nid d'abeille

I finished my blackhouse (crofter's cottage) last month in time to enter it in a competition, but then I immediately turned my attentions to Christmas and never got around to posting the finished pictures here.  (I won't know the results of the competition until February.  I hope I'll win something!)

So here it is, finished at last.

   

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Now I have the underside of a roof!

    

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I have walls!  And floors!  And a very silly cat.  Gianni refused to get out of the way for pictures.  I love the first one.  He was playing with a little plant seed or something.



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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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Updates of both projects, with lots of pics.

         

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I was on the front page of Etsy yesterday!  I didn't even know it.  I had to go and look it up.  It makes me happy!



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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.



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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.



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I've been working on furnishing my miniature polar explorers' hut, and some other things.  I've also been featured in a magazine!

     

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Here's an odd assortment of my latest things, which have nothing to do with each other.

        

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My new big miniature project is a polar explorer's hut.  The structure is modeled roughly on Shackleton's hut at Cape Royds in Antarctica, but it's going to take inspiration from lots of other huts and explorers and expeditions.  The hut and its contents, that is.  A while ago I made some miniature Primus stoves, the first items for this project.  Now I'm making the hut itself.  From scratch!  In the pictures here, the only readymade items are the windows, and even those had to be adapted.



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On a sudden whim I decided to make an ambulance volante, or flying ambulance, as invented by Dominique Jean Larrey, surgeon-in-chief to Napoleon's army.  He designed them in the 1790s, and I've always loved them and him.

Pictures:


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More to come later!

I was commissioned to make replicas of the Chawton Cottage table and chair where Jane Austen did much of her writing.  It was a very enjoyable endeavor!  I hope the owner will be pleased when she receives them.  I think I can say they're some of the finest things I've made. 

The front legs of the chair and the turned pedestal of the table were adapted from existing miniature turned pieces, but everything else I made from scratch.



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I have at long last finished a set of specimens in jars, some to keep for Stephen's dispensary (though not for dispensing purpose, I hope) and the rest for Etsy.  

I also finished another batch of mini books.  I'm much more efficient now that I know what I'm doing.  It's nice to know what I'm doing.

No commentary, just pictures.



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A couple of days ago I was on the front page of Etsy!  At least, some of my miniature apothecary bottles were.  (First column, third row down.)  Amazing!  They sold quickly, and then I got several messages from other people who wanted to buy some, so I whipped up some new ones.  I feel really undeservedly lucky in my Etsy endeavor.  But I've just had my first repeat customer, so that's great!  I'm so glad people like my things.

Also, I forgot to mention that recently my miniature books were featured on Fluffy Bricks!  Thank you, longlongwaytogo!  I feel special and famous!