A gentle gift from Australia

This week I received a very gentle gift from Australia. Norma from   - http://www.makeminemini.blogspot.com/, wished to send me some souvenirs for my grandchildren (one of them has two months). When I opened the parcel  I was delighted with the contents,  thank you Norma, I apreciated your gift so much,  and the little koualas are amazing.

One more wellcome to my new Followers

 

Sorry, I´ve been so away from my blog, but I´m still recovering from my "accident" and I´m so stressed because I didn´t start yet to work in my studio, but my process is doing well with the phisiotherapy,.

So today I would like to thank you to all my new Followers, thank you for visiting my Blog.

As for the moment I have no important new work to share with you  I decided to show you some of my small porcelain boxes painted years ago, although they are not miniatures, some of them have miniature paysages, and I remembered to show you these because I´m thinking of painting some miniature paintings for my projects. The only problem is that painting on porcelain, is a slow process, because the colours have to be prepared with oils, and the porcelain must be fired at the kiln at 730º to 830º at least for three times , and I have so many projects in hands, but we are allowed to dream aren´t we?

The Paysages have between 2 and 4 cm

A miniature rose to my new followers

One month is already gone, I spend my days quite entertained, between reading, sewing some pieces for my country house, that I will show in due time, consulting my art books, taking notes for new little projects to complement my "big" projects, and this weekend  when my husband brought to me a few roses from the garden, and I was so glad that  they inspired me to do my first miniature rose , does it look like a rose?

And here it is and I dedicate it to my new followers, thank you very much for following my blog.

Also I was temptated to do some jars for one of my greenhouses, they are rather colourful because I´ve used some decorative papers, glued over watercolour paper and then duly cut into the form of the jar, I remember these jars when I was a child,  they  were  in white enamel, but I decided to decorate them. Later I will put some touches of decorative motifs in accordance, and varnish them, although they are made of paper I was surprised that at the final they got quite consistent.

I forgot to say that the rose was done with white rice paper, then I found it was to white and asked my husband to bring me one of my small watercolour boxes, he asked me already if I wanted all the studio mooved to the first floor....., so I painted a few touches of yellow and rose very diluted and then I thought that I had to put a few leaves, so I got a paperpunch and cutted a few leaves also in white, then I painted it and in result I think that I have to repeat the roses, I never thought to be able to do them properly by I think I can, with lots of time and patience.

My work in backstage

Today I decided to share with you some of my work in "backstage" I hope you like it, some of the works are originals others inspired in by gone artists but I always like to mention it.

Some of the pieces I´m going to show

original

Lacquered Chippendale chest of drawers

To decorate this Chippendale chest of drawers I used two techniques, one for lacquering the panels and the drawers -  and other of "faux finish" in which I painted over gesso to resemble wood, my "secret" is always the same, too much layers all of them duly worked with sand paper until no traces of brush are seen, too many hours of labour but the final is very rewarding.

Wood screen covered with silver leaf and decorated with tempera, the silver leaf was applied as always over the "lacquered" surface.

Original

The screen was decorated to complement the console, so I choosed the colours to match

Frame and Easel by Maria Armanda

Oil Painting

Original

Frame from my friend Maria Armanda, lacquered by me in the techique of décapé  with touches of silver leaf, and oil with roses at the biginning

A master piece carved from Maria Armanda in wich I concentrate all my love for miniature painting in order to honour her work. The wood was very carefully painted in several coats of beige with lots of work of sand paper but a very delicate touch because of the fragility of the wood. Then I used tempera to decorate the details.

Original

The finished tray with some of the detail brushes I used

Lacquered Screen with Pillement decoration

Originals

Two little chest from Paulo Gomes, the one on the right is already decorated and one table I ordered from David from Iriarte, which is still awaiting to be decorated

Next time I will share some more photos.

And the Winner of my last giveaway is......

Now I´m pleased to announce the winner of my giveaway, I´ve  put in a box the names that were close to guess what happened to me that day, sorry some of you did´nt guess, and the name that came off the box was: 

Susanne  from http://miniaturedreams.blogspot.com/ .

Thank you all for your participation.

Now Susanne you have to be a little pacient because in this moment I still wonder when I shall be able to go to my studio.

And briefly I will tell what happened to me: When I was leaving our friends´house, I slape in the paving stone, I fall forsaken, and broke my right foot. It was a very bad facture involving ligaments, I had to come to Lisbon and entered a private hospital otherwise I had to wait to be operated, and I was operated the next day, the doctor had to implant several metal, and here I am waiting very patiently to be ready for fisiotherapy. In resume my fracture was very, very bad,  and  as I´m already a "young" grandma,  (this is a subterfuge not to tell you my age, although I don´t mind to do it often), I have already some problems with my bones.

And now I will leave you with some flowers and some of the respective "resident" of my garden

Dolls, Dolls, and more Dolls for my new followers

Time is passing slowly, in the meantime I would like to thank my new followers, and profit to remember you to try your opportunity to win my giveaway.

Today I´would like to share some of my dolls with you. I started to collect dolls many years ago, and I have
quite a big number of modern dolls, antique dolls and dolls from my childhood - the 50ties.

I will choose randomly only a few of them:

Dolls´houses dolls - antique German Bicuit in their original costumes.

My first antique doll, it was given to me by my Grandma, it holds the marks AM 390 DEP, 1890  which means it is a doll from the German manufacturer Armand Marseile, model of 1890 and the head was made from this manufacturer to the French market, (DEP means déposé). This one is of the best quality but I have others from this manufactuer that are not so good. The body is of  jointed wood.

Doll of the same manufacturer  but of medium quality, I bought it in Brussels in very bad condition, and it was a bargain, now I´m dressing it slowly because I sew by hand, I never liked to sew, but I like to dress my dolls when I have time to do it.

Japanese little doll with around 50 years (I estimate)

And now some of my Collector Barbie Dolls:

Greyhound - Silkstone

My first "love" I could´nt resist, I like fashion dolls and found this one amazing, I bought  itat FAO SCHWARTZ, and that same day I return to buy other ones, I never thought to buy Barbie dolls, and by that time did´t  know there was such a lovely variety of dolls to please all sorts of collectors. In Europe they are not very easy to find, the best market is USA and Brasil.

I keep some of them inside their boxes in the condition NRFB (Never removed from box), in order to keep their value although I think they are much more astonishing outside the boxes.

Some more Fashion Barbie Dolls I bought that day

Charlston, Fabergé and Capucine

A significant part of my  Barbie collection is composed by Silkstone dolls.

But I like also exotic dolls:

TATU - From Byron Lars

The Pirate

Fantasy of Asia - from Bob Mackie

Next time I will share with you other dolls.