The interior walls of the 2016 build are exposed brickwork, which will be whitewashed, with star-shaped tie irons from Old Mountain Miniatures. The bricks are all salvage from the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. More than this is not known.
Category: thinking through fingers
Considering
I wasn’t going to lead with this picture, but it’s affecting everything I’m trying to do, as is the way with a large jagged wound on a primary finger. I was playing Prey Under The Covers with my usually gentle cat and one of us miscalculated… It’s a 3-bandaid kluge :(
And now, presented without justification or explanation is my beginning foray into the HBS 2016 contest base kit. I almost always order a second kit for parts, but somehow didn’t this time. As you can see, I’m mid-trial, but I can’t really go much further, or even see if it will work at all, until additional parts arrive. It keeps collapsing.
My consumptive work deadlines are over — met, even! — and the startup company I’m working with has officially launched, so I can share a peek of what I’ve been doing (logo, packaging, manual, web imagery, panel design) for the past few months.
This is from their website. Watch the video! Very cool stuff.
Here We Go
Yay!
Adorable Elephant Backside
Here’s one side of Janet Granger’s adorable elephant tea cozy (teacosy). Stitched on 32-count silk gauze with Anchor stranded cotton, it will be 1.5 x 1.125 inches (4 x 3 cm) when finished. If I do (someday) make one on 49-count, at 49 x 36 stitches it would be… like an inch wide by less than that tall. Might be just too much cuteness packed into that small of a space.
And the deadlines, how brightly they burn!
Yipes, Stripes, Stuff
This pattern variation appeared after watching 20,000 Days on Earth, a good, if mildly self-indulgent film chronicling memory, writing and performing — made unbearably, poignantly tragic by the recent death of Mr. Cave’s son, Arthur.
One of my favorite scenes is Warren Ellis’s recounting of Nina Simone’s backstage pre-performance requests. Many thanks to Austin Kleon for pointing us to this worthwhile talkie.
Then the next day I woke up and David Bowie was dead. I am sad.
I made a little yellow table from the stain test. This shot is for Keli.
I don’t often do adorable, but when I do, it’s one of Janet Granger’s tea cozies. I love this design (and the cat one). The only thing that’s sad is that it’s worked on 32-count silk gauze, and there’s more gauze show-through than I’d like to see. I might actually go back and do full cross stitch (rather than tent), or start all over on 49-count with silk. Probably when monkeys fly out of my butt, as Wayne so cheekily observed :)
And since I’m stuck on miniature needlepoint, at least until I start a new build, all you sewists, beaders and book artists should check out Thread Heaven, a quite effective thread conditioner in a wee cobalt blue box that has made my stitching tangle-free. A merciful reprieve. Because science! And, as their site proclaims, it’s non-petroleum-based, and vegan :) ? !
Wait! Everything just changed:
Looks like it should arrive near the end of my current, um, fierce vigorous fiery set of work deadlines, so yay!
Yipes Stripes, Bottlebrush, Storm
Progress on the Yipes, Stripes rug: 13/16 of an inch (21 mm)!
The fully-bloomed flower spike of the bottlebrush seen earlier!
The ocean has been rearranging the beaches, again. That storm drain is usually buried! Sharp Park Beach, looking south towards Mori and Pedro points, in the pouring rain.
Yipes, Stripes!
First of all, my cat wants to welcome you to 2016.
Second, I needed a project to fill time and quiet my twitchy fingers before the next build. Although I fully intend to get back to the Animals rug, last seen somewhere around here:
It’s been hibernating in an old soft cotton pillowcase for like a year. I love this thing, but stitching it requires a lot of concentration. But as John From Cinncinati suggests, I need to get back in the game. My ideal project right now is something I can fit in between work, and not have to read or follow a chart. While still deriving all the benefits miniature needlepoint stitching brings me.
So I came up with this, sized to fit on the 49-count silk gauze remnant I have on hand. Behold, the beginnings of the Yipes, Stripes rug.
It will be 2.5 x 6 inches (6.35 x 15.25 cm) when done, using Gütermann silk thread. I’m making up the design as I stitch along, although variations of the black and ivory motif will recur. Feels good to be nimbling up my fingers again :)
2016 Build: More Messing
Here are two more janky models of build ideas.
I’m really interested in this one, with the slanted roof balanced by a very large triangular dormer (is that the right term?) opening the main room ceiling. I envision zinc vertical panel roofing, a windowed front, and old oak beams, rafters and posts. Lots of reclaimed and re-purposed building materials.
This one, right away I want to add three or four feet to the overall height. And skylights in the main room and a tall fireplace surround on the far wall. Still liking the idea of a semi-enclosed porch and entry way. This roof has an extension running along the back; why I’m not really sure. No deck, leaving more room for landscaping on the project base.
But what I’m really obsessed with now is prefab modular homes, specifically the work of Blu Homes. Feast your senses and design sensibilities. I expect you’ll be seeing a lot of their ideas coming through this next build.
2016 Build: Messing Around
Enjoying sketching and roughing out little idea models for the lamentable 2016 HBS contest base kit. The concept above is very similar to 2012’s MiniTown Loft, my first-ever build, which became Loft No. 1961. For visualizing ideas I work in points and picas (six picas = one inch), because I am a graphic designer and picas are our native measurement system. And, one pica = one foot translates very handily for working in 1:12.
After building — and subsequently giving away, but not before I crated it and moved it across the US — one monster A-frame, I now confine my projects to 20 x 26-inch (51 x 66 cm) hollow core birch-ply drawing boards, with a turntable attached to the underside. They’re sturdy, lightweight, have a nice finished edge, and are reasonably priced. The size restriction helps me plan the site landscaping, which I enjoy as much as building the structure and furniture.
Another thing I’ve realized is that I like to keep a representative amount of recognizable original elements from the base kit. Not sure why. The contest rules are deliciously wide open, so maybe that allows me the freedom to embrace some pre-defined design limitations, and parameters of practicality. Plus, it’s just so amazing to see what everyone comes up with :)
As a wonderful kickoff for this project, a dear family member, who is a custom cabinetmaker, asked me if I wanted any of this stuff that his shop was tossing out:
These four-foot lengths of oak (cut to 1/4 x 3/8- and 9/16-inch, quite near standard dimensional scale lumber sizes :)
and all these veneer scraps, if you can call three- and four-foot lengths scrap. Only one is labeled (upper left, teak) but they look to be perhaps alder, koa, purple heart?, mahogany?, red oak, birch, spruce… I have a labeled sample kit somewhere, I’ll have to cross-reference to identify. Then he casually mentioned he’d be glad to look out for and save me miniature-suitable wood scraps! I see a yummy wood giveaway in the future to share this bounty. Many, many thanks, T. Happy boxing day.
What We’ll Be Seeing in 2016
Well. HBS/miniatures.com has announced the base kit for the 2016 Creatin’ Contest build: the Backyard Bungalow.
I’m not swooning.
The description reads “Small in size but big in style, this little building can be used for about anything you can imagine!”
And that’s good to remember. Dimensions are 12.5 inches wide x 11 inches high x 20 inches deep, with 8 of those inches being the front porch. Not shipping yet, but we can pre-order.
Ready, set, go, miniaturist citizens! We have big magics to do!
nancyland.com 