Finish it off Friday: freestyle

 It's a long weekend here: and today's Australia Day/Invasion Day.

So I decided this morning to dub today's Finish it off Friday 'freestyle', meaning I could do whatever I want as long as something got finished. 

By the time I hit my studio (I needed to have a slow start to the day and a nice brunch before I considered work: toasted bagel with scrambled eggs loaded with cheese, spinach, mushroom and red capsicum, if you're interested) that idea had morphed again into 'as long as it was Australian themed'.

Because the first container I opened from my Finish it off Friday shelf (yes, I now have a whole section in the cubby above my work table for projects needing to be finished) included some stitching that's been languishing since... hmm... just after I arrived in Australia back in 1996.

(There would be a lovely photo of it here, but I've spent the last day fighting to convince Instagram to post, and it would seem that in the process I've lost some pictures I took :-/)

Instead, here's the finished result: 

One Sydney Opera House cushion based on a pattern in Jenny Kee's book Jenny Kee needlepoint: stitched circa 1997-98 (I know this as I pulled the book off my book shelf and it's labeled as hitting the collection in November 1997.)

From there I dived into both my paper and electronic stash, and ended the day with this:

On the left, a stash of Australian magazines, made quickly and easily from paper stash of magazine covers glued to cardboard.

On the right, a collection of 'Sydney Deco Moderne' magazines created from screenshots I shamelessly stole from Barocky Chocky's Instagram feed back in 2021 and finally unearthed from electronic stash:

(Sadly, there appears to be no such magazine in real life...)

And at the bottom, a work in progress (that I suspect is doomed to fail): creating a miniature version of Trevor Dickinson's Greetings from Canberra book with readable pages:

What you're not seeing is the heap of paper hitting the recycling bin: particularly magazine and book covers that I've kept for years that aren't in scale.

I call that a successful day's work.

Stupidly quick for something that was stalled for so long

Four quick bits of gluing and a few folds, and my miniature concertina book kit was completed in record time.

Leaving me wondering: why did past me abandon this kit when so close to finished, and end up making a handful of different books instead?

One word Wednesday

Finally.

Feline hopeful

Over the summer break I started wondering if it was time to consider bringing a cat back into my life.

Not a full-time feline flatmate (I still can't justify the potential expense, or forcing it to spend the rest of its life as an indoor cat sharing my small space), but on a temporary basis.

So I applied to be a foster carer for the local RSPCA. I'm not sure if they'd consider me because, although their information pack says I have to have my own transport 'to get to them in case of an emergency', I rather suspect their intent is that it's a car, so I can take the cat or kitten with me.

This scene is of an imagined version of my bathroom, with more room and no window, and was inspired by a recent trip to Kmart where I spotted their Pet care mini doll playsets (one for dogs and one for cats) marked down to $5 each.

The dog set had the perfect cat carrier as it came, but the cat set had way too much pink for my liking, so after a lunchtime visit to the garage for a spot of spray painting and some other gussying up after the paint had dried (enough!) after work, I had this:

Which I'm rather pleased with. You could say it's the cat's whiskers!

Doing the do*

 For today's Monday make, do and mend I chose do: because yesterday I found myself going through some drawers full of paper which lead to a quiet yet productive afternoon and evening assessing what I had, sorting it by type and spending the time to cut out the bits I want to keep, and creating piles of bits heading to the recycling and other bits (mainly out-of scale scrapbooking pieces picked up as part of a discounted pad), that will be heading to the op shop.

I'd like to keep working on this task this evening while I'm in the mood.

Which, alas, doesn't lead to a very exciting blog post (or picture) for you, but it's giving me a great sense of satisfaction, and another level of studio clearing.

(I fear I've been rather influenced by my recent watching of The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning on SBS on Demand, so am taking advantage of this flurry of activity. Long may it last!)

* ...and there's nothing you can do.

Balls!

 While I was in New Zealand last month a friend mentioned the Miniverse balls as something I might be interested in: adding that they were generally more 1/6 scale but many of the items some in a variety of sizes in real life so would work in 1/12.

