Русский 
English KDF, part 3.
The second and the last day of the Festival was great, we needed to open our tables one hour earlier, so that we would have a chance to see other exhibitors. I took my chance though some tables were still covered. Anyway, I was lucky to see David Hurley’s work, I bought his micro carving chisels set, didn’t try it yet.
I also had a chance to see latest Mulvany & Rogers commission. Though at the moment it was closed:(
You can see some more photos here.
I feel bad that I didn’t make any photos later, I didn’t take my camera.
KDF, part 2.
The story goes on…
It was my first show abroad, so it was exciting to see all the people – old ladies with their grandchildren, married couples desperately looking for something to buy.
My first thought – nobody’s taking photos! It’s quite common, I’d say, very popular thing in Russia. Lots of people who came by just to take a picture. Here – it was mostly press, and some people who read about me in the magazine or knew me from my blog. As for me, I was really shy to ask for photos – to see all those fantastic artisans, was a bit too much for me, I have so many things to learn, and their creations were really close to perfection.
At the start of the day so many people encouraged me, it was fantastic! They said that the style I’m working in is unusual, mostly they see Victorian or Georgian, so they were happy to see something new and fresh.
Kensington Dollshouse Festival
I finally got back from London, actually it was Thursday flight back, I missed my baby girl so much, that I decided to take a break and spend some quality time with her. Next week will be only about family, so I won’t be posting much except my impressions from KDF.
It was my first time in London at all, my first miniature show, so I was very nervous and excited at the same time. I also wanted to visit several museum, but I guess this post won’t be about it, some other time. First of all, there won’t be lots of photos – I was busy at my table, then when I had a chance to see other artisans’ tables – it was the last thing on my mind. Besides, photos won’t show the real beauty, you have to see it personally.
I arrived on Friday – before my trip I made lots of boxes for my pieces, at first I was thinking of making them with plywood, they all were supposed to be laser cut. But all I had at the moment was MDF – turned out it was a real good choice. Everything arrived safely in two suitcases. I had only 17 boxes, not much but at the moment I had no idea 🙂
I have only one photo in my Instagram of the boxes before gluing them.
I ordered three sizes – all the pieces were divided accordingly.
Adell Venus Collection of Miniatures
If you read The Camp group on Yahoo, you probably heard of Adell Venus collection and the action that was held at 17th of July. I just couldn’t resist the pleasure of sharing this wonderful catalogue with you. What an exquisite collection!
Video of the week
As you probably heard the new version of Sketchup is out. I loved the new Extensions warehouse, they included woodworking category, everything looks pretty neat, before that I had to search for the extensions on different forums, so now it’s a bit easier. New icons! So unusual 🙂
And some videos I liked, the first one (not that particularly new) – How does a fine woodworker change a lightbulb?
And the second one – from Kickstarter. It’s a documentary trailer made by Jogge Sundqvist – “The Spoon, the Bowl and the Knife” – a film about Swedish craftsman Wille Sundqvist. Very touching story, you can read about it more and support the project here.
The Art of Marquetry in Russia
I had to make this break for several weeks, something needed a change of sceenery. So no tablesaws or anything even close to my usual equipment, just several pieces of embroidery, mini sculpture and some old books I remember from my childhood.
Here’s one of them:
I have a very good memory of how my Dad used to make one of the marquetry table tops (the original was from this very book). Unfortunately, this table top is gone somewhere now, at least I have this book and good memories.
Site of the week
Some interesing link for the weekend.
Natalia Frank started a very interesting series of tutorials, must read for those who are interested in miniature needlework – http://scarletsailsminiatures.blogspot.ru/
http://www.caprai.it/catalogo/index.html#/1/ – A very nice book/catalogue about a history of Italian Lace, it was published due to the exhibition of lace in Moscow.
http://modernminiatures-whitledge-burgess.blogspot.ru/ – one of my all time favourite blogs.
Miniaturas Magazine
To all who subscribed to my site updates through email – sorry for Friday spam. I’ve been translating and moving some old posts from my English blog to this one. I totally forgot that I needed to disable my “Follow” plugins.
The good news this week – my first Miniaturas magazine arrived yesterday. I’m totally thrilled, I had couple of issues found on Picasa, some through my friends in Spain. I really wanted to subscribe to this wonderful mag, as it proved to be one of my favorite. The only problem was – my Spanish not that good, not good at all. Oh, and there was another problem – no digital subscription. That’s what was stopping me actually. But when one of my English mags subscriptions expired I immediately thought of Miniaturas. It was worth it in the end.
The cost is about the same as some English mags, but the quality is beyond compare really. I love it to bits! 🙂 I expected to receive one issue, but I got two actually! What a great surprise!
The quality of paper, photos is a-ma-zing. Period. Usually I skip through the pages quickly to discover only one or two articles worth reading, but this time I enjoyed every single page.
And a little present for me 🙂
The best way to learn Spanish, don’t you think? 🙂
My site of the week
Well, sites, actually 🙂
I’m a huge fan of furniture hardcover books, big albums etc, but sometimes you need to find something simple or something unusual.
That’s when antiques sites come handy.
My top 3:
http://www.sellingantiques.co.uk/
I love just browsing there, perfect source of inspiration!
More woodcarving books
My first attempt to order books from Amazon UK, because delivery rates on Amazon US are quite high for Russia. The only problem is they deliver packages by airmail without tracking number. So I was a bit nervous about this order.