My Baby Girl
I almost never write about personal stuff, but this is the most important and happiest event in my life – at 12th of July (my birthday) I became a happy mom of a beautiful baby girl.
I’ve been waiting so long for this, it’s hard to find a happier person in the whole world!
Shopping therapy
I just love buying new tools and materials, it gives your so much joy and inspiration! My long awaited package from UK with bones:
Loved the color, and immediately tried to cut and carve it, got some interesting results.
History of Furniture
А помните я хотела рассказать про книгу по мебели, которая мне очень понравилась?
Это книга по американской мебели, по 18му веку, но там есть куча идей и хороших замечаний, которые будут интересны любому, кто подустал от сухих перечислений фактов в разных книгах по истории интерьеров.
Автор этого чуда – Джеффри П. Грин, книга вышла в серии Fine Woodworking, так что от книги можно было ожидать только хорошее.
Я разобью рассказ на несколько частей, ну а если вам доступно чтение в оригинале на английском, то настоятельно его прочитать, не пожалеете. Сегодня пока что про якобинский период.
Petit point
Almost forgot about one thing – petitpoint!:)
I made this bunch of flowers for the gaming table, last time I tried crewel work, then painting on silk, this tim 60 count silk gauze and chinese silk floss. I’m making two versions ( the upper one on the photo is not done yet).
This is my first attempt with 60 count gauze, but I could manage without magnifier. Pretty happy about it!
I have a small piece of 72 count gauze, though I’m not so sure about trying it for now.
Marquetry and mother of pearl
Well, the most difficult part, I think, is done. Here are two marquetry doors, and one central with applied carving.
Art nouveau cabinet – WIP
Hooray! I’m back to making art nouveau furniture. More than happy about it, though it means a lot of marquetry, carving, veneering, etc.
Drafting was really fast, I finished it in a couple of days. I took the original from one of Majorelle’s cabinets, found this one on the auction’s sites.
For now, I finished sides (they are veneered with madrone wood) and one marquetry panel for the door. And I’ll need one more, and one more carved panel.
It’s kinda hard to see anything on this panel tight now, but trust me, it’s going to be just fine, though I always worry about the result.
I used about five types of veneer here, lots of work, but it was worth it! The butterfly (if you can spot it;) ) made of mother of pearl.
I wish I could make it faster, but I have another project to work on (the worst part – I can’t show it to you).
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.
Blanket Chest
I’ve been a fan of such old 17th century chests for quite a while, I’m reading several green woodworking blogs. So one day I thought it would be nice to make this blanket chest, besides I found the drawing of it in Sketchup Warehouse.
Here it is:
Second Doll
These last several days I’ve been busy with working drawings for the upcoming project, so I had to stop working on my last piece of furniture, there isn’t much to do there, so I hope to show it to you this week later. So for now, my second attempt in dollmaking – she’s about 7cm high, so it’s just the right scale.
I had to put some clothes on her, but I’m planning to make proper one later. Sorry for the quality again, I didn’t have my own instruments, magnifiers etc.
And of course, my main problem was face painting -no magnifiers, no proper light, and the result is not that good, next time only with lights.
And the last photo 🙂
My First Doll
My long-long holidays are over! Finally! I couldn’t wait to get back to work, especially when there’s lots and lots of it ahead. It’s super hot in Moscow, seems like the summer has come. During all this month I had no access to my tools and equipment, so the only thing that could entertain me was sculpting and stitching. So here it is, my first doll. It’s a long story, actually, during this year I was slowly learning sculpting and anatomy, I’ve manage to sculpt couple of skulls, heads, etc. The only thing I was lazy and reluctant to do was a doll. With the help of my Mom I finally did it!
I love sculpting kids much more than grown-ups, to be honest. She’s not that miniature though, almost 17 cm height.
She doesn’t have any clothes yet, I have to make some soon. I can’t say I’m fully satisfied with this doll, but for the first time (especially when I made her with instruments that were not mine, with bad lights etc). At least my Mom liked it. 🙂
I have another girl, perfectly in scale, but that’s a different story. I think I should make some furniture for my first doll too.
And some more photos: