Holidays.
We had very long holidays as usual. I wish I’ve done more, but what can you do. I made two wonderful fringes on bobbin lace, painted them, then realised I needed one more!
At the moment I’m working on a second chair, the seat upholstery is done, now it’s back of the chair I’m working on.
40 nails used, I think another 40 will go too.
Chair Upholstering.
I finished upholstering the first chair. Lots of nails and fun!
Chess figures. Knights.
Couple days ago, something terrible happened, my container with chess figures fell down from table, it was open. So couple of figures were lost for good. I had to make some of them again.
Three knights for now, don’t need more for the roombox.
Scalpel blades.
I was lucky to find a website selling scalpel blades and scalpel handles in Moscow. Usually such companies don’t sell anything to mere mortals, only clinics and doctors. Not this time. I got these:
- No. 11, I used all the blades I had, was one of my favorites some time ago.
- No. 10, love them!
- and my new favorite – 15c, love them even more! 🙂 It’s much smaller than No. 10, so it’s pretty cool for tiny cuts.
I also got three handles, just couldn’t resist, they were too cheap.
About the quality, 15c is the best IMHO, and it turned out, that it was from Netherlands (Steeluxe brand), 10 and 11 – from Germany.
Chess figures.
Several chess figures I made for the roombox, made of pear wood and box wood.
Rook:
Textile for roombox
I’m working on a textile for roombox. I need to make a fringe, so I thought of bobbin lace.
I found a silk thread, pretty close in color to the silk I used for a chair, but then decided to add yellow to make it look lighter. Looks much better now.
Roombox. The Rug.
Another portion of the photos – this time about the rug. I’m not an expert in petit point, so when I started working on a project I decided that the rug should be commissioned to someone who’s the best at petit point. It was very important because even the back of the rug should have been perfect. And of course I was looking for someone who could chart the rug, find just the right colors, add the right mood to the whole picture. I immediately thought of Natalia Frank, I had no doubts she would do it perfectly. Natalia made several posts about this amazing rug – here, here, and here and here.
But I should add some personal thoughts about it – to see such beauty on the monitor is absolutely nothing, you should see it yourself, touch it, feel it, admire it. Natalia is a genius, I was blown away by all the details. The colors – perfect, just what I was looking for. We were all worried about the result, because we all have different monitors, so it was hard to say, how it was going to be, but here we are.
Roombox
I was going to write this post later next month, but I’m happy that I’m doing it now. All these months I was posting pictures of the furniture I made for the commissioned roombox and now I can show much more. Here’s a teaser:
Something new for the roombox and KDF
I’m very very close to finishing my part of the roombox. Foot warmer – made with boxwood.
Size – 35X 25 X20 mm.
Before that I made a cittern. It is made with cherry wood, for strings I used extra fine silk thread I ordered in Belgium some time ago.
Its length is about 7cm.
And bellows, I wish I could make them all fancy, carved, decorated, but I had to make it simple, it’s a copy, so…
I also used cherry wood, cotton and brass.
And the last but not least – yesterday I got a contract from Kensington Dollshouse Festival (May, 17 an 18 in 2014) . I just couldn’t be happier to be honest. I sent two pieces of furniture in June and very soon received the email that I was added to the list of exhibitors. I was late for Bishop Chicago Show by the way, well, still very happy to go to London next year with my family.
Now it’s time to choose the furniture, style etc. Have to make a whole collection, wow.
Dutch Chairs
I made these Dutch chairs recently, they are without textile for now, but I’ll fix it on the next week. I made both out of cherry wood, no shellac and patina yet. The main “problem” was – four lions that I needed to carve. I went through several sites and found pretty good one with 3d models, I bought one – lion’s head, basically it’s door knob, but it looked perfect for chairs, so I took it as a reference. What I like about 3d models is that you can rotate them to any angle you want, you’ll be able to see all the details. This time it was really fun to work. Here’s the result:
In my last post I wrote about poor man’s duplicator. This time I used pre-cut chisels again – but only for two shapes – round 1mm and 2mm. The rest is by hand. I’m still planning to make lathe duplicator, hopefully next month.
Now I’m moving to making quite unusual pieces for me, never made them before. I hope to show them to you soon.