A new blog

I've done it!!! I've finally created yet another blog.  It will mostly be about the bits and pieces of my hobby that don't fit in the topical blogs of my Witch's Cottage and The Florist's.  Nor about my ordinary life, because that's done mainly in Dutch in my blog Glaginye.  No, this blog is more or less about what it says in the title: the little things that fill my days.  Or in other words, just the minis I like to make, see, read about, hear about, etc.  Hope you'll enjoy following this blog too.

Now I can also show you the pictures of the project I have been working on for the last few weeks.  It was the reason why I haven't been working so much on the witch's cottage and the flower shop. It's an inside/outside scene done in Rik Pierce style with paperclay.  It's to be a weekend workshop, but until we actually do it I won't know if it works or not, because paperclay needs time to dry before you can paint it and in wintertime (that's when I am conducting this workshop) it will probably take even longer because of the cold.  But........ time will tell.

What everyone else is going to with the finished product I don't know, but mine is to be the workroom of a scrooge.  Not Ebenezer Scrooge's from Dickens' "A Christmas Carol", but a scrooge nonetheless and his name is Mr. H. Penny (got it? ;-)) I was going to make a hanging sign with his name on it next to the door, but with the little roof added I ran out of space and the small beam is not wide enough to hang the sign on. Anyone with ideas, I am all ears. :-)

I haven't taken pictures from the beginning, so absorbed was I that I completely forgot, but here are the piccies of the (almost) end product:

Out on the street

The geraniums I have pinched from my florist's. The beautiful carriage light (close-up below) came from Carolyn's webshop.  Doesn't it look great, Carolyn?  It got a bit rusty, though, since I took the picture, so it fits the scenery!!! The streetsign and the housenumber I pinched from the internet and made them into real metal signs.  Also with the help of Carolyn, because I had trouble the way I was doing it at first.  There's always so much to learn and I still have a long, long way to go.......... However, there are also many good friends around, and I very much appreciate all their help.

The whole scene is done with a form of gaterboard (foamcore) and paperclay. The beams are only balsawood. So easy to work with and not at all heavy to 'lift' :-)

The originals of the door, window and shutters were made by my husband. What you see in the picture are resin casts. There will be no time to also make doors and windows, so this is an easy (albeit expensive) shortcut. It looks good though, and I am quite happy with the result.

I must admit, none of it has been researched and none of this might be authentic in combination, but I don't really care. The main thing is that I could throw a lot of techniques together for working with paperclay and if Tudor houses didn't have shutters, or the streetlight is from an other era, so what! We're going to have fun making it all over again.....

Close-up of the light and streetsign

The next picture is that of the inside of the house (naturally!). The floor is just MDF, scored and painted to look like wooden floorplanks. The fireplace is made up of left over gatorboard and balsawood.

My scrooge is not as bad as Ebenezer Scrooge. He wouldn't dream of having geraniums growing outside, nor would he have a fire going. My scrooge loves to warm his hands after counting numerous gold pieces....... And I am going to add a flickering light, because that looks so much better. I used to buy kits, but they're for 1:1 and contain a halogen light that I won't use anyway, and they are so expensive! So my son is going to make up a few kits that I can solder when I need them. The soldering is going to be part of the workshop as well.

Inside the room

Pictures always show your mistakes, don't they? I have to poke into the lock with a brush with black paint on it. The white Fimo is so obvious......

The fire in the fireplace is made up of a piece of red straw, covered with blackened sticks and pieces of red glass beads. That was such a good idea of Ira's from Merry Jingle, I had to try that out. Formerly I used a piece of red straw (to stick the light in, that I coloured red too, so as it not being too bright) and covered that with sticks and a bit of blackened catlitter. In another fireplace I used only a red straw (in T-shape) and covered it with black catlitter only. All look good, but different, although the addition of the pieces of red glass beads makes it a bit more special. Thanks Ira, for your excellent idea.

In my next update I will show you some piccies of the house in the dark, with lights on. I always like that. It's so very special when you see your roomboxes lit up at night. No roombox that I am going to make in the future is going to be without light.