Royal Alberta Museum

Joanne, Sunni and I went to the Royal Alberta Museum today to check out two exhibits: Western Threads: Contemporary Fibre Art and Worn to be Wild (an exhibit of leather motorcycle jackets.

Of particular interest to us were these dolls by our friend and co-miniaturist, Carol K. Pretty impressive!

Took these pictures of some of the other exhibits:

This picture is the most incredible piece of art done in fabric!

Didn't take any pictures in the Worn to be Wild (not even Elvis's Harley Davidson) but did take this picture of Sunni in the Harley Davidson jacket.

 At lunch, we talked about our displays for the Show and Sale. Sunni has a clock case she thinks she'll fill with clocks so I collected my clocks that she might be able to use.

Work light, Art Gallery

I'm on Lee Valley's mailing list and today they announced a LED worklight that I think has great mini possibilities.

http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?cat=1,43349&p=72058

Maybe not quite as aesthetically pleasing as an Ott light but for $39.50, I think it has definite possibilities.

* * * 

When I was sorting and bagging all the "stuff" I've accumulated over the past year or so, I came across four pieces that I thought might work in the Art Gallery.

These are all pieces that were ear-rings that I got from Cheryl.

A whale cresting on sea glass; a Haida (?) design; Three Churches at Mahone Bay, NS, on sea glass; an interesting piece of glass

Here's the Art Gallery.  No lighting as it has a plexiglass ceiling.

These two pieces will go in the Art Gallery:

Although they had to go into the Art Gallery, I had to think a lot about where to put them. Finally I decided they could go in the bottom of the clear display pieces. Once I had decided that, I realized that I had to build up the base inside. Fortunately, I found some black styrofoam that I cut to fit so the pieces were visible.

So this is what the 'new' Art Gallery looks like.

Time for a break...

The music room is just about finished but I'm drawing a complete blank regarding lighting in it....so I'm going to take a break and let ideas stew for awhile.

I glued the edges of the outside fabric down again but I think I'll maybe put a red border around the front edge of the room to tidy things up a bit more.

Woke up yesterday morning with a pinched nerve/pulled muscle in my back. It's pretty painful so may just take some time off until it feels better.

Coleman lamp

In some of the items from Bonnie Maio's estate, Maureen M. found a great little Coleman lamp that Bonnie had designed. She gathered the materials for it and put together kits for the club.

One thing that presented a problem was the "glass" for the lantern. Shortly after Maureen and I discussed the lantern, Joanne and I were in Lee Valley and I found these plastic tubes.

I had some dowling that just fit inside the tube so I measured off the height for the pieces

Then used my handy-dandy tube cutter from Canadian Tire

And cut enough pieces for each of the kits.

Materials:

Three 9/16" grommets
One 5/8" tall wooden spool
One round bead
One oval bead about 1/4" long (we used a bulb off a string of plastic Christmas lights)
One 5/8" piece of tubing
Coleman label

Supplies:
Dark green paint
White paint
Glue

Glue one grommet to each end of the wooden spool.

Glue the round bead in the third grommet

And paint both pieces green (I used Americana Leaf Green.)

Paint the bulb white.

 

Glue the bulb to the bottom of the round bead. I propped in  on top of the tubing until the glue dried.

Glue on the Coleman label.

Glue the tubing between the two pieces.

I gave the paint a coat of Americana DuraClear satin varnish.

Music Room

It's coming together!

I was able to cut down the centre of the back wallpaper and re-glue it flat. Then I glued on the artwork.

The right hand wall has scenery behind it so I added two LED lights on the ceiling and the wires put through the hole in the back wall.

Here the lights have been attached to the battery and the joints covered with shrink wrap.

Jazz Festival posters have been added to the left hand wall.

Now the right wall has been put in place.

The view out the window (lit by the LED bulbs).

I bought this wonderful stereo by Penny Spence of BC the last time she did a show in Edmonton (a LONG time ago).

 And the speakers.....

 The stereo is on the back wall with the speakers mounted on the upper wall.

The accordion is also by Penny Spence. I bought it from Danielle Perry at her last Edmonton Show before she retired.

Penny no longer does shows but her work is available through Victoria Miniland. Wonderful work!

The loveseat itself is by Janet Harvie of Maggie Melinda Miniatures. The story of their purchase is on an earlier blog along with more information about Janet's work.

This incredible cabinet was a gift from Sammm Brockhurst of Toronto. It's beautiful and brings back so many memories of a similar cabinet my parents had.

I had these wonderful 50s and 60s record albums (with records in them) to put in it (Beatles, etc) but not enough to fill it so needed something to keep them in place. Couldn't find my heavy brass pieces from Lee Valley so used a piece from an old floppy disk.

This cuts easily with scissors so I opened it up into a book-end shape and added the treble clef with contact cement.

Then I put the albums in the cabinet held in place with the 'bookmark'.

Now the cabinet is in place with a violin and snare drum resting on it. The violin is from a club sale (Thanks, Jillian, for switching with me) and the drum is a Christmas ornament with antique white paint for the surface.

 Just about finished! The grand piano in the back right had a bust from Victoria Miniland and candelabra from my stash (have to put another candle in the middle). The music on the piano bench is from Tina MacDonald, our club president.

Janet's chair on the left with a guitar leaning against it. The table in the front with the percussion instruments was made by Gilbert Funk, a former member of M.E.E.

Still several pieces to go into it.

A cornet (for Leanne); a saxaphone (Sean); flute (DS Shirley); trombone (nephew Mike); and all the music stands. Need to make stands for some of the instruments and probably for the guitar. I`m SO disappointed that I couldn`t work the drum kit into the scene but that`s okay because although dear BIL Grahame is a drummer, he is also a pianist so the piano is for him. I (sort of) play the accordion and piano but the accordion is for Auntie Irene.

Every instrument brings back family memories (Vern's BIL, Oscar, crafted violins).

I have a clarinet in my stash also but no one in the family plays that so it will  go back into the stash.

Little Day Miniatures

Jennifer of Little Day Miniatures was by tonight to pay for a table at our Show and Sale on September 21. I had not seen her work until today and was totally blown away by it.

She makes the most wonderful polymer clay food! And for those of us who want to demonstrate our love for this hobby, she also makes wonderful jewellery!

We're looking forward to having her as a dealer.

RATS!!!

I got the piece of art framed for the back of the music room.

Since it's printed on plain paper, it needed to be backed with card stock. I used this dry adhesive to do that...worked well. (My youngest sister, Marie, gave me this some time ago.)

 (It's about 4" x 6"._

I have a nice supply of this strip wood that Liz from Grandpa's Dollhouse tracked down for me a couple years ago.

Cut for the frame:

Coloured black with a marker and everything assembled.

BUT when I went to hang it, I discovered that the back wallpaper isn't hung properly and bows out in the middle! So I don't know what the heck I'm going to do! I may be able to cut it down the centre and fix it. If that fails, I have some red card stock that would work but it's only 11" and the wall is 11 1/2" so I've have to add 1/2" baseboards in the room. I'll try to deal with it tomorrow.