Do You See It? Take a Closer Look....

See it now? This exquisite butterfly was a gift from Andrea Thieck. It is a very special keepsake from our meeting in the spring. I have been waiting for the hydrangeas in the garden to bloom the perfect shade of blue, so that I could share the beauty of Andrea's work. Unfortunately, the photo does not show the butterfly's glistening, intricate wings that Andrea has so perfectly replicated! Please visit Andrea's blog to see more of her amazing work.

Progress on the French Boutique Kits

Progress on the French boutique window vignette has been slow. Ok, really slow (I started it in February!). There is much to do yet: signage, painting, electrifying, and the addition of the new kits (not shown in the photo). The vignette with all of the accessory kits will debut at the National convention in Charlotte, at the end of this month. 

The progress on the French boutique window vignette.

During the development process of the vignette, I had an idea to make a kit for an Eiffel Tower chocolate display. The kit will be available in 1/12, 1/24, and 1/48 scales; and may be completed with optional items to make your own bon bons. If you can't travel to Paris for your bon bons, soon you may be able to enjoy them in miniature!

Printable 3D Stars Garland

Have fun decorating your summer scenes with these printable stars. They are very quick and easy to make, and would add the perfect touch to the top of a hutch or along the front of a table. A garland isn't the only way to use these festive stars. They may also be hung individually with ribbon, or glued to tiny wires and placed in buckets for display. Have fun thinking of the possibilities for your mini scenes!

Download the PDF and use your printer's highest quality setting. For best results, you may wish to use a premium, lightweight, matte paper (not photo paper).

Please note that this printable has been shared for your personal use only.

Folding the stars:
1. Using your hobby knife, score the back sides of the stars. Score from each of the 5 points to the opposite sides.

2. Fold the stars on the score lines with your tweezers. Make crisp creases.

3. Fold the scores in between the points the opposite direction (toward the front of the star).

4. To create a garland, bend a piece of wire and glue the stars along the wire.

Finding Some Findings

You know that feeling of stumbling upon someone else's junk, and thinking that you've found the equivalent of the recipe to Godiva Chocolate. Your spine tingles, your heart rate quickens, your breath shortens and all you can think is, "I didn't look through that box yet"! Meanwhile, everyone else thinks that you're crazy to dig through boxes and boxes of...well... old junk.

That's what I did at the local bead show. It was too much fun to find each of these treasures buried under garish costume jewelry! My head is spinning with the possibilites they offer in miniature!

A portion of my new treasures.

A New Book for Making Polymer Clay Foods

I am excited about a new book from Oiseau deNim, called, Miniatures en pate polymére (de retour du marché) / Polymer Clay Miniatures (return from the market). It's a great technique book and it's chock full of photos! I think that the release of this book has not been given enough attention here in the U.S.

The instructions to make a large range of market foods are provided in clear, step-by-step photos and text. Yes, it is French text. However, each step is clearly photographed in a way that makes me feel comfortable to try any of the lovely "recipes" even though I don't speak French! The author, Peiwen Petitgrand of Oiseau deNim, is a skilled miniature food artisan and a wonderful teacher. She has given several classes on CDHM and teaches workshops.

Peiwen provides polymer clay techniques for beginners (like me) as well as methods that would appeal to more advanced food artists. The chapters include: an introduction to FIMO, materials and tools, general techniques, advanced techniques (caning and shading of colors), instructions for making 23 different foods (listed below), and some surprise tips for putting the finishing touches on your miniature food scenes.

She teaches how to make:

• string beans
• eggs
• eggplants
• lemons
• tomatoes
• artichokes (oh-so lovely!)
• asparagus
• kiwis
• ground beef
• pork roast
• carrots
• mushrooms
• bell peppers
• cauliflower 
• pears
• apples
• peaches
• grapes
• persimmons
• clementines
• cucumbers
• squash (several varieties)
• chestnuts

The book is FULL of photos showing how to do every step. It's my new polymer clay bible!

If you would like to purchase the book outside of France, contact Peiwen via the Oiseau deNim blog or through her Etsy shop.

