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.
New Old Book
This book has been in my wish-list for quite a long time. I didn’t see any good reviews of it, you know, I’m too curious, always wanted to know what was inside. “Making Miniature Furniture” is out of print, I saw it on Amazon available from different buyers (mostly US), but later found it on biblio.com. The book was available from UK, so I decided to give it a try.
This particular copy is 1997 edition, originally printed in 1988. It’s had a bit different approach than of Harry W. Smith, though I quite liked it. No metalworking chapters, only wood. Lots and lots about instruments, principles of work. There are no furniture projects like Victorian table or something like that, but mainly general – building frames and doors, drawers.
I liked these small references on different styles, nothing new, but still interesting.
Color illustrations are great too, just loved marquetry work here:
Too many details on this photo 🙂
Friday, Friday
This morning I’ve found that Google Friend Connect widget was gone. I have no idea why they decided to stop supporting it, but it’s not very good sign. I have e-mail subscription and RSS feeds in both English and Russian, Facebook widget, hm, I have to many widgets I suppose 🙂 I’ve installed another one, called Linky Followers ( is it any good?)
Among other news, I’ve subscribed to another British magazine – The Dolls’ House Magazine. Very original title. I love that they have apps for Android and iPad together with pocketmags.com. So now I receive only two mags, both from UK.
Last month I cancelled my subscription for American Miniaturist and Dollshouse World i-mags. I’ll never buy anything from Ashdown again, seriously. Couple months ago I found that I couldn’t access Dollshouse World i-mag, at first I could see no pictures, and then all I saw was 404 error. I thought at the time that they have some problems with a server or something. After a month of this 404 error I wrote to UK office support. Actually, I was the first Russian subscriber, they didn’t even have Russia in their list of available countries, I had to ask to add it back then (it was 2 years ago I think). Anyway, this time I got no reply. Also, suddenly the same thing happened with American Miniaturist i-mag page, again this 404 error, then dollshouse.tv and all ashdown sites. I’ve checked from different IPs, different ISPs, and found that I couldn’t access these sites only from Russian IPs, if I was using American proxy everything was just fine. I wrote the second mail to UK office, no reply again.
I thought, this is ridiculous, I pay for the service they can’t supply, I don’t even get the answer from Tech Support. This time I tried US office, I received the reply saying that it was their new security policy, they closed many IPs to prevent hacker attacks (yeah, like I’m a hacker, right). They said they forwarded my mail to UK office, can you guess if I got the reply?And nothing about refund, nada.
I had to ask for it myself, and yeah, I didn’t hack anything, I prefer to pay for the service. Eventually they send my refund to my Paypal account, it wasn’t full, I got it for the remaining months. I was lucky here, because just several weeks ago Russian Paypal couldn’t accept money, only send them.
The best part of the story – I still receive spam from them asking me to renew my subscription. They just don’t remove my email from their list.
Visiting a Show, Not Miniature One
This year I missed all doll’s shows in Moscow (we don’t have miniatures shows). I’ve seen several participants with dollhouses and miniatures on the photos, but it wasn’t enough motivation for me to go there. My husband is also doesn’t really like these shows, and my Mum couldn’t come to visit me.
But there was one show, my husband just couldn’t miss. It’s called MITEX – Moscow International Tool Expo. Usually it takes place in November. The registration and tickets are free.
Site of the week
Couple weeks ago I’ve found an amazing work of one polymer clay artist. Unfortunately, I don’t remember the country or name. There was another thing that attracted me – somebody on one Russian site posted the link to this artist’s works. It was obvious that the work was fantastic, lots of great details, colors combination – everything was perfect. There were a lot of comments, most of them were great, but some people were saying that “the pieces were wonderful but there was no soul in them”. I felt very sad for this artist, somehow I see such comments only on Russian sites. I can understand if somebody says “it’s great but it’s not really my thing” (because it’s very subjective) but saying “it doesn’t have soul” – I think is wrong. I’d never ride a car “with soul in it”. What does this artist do to make his creation soulless? I just don’t get it.
The same happens with the term “handmade” (speaking only about Russia here). “I create it with my own hands!”, again, I’m puzzled – how you should work to call your product “handmade”. If you’re into felting, for example, and using sander for it (Bosch or anything similar), should you call it fully handmade? If you’re a doll artist and make porcelain dolls, do you have the right to call it handmade (you’re still using kiln, right?). Course you can! I’m not a specialist in doll, and I don’t really care if you make it all by hands or using tools, if you’re putting all your soul into it or taking it out before work. I just need a good doll.
Long story short, I wanted to share this wonderful site with you, fantastic flawless miniature architecture, the author – Francisco del Pozo Parés. I loved this house the most. There’s an official site too (just click on the picture to get there).
Немного ссылок
Обожаю блоги, где рассказывают о постройке миниатюрных домов с нуля, from scratch. Всю прошлую неделю читала вот этот – http://englishmanordollhouse.blogspot.com/.
Автор там строит викторианский дом, огроомный по размеру, и, хотя я сама не очень люблю этот стиль, сам процесс строительства очень увлекательно наблюдать. Да и результат просто отличный.
Еще один хороший сайт – http://tinyceramics.com/. Я искала разные изображения напольной плитки для холла, поэтому с особым интересом рассматривала, там и модерн есть.
Пятничное
Пару месяцев назад в Yahoo группах активно обсуждали гильдийскую школу, мастер-классы, которые там проводятся. Просматривая тогда фотографии, нашла потерянный в закладках блог замечательного мастера из Португалии – Maria Armanda Bryton. В мае этого года она получила статус Artisan (кстати, можете посмотреть на сайте IGMA полный список тех, кто получил это “звание” в 2011 году).
Работы ну просто само совершенство! Там и мебель, и светильники, и такие великолепные клетки (эх, тот случай, когда жалеешь, что сайт обновляется редко :)).
Сайт недели
Меньше чем через месяц в Париже начнется выставка миниатюры – International Dollshouse Show. Много потрясающих работ, достаточно посмотреть отчеты прошлых лет. Именно этому и посвящены эти блоги:
Отчет с шоу –2010 года, 2009 и 2008. Фотографии достаточно хорошие, стоит посмотреть. Как я поняла, блоги создают сами организаторы шоу, что, на мой взгляд, просто отличная идея, и себе реклама и участникам.
На фото – Elisa Fenoglio Miniatures dolls.
Сайт недели
Для тех, кому интересны не только 1/12 и 1/24, но и еще меньшие масштабы. 🙂
Чудесный блог, где все домики – 1/144 – http://www.microjivvy.com/
Сайт недели
Я была уверена, что уже успела поделиться ссылкой, а оказывается, что нет – пожалуй, один из самых любимых сайтов – Harry W. Smith Miniatures.
Приложу картинку для привлечения внимания:
Как это всегда бывает, картинки с сайта я взять не могу, остается только показать обложку книги, которая вышла несколько лет назад. Гарри Смит – не только известный миниатюрист, но и очень интересный художник и скульптор. На его сайте есть соответствующие разделы, где можно посмотреть все его работы. Ну а про миниатюрную мебель даже говорить ничего не буду, это просто нечто!