Paperclay workshop

I've done it!  On Saturday and Sunday we've finally done the workshop that I have been preparing for for so long and I must say, it was worth every minute I spent on the preparations.  I was nervous and had butterflies in my stomach, but in the end it was a fulfilling experience.  As you can tell from my witch's house, I love working with paper clay and it felt great to share this love with other people who now know how to use it to its full potential.  My younger son also came along and took care of part of the workshop.  We needed a flickering light for the fire place and he, the electronics wizz he is, had put a kit together for people to solder the parts and make their own flickering light.  I don't have all the photo's yet of this very pleasant weekend, but will show you here the few I have:

Saturday morning. We're all ready to get stuck into it.

Demonstrating how to score the floor boards.

No, that glass of wine isn't mine. :-) Like Rik I demonstrate parts of the workshop at each person's table in turn.

Checking if everything lines up.

The soldering class. The tutor is behind the camera. ;-)

This clever lady knew that stonemasons leave their mark in their work.

A room with space to move. (slightly bigger than the others')

As you can see, this weekend also was our 'Christmas in July' celebration. Here in Australia it's always very hot at Christmas time and for years now people have been celebrating a watered down version in July. For us the coldest time of the year, although up here in Queensland you can't even call a winter cold. Anyway, a good reason to have a nice Christmas dinner and presents. It was good fun. We always have a 'Secret Santa' after dinner. We all bring and receive a small present.

And who do you think received this cute little cradle??? Yes, my 36y old bachelor son! LOL Fortunately I received a beautiful 'silver' bottle opener in the shape of a dolphin, so we quietly swapped and are both happy.

"Santa" was also happy for a while. He gave out the parcels and received a hug and a kiss from every woman. He wasn't so happy anymore when the men got up to receive their parcels and wanted to bestow the same kind gesture on him!!!! :-)

After that we worked till late in the evening and most got up early on Sunday morning, eager to finish their work. We hardly stopped for lunch and morning- and afternoon tea, which was a shame, because the food, prepared by our hostess, was delicious. And then, finally, it was time for a last picture and our farewell BBQ.

The group proudly showing off the results of their hard work.

My 'Scrooge' workshop, as I call it, because my setting is going to be the abode of Scrooge (Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol) had an unexpected spin-off.  Did I think all the hard work was done??? Not quite.  Everybody liked the door, window and shutters so much (they were the resin casts for which I had been making the moulds a while ago), that they wanted to order extra sets, so I have presently gone back to casting. And dear son is getting some extra flickering light kits done and is soldering a few as well, because not everyone wanted, or had the time, to do the soldering themselves.  Never a dull moment in this household.......... ;-)  Mmmmm, should I start thinking about an Etsy shop?  What do you think???

See ya
Marion

More pictures after all

I said earlier that I had forgotten to take pictures while I was working on the project, but that was not completely true.  I did take a few, but not exactly step-wise.  I took one, when I was busy mould making on the kitchen bench.  Lucky me, I have a huge bench, so I don't miss the space much that was taken over by my mould making equipment.  It is still in a similar state, because I had an additional booking and so I need to pour more casts.

Before I knew of the extra booking I realised I needed door handles. I didn't really feel like making moulds for such tiny items, and pouring resin in such little quantities wasn't attractive to me either, so I sat down and in a few hours I'd made these from polymer clay:

I have to be honest and tell you that I pinched the idea from the Internet. They looked so cute when painted. Now I have made moulds of them after all, since I need to do more casting and can use up extra resin if I have mixed too much.  They might come in handy somewhere else.  There are two sorts: for inside and outside and the way I have made the moulds I can use them on the left or right hand side of a door.

I also took a picture of the fireplace before I put it in. I don't know why. Perhaps I wanted to have a picture to remind me how I'd done it, instead of writing it all down. I have been taking notes while I was working on the project, otherwise I can not make a proper scenario for the workshop.

I wanted to keep it simple, yet effective, so I used left over foam core and balsa wood.  That's all there is to it.

Well, that's really all the pictures I have.  I haven't got anything else to show you today, because I am preparing yet another workshop.  We are going to make a photo album when we have the next club meeting in Brisbane.  I am busy putting the kits together and all it is is cutting paper and card. I do have a cutter for my card making, but it's old and worn out and not very precise when it comes to working with millimeters.

That brings me nearly to the end of today's posting.  All that's left is to say 'Welcome' to my friend Ria from Variaatjes WorkshopBoxes, who's now also following my new blog.  So, welcome again Ria.  Glad to see you here too.

And just as I had published this post I discovered I had another follower, so back to editing and saying: Hello to Sylvia from Spain.  Sylvia loves miniatures, but is also into graphic design, photography, interior decorating, cross stich and scrapbooking.  (Yep, my Spanish is definitely improving :-0)  Have a look at her blog: Miniaturas Natasylvia.

And now I'll have to think of something to show you next.

Welcome friends

I shouldn't be surprised, but I am! I've just launched my new blog and already I have 8 followers. Welcome:

Margriet, Ira, Carmen, The Old Maid (sorry I don't know your real name), Sonia, Nuria, Lara and Nina. Good to see a few 'old' friends. ;-)

I promised some more pictures, so here goes:

I can't quite remember who made the floor from airdrying clay and had it shrink so much that the whole floor cracked. Well, look at my walls! Lucky for me I wanted to build an 'old' house. However, if I would have used the more expensive paperclay I would have been able to cover them up and smooth them, like I do with the openings between walls when the clay has shrunk and between floor and wall. Now I haven't bothered, because I like the cracks where they are. I have used the cheaper version of paperclay that is used for pottery. I have found that the more expensive paperclay seems to be more elastic and if money isn't a problem I most certainly prefer the good stuff.

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.