Something finished

At least I finished something for my country house, I´m thinking to add a few more details using Bindels ornaments to decorate it, but here it is:



The bed was lacquered, and "dressed" with Tilda tissues and antique laces, everything is stiched by hand because years ago I gave the Singer Stich machine that belonged to my Mother, nowadays I regret it very much

 Detail

On the ground you can see some metal strips covered with paper which I used inside the eider-down to give shape and  so adhere to the mattress. Mine is not a real eider-down...., because  the real ones  are made of the soft feathers of the female eider - ducks from the nothern hemisphere. 

The bed before being lacquered

Decorations for the room 

HAPPY CHRISTMAS

I would like to wish a Happy Christmas to all the Followers and Visitors of my Blog

Bottle Gardens

In real life bottle gardens are variant of the terrarium, and as long as the plants we put inside have the right soil, sufficient light and moisture content they will long last. In 1829 Nathaniel Ward a London physician discovered accidentally that some variety of plants were able to grown on a closed glass. Water evaporated from the leaves during transpiration condensed inside the glass being  then absorbed by the roots. This concept was adopted by Victorian gardeners and had lots of enthusiasts.

At home I have always a bottle garden, the plants I put inside lasts around three years, after that I have to change them. So I was glad when I found these miniature Bottle gardens at the Madrid Fair, now I have to decorate them - the final destiny is my future greenhouse, and here they are:

The two garden bottles together with a few containers for miniature gardens

A detail of my future greenhouse, everything is in preparation

Another detail, I think I need a bigger greenhouse because I have lots of nice things related......

Everything is out of place awaiting for the structure to be painted; one more project to add to the list of the unfinished ones.....

A few acquisitions and a warm welcome to my new Followers

First of all I would like to welcome my new Followers, thank you very much for following my Blog. 

And finally today I found some time to make a few photos of the miniatures I bought at the Madrid Fair, as soon as possible I will take some more pictures of my acquisitions.

The Fair had so much attractions, and it was difficult to choose, here I´ll show you some of my options.

Lovely miniatures from http://www.twinheart.com/

I´m fond of these fishes with their big eyes and elegant tales, I found them very real and the aquariums are made of glass

The photo was made against a  painting on silk from Thailand inspired on those fishes

Three miniature orchids photographed against real flowers

More flowers from http://www.twinheart.com/ they are very well done. At the backgrounf I put a photo of a lovely Edwardian Conservatory, just for my inspiration

I bought them thinking of my future green house

A miniature structure of a fan nearby a real French fan, I hope to decorate it some day...

A book for my greenhouse with engravins of birds, I found it lovely

A cute little doll

The same doll photographed  together an antique doll, it is real tiny.

Shall I ever finish it?

I talked already about this unfinished project - The Country House - in my other Blog, but everytime I enter my studio there it is looking at me "asking" to be finished; the lower floor is almost accomplished, now it follows the upper floor - bed room and bathroom, and the  finally roof. And here are some photos:

A vew from the porch

Detail in the Kitchen

Detail in the Dining Room

Some tissues, ribbons and cross stich for the bed room

Hand made cushion, a vase covered with tissue and a few roses, a crochet hat, a shaker hand made box and a vintage wood doll

Hand painted decorative dishes

And this is the project that I think everybody knows  already from Planet Agostini 

Presence at TOM BISHOP´S FAIR

After some hesitation, I decided to keep company to Maria Armanda again this year at the Tom Bishop´s Fair, the motiv of hesitation is that I have only a few new pieces to show,  I had to make a stop in my work against my intention, but here I am ready to go and I hope we  shall profit to amuse ourselves and make a few aquisitions, there are always so many exhibitors with lovely things to attempt us.

We shall be glad to be visited by some of you.  Our table is under the name PERFECT MINIATURES and AM -MINIATURES.

And here is a photo of my last work:

 

Victorian Fan, all hand made, (support: 2mm wood, lacquered and painted with oils, inlays of mother of pearl, and finished with touches of gold leaf engraved over the black lacquer)

A wellcome to my new Followers

I would like to wellcome  my new Followers, for them I send a few orchids from my garden, I´m lucky to have a vase plenty of them.

Orchids adorned with a velvet ribbon and a vintage lace with rinestones

And I profited to take some photos of a very tiny gift I had from a friend - two silver rats and a dog, they are so cute and so very tiny.

They were tempted by a chocolate

The little dog near a German tiny glass

Scale 1/144

Years ago I bought two miniatures in scale 1/144, they were the first miniatures that I saw in this scale, and I found them pretty at that time, then I thought to do my first try in that scale, indeed I started to do it, but I faced a problem with the lights, I choose the lamps which they call rice grain, but I found they warm to much, and then I put the work apart, but I will try to finish it in future, one more project to add to the others.....

These are the miniatures I bought in this scale

This is the project I intend to finish

As this work was done years ago  now I know I will have the opportunity to do a better work, I´m not happy with this one now that I see it.

(The fireplace and the painting are not ready)

This is a work that needs some dedication, but now I think I have some more materials adequate for this project, so I will try to put them among the others.

Vintage findings

For the moment I´m still organizing my studio and future work, so for the moment I will profit to show you some  recent vintage findings.

Porcelain plate showing an autumn scene -  the harvest, suitable for this time of the year. I think it was one of the plates of a lamp shade with the four seasons of the year, it only shows its beauty when put against light.

 I  can imagine how beautiful  should be the complete lamp,  may be  in sec. XIX

Cross stich embroidered purse, scissor and needles in a display, the purce needs a little repair work but it is lovely, the flowers are stiched with thread with a velvet look, it was a bargain I found.

My Summer ending

First of all thank you very much to my new Followers.

 I´ve been very busy after some days at the seaside to rest and collect forces to start work on my studio. I have been so little productive this year;  now after some repair works in my house I´m trying to put everything in place  because everything got upside down, and I hope this time to start with my works very soon, I sincerely hope so because I´ve so many projects in my mind and also so many  that I´ ve already started.

This summer when I was walking on the sand, and I profited to walk two hours each day trying to get better of my brooken foot, I decided:  now it´s time to finish my  miniature acquarium, I´ve been collecting seaweeds, little shells, and I started already to model a tiny fish (it´s not ready yet) you can see it on the following photo near the seaweeds.

     

                                                                  

The  fish at the bottom is made of porcelain and I included it on the photo just for inspiration for another tiny fish 

I love acquariums and  years ago we had  four large ones which gave us too many joys and some annoyments, nowadays equipments are much more effective, but we gave up already this wonderful hobby.

Some more photos of my summer place

The beach was so quite at the end of September

A forgotten toy on the sand

Another day with announcing a storm but with a temperature around the 23ºC



The same beach at a different day

It´s wonderful to observe sealife near the seashore 

And a lonely seabird

I´ve put a seaweed I found floating  inside a plastic bag full of water just to oberve it