Kensington Dollshouse Festival Part 2

The Monday after the dollshouse festival was a fun day in London. Mr. T2S and I headed to the Victoria and Albert Museum. With the museum map and a limited amount of spousal patience, I quickly devised a route through the museum that allowed us to see a small sampling of the extensive collection.

Several architectural models interested me, but I was attracted to this one because it is contained within a traveling box.

Architectural model of Pitt House; Sir George Gilbert Scott and W.B. Moffat; 1841.

I like the traveling box!

The ceramics exhibition was breathtaking! You may wish to click on the images to see the details.

Dish with peas; England, Staffordshire, about 1820; Minton's factory.
Bone china painted in enamels and gilded.

Vases with naturalistic flowers; England, Staffordshire, 1830-1840; Minton & Co.
Bone china painted in enamels and gilded.

Tile panel with vase of flowers; Delft, Netherlands, 1710-1750.

Also in the V&A museum, I found the same model of my first boombox in one of the display cases. Yikes, am I so old, that a purple, plastic boombox with mint green and peach "play" and "stop" buttons for the cassette tapes, is now a museum piece? 

This colorful diva of a stereo rocked my world with Madonna, Starship, and the Bangles.  Graphic via stereo2go.com

I quickly forgot about the 80s, as we headed to Covent Garden. It was a pleasant surprise to find a Ladurée shop! And even more pleasant that Hubby and our friend indulged me with a box of the scrumptious macaroons! The three of us stood in the square and moaned with pleasure as we sampled the flavors. Not a bad ending to our trip!

Kensington Dollshouse Festival - Part 1

I'm a little late in posting about our trip to Kensington Dollshouse Festival. However I want to share some photos of just a small portion of the fantastic work that we saw at the festival.

We had a short, but pleasant trip to London. It was our first time taking part in the Kensington Dollshouse Festival. We shared a table with Andrea Thieck, whom I think is one of the most stylistically diverse artisans I've met. Everything that she makes – from watering cans to LED lighted minerals – is a perfect replica of real life! And she is a delightful person as well.

Andrea Thieck

Of course, I did a bit of shopping between helping customers. How can one fight the urge to scoop up everything in sight, when it is all new and different?? Fortunately, I was able to control myself... ahem.. to a certain degree.

New items for the kitchen of the Tuscan Villa. 

Andrea thoughtfully found the bowl in the photo for my Tuscan Villa. It is by Sally Meekins. 

Every kitchen needs a few storage containers. The leather hanging bottle, wooden bucket and wooden storage container are by S & S Eismont.

The preserved tomatoes and onions and other glassware are from Country Treasures.

Not surprisingly, one of the busiest tables was Petite Properties. I fell for a lean-to greenhouse kit. It is going to be attached to my 1:48 flower shop. And then there was the impulse buy... a 1:144 Tulip Cottage kit. It was just too IRRESISTIBLY CUTE! 

1:144 Flower Pot Cottage Kit. Photo via petite-properties.com

I met Georgia Marfels from Germany. I can best describe her work as humorously dark and magical; it makes you want to look closely at every piece. The dissected frogs brought back memories from high school Biology class!

Georgia Marfels

One of the best parts of traveling to the festival was meeting artisans that I hadn't previously known about. One such person is David Provan. He makes incredibly detailed wood turnings and metal pieces; including this window hardware. He patiently explained how to install one of his door latches in my Tuscan Villa. 

Window hardware by David Provan.

Andrea introduced me to Jana from Germany. Her books are works of art. Pictured below is the Van Gogh's House pop-up book.

Janas Minibuecher. Photo via janas-minibuecher.de

More from London in the next post!

Kensington-Here We Come!

We are just about ready to leave for our first show in London. I'm excited! To commemorate the occasion (well...to commemorate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee...really) I thought it would be fun to do a little collaboration with Ruth Stewart. She made these delightful cakes and cupcakes. Do you see the tiny gemstones? Ruth has such a colorful and fresh approach to her work; I can't help but smile when I see her desserts!

If you will be attending Kensington Dolls House Festival, please stop by our table and take a look at Ruth's work!