As I'd already spent my budget for the trip and was running out of time, I decided to look into it further when I returned home.

Except everywhere I tried in Canberra had no stock, and my local Kmart, even though they showed online as having stock, came up with bare shelves when I visited ("Oh, they've probably all been stolen" shrugged the sales associate when I asked after them).

So yesterday when I was doing my occasional trawl through internet to search for them (while contemplating if I could justify a 50km round trip to the next closest Kmart that was showing as having stock, with the very real possibility of getting there and finding that their stock levels were lying too), I was intrigued to find another shop that was showing stock: an easy 12km scoot down the hill into town, with motorcycle parking just across the road.

So I went on a wee quest after work, and found a fresh new box waiting for me:

I'd read somewhere that the front of the ball showed what was in it, so was disappointed to find this not to be the case, and so chose 2 at random, hoping that I'd get a cactus or another of the plant options as I had hatched plans to use my colourful Eames chair in a bright dining room setting and thought one of the cacti would look rather good on the sideboard at the back of the scene.

Back home, I cracked the first one open, which was quite fun with its 3 layers of packaging.

only to find it contained a fishbowl.

Which I'm sure I'll use at some stage, but it was disappointing to spend that amount of money on something I didn't really want (and here's the rub with blind boxes, isn't it? You're almost paying for the joy of anticipation rather than the end result. Like lotto tickets).

But onwards, with fingers crossed!

It was a candle set. Which was slightly better as it had more pieces I could use more readily (possibly because it had more pieces to start with!), and I rather liked the gold daisy-shaped tray and the candle holders. But it was no cactus.

So I decided to consol myself by 'potting' one of the Daiso cactuses I bought in New Zealand (which, yes, I could have done in the first place but I'd rather felt like a Friday-evening adventure and treat).

While I waited for the clay to dry overnight my idea for a scene changed directions slightly as I found more and more cactuses in stash.

(Rats, when I chose the books for their colours, I didn't think of how the title might show in a close up! Also I'm a bit pleased with myself because those white 'rocks' around my cactus (which I'd so liked in the Miniverse versions) are actually course sea salt filched from my salt grinder, and today is Saturday so I accidentally just created this week's Saturday shelfie).

So here's the scene, with our cactus collector getting ready to pot up some succulent leaves to add to her plant collection:

Yep, I think she has everything she needs there:

I'm still yearning for some of the Miniverse Lifestyle designs, especially the cute cat planters and the larger cacti. Am I in a rush to buy some more? Tempting as it is, no, as the money I spent on them (and a few other mini treats I picked up this week) was earmarked as the 10% of the extra I earned while acting in my boss's role for several weeks that I'm allowed to blow on fun treats.

Which means that choosing to buy more will mean that my grocery budget would need to be lower that fortnight (which is doable and has been done previously when I had accidental book orders from The Book Grocer's clearance sales!).

Having said that, I might decide to buy a couple more when Kmart's stock is back on the shelves (or online), as their price is a cup-of-coffee cheaper that the ones I bought yesterday. And I get free delivery.

In the meantime I think I'll do a little research on the secondary market. Perhaps I need to plan an op-shop hop and see if they're showing up there yet, or check out the trash 'n' treasure markets again?

(Oh, and if you're wondering. Version 2.0 of the Tiny Timber Co's dresser build worked just fine, and hopefully will be part of a scene very soon).

Win some, lose some: a kit review

After pulling out a selection of kits to consider which would work best in the scene I had in mind to make around my newly jazzy chair, it seemed silly to put them away again, especially as I'm trying, this time round, to make some progress and some room.

(Let's ignore the irony of putting together a kit to make some room in the kit stash, and ending up with an object that takes up more room, but somewhere else, shall we?)

Of the kits, option 4 (the Mid-century modern dresser (walnut) by Mini Materials, priced at US$20, but now discontinued) seemed the best place to start, as I already had all the pieces laid out, and it looked like it had been designed to basically snap together. 

