couple more lamp shades, work trays, Stockade

Yesterday I made two more lampshades. These will go in the sitting room in my three room roombox which is done pretty much in whites and greens.

I'm very pleased with how they turned out but not too sure at this point just how I'll use them.

Styrofoam meat trays make good work organizers. I quite often buy from Costco so end up with some fair-sized ones. They're good for keeping kit pieces together.

One of the items I was looking for at Michael's on Saturday was Rub 'n Buff. It was on the Michael's website but none of the Edmonton-area stores had it in stock.

Then today, I remembered that I had received my Stockade catalogue last week so checked it out - and they do carry it. (It's a lustrous wax metallic finish for antiquing, crafts, and decorating. Just rub onto any surface with a finger or soft cloth, then gently buff to a beautiful luxter. Formulated from imported carnauba waxes, fine metallic powers and select pigments.)

Stockade has about 20 pages of glues, paints, finishing supplies, paint brushes, etc. They also have a small number of miniatures (not necessarily 1:12 scale), a couple Greenleaf dollhouses and some furniture kits. Their catalogue is a lot of fun to read through. And shipping is pretty reasonable.

Mommy/Daughter Day

Early this morning (well, 9 a.m.), Leanne picked me up and we headed for the Etsy show at the Shaw Conference Centre in Edmonton. Saw a lot of lovely things but nothing that particularly appealed to either of us - except a couple pictures that Leanne loved and neither of us could afford.. No miniatures per se but I found these lovely pictures. I see another (third) art gallery in my future.

These two pictures are by Becky Twigg of Stick Frame Photography. They're 3" x 3".

These two business card size fridge magnets are by Steven Li. Both Leanne and I are great fans of Peter Lik and Steven's work reminds us of Peter's work.

Connors Road, Edmonton, and Mount Assiniboine, B.C.

 This little picture is 1 1/8" x 2 3/4" and is the front of Jasmin Smith's business card.

These four pictures are by Steph Simpson. They are 2 1/2" x 2 1/2".

Went to Costco for groceries, then off to Michael's where I picked up this bottle of Tacky Glue. I mostly use Weldbond these days but  for $3.00, good to have this handy as I was right out.

Leanne needed a couple things from Home Depot so we headed there next. I picked up some molding to finish repairing Elizabeth's dollhouse....

and Leanne found me this 2' x 4' piece of ??? to repair the roof. I didn't have enough matboard in my stash and this was cheaper and sturdier than anything else we could find.

Then off to Dollarama where I found these cupcake liners for tablecloths on the tables we plan on doing for Meals on Wheels. There were a few other nice ones but for this project, they have to look right upside down.

I have two more of the findings that I used for my "Tiffany" style lamp shade. I'm planning on doing them in green for the sitting room in the three room roombox so got this nail polish for the two shades of green. The other colours will eventually be used elsewhere.

Picked up this Mod Podge at WalMart. Leanne thinks and I hope that it can be used with the gold foil for the art project. And if it can't, I'll still use it somewhere. I've been out of it for a LONG time - and was shocked at the price these days!

ODDS AND ENDS I forgot to mention this week:

DS Shirley bought a new dining room table and chairs on Kijiji on Monday so asked me to help her pick it up. Beautiful set! I helped her with the chairs but couldn't help her with the table top - half inch glass 48" in diameter - weighed a ton. But when we got to her place, I took 4 of the 6 chairs that she was getting rid of to go with my new dining room table.

The washroom in the hotel where we hold our Show and Sale has a basket of wonderful 15 1/4" x 16" towels - similar to pellon fabric interfacing. It makes wonderful sheets and towels.

 

Art piece

Wow! This is going to be hard to do!

First of all, the picture of the artwork isn't 'straight-on' so that's a problem. But I'm thinking it should be 3 1/4" on a 3 1/2" base.

Will do the actual artwork on the 3 1/4" piece with the 3 1/2" piece as the background.

This is the original. It's on 3 or 4 levels. It's a bit difficult because the picture is not straight on. (It's high on a wall.) Some  levels I can tell from the picture but I'm hoping to get a couple pictures from both sides when Joanne and I go to the hotel for the de-briefing.

