Русский 
English Site update and some other news.
It’s been a while since my last post (besides, I was writing a lot in Russian only and was too lazy to translate the posts – you’d have to switch to Russian version and use Google translate or something to read all of it).
My life moved mostly to Instagram, more and more miniaturists migrate there (thank God, it’s not Vero!), so it seemed fun.
Besides, there were some things I didn’t like on my site, like a Gallery page, now it’s called Portfolio and it’s much more user-friendly now.
I also put the links to all my social media at the top of my site, and the name of the site changed too, by the way!
Anyways, I did a lot of work since Miniature Masterworks, still have a long list of commissions, and I shared a lot of pics on Instagram about it.
But it felt a bit sad to leave my diary as it was, I’ve been writing it since 2009 and there are more than 650 posts in both Russian and English, crazy, right?
So I decided to update a design a bit and start writing again.
I also started translating the old posts into English ( I need to translate about 200 of them! Ugh…)
Among other news – I have lots of commissions, here’s one of the latest – two Gustavian chairs. Very challenging process, but I loved every minute of it and learned a lot! Hope you’ll like it!
Henry O. Studley Workbench
I haven’t posted anything here for a while, and there were some good reasons to it. Somewhere in my previous posts I wrote that I got an invitation to Miniature Masterworks Show in KC. There were also a competition announced, Barbara Marshall award. It wasn’t allowed to show the piece you were making for the award, so my silence can be easily explained now, lol. There was a lot of work, especially two last months were terrible.
So here is the piece I was making, a workbench.
Why Workbench? It was my second one, the first was Roubo workbench that I showed about a year ago, maybe more. I showed it on IGMA forum, and many people liked it, Bill Robertson suggested I should try making Henry O. Studley workbench. For those who haven’t seen his work, he was famous for his toolchest.
Bill wants to make it in miniature, but a bit bigger than 1/12. When I heard his suggestion I thought that it was a bit too much, there weren’t many photos on Google search but it was enough to see:)
But it got into my head, so when I heard about the competition I immediately thought of it. I knew that a lot of artisans would choose something French, Rococo etc (and I was right, hehe). I wanted something different and couldn’t think of anything, but this workbench somehow stuck in my head, so I decided to make it.
From one hand, it wasn’t a good choice, not many people would appreciate it, only those, I think, who work with wood or metal. On the other hand, it was very honest project, something where every artisan’s work begins. So the decision was made.
I bought a book about Studley’s bench to decide on proportions and dimensions.
The process was not comfortable for me, I don’t like metalwork, to be honest, so the whole thing was a challenge and such an out of comfort zone project, that I think there’s no piece I can’t make, lol.
I didn’t take any prize, but heard a lot of nice words about the workbench, and it has found its place in a museum.
I really enjoyed the show, all the staff and visitors were so friendly, I didn’t see such a vibe in Kensington, to be honest.
I’ll be attending Guild School in June,2018. So there’s something to look forward to.
William and Mary dressing table – part 1.
I’ve been working on it since the beginning of the year, then I switched to making a workbench, and now I’m off the project for a week because of my daughter’s illness.
It was my first try using a lathe duplicator, and I’m quite pleased with the results.
But let’s start from the beginning. I start with cutting the legs, the turned part is bigger in diameter than the upper part. So I remove the waste with my router.
Roubo Workbench, part 1.
I never thought that I’d be making a workbench! I’m always searching for some new ways of presenting the work that I do. I’m just never happy with the photos that I make, almost. One day, going through a bunch of fantastic Instagram photos of different cabinetmakers, I realized that they are fabulous even when they showed WIP. Still a process, but such a beautiful one. And I thought – what do I have? Just a green cutting mat, a lamp, that’s it. Even my beautiful ginger cat would never fit in. :))) Nothing cute really. And I’m a fan of cute things! :)))
After all, I thought, why not a workbench? It would look like a real workshop. I knew nothing about workbenches, so I bought one of Christopher Schwartz books. And it was quite exciting reading!
I was so impressed that I decided to make a Roubo workbench, well, its modern version. You can find a lot of drawings on Internet, so I didn’t waste my time and picked one.
Let’s begin! I start with a top (we have two parts). You can see dovetail joinery on the sides of it. I used steamed pear wood for the contrast.
Tuscan Table.
I wish I had two more days, just 16 hours of work, probably I’d be completely happy then. But, I have only three hours a day, and my kid is sick, so I finished it a bit earlier. Lots of photos below.
New project, tuscan table with marquetry top
Almost in panic! Christmas festival is only one month away. And I only have time for one more item, this time it will be tuscan table. Lots of work here – carved legs with lots of details, turned parts, marquetry top, drawers… This table is kinda huge for me, legs are 7mm thick, quite unusual for me.
Dollhouse bricks. Almost real!
There are some things that truly inspire. They can make you create a whole room just for them. And recently I found one in Russian social site. In one of the groups I saw a post about miniature bricks with lots of photos, and I was blown away. It’s hard to find an artisan in Russia who creates such complicated things (I’m speaking about technology and process involved) from scratch.
I loved the bricks and instantly wanted to buy them though I had no idea how I could use them, besides I’m making furniture mostly, not roomboxes (sigh). Minutes later I decided to make some sort of decoration for one of my items for Christmas Kensington Festival. I ordered 2kg of bricks.
Dmitry, an artisan who makes these bricks, was also very kind, he sent me bricks of another scale too (1/9) and half-bricks. Look how cool they are:
Lots of photos below:
Spice Chest
I didn’t expect it to finish so early! Less than a month, my personal record with the kid at home 🙂
The only thing I regret – I didn’t take any photos of WIP, when I was making drawers and legs. Making legs was fun! I bought a duplicator sometime ago, and I was really into trying it, because I heard rave reviews about it. But I didn’t have a chance because I was moving to the new apartment then I was busy with customizing my table saw… Then I had no time to install this damn duplicator, I have only forty to sixty minutes a day to work on minis, sooo… I did it the old way, with chisels and hands 🙂 But, it turned out quite good.
Inlaid Spice Chest- WIP
My new project is inlaid spice chest that I found in some of the Popular Woodworking issues.
Making circles with router
I’m all into these Youtube videos, making them is a very exciting process, so I totally forgot that my camera can make photos too! 🙂 So far, I made all the parts for the tables in art deco style. I needed to cut four perfect circles, so it was time to make one more jig (it was the third I think, previous jigs disappeared somehow).
You can make perfect circles in different ways:
- to be perfect at scrollsaw and cut everything by hand.
- Make a jig for a tablesaw.
- Make a jig for a bandsaw, but I think my Metabo bandsaw is too big for the scale.
- Make a jig for a router, which I’ll show.
The jig is very simple and it works. You need to take some scrap MDF piece and a brass nail, you hammer it into MDF, and basically this is it.