Waiting, waiting...

It has been a long day. My husband and daughter drove to Auckland, New Zealand yesterday, about a 6 hour drive from where we live to pick a vintage doll house for me. An early Mother's Day present (Mothers Day in New Zealand is the second Sunday in May). They have picked it up and as I write this my husband and daughter are heading back home, another 6 hour drive, and should be here in a couple of hours. I am just as anxious to get them back safe as I am to see my new (old) house. I will post photos of it tomorrow.

I couldn't put my mind to anything until I knew the house had been picked up and then I managed to put together a little table using the resin experiment I recently blogged about.
http://myrtlemanorminiatures.blogspot.co.nz/2013/04/creative-flow.html

This nearly ended in disaster when I tried to squeeze black paint out of a tube and the tube 'exploded'. Black paint on my desk, on me, on my clothes and on the carpet. Not impressed! I finished the table surrounded by black paint and then proceeded to clean up myself and my workroom. Needless to say it dampened the creative spirit and I didn't get any more miniatures done today.

Anyway, here is the table. I used two plastic pizza spacers for the legs (the type you get in a pizza delivery box that stops the lid from sitting on the pizza). I cut one prong off each spacer and then joined them together.

 

Will take some photos of my Amersham house tomorrow and put them on the blog. In the meantime I hope you are having a great weekend.

Creative Flow

I've been enjoying my weekend so far. I still have another day to go before I head back to work on Wednesday and Pete and Jamie won't be home until tomorrow late afternoon. However, I thought I would post what I have done so far as I'm quite proud of myself for sitting bum on seat and being creative.

Yesterday (Easter Sunday) I experimented with some resin pouring. I recently got a starter kit from Altered Image Studios http://www.alteredimagestudios.co.nz so I could have a go at pouring resin and consider how it might be applied to miniatures.

The two wooden hearts, the domino and the wine charm all came with the kit.

 The red Paris image also came with the kit. My daughter loves anything

to do with Paris at the moment so she will love this.

On the blue heart I poured the resin over a bit of handmade paper I had made.

I love the way resin intensifies the colours.

I put a William Morris paper on the domino.

 

This was an image from a 1920s Girls Own Annual.

 

This square I have done to make a little table top. 

The resin is poured over a paper from a 1938/39 Sanderson Samples Folder.

I was really pleased with the way the square in the above image came out as I used a very thin wood as a base and I was concerned it might warp but it  didn't. There is certainly potential for using resin in miniatures. I will have to experiment some more.

Today (Easter Monday) I set myself the task of making an artist's easel for the Selina Rose Gallery.

 

 To the right is attempt No. 1. To the left is attempt No. 2.

On the side wall is also the second bench seat for the Gallery which I made yesterday.

 This image shows the back of the easel. The legs do fold in on both easels.

Close up of the easel holding one of my sister's paintings.

I had an idea in mind when I started the first easel but unfortunately I glued some pieces of wood on the wrong way so I ended up making it into just a simple easel, which as you can see has come in handy for photographing the resin images. I think I might use this one to hold a sign board.

The second easel I made was more what I had in mind. It still needs perfecting. I would like to make it workable so I can adjust the easel to the size of the canvas on it. It has a little shelf and a little hook on the side for a dirty rag.

Well, that is what I have created so far this Easter weekend. I really need to get some housework done tomorrow, but I am hoping to have a bit of time to experiment with some fimo.

I hope you are all enjoying your Easter break.