Sunday, March 20, 2011

A Before and After


 This wooden birdhouse came from Matlock Miniatures. When it came, it was a little chunkier looking than I was expecting, so it sat in a drawer for a year. I pulled it out the other night, and hacked off the clunky perches. I cut up a wooden fan for gingerbread, and painted the whole thing white. The roof had some unfortunate glue spots that would have resisted stain, so I ended up using acrylic paint for that. While the roof was still wet, I added touches of moss and mold colors, and encouraged them to bleed across the wood. It doesn't show up well in photographs, but it's a nice base for any further aging I do.

I still need to add the birds, more weathering, and a few other details to make the dovecote  a little more realistic. I also need to fix the center bottom piece of filigree, which is looking very crooked!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Just for Fun

Mom and I had a bit of a "Girl's Day Out" yesterday. I did a lot of shopping- for miniatures! Our first stop was the local dollhouse store, where they had a bunch of chairs on sale for $5 each. I liked the shape of the chair below, but not the bright red cherry finish. I never remember to take before photos!
 I got metal leafing supplies for Christmas, but hadn't touched them yet. Last night I decided to try them out on the chair. I also changed the seat cover from bright white to a muted green silk (I know it looks gray in the photos, the actual color is a little brighter.) I'm not sure what I'll do with this little chair yet. I may swap it with the one in the Gallery, or I have a few couple of vingette ideas I want to try out.


Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Bits and Bobs

I often paint glass ornaments for my family as little Christmas gifts. I keep a box of ornaments in my workspace year round, so that I can work on them as I'm in the mood. Sometimes the ornaments break, and I always save the little brass cap. Last night I realized I had a lot of those caps saved up.
 They remind me of little crowns, so I started playing with some scraps of velvet and beads.This is what I came up with:
On an unrelated note, I'm trying out a new color scheme for the blog. Things still need to be tweaked, but please let me know if colors are hard to read on your screen!