Русский 
English 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!
It’s not that bad after all
With the help of my fellow bloggers, I did it! Brazing is much easier for me, after several hours of practice. I’m almost happy with this frame and plan to make couple more, just need to finish sketches.
Here’s one of the epoxy roses that I made, not sure about using them though, maybe I should add more color, crystal clear look a bit plain to me.
Glass beads for miniature lights
Last week I received a package with lace bobbins (50 pairs), they were all unspangled, so I went to the nearest beads shop to buy some beads. I love this place, lots of cute things, I cannot leave it without buying something. I found these wonderful glass beads, but they are not for bobbins, I’m afraid.
As these two weeks were all about making lights I immediately thought these beads would make perfect lamp shades. You would just need to cut them in half.
I googled at first to find someone who did it before but to no avail. So, here’s my first try.
You need Proxxon/Dremel/whatever tool, diamond wheel and sticky tape. Glasses for protection and mask is a must for me too. I also marked a cutting line on the bead.
Here’s how you need to fix the bead on a tape:
And just cut it off! 🙂 At first I thought that glass would break, but I was lucky, the edge is even. You can also sand the bead to make it even better 🙂
Nice one:
I’m very excited about it,there’s lot of beads with different sizes and shapes, lot’s of things to explore.
All in progress
I should have put another title to this post, something like “Ugly Photos’ Post”, but nevermind.
I had a strange week, I actually did a lot of things, but seems like I don’t have much to show to you. I’m still making the parts for my chandelier, another one. I also continue learning metal lathe things. My husband is a great teacher, very patient, I should say. I did learn a lot, but still have to ask him if I have any questions.
As a result I made a beautiful candlestick, made of aluminum, but it looked very silver to me 🙂 Unfortunately, no photos for you here as it broke when I started cutting it off. The good thing is that I learned a lot, I also tried that mysterious jig for making spheres (absolutely, useless by the way for aluminum, because it’s easier to make them with files).
Experiment number two – metal spinning. Looks fantastic in this video, which is not mine, obviously 🙂
I don’t have silver, but lots of copper. I’m not very good with spinning, I managed to make these, hm, “cups” after five or six attempts.
Another bobbin lace spam
I finished the second lesson yesterday, the third one turned out to be circular border.
Bobbin lace again
Still learning the basics of Bedfordshire bobbin lace. Love it! I did the projects from two DVDs already, another two still waiting. I also decided to go through the projects from a very good book on this kind of lace – Introducing Traditional Bedfordshire Lace in 20 Lessons.
This is the first one, I’m almost happy with it, I really liked this cotton thread, easy to work with. The piece of lace to the right – is the one from DVDs, hm, it was too early for me to work with such pattern, I didn’t quite understand several tips there at the moment, but now I would be fine 🙂 Well, almost.
The second pattern from the book, almost done:
Dolls house lights
I think that July will be a month of making lights. On one hand, I have a commission, on the other hand I need to make a lot of lights for my dollhouse, and all this in art nouveau-ish style. I did several sketches, and probably will make all of these projects. I started from the easiest one, I used here a brass strip (remember my post about photo etching?). I’m not very good at soldering, my husband was very happy to give me some tips, because the last time I did it, I was about 10 years old trying to fix my ZX Spectrum keyboard (I failed:) and my tape recorder (this time I was lucky). The results now a more satisfactory, but not good enough for me. Anyway, I’ve just started! 🙂 Drilling was easier 😉
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I’ve finished with the first floor, and cannot be happier! Good to move on to the upper floor – just three doors, two windows and three ceilings left. Here’s how my living room looks like:
I didn’t make the plinth, because I want to install a fireplace first. The windows are made of mahogany, they don’t open, but in my case it’s all been planned 😉
The ceiling is very simple, nothing fancy, I guess, because of the wallpaper, that takes too much attention.
Under the windows you can see my second version of poppy table, this time, again, it was a commission piece, so I’m thinking of the third version for myself. 🙂
Some goodies arrived this morning for my handmade lights, hopefully I’ll try to make them (at least, start) this weekend. If I’m lucky with it, I can also start working on the exterior.
Friday!
It’s sooo good to be back to work on my dollhouse! I’ve finished the main door today:
I didn’t make a door knob for the inner side of the door just yet, it will be there soon, I promise 🙂
Victorian Style
I would never consider myself as a huge fan of Victorian style, probably because I haven’t seen the examples that would look just right for me. And this time I think I’ve found some. One of my latest commissions: