

(back to the inside)

before checking for depth:

A final polish of the outside,and he releases the almost finished bowl from the original block.

(Well almost!)

Before the bowl is completely released it has to be polished. For this Robert uses automotive products. He told me what they are but I can only remember that at one stage he uses Turtle Wax.... (sorry!). And cotton swabs.

Only once the bowl is polished does Robert finally release it from the block.He then uses one of his many Dremels to buff the bottom of the bowl flat.

And it's done.

Now, if you think this is the most wonderful thing you've ever seen:and would like to own it...this may be your lucky day, as Robert has offered to give this bowl away!

If you'd like to add this one-of-a-kind miniature bowl (valued at AU$30.00) to your collection, leave a comment before Friday 23rd July and you'll be in the running to own it. As usual, I'll post anywhere in the world... GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED

And if you don't win? Well Robert's busy making other treasures for the exhibition...

It's the little things that make me happy...

Today:

A visit to Ruth Hingston's studio, just round the corner and across The Oval. Admiring the balls of Bendi on her work table: (and other things I've been sworn to secrecy about, alas!)

Finally getting to see some of her miniature (but not dolls house sized) works in real life:

snickering at the label on the door of her equivalent to my Room of Shame: which was followed by lunch, gifts,(yay for vintage suitcases and jars of marmalade!), and a visit up the road to Megalo for their Loupe: Printed miniature works by Megalo members exhibition. Once again not quite my scale but still stunning...

Home again, I finally made the time to change the keypad on my trusty Nokia 3310 so I can actually see what I'm texting before heading south for my next studio visit. I misjudged how long it would take me so nipped into Salvos Tuggeranong and picked up this:Sheridan daisy sheet: $5, miniature gas station: $8

No I haven't lost my mind: I'm picturing a small modern gallery and office. Or maybe cafe? Who knows. For $8 it's worth the risk of boomeranging back to the op shop in a couple of months...

The final stop for the day was at the studio of Robert Boot, one of only two miniature artisans who are part of The Call of the Small* exhibition:There are more photos. You'll have to be patient (and it'll be worth your while...)

(*Thanks to the real Call of the Small for use of her name)

Wednesday: Dripping, ripping and sipping

Dripping: I hear that water features in the home are trendy and calming.

But when your "water feature" involves a hole in your bedroom ceiling:and the gentle thud of the rain hitting the bottom of the plastic tub positioned in the middle of the bedroom doorway to catch the leak, I think you're allowed to feel ever so slightly on edge.Luckily I had a flat inspection yesterday morning and so left the tub sitting under the hole.

Ripping: up the contents of my 2002/03 financial year accounts folder.Every year at this time I think I should buy a shredder. Every year I decide it's silly buying something that takes up room for an hour-a-year job...

Sipping: NZ Pinot Noir (in honour of her upcoming trip to Nuw Zild) on Ampersand Duck's sofa while eating a very fine risotto and watching Spicks and Specks last night. Lovely.

Inside Inside Out

Paper models by Benja Harvey:

(Inside Out annual decorating & renovating guide vol 4 (p31-36))

More random miniatureness

I have the day off and am putting off doing my end of year accounts.

"Go through the backlog of things to be scanned? What a great idea!

*ahem*

Wallpaper December 2009 (p194). Model maker: Steve Kenward.)

A little bit of Queen Mary's dolls house in Canberra

Well, OK, just a reproduction: But still!

(From Canberra Times' Panorama magazine, May 22 2010 (p3)

Bored at the bus stop

We think you're dishy

I had the day off today. Planned to spend it cleaning the flat in readiness for next week's flat inspection, catching up on things. A little reading, maybe some crafting

What I didn't expect to do is come up with another exhibition proposal.

Long time readers may remember that I collect black and white tea towels. Long time readers may also remember the post where I outlined my plans for a dolls house exhibition at CMAG.

Today, I created a whole new Cabinets of Curiosities exhibition in my head while using a tea towel from a recent To Dry For order. Including the Public Programmes to match.

And a suitably Canberran reference for the title:
Now I just have to submit my mad idea and see what they say...

