Русский 
English Theatre stage ( for short film)
I finished this project some time ago, one of my favourite commissions. I don’t have many photos, I mean good ones, sorry about that.
Well, the commission was to make a theatre stage for a short film, can’t go into details 🙂 It was supposed to be quite big – 75cm wide, 65 cm high and 40 cm deep. Almost like my dollhouse 🙂 Huuge. And heavy.
New bobbins
Be ready to see lots and lots of new posts about bobbin lace! Just kidding. Two packages from UK arrived just before May holidays, and I’m very excited, I think a bit too much:) Don’t know why but I especially enjoy ordering something from UK shops, they pack everything so neatly and lovely, you’ll always find a note from an owner, which is also very cute thing. Well, it’s not common in Russia, just to be clear.
I ordered beginners set – 25 pairs of birch bobbins, that turned out to be much much smaller than Russian ones, on the photo below Russian is on the left:
Entrance door – not done yet
Well, it’s not completely ready, I need to carve the back sides of the panels and add some more details. But, so far so good, I like this door. On the left is a photo of the doors that inspired me to try this design. The door handle is supposed to be quite simple here, but there’s no place for mail slot, though I’ve seen some very original solutions for such doors.
I really like the color of the cherry wood:
Bombe Chest – Almost There
My bombe chest is almost done. I need to make the inner parts of the drawers and also sand the trims of the outer parts. For two lowest drawers I needed to shape the sides, very easy to do, I used alder.
Read the news about Sketchup, they leaving Google and becoming the part of Trimble (never heard of them). It is said that they will keep a free version, I’m curious which direction the developers will take. Here’s official Sketchup team post about it.
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.
Spring time
I’m working on commissions lately, lots of work and I practically have no time for my own projects. And it’s +20 outside, spring has come at last! Love this time of year.
Recently I came across Natalia’s post about bobbin lace, I always wanted to try it, even started making my own bobbins but realized that it was taking too much time, so I dropped it. Two weeks ago I decided to try again, I ordered bobbins set and roller pillow. It was a fantastic experience for me. Though I realized that the bobbins I was using were only good for Russian (Vologda) lace, where thicker threads are used (mainly linen), and I was more interested in Bedfordshire lace. So I made two pairs of English bobbins, spangled them, I also made a block pillow, which worked just fine for me.
Here’s my first try with a silk thread, it’s 9 mm wide lace. A bit too wide for this thread, but I’m working on it 😉 I decided to take it slow and learn the basics before trying to make it in miniature, so I’m afraid it will take some time to show something new.
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 🙂
Carving legs
I finished carving these legs last week. I’m almost pleased with result, I was even thinking of making another version of them but I have other projects to do too, so I decided on moving on. I really liked working with cherry, though with pear wood it would be absolutely different experience. The only problem I had is, when I was finishing working with spheres, some of those small claws started to split and fall off so I had to glue them back. But I liked how the joints and claws turned out.
Carving spheres was fun, they look just right from every angle.
The other details above the leg were supposed to be carved by Dremel, but I didn’t like the result at all, simple V-shape micro chisel 0,5 mm was the best option.
I also bought a set of Narex chisels lately. They are quite good for their price, but require additional work. Kirschen is still my number one choice.
I also started working on drawers, two of them were shaped according to the profile of the sides. The most difficult part here is done.
Bombe Chest
I decided to try one more project from Harry W. Smith’s book that I really like.
This chest is made of mahogany in the book, but I really wanted to try cherry for this one. The most interesting part was to make curved sides. Usually I follow all the tips from this book, but this time I was a bit confused. I didn’t like the way of shaping these parts – with a small drum sander held in a flexible-shaft machine. I tried it and found the results inconsistent. Working with a bandsaw was absolutely different experience, very easy and precise. The original thickness of a stock was 8 mm and I shaped it to 2 mm.
Then I cut dovetails for the dividers and glides. All fitted nicely.
The back was also easy to make. Then I needed to carve four claw foots. Something like this:
I’ve seen several how-to videos about carving them, I highly recommend those from Popular Woodworking. Though they all are really helpful, especially their references on different shapes and forms. I’ve been working on them for the last week or so, not really happy with the result but I’m close to the OK version 🙂 Hope to show you them soon.
Long Weekend
It’s not my work, again:) It’s my hubby’s work. Recently we bought a jig for making spheres on metal lathe, and it was the first try. The height of this spinning top is 45mm and diameter is 35 mm. The jig is originally made for Proxxon lathes but it wasn’t compatible with lathe we have, so we had to build the fixture to mount the jig on lathe. The fixture was milled out of duralumin block.
As for me, I’m still working on the balusters, I made six so far and need to make eight more. All of them are made of makore, I decided not to use beech, just didn’t feel right.