nid d'abeille

 I've finished my outer walls and almost finished thatching my roof!  And I made a box bed.

    

( Read more... )

I have more walls and floors!  And even doors!

    

( walls and floors and doors! )

Earlier this summer, the poppets and I went to a music festival in Quebec!  Here they are listening to one of the musicians.

Once again, gasp, such a long time between posts! But I've been busy working away at things. I got distracted a bit from miniatures by quilting (my other great hobby love) and gardening (my OTHER great hobby love) and reading (ok, probably my greatest hobby love) and various other things.

But my mind is always stewing in miniature juices, even if only on a back burner, and this is a project that I've been thinking of for about 12 years, ever since I first visited the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, Lewis, Harris and also Skye. Oh, so beautiful!!! And a year later, I got to visit them again on a naturalist and historic cruise, including even St. Kilda (which is such a precious jewel of a place) and also Orkney, Fair Isle and Shetland! I fell in love with the history of those islands, and I dreamed that one day I would make a little Scottish islander's croft house, with stone walls and a thatched roof. In Lewis especially there were many old blackhouses that fascinated and enamored me.

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The poppets and I have been away!  But at last we are back from our various adventures.  

 

First, some adventures in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

( poppets in Michigan )

And now, some adventures in Massachusetts.

( poppets in Massachusetts )

I've made several new poppets recently and haven't yet posted their pictures.  So here they are, all Napoleonic wars era.
  

( Christian, Polly, Kerjean and Sharpe )

I can't believe it, but I was on the front page of Etsy again!  And in the first spot!  Not that the order necessarily matters (apart from wanting to be in the top 12 spots out of 16, because the last 4 spots are just "alternates" if it gets on the front page), but it's nice to be the first one.

Eeek eeek!  I feel so lucky and stunned and surprised and happy.


( look! )

After being horribly sick for several weeks, I've finally picked up on miniatures again and have almost caught up with my to-do list.  Almost. 

Most of these are available at my Etsy.

     

( pictures )

Just rolling pins.  The design (though quite ordinary) was inspired by one pictured in the Cape Evans hut in Antarctica, so one of them will be making its home in my polar hut, probably the one with plain handles.



( more pics )

I made a ruler for miniaturists! Well, I made it for me. It shows the ratio of an inch to a foot, and all the little fractions. It took some fiddling to make it print out full sized, so I wouldn't recommend using it to actually measure something. It's just handy for seeing ratios (like something that's 3/8" in miniature would equal something 4 1/2" in real life.)

Help yourself! And feel free to tweak it too.

Inch=Foot ruler

I was commissioned to make this plate rack and pair of cupboards by the talented Michelle who is making a whole Hogwarts dollhouse.  It was fun to work out the logistics and design with her.  For the first time, I photoshopped my design together for her approval, and then I built it according to those measurements.  It was fun!  My finished product turned out just like my photoshopped image.  I had done something similar with my ambulance volante, but to a much lesser extent.  The computer is such a valuable tool though.  Nearly every item I make gets its own folder, including various reference sources and photos of the thing itself.  The ambulance volante folder has about 137 files, but this cabinet has only 45.

I wish I could see it installed, and see the rest of her amazing dollhouse too.  This will of course go in the kitchen, above a similarly styled kitchen sink with wooden cabinets.



( pictures )

I just finished my first needle felting project!  It was a kit from my friend DB.  Thanks, babe!  It was fun!

The kit was for a gray cat, but I decided to adapt it to look like my own kitty Nemorino (Nemo).

  

( kitty! )

I've been making sea chests!

   

( see the sea chests! )

Some are still available at my Etsy, honeyandbee!

Here are some miniatures that I didn't get around to posting a while ago, plus some new acquisitions!

      

( click! )
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My ambulance volante is finished!  Voila!




( click! )
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