A fruitful morning

With a day off, Wendy and decided it was the perfect time to go see what Olivia was up to for next month's Call of the Small* exhibition ...

Pears, of course! She started making them life sized, then little, tiny and now, may I introduce minuscule?She even took the time to make one in front of us so I could document the process:

I've already reserved the one I want, although perhaps it won't live with the rest of my collection as it's so small it could easily get lost...(*Thanks to the real Call of the Small for the use of her name)

More miniatures in the media

From the UK this time.

BBC Radio 4 broadcast a half hour programme on the dolls house hobby today. You'll need to be quick to listen: it looks like it's only available online for 7 days...

(Thanks to Celia T on the Dolls Houses Past and Present forums for the heads up!)

What do I do now?

This morning I finished Monday's What I wore today sketch:turned the page and realised I have one double spread (or two days) left and my notebook is full!

How on earth did that happen?

And, more importantly, am I going to chose another notebook to start or shall I decide that just over three months is enough?

Which means I can stop trying to make the same two shirts, three pairs of trousers and 4 pairs of shoes look interesting day after day after day*...

(*Although, for me, what I was actually wearing isn't really the point.)

On the mend?

The Snot Monster is still with me, but alas the anti-Snot Monster drugs I was taking are only able to be taken for 48 hours so I had a horrendous night, alternating between coughing fits and fever-induced nightmares and woke up this morning knowing there was no way working was going to be an option.

So today will be full of hankie washing,soup making, rosehip tea drinking,and mending (hopefully of both me and the pile of stuff in my studio...)

And knitting. How could I forget the knitting?

A frosty reception

After I scraped the ice off Miss Daisy's windows this morning, we drove through the fog to visit Jamison Trash and Treasure before work:

(I decided scraping the ice off the CDs in order to read the titles wasn't worth the effort and so retired to a nearby cafe where I spent my money on coffee and raisin toast instead)

Tally Ho-meward bound

Not a sign I've ever seen before.

Mister Nibbs has been sleeping inside anyway. Clever Cat: who in their right mind would stay outside at night when they could be fighting me for access to the hot water bottle?

Oh yeah: the sharp eyed amongst you might notice the lovely blossom on the tree in the back ground. It's one of those trees hardened Canberrans ignore.

Just in case you ever wondered what my Snot Monster looks like...

Does yours look different?

A kinda random theatre-related post*

My latest bus-reading book (as opposed to my bed-reading books, my work-reading books, my sofa-and-knitting-reading books and the piles of gotta-read-em books) is a light and fluffy piece of chick lit borrowed from the library.

Now I've pretty much grown out of chick lit but this one caught my eye. Based in Canberra and New York, Manhattan Dreaming is about a curator at the (alas, fictitious) National Aboriginal Gallery which is housed in Old Parliament House.

And it's full of references to Canberra haunts: Caph's in Manuka, The Kremlin Bar on Northbourne Avenue and Hayden Drive in Bruce.

Today, on the bus into town I turned the page and read this:Speaking of Canberra Theatre, I thought I'd share an ongoing "work" I'm creating out of fliers for shows.

Originally it consisted of just the Julie Andrews figure and her baggage and was called Sing-a-long-a Sound of Wombat Ennio. Since then it's been moved to a new position, lost a sock from the suitcase, and been extended:I now call it North Umbilical Bangara Dorothy, Sing-a-long-a Sound of Wombat Ennio

(*Because my cold and cold-drug addled brain can't think of a whitty title tonight)

My creative (messy) space

It's been a while since I've documented my creative space. And I almost didn't today because my main creative space has useless for doing any actual creating for about a week.I've been spending most of my spare time recently trying to get the well-overdue May Dolls Houses Past and Present ezine published. So my workbench has become a bit of a "dump and run" spot. If you look carefully you can see my What I wore today journal half buried under a pile of stuff waiting to be put away. Is it any wonder I've not done any sketches since Saturday?

(And yes, that is a miniature shopping cart full of vintage door handles you spy. I'll probably get to that project in about 4 years...)

A woolly radio

A friend who works at Te Papa sent me this photo and link of a woolly radio on display there: Visiting the website, I forgot all about the woolly version (sorry Tracy!) when I saw this: