Super Saturday....and a little chair or two!

Yes we had a super workshop! Thanks to all the ladies who braved the awful weather and travelled some distances to join us.

You can see a corner of the workshop - after about two cups of coffee and painting the sitting room walls with primer.......
A little later, when nice aged oak floorboards had been painted and the wallpaper was up...we did move on to chocolate, mince pies and mulled wine!!  Very Christmassy!!
More pictures in due course on our Nostalgia in Miniature blog.

In another workshop - rather closer to home - brand new 1/48th scale Mackintosh chairs are being created.
We (well, him in the workshop, to be fair...) already make these  'Argyle' and 'Ingram' styles in 1/2th and 1/24th scales, but I confess I didn't expect to see them this size.

All our work is individually hand-crafted

 

And a reminder that despite the rain, there are glorious Autumn colours to be seen just outside our own back doors.  I took these two photographs of our Cotinus  (Smoke Bush) about 10 days apart and you can see how the leaves changed from the dark purple to plum then flame orange. It's now a brighter orange yellow and still looks wonderful despite the battering from rain and wind.

We're very fortunate here in Thame (Oxfordshire), that our ancient water meadows and flood plains haven't been built on, so the flooding - extensive though it is - is mostly in the fields around the town. Many, many people in other parts of U.K. haven't been so lucky and I hope very much that the floods recede so the recovery and clean up will soon begin for them.

Thanks for looking
Robin

   

And Saturday Is....

......the last Nostalgia In Miniature Workshop of 2012! Which means folks that we'll have a super day for sure....and then it's counting down till Christmas.

We are really looking forward to tomorrow and as it's an all day workshop we've laid in stocks of mince pies and chocolate....our spies tell us that Mulled Wine is coming with one of our lovely participants as well.
Of course the whole point of the day is to create a detailed, and authentic Edwardian room setting of poor 'Father' trying to wallpaper his parlour the week before Christmas, inspired by an old musical hall song from 1910. I'm sure that everyone will have their own individual ideas and touches that make each project unique. 

Celia and I look forward to seeing everyone's finished rooms - this is our 1/24th scale prototype.

As usual we shall have a small sales table featuring our own original miniatures - each time we try to choose items that reflect the workshop theme.  I dug out a piano and had lots of fun giving it a bit of a  makeover and imagined poor 'Mother' struggling to hang up her decorations and wipe the wallpaper paste off the ivories, the kids and the family pets..... a little scenario that has a familiar ring to it....(only joking chaps).

For details of the first workshop next year  - Underneath the Old Arbour - which willl be held at the wonderful  Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire on April 7th, please go to our website.

Thanks for looking
Robin

My Own Little Pond!

If you Follow or pop in, you may have seen an occasional mention of my teeny weeny garden pond during my 'gardening rambles'.....now I have another!

As a miniature 'maker' rather than a 'collector' I don't buy or build dolls houses for myself, and only collect individual small miniature pieces that are either vintage/antique or artisan crafted pieces by makers I admire, which are displayed together in wall-hung cases.

A year ago at Market Town Miniatures our club here in Thame, we created Attic Rooms as a project over several weeks. To my surprise I loved doing it and look at it every day - the only thing of my own I'd kept. In 1/24th scale, I filled it with all sorts of bits and pieces that had a special meaning for me.

This year we were thrown the challenge of creating 1/12th scale realistic ponds!!!! That sounded interesting.
As I don't 'do' posh or tidy - attics and overgrown ponds are right up my street. As I've got a bad wrist at the moment and have no new dolls to show you......will I ever catch up?......I'll show you my pond.  I think it will have to live next to my attic!

If you click on the images - you'll see a bigger version

Sorry I cut the poor old kingfisher's head off!

I love the way the 'water' drips out of the jar of tadpoles

The Water Lilies and Marsh Mariglods were part of our 'kit'.

Huge thanks to Linda and Jill who masterminded and led the project and provided us with lumps of clay, scenic water and a whole variety of paper cut outs for some lovely plants.
Without the enthusiasm, effort and the precious time of generous members like them, clubs like ours wouldn't exist.
Thanks for looking.
Robin

Catching Up and Heading for 2013!

It's that time of year when we're checking commissions still to be fullfilled before the end of the year, looking back at the last few weeks and also juggling dates for 2013!!

First up has to be the super Nostalgia in Miniature Workshop on Sunday when our lovely participants created 'The Other Room'...which was an extra room to add on to the 'Little Vintage Hall' completed earlier in the year. It was a hugely productive and fun day and their talents were on display, especially in the artistic landscapes created for the very special three dimensional effect windows. Lots of pictures are on our Nostalgia in Miniature website - do take a look.

In less that a month we're back in Thame Girlguiding H.Q for an all day Christmas extravaganza (well maybe 'extravaganza' is overdoing it...) and creating 'When Father Papered the Parlour...A Week Before Christmas'. I know we're all looking forward to this and it will be a lovely ending to a somewhat tricky year!!

Heading for 2013 we have now opened Booking (and again all details are on the website) for the first of next year's Workshops. 'Underneath The Old Arbour'. This will be a gentle, summery, vintage setting in our little old garden featuring an old wooden arbour clothed in climbing flowing plants beneath which the family can enjoy a glass of lemon or relax with a book. The venue for this workshop will again be a classroom at the inspirational and very popular Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire - numbers are limited and is already booking quickly, so please contact us if you are interested.

Organizers are already planning fairs for 2013 and one of the first is the well established and much loved EAST CORNWALL DOLLS HOUSE AND MINIATURE FAIR on Sunday 20th January at Lostwithiel Community Centre, Lostwithiel, Cornwall. (A390 Liskeard - Truro). The fair raises much needed funds every year for Doubletrees Special School. Quality Fairs are not as numerous in this area as in other parts of the country and it always attracts stands to suit everyone - from Artisan to Vintage!! Best wishes to everyone involved for another successful year.

On my workbench.....rather too much real life lately has slowed things down, sorry folks.....in the garden......well, as before, too much real life and too much rain.....

Seed heads of Clematis Tangutica

Best wishes to everyone in U.S.A and Canada who really have been having a such a devastating  time in the last few days
Robin