2016 Build: Messing Around

2015/12/262015/12/269 Comments

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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:

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These four-foot lengths of oak (cut to 1/4 x 3/8- and 9/16-inch, quite near standard dimensional scale lumber sizes :)

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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

2015/12/172015/12/1719 Comments

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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!

Coming Real Soon

2015/12/135 Comments

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Wee wool pillows, bolsters, rugs, throws, yarn, roving… :)

Also hoping the power stays on!

Chop wood

2015/12/122015/12/124 Comments

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What is the sound of a digital clock ticking away the minutes to a deadline? Like the buzz of tinnitus? Or water drops in a still, clear pool? Here’s what it looks like: total bedhead me chopping tiny firewood and kindling and stacking it in place. I’m not freaking out. Well maybe just a little, for how weird the back of my hair looks. Onward!

My First Ever Venn Diagram Ever

2015/12/098 Comments

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Sea House Warming Hut: Interior This & That

2015/12/092015/12/0910 Comments

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Working on a wee Gotland sheep using, you guessed it: Gotland fleece and dyed black wool roving. The fleece is from Big Sky Fiber Arts in Montana; check out their wonderful selection of fibers, silk and prefelts. The wee (1.5 inches/38 mm) sheep will be an ambassador for Argo Wool Works :)

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It’s overcast, foggy and damp here in Nancyland today and the light is low. I wanted to used vintage photography as wall art in the hut, and have found some good imagery that sets the historical background of the area (real and imagined).

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This undated shot from before 1950 shows some of the headlands and other parts of the Sea House Pleasure Pier empire (now demolished).

I found this postcard of an old view south of the Warming Hut

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and decided to tint it

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but didn’t like how it looked on the wall. I’m showing it here anyway because I like the handwritten greeting from George to Tom.

And of course there will be this map from Cavallini & Company.

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It’s the same one that is on the ceiling of the Sea House Pavilion (2013), and the source of the color palette. The green, anyway.

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Merrily, merrily, merrily…
and with love to all.

Gnome Retrofitting

2015/11/182015/11/184 Comments

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I know. Still both busy and distracted, but able to work on these guys inbetween and on breaks. You can see I got some Mohair fleece wool. It’s like the softest thing I’ve ever touched ever. Also mustache wax for the dandy gnomes. And still learning lots, which makes me happy.

Part of my distraction is that I’m finally building out the little lean-to shed on the back of our garage to use as a wood shop. We had been using it for general storage, so my studio is now a shambles of unsorted boxes, disused music gear (his) and bins and tubs full of materials and supplies (mine) that all must find new places to be.

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And this is just one side of the room. It is… unwholesome, and overwhelming, and not conducive to getting stuff done.

My granddaughter is sick today, so I’ve been sending pix of the gnomes to cheer her up.

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The tall one with mo’hair is about to sit down and have a sunshine smoothie. Did you know gnomes live on smoothies?

Gnome004

2015/11/082015/11/084 Comments

I think this one needs ears too, but more sticky-outy ones. It is very proud of its mustachios.

Also I have learned the difference between combed wool roving and clumpy wool batting. And I want my own curly wooled sheep.

Gnelf? Elfome?

2015/11/022015/11/024 Comments

Finished Other003 between work tasks. And by “finished” I mean “This is what Done1.0 looks like. I don’t want to be the crazy gnome/gnoelf/gnelf/elfome lady.” Lessons continue to be learned.

Of course, there will be others. I want some of that curly wool for beards :)

Others

2015/11/012015/11/028 Comments

Some of us are serial monagamists, sometimes some of us eat cereal and beer for dinner, and more than a few things have serial numbers as well as serial ports. I am a serial artist. Or as Emilie Wapnick terms it, a “multipotentialite”. I suspect most miniaturists are.

At the 1975 GRAMMY Awards, when the impossibly fabulous David Bowie addressed the audience, “Ladies and gentlemen… and others…” something zigged and integrated in my awareness about all the way things could be. I remembered his words when I recently came across Jessica Peill-Meininghaus’ The Gnome Project, an engaging book chronicling “one woman’s wild and woolly adventure” making a needle felted gnome every day, for a year.

For a year!?…

Of course I had to see what this was about. I had a bunch of wool roving, chenille stems and felting needles on hand from other (abandoned) attempts — I wasn’t instantly as good as Victor Dubrovsky, for instance — and Jessica’s gnomes looked doable-enough.

I learned a lot from making the first one, dubbed Gnome001. Like needle felting is very, very repetitive and stabby.

And even more on the second one, Gnome002. Needle felting can be very, very painful, stabby sharp and barbed. And as Keli added: bleedy.

These two took me what seems like a disproportionally looong time to make over the course of two days. How a woman with four children at home made one gnome every day for a year is beyond me.

Last night, because of Hallowe’en champagne, they got braids :)

I have a Scandinavian tomten and nisse heritage, plus my elemental preference is more elven :) so I want to make these guys more my own “other”. Thinner, with ears, and boots.

Here’s the beginnings of ~~Gnome~~Other003. Wish me inspiration, patience, an accelerated learning curve, and financially appropriate amounts of time?