I ignored the tiny tube of super glue that they had supplied with the kit, and instead went with my trusty Weldbond.

As I thought it was a very quick build (I put the first parts together during a half-hour lunch break, and also managed to make and eat lunch as well as start on option 3), and the instructions, although very clear, were hardly needed (even, so they also provide a video to guide you through construction!)

Because the walnut plywood pieces had the woodgrain on both sides, I was able to choose which side of the piece I wanted showing on the outside: and I was impressed that they chose to use the walnut plywood for internal structural pieces (and the base) that I would never (or seldom) see again. In fact I did have a moment where I considered how much extra work I'd be creating for myself if I replaced them so I could use them later in another project.

I was impressed with the added struts on the inside to hold things steady, but wished that they didn't have tabs showing through to the outside of the dresser, and that since they did, the designer had chosen to locate them so it looked like they were at the bottom of both 'drawers', not just the top set.

While I'm showing you a close-up view, I do like the fact that they have routed the front piece deeply enough to make it look like they are real drawers, and the handle details.

I struggled again with the look of the slots on the top of the dresser, feeling that they detract from the sleek mid-century modern line, but much admit they are growing on me:

Speaking of struggles, the only time I struggled with putting the kit together was when putting the back on: it didn't want to slot into place, but worked when I turned it around and then gave it a wiggle.

To sum up: I thought this kit was brilliantly sturdy and easy to construct for the price, and also liked that it needs no finishing once constructed. I'd be tempted to purchase some more of their kits (especially the walnut ones) if I wasn't so focused on killing off my mortgage, and the postage and exchange rates weren't so vile at the moment.

As I mentioned earlier, I also started on option 3 (the Modern dresser by The Tiny Timber Co, priced at US$12) at lunchtime, figuring I could leave both builds to dry for the afternoon and finish them off after work.

I kept having to tell myself that this one was almost half the price of the Mini Materials kit (and that I've probably been well spoiled by the pricing and contents of the JWT Dollshouses & Miniatures kits) because I was struggling with it from the start.

The kit contained just 5 pieces (so no base), and no instructions. The wood was thinner and it was very obvious which was the outside of the kit as only one side of each piece had the nice wood grain.

As I started glueing it together (using my jig, as the carcass didn't self-support) I wondered if I should glue wooden block into the internal corners to give it some extra strength and support, but decided that the designer probably knew what they were doing.

I felt quite chuffed as I glued the back on to it after work, giving myself a pat on the back that I'd completed not one, but 2 kits that day.

After I returned from running a few errands I unclamped both dressers in readiness for the after photos: and discovered this:

It would seem that lack of instructions had lead to me making a booboo when putting it together, and I thanked (just)past me for not adding the blocks inside, Because it made it much easier to convince the still-curing glue to let go.

Leaving me with this:

Guess it's back to the drawing board with this one.

To sum up: Although I like the look of this kit generally, its apparent ease of construction tripped me up, and overall I found the end result was flimsy, so I'd be concerned that it might easily break, especially as it doesn't have a base to provide support. (To be fair, the company does give you the option when buying from them to have the kit assembled, but that would almost double the price, and probably increase postage cost significantly as it would take up more room than a flat pack).

I'll have another crack tomorrow, before I become too tempted to just shove it in a bag and back in the kit stash, and after I've done a focused dry fit.

In related news, I've been thinking about a JWT Dollshouses & Miniatures sideboard kit I have, and how easy it would be to add sliding doors (or the suggestion thereof) to the front, and if the end result would work with the jazzy chair. Watch this space...

One thing leads to another*

Last night, as I considered options for my now-deconstructed Daiso miniature Eames chair I was drawn to the idea of not painting it, as I'd first thought, but covering it with some black and white patchwork fabric (rather like this fine example, or even this option).

I even went so far as to spend some time trawling the interwebs for pictures of patchwork to harvest for the project, and was feeling rather pleased with my imagined end-result.

But while I was making dinner I received a comment on my Instagram post of Tuesday's scene, saying "I think you're a monochrome expert".

