Category: time

Prototyping Complete

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purple

Feeling confident about the rightness of the basket kit patterns, I move on to test-coloring the white base cardstock. My charming husband gifted me a set of Winsor & Newton water colour markers, and I’ve been eager to use them. This is, um, not exactly — nor even close to — fine art, but watercolor tints differently than either stain or alcohol markers. I used an intentional kind of crosshatch to fill the larger pieces. Gorgeous color/colour, yeah? W&N Mauve 398.

pear

I built the purple mauve watercolor basket, and moved on to an alcohol marker. These bleed and blend much more readily into the cardstock. W&N Pear Green Y635.

most

Here are our happy fellows to date. In this picture you can see the difference between the heavier-weight yellow basket, and the slightly lighter-weight, tinted and white cardstock ones.

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I realized that tinting the outer edges of the lid pieces (even though they are eventually covered) helps mask any gluing misalignment, so had to test-make one more basket. This is W&N alcohol marker Duck Egg.

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And here are the last two basket prototypes, with some hen succulents, held up to the last of our stormy, freaky light. I noticed a similarity between the terracing of our wee hillside backyard, and the woven fabric of the baskets. Huh.

Basket Kit Progress, Bobo Fun

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working_010517

This was my desk, late last night, working away on the paper basket kits. After many pattern iterations, file conversion aberrations and test cuts, I had the basket itself fairly well worked out. I was thinking about basket lids — if, how and why — when I had an idea. I was too tired to implement it, but scrawled some notes.

lid_idea

This morning I drew the pattern and did a test cut.

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And yay! It works swell! (Also, chilly in the studio this morning! My poor fingers.)

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It’s a simple construction, very open to customization.

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I’m thinking about handles now. But enough! I want to get these kits out.

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For those who saw the item in the January newsletter referencing my delight with the typeface Bobo — designed by Jean-Baptiste Morizot in 2016 and published by Indian Type Foundry — I put together this logo. Each character in the all-caps font has at least three variations. So fun, even as an example of expanding your notions of what makes a thing a thing. (And it’s available from Fontshop right now for half price.) Check it out!

Newsletter, Calendar, Party

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calendar2017_project

There’s a new issue of my newsletter Cut, Fold + Make going out tonight that includes a modern miniature calendar for you to make.

calendar_gluing

It’s a quick and simple project.

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You can sign up to receive it with the newsletter link on the right.

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It’s a good  way to keep track of yourself in sequential time.

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And, there’s a party going on to celebrate the new year and new pergola being built at Modern Miniature Succulents + Sundries. All the furniture from Sea House Warming Hut has been dragged over, and there’s a beach driftwood fire blazing, as well as festive beverages. Come on by! It’s been too long since we’ve all hung out together.

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PS: Godzilla will be there.

 

RIP Starla Argo v1

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rip_v1-1_110716

I came home to find this grisly modification to Starla Argo, whom I had thought was safely ensconced in the Sea House Warming Hut, up on a high shelf. Here’s the weird part: nothing else was disturbed.

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And there’s a lot of random stuff on the stairs and deck.

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When I asked Scarlett if she knew anything about this, she sniffed Starla a few times, then galloped off down the hallway.

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I found her lounging in the kitchen sink. Her head was bobbing rapidly in that cat way of gathering as many perspectives as quickly as possible to assess if I was going to use my big voice again, which is why her face is a bit blurred.

It’s OK. Starla v1 was a learning prototype, and I had notes on changes to my technique and her design. But I am going to invest in some of those upright square plastic boxes I’ve seen stop motion animators use to store their models for v2 and subsequent characters.

Nothing Beside Remains

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This month’s very tardy nancyland splash page pays homage to two of my favorite things: Shelley’s sonnet “Ozymandius” and beach cleanups.

I recently became site captain for Esplanade Beach volunteer cleanups organized by Pacifica Beach Coalition, and my experience is heartfelt and mind-expanding. The image on the splash page is a fishing buoy, possibly debris from the 2011 Japanese tsunami, retrieved from the beach some sixty feet below:

esplanade_trail_051216

The part of the poem that most resonates with me:

“The hand that mocked them and the heart that fed
…
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

3

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MLR_031716

Her favorite color remains blue, and she can fly like this bunny.

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My favorite modern miniature of all time.

 

Adorable Elephant Backside

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www.nancyland.com

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

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www.nancyland.com

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.

www.nancyland.com

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 :)

www.nancyland.com

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 :) ? !

www.nancyland.com

Wait! Everything just changed:

www.nancyland.com

Looks like it should arrive near the end of my current, um, fierce vigorous fiery set of work deadlines, so yay!

 

What We’ll Be Seeing in 2016

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www.nancyland.com

www.nancyland.com

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!