My planned displays for the Show and Sale September 15

My first choice to enter at the Show is the kitchen I made in 2019 for Ann (of Thyme to Celebrate Catering) who supplied my mother with meals in the year before she died. Ann is very kindly lending it back to me so it can be used for a show that CBC will be filming later this month (children's program ONIVA) and will lend it to me a week earlier so it can be at the Show.

My second choice is the wonderful Christmas scene that I bought at a club garage sale by Karen Jones. I don't often buy other miniaturist's work but this one is so exquisite and beautifully detailed that I had to have it. It deserves to be displayed.

As you know, I really haven't done much of anything mini this past year BUT this morning I decided to do the Art Gallery that I had planned for the chrome and glass container I bought at the club garage sale in June.

The container: 9 1/2 x 9 1/2 x 9 1/2

I had a beautiful piece of blue velour matboard that I used for the floor and an interesting piece of matboard that I used for the back wall. It's cream with a subtle design of white swirls.

The upper left, upper and lower right pieces are pieces that DD Leanne found for me. The remainder are pieces that I made in a wonderful class that Tina MacDonald taught us.

My first positioning of the art.

Here I have coloured the edges of some pieces in black and white. One is framed in Silver and the three round pieces on the left are trimmed and framed in copper (with a pen).

I had thought to use Velcro to fasten these pieces but I'm out of Poster Velcro and the few pieces of Velcro that I now have are too thick so I think that I may use double-sided carpet tape to position them.

So tomorrow's challenge will be to attach the art and put the back wall in the art gallery.

Show and Sale

 Well, it's that time of year! YIPPEE!

On September 15, M.E.E. is holding it's annual Show and Sale at the Royal Hotel, 10010 - 178 Street, Edmonton, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

Great sale room with great dealers! Janice Crawley (IGMA Fellow) will be back with her beautiful porcelain creations as will be Sherri MacRaild (IGMA Artisan) with her incredible toys!. Judy Mitchell (Wee Dreams and Cobwebs) also returns with her eclectic display of work. Tina MacDonald (MiniatureMinutia) who appeared in the first series of Best in Miniature on CBC also has a sales table. And after a few years hiatus, Another World Miniatures from Saskatoon has returned.

Those are just my all time favourites. There are SO many returning and NEW artists that you will be amazed.

Admission: Adult $6.00, Age 7-15 $2.00 and children under 7 Free

Included in the price of admission is admission to the the Show Room (across the hall from the Sales Room), you will be able to see the incredible work that club members that been doing.

What a great way to spend the day!

Another little story from August 30

There are a number of us in the building who have a lovely hairdresser who comes and cuts our hair every six weeks. On August 30, she came a day early (usually comes on Saturday) and brought her 12 year-old daughter along (with our advance permission) due to scheduling problems.

Daughter, Josie, is a lovely young lady who looked at my minis while Mom, Tay, cut my hair. 

Mine was the last haircut scheduled so when we were finished, I presented Josie with a small box someone had given me, a Christmas tree, a Christmas fireplace, some red felt for a carpet, some wallpaper for wainscoting, and a chair that I designed years ago.

I gave her a cardstock printout of the chair with a poinsettia design and showed her how to cut it out and fold it together.

It was a lovely visit and I wish we had had more time to spend together but they were off to a dental appointment.

I was, however, able to sent Tay a page of links to some of my favourite websites so that was a plus.

As usual, waaay behind in posting

On August 22, a group of us met at Tina's to spend time with Viro, a lovely miniaturist from Mexico City, and her husband, Herman. Viro has been a dealer at the Tom Bishop Show in Chicago and is a member of an active miniature group in Mexico City. Fortunately for us, her English is very good - certainly much better than our almost non-existent Spanish.

She brought along a selection of small gifts from which I chose this one:

Picture on wood with a wooden angle on the back

She also brought along a small case of her work and a couple of the group bought some great pieces.

I wanted to give her my "City of St. Albert" mini book which I did. But while I was searching for it, I came across a set of mini postcards representing St. Albert that I had saved and forgotten about. So I printed them on poster paper (sort of a lighter weight photo paper) and was able to give a set to everyone who attended. 

They could be used as a set of postcards in 1:12 OR individually used as paintings in 1:48.

 Lovely afternoon.

What fun!!!

 I answered my door the other night, and as I did, a voice said "Don't open it so fast. I'm not finished looking!"

I'm used to this as I have a wonderful Joyce Buchanan miniature party hanging on my door and people really enjoy exploring it.

It was my next door neighbour and her niece who had rented the guest suite for a few days. I invited the niece to come over while they were here and take a look at my miniatures.

The niece and two of her young children stopped by tonight to enjoy my work. What a pleasure to show them what I've done. 

She was a wonderful woman who, although she is not a miniaturist, has an artist's soul and appreciated the work. The children recognized some of the more unusual items in each display and were some of the best ever behaved in my experience. (Except my own grandchildren, of course.) 

Love that the daughter said that next time they came, she wanted to see my works-in-progress finished.

It was a lovely evening.

A work of art

As a rule, I don't buy other peoples' miniatures. Having said that, I do have three pieces in my collection of about 50 in my home that were made by other miniaturists. Two (made by Joyce Buchanan and Jan Mann) are hangings that I alternate on my door throughout the year and another is a Jan Mann piece that hangs on the wall of my dining room. Both miniaturists were very early members of the Miniature Enthusiasts of Edmonton.

Well, yesterday, I added another miniaturists' work to my collection. This is a Christmas miniature done by Karen Jones who was a former member and executive of M.E.E. 

From the back

From the front

The lycopodium tree with candles and ornaments.

The fireplace with garland, cards and centrepiece...and the needlepoint wallhanging.

The chair, gift bag, and the bag of wrapping paper.

The wrapping paper, ribbons and the wonderful little black dog with the ribbon around his neck and in his mouth.

Thank you, Karen, for your expertise and skill as a miniaturist. I'm proud to have this example of your work in my collection.

Christmas ornament 3

I've decided to move the tree to the centre back with the table and chairs on the right and a settee on the left.

Still having trouble wrapping my head around 1:24 scale so I originally thought I might be able to bash this somehow into 1:24. First I tried shortening the legs to the crossbar on the sides but all that did was chip off the black paint and loosen all the other joints. Simply would not work. 

So back to my stash with no luck. Then I remembered some fans that I have on one of my bulletin boards. Now I'm thinking I can use the two thicker outer pieces (1 and 5 from the left below) for the sides; three of the inner pieces (2, 3, and 4 below) for the back and the scrap of wood on the right for a seat. It's sort of coming together in my head so now it's just a matter of making it happen.

These are the smaller gifts that I purchased from Louise Z. Aren't they gorgeous! Won't use  them all but they'll make a lovely display under the tree.

How it looks so far...

If I can get the settee to work, I think I'm on the right track.