Which was lovely, but also made me wonder if I was going with the easy option, and should perhaps push the boundaries a little (while at the same time remembering a tutor when I was studying design telling me that there's nothing wrong with sticking with what you're good at, and enjoy).

Feeling content that this was not something I needed to think about right then because I had already social-mediad for the day, I went to bed.

And at around 3am the next morning, helpful brain piped up (for the first time in years) with a suggestion: perhaps I could go in completely the opposite direction and 'skin' the chair with the (very) colourful duct tape I bought from Daiso back in 2017.

Which is what I did at lunchtime yesterday (yay for working from home and being able to duck into the studio at lunchtime!):

It worked well enough for a proof of concept, and got me thinking about the rest of the scene that the chair would live in. Could I be bothered skinning a whole set of four to make a dining room? Or perhaps (and more easily) could it be a desk chair in a bedroom or study?

I went with the latter option, and pulled out my stash of kits to see what I had in the way of drawers and dressers, as I felt that the chair needed a mid-century-modern vibe option in white.

I felt like goldilocks.

Option 1 (not really a kit but in there because I wanted to make changes to it) was too traditional, plus when I picked it up cheap from a show I had plans for it which I'd still like to try. And, if I were to use it , it would have to go through the microwave, which would possibly cause more work putting it back together. 

Option 2: a kit I bought from JWT Dollshouses & Miniatures

got a thumbs down from me, due to the number of pieces involved, and the fact that I've found their kits generally run too run large.

Option 3, by The Tiny Timber Company, made me think the wood was too nice to paint

(and wonder when on earth it entered my collection).

Which leads us to option 4: a kit by Mini Materials.

It looked good.

The wood wasn't spectacular, so I wouldn't feel bad painting it.

Until that is, as I took it out of its package and saw this:

and took a closer look, only to discover that this kit has the best wood of all:

So I guess I'm back to seeing what I can do with option 2,

 or contemplating a complete change of direction.

* It seems that I'm also getting my 1980s earworm back this year.

One word Wednesday

Plotting...

Tired out on Tuesday

 So I listened to my heart (thanks, Kat for the reminder) and decided to let go (thanks Cyd for that one: and everyone please note one of the completed cushions making an outing!) and have a relaxing evening.

But not before throwing together a very quick scene to use to announce my intent to not do anything miniature-related this evening.

I seem to have a habit of doing that.

Monday make, do and mend

 Alas, one of the problems with a spot of studio archaeology is that it often kicks up some extra mending to fill up that space you so gleefully emptied not that long ago.

(At least this lot are rather nicely colour coordinated and I have exactly the right glue to (hopefully) mend most of them).

But that's a bit boring for you, the reader. So how about I send you on a wee adventure to see the scenes they came from while we wait for the glue to dry?

First up, on the top left, there's one of my Rosalie Gascoignesque pieces that I created in the children's room of the Goulburn Regional Art Gallery on a visit in 2015, and which I used in a miniature woodworking gallery shop when I returned home:

Next is important-looking chap, who I picked up for free at the last Sydney Miniatures & Dollhouse Fair I attended, and then used in a shelfie scene which I instagrammed but never blogged:

(and who, at one stage, I did some research on, and have completely forgotten who he is supposed to be!)

The New York shopping bag in the (broken) box frame is from one of the scenes I made of a seaside shack holiday home: this one from 2017:

The Brio Arne Jacobsen ant chair seems to have last popped up in 2008:

Surely it can't have been broken all this time?

Next is a Japanese kit of a school desk: last mention I can find of it at this stage is when I completed it back in 2013. (Which can't be right? I'll check and correct this if I'm wrong...)

I know for sure that the last piece on this week's list for repair was broken on its return from CMAG's Playing House exhibition, which ran from late 2008 to early 2009. It's from my late 1950s Lundby house, my earliest.

A slow Sunday doing a spot of studio archeology

 I got carried away sorting out the kit pieces yesterday and just kind of... kept going.

