Tragic events

At the beginning of this year, on the 23rd of January to be precise, the title of my post was: Back on deck.  Well, that didn't last long, because just then my husband passed away under tragic circumstances and of course, I was devastated.  Miniatures did no longer appear on my horizon for a long time, other than preparing and tutoring workshops at our Brisbane dollshouse club.  I felt obliged, because I was, and still am, workshop convenor.

In a way that was good, because it kept me going and it kept me interested to a degree.  At the moment I am still battling depression because of what happened, but I have finally taken the step to get back to my miniatures.  It will keep me distracted and that is what I need.

Since back then I was working on the Florist I decided I will keep going with that for a while.  It's a bit difficult at times, because I needed to finish and place the stairs and they were made for me by my husband...  I guess these things will happen from time to time (as they happen in other areas as well), so on with it and get them painted.  I am not sure I will leave the white parts as they are, but I can ponder about it.  In the meantime there are other objects that I can concentrate on.

The stairs, painted white and green

The original plan was to have this fantastic bouquet of flowers in the window as a show piece for the shop.  Well, that will no longer be possible, because over time something unfortunate happened with the bouquet.  As you know, most of the flowers we miniaturists make are worked on florist wire: metal.  For some reason or other, it may be the 'clay' in which they were stuck, the wire had started to rust through and broke off.  So, after a while all my flowers were lying on the ground....  The only solution I can see at the moment is to gather all the flowers and the big vase and put them in the 'work area' where somebody is arranging a beautiful bouquet!

The bouquet as it was

The bouquet 'being arranged'

I wanted to start something new too, so I made a blackboard to advertise the flowers outside the shop.  As this is a shop with a lot of Dutch flowers and a Dutch feel about it, I have decided that, yes, it has an English name, but...... I want it to be a flower shop somewhere in the Netherlands. ;-)

The blackboard reads:

This week's specials

Tulips

Irises

Daffodils

€4.50/bunch

Parrot tulips

€5.00

So close to Christmas with all the goings on of break-up parties etc. I don't know if I will have a lot of time to consistently work, but I aim to do so.  So, hopefully, see you soon again.  In the meantime I will think of what I will add next...

Back on deck

First of all a Happy New Year to all.  As you can see, I am back on deck and couldn't wait to get going again, so I was looking for something 'easy' to do.  I still have a load of kits lying around.  It's so handy for when your creative juices aren't flowing yet....  :-)

However, I can forget about 'easy', because this chair was not as easy as I thought it would be.  When searching through my container with all the kits I came across this, quite modern, chair and I could picture it in my contemporary shop.  The chair is actually a set of four, with four different animals as a back rest, but I only had this one, so I figured it would fit nicely in the shop, which consists of odds and ends anyway.

It was a lot of work, quite fiddly, but I am happy with the result and it got me back into miniatures again.  The animal had to be cut out with the scroll saw and the legs and back rest are connected with wooden 'pins', so I had to drill holes in the tops of the legs and the dowels.  Not an easy task.  The legs went alright, the dowel protested heavily, but the parts that didn't go too neatly have been covered up by the upholstery!

The upholstery is by way of woven ribbon in two colours.  It was something I had always wanted to do, so that worked out well.  And here's the chair:

It probably looks a bit too clean and new, but so does the rest upstairs.  A bit further down the track I may do something about it, but not just yet.

No idea what comes next.  I will ponder over that and you will find out when I post another update.  See you then.