 However, for now I have sketched out the shapes that are part of the installation. It looks really "blah" in this configuration, doesn't it?

While the original is in copper, I have this gold foil on hand so will try it with it. I'm hoping that this will be thin enough that the design won't be thrown off.

I hope I can pull this off but not feeling too comfortable about it. We'll see what happens!

Trying out some pieces

The blue chairs I bought on Sunday look pretty good in my second lamp roombox. The round table is from my stash as is the small carpet. The colours in the carpet are a bit lighter blue than the chairs but the wine matches the wall pretty well.

Haven't decided what to put on the back wall yet. I put my remaining Barbara Brear faux books in the barrister's book shelf. Unfortunately, many of the books are too tall so have to be laid on their sides. Don't know what else I'll put in there.

OR I could use this fireplace from my stash on the back wall. In that case, I will need some art for above the fireplace.

Maybe this is the year that I'll finally make the art from the wall of the hotel.

Have to let this percolate awhile.

P.S. Judith told me she didn't do the shade attributed to her in my last post. If you know who did it, please let me know and I'll correct the post. Thanks.

Some websites to check out....

When Joann Swanson was writing her blog, she published a great little pamphlet on Scale: A miniaturist's guide. New miniaturists, in particular, will find it very helpful.

If, like me, you prefer modern rooms, you might check out apartmenttherapy.com for ideas. In particular, "Dollhouses That'll Give you Serious Design Envy".

Bill Robinson is one of the premier artisans in miniature. In a TED talk, he tells about how he got into miniatures. It's about 15 minutes long and worth every minute of it!

This was in my inbox yesterday.

"As you navigate through the rest of your life, be open to collaboration. Other people and other people's ideas are often better than your own. Find a group of people who challenge and inspire you, spend a lot of time with them, and it will change your life."

-- Amy Poehler

To me, it hits the nail on the head as far as belonging to a miniatures club.

"Tiffany" style lamp

Lucille taught a great workshop last night. She had ordered the findings from Bindels Ornaments in the Netherlands and the bulbs from Evan Designs in Colorado.

Here are the samples she had done up.

The holes in the metal are filled in with nail polish from the inside.

Here Trineke is working on several shades at one time.

New member, Judith, did this one.

This one is by Jillian.

Joan G. did this one.

I already had the finding so just ordered the light this time.

I didn't have the inside piece so made do with an ear-ring back.

And painted the inside of this also for the top piece.

It's not quite finished as my super glue has dried up but here's what it looks like put together -

and here it is lit up!

What a day!

Today was our "Show and Sale Day"!

And what a wonderful day it was!

Our central display was out Canada 150 display of 150 favourite Canadian icons. In the forefront is Joanne Prodor's "Canada Shop" which is one of the most incredible, detailed shops I have ever seen.

These are the wonderful demos of next year's projects - both the small and large porches!

 This is Cheryl S's incredible Egyptian scene. All but two pieces were made by Cheryl!

It won her the second Lorry Saunders' Award in a row.

Bev A. made these wonderful bookends: Life and Death! 

Wonderful beehive house by Linda Austin:

Linda won for bext dollhouse.

Judy's award-winning roombox. Hard to photograph but magnificent.

A tie for best club project.

Cathy's

Teresa's 

Joanne's winning vignette

The sales room:

Sunni with two of the make and takes at the Children's table.

My purchases:

Two blue velvet tables

Wonderful wardrobe.

Barrister's bookcase

Front of second shelf lifted up and back.

Another example of Dave Armstrong's painting skills. This is 3/4" tall.

Beautifully painted pieces from Lorry's Estate.

Handles for my kitchen cupboards.

Nice little plate.

Wonderfully draped towel.

Trees for the Christmas table project.

Couple gifts from Lilliana:

And Barbara W. gave me these wonderful things for the Christmas tables! Thanks, Barbara!

And she tied this into the bow on the package!

And I picked up these dolls and furniture for Elizabeth for her dollhouse.

What a great day!