So although I'm a little bit grumpy that I've not actually completed anything from last week's Finish it off Friday, I'm pretty chuffed that the studio is starting to turn into a clean and welcoming space to spend time

and find things in.

(Yes, that's my two-tone dance party still waiting for attention up there...)

Speaking of finding things: is it just me that starts a clean up and finds containers of seemingly-random items which I have no idea why I gathered together, but am reticent to put away in case I suddenly remember?

Saturday: sorting it out

The best use of time when starting a kit is to sort out all the bits and bobs into separate bags or containers for each part of the kit, not just to make sure you've got all the bits, but also to help make life easier for future you by having each component together and ready to go and gaining an understanding of what all the pieces are, and how they fit together.

And that's what I did today: slowly, because of the heat, but also enjoyably because the gentle rhythm of sorting out a (potential) mess sooths my inner librarian.

I now have one (large) ziplock bag containing the pieces for the base and cover, which I'll be tucking away in my studio cupboard for possible future use (for example, if I ever display at a miniature show again, it could be useful to keep sticky-fingered people at bay), the kitchen bench unit I made back in May 2021 which needs to be repaired and completed. and a tray full of kits pieces for the accessories.

Some of which I'm not terribly excited by,

and some of which I am,

not only because I like the competed pieces but also (and possibly more so) because the kit includes the jig pieces which I can use to make more stools in the future if I want to.

Finish it off Friday (and Saturday, and possibly Sunday)

 The work week is over, as is my acting up, so on Monday I'll hopefully have a slightly less-crazy workload as my boss's boss returns to work so my boss can pick up her job again and I can return to mine (not that I'm complaining: it was a good challenge, and all went rather well. And I'm not going to turn my nose up starting the year with some extra money in my 'pay packet'!).

As soon as I thought of it, I knew that today's Finish it off Friday pick wouldn't be completed this evening, but that I'd feel pretty good when I'd either completed it, or declared it out the door as it didn't fit my definition of fun.

I'll explain.

I added this kit to my collection in May 2021: the month when I took part in the May mini makers challenge on Instagram after considering setting my own May be miniatures challenge on my blog, and deciding I was sick of announcing things and then watch them fall over, or through.

Instead I decided that since it was the depth of not-being-able-to-go-anywhere times, I could release a smallish amount of money from my budget to buy some mini supplies for my birthday.

This was one of them: the Corner of Happiness 1/12-scale Taste of Life kit, which I bought because I'd been lusting after a decent Smeg-like fridge for ages and decided that instead of buying the slightly-too-small Lundby version in black, I could justify spending a much smaller amount of money to buy a kit containing a 1/12 version, and consider the rest of the kit as 'disposable' (as it were).

I got stuck into building the kit in late May 2021, and finished the fridge the very next day, which, it would seem, rather took the wind out of my sails (although some digging through my blog suggests that the Doll House: Miniature Worlds of Wonder exhibition may have taken over my attention instead).

But I digress. This lot, half-built, is taking up rather a lot of space, so it's time for me to finish it off (and then put it away) or decide it's best recycled and binned.

But, as I'm sure you understand, it's very very hard as a miniaturist to get rid of anything as that's usually when you realise you actually need it for something else. Because hoarding is so much easier when it's in 1/12 scale or smaller... 🤣

Throwback Thursday: still stuffed

Yesterday's one-word post not only alluded to the fact I was yet again catching up on completing a stash of half-made cushions, but also to my general state of mind after a draining day at work spent firefighting and untangling messes.

So it was lovely to spend a quiet evening on the sofa mindlessly turning and stuffing cushions, especially as the temperature finally decided to rise to standard Australian levels after a blissful month of temperatures where I could happily function.

Tonight includes more of the same (both in terms of cushion-stuffing, and temperature). And as I picked the task up again, I suddenly recalled the soft furnishing shop scene I threw together over 10 years ago (10 years? Where did the time go?!)

And since it's Thursday, it's the perfect subject for a throwback Thursday post.

If you need me I'll be back on the sofa.

One word Wednesday

Stuffed.