Vermeer.

Alex has gotten creative lately. I had to share.

This image is from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Johannes_Vermeer_%281632-1675%29_-_The_Girl_With_The_Pearl_Earring_%281665%29.jpg

 

It's amazing what you can do with a black t-shirt, a blue leash, and a puggle. Don't you think?

Some other things I've made lately...

 I said that I had been productive! Here's some more evidence:

Tulips. I love tulips, so I made all of these. Now, I have no idea of what kind of arrangement to put them in. These flower projects have been my first attempts at mini flower-making.

The pink tulip is a joint effort with my boyfriend. The petals have some color variation made possible with tissue paper and Prismacolor markers. The carnations are made of the same, but the marker was just touched to the ends of the petals.

This image shows one of the free printables from http://paperminis.com/. Join the newsletter and you're emailed a link for a free printable each month.

A little off topic... This is a real coconut cake I made with Key West coconut when I was visiting my boyfriend's parents in May. I love to bake for Alex's mom because she really appreciates the effort. It's one of the reasons I try to improve my baking.

Chuffed.

Hello to my 8 followers out there! Although I just started this blogging thing, it was very exciting when I was notified that I had a new follower - each of you, even my family. :) SO... Hello to Daphne, Beany, Catherine, Mieke, Minnie Kitchen, Jenn, Ben, and Alex!

I've been looking for jobs and working on minis to keep my spirits up. Unfortunately, my productivity has escaped documentation. This is a bit of a long one...

Firstly, I have been working on the Japanese system kitchen. While the original is a sort of off-white color, I wanted the unit to be blue to match some paper I'll be using in the kitchen. After tons of sanding, I was able to paint it with Krylon gloss spray paint in "Blue Ocean Breeze." I taped off the drawers and sink cabinet so their insides would be gloss white. The white was painted in another step. The taping didn't work perfectly. There were some leaks and wobbly paint edges, but I'm satisfied for the most part. I bought a piece of scrapbook paper a while ago with multiple shapes of different yet coordinating patterns. Among these was the check paper I will be using as drawer liners. I had about a 2.5"x4" piece of the original, which covered the bottom of one drawer and the cabinet. I scanned it to make a piece for the other drawer. I think I'll be printing some on fabric later for tea towels, curtains, or something...

The whole kit and caboodle. The door is not hinged yet, but is attached via the magnets I installed in the cabinet and doors.

The handles are 3 staples still stuck to each other. They were painted with chrome spray paint in the fastest painting project in the history of the Earth. I'm quite chuffed about the color combination.

This image shows the handle better.

 The next few images show my sink progress. I had a plastic jelly container from a restaurant previously. I don't know if it's me or what, but the containers seem to be much thinner than years ago. When I spray painted it, the thing got all misshapen and warped. It never really dried either. SO... Plan B... One of my favorite, favorite bloggers - Brae at otterine.com - made a sink for her Newport with balsa and painted it with some glossy paint. It looked pretty good, so I'm using a variation of that idea. Mine is made of basswood because I have a programmed prejudice of balsa from architecture training. Brae talks about some practical and very valid uses for balsa on her blog that are surprising to me. This is mainly, I think, because I've never heard anyone say anything positive about balsa. I digress... The sink surround is basswood with a center cutout and shaped edges. I plan to eventually spray it attached to the counter so it looks like it is one piece of metal. We'll see how that goes... Until that stage, I've painted it a thousand times with gesso. This is in the process of painting and sanding to get some rounded corners and edges.

I forgot to take pictures before I started painting, but the structure is just a bass wood box with a rectangle piece of wood for the surround.

I pre-poked the drain hole.

Lots of gesso... I'm still doing the gesso-sand-gesso-repeat thing.

 On the side, I've been working on some smaller projects. I bought a couple of kits from Carol Kubrican of True2Scale (http://true2scale.blogspot.com/) at a show here in Orlando. One was the "French Blue Pillows" and the other was the "Marigold Flower in a Milk Carton." They were both excellent kits - very precise and high quality final products. Easy too... My only criticism is the fabric for the pillows is really thick. This does not impact it aesthetically at all. However, these need to be stitched with really small stitches, and I didn't want to use a big needle. I used the tiniest I had without a thimble. I can't sew in a thimble... As a result, my finger was really irritated following. This is really my problem. Also, I couldn't use pins to hold the pillow panels together because it left holes in the fabric. As you can see, the kit goes together fine even with these difficulties. These are not any reasons to prevent one from buying the pillow kit. All in all... Pillow Kit: A-.

French Blue Pillows kit from True2Scale

As for the marigold kit, I'm super happy with the result. I used Prismacolor markers instead of paint. These are alcohol-based, I think. They bleed a lot, so I just used one swipe, and the ink soaked through the papers. My genius boyfriend suggested adding color variation with colored pencil. It turned out quite well, if I might say so myself. Once again, I'm quite chuffed. Marigold kit: A+

True2Scale Marigold in a Milk Carton kit = chuffed

One day, I'd love to get my hands on a laser cutter. I think I could do some serious damage with one of those... Until then, I plan to get some more True2Scale kits in the future. When I spoke to Carol at the show, she referred me to http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php to see a red version of the flower. At that point, I had bookmarked otterine.com, but I hadn't gotten around to reading it at all. I looked it up when I got home, and I was so hooked. Brae's work has inspired me in a way I can't really express. I have Carol Kubrican to thank for this discovery. Thank you infinity! 

I just have to say that my favorite miniaturists are: Joanne Swanson (http://joannswansondiyminiatures.blogspot.com/), Kris Compas (http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/), and Brae Oktober. I check their blogs obsessively. Few things make me happier than a new post by any of the three. I've probably posted their blog addresses before, but these are must-visit sites.

Japanese System Kitchen - progress report

I don't really have much inspiration for writing an eloquent post, so I'm taking a new approach and doing a mock progress report form for when I have blogger's block. Bear with me...

Project Progress Report

Project: Japanese system kitchen
Location: 2-room Japanese house


References/Resources:
Re-ment system kitchen
Tokyo, A Certain Style by Kyoichi Tsuzuki (Chronicle Books) for lots of images of real system kitchens in Japan and the original inspiration for the 2-room Japanese house
http://1inchminisbykris.blogspot.com/ by Kris Compas for mat board and painting methods
http://www.otterine.com/blog/blog1.php by Brae Oktober for inspiring me with her craft and rigor in which she executes her miniatures projects
Joann Swanson of http://joannswansondiyminiatures.blogspot.com/, because anyone who likes to make their own miniatures has been influenced - directly or indirectly (Maybe I should change the name of this blog to something along the lines of "Ode to Joann"... What can I say? I'm a fan.)

Summary of recent work:
 I've been sanding, gesso-ing, and again to get to this stage in the construction of my system kitchen. In order to get the smooth metal finish characteristic of the kitchen unit with mat board, I've had to do this process about 5 times.

Here, you can see the final gesso coat sanded. I'm adding a drain pipe under the sink that will be seen when the cabinet doors are open. This image shows a grommet that was super-glued from the top in the position of the pipe. The cavity beneath the sink but above the cabinets will not be seen or accessible in the finished piece. The broiler is yet to be built, but the interior will probably not be visible and be painted black.

This image shows the counter top just resting on the cabinet base. About a GA-zillion coats of gesso with lots of sanding in between lie beneath the aluminum spray paint.

These are the drawers with the hardware holes marked and cut. By the way, all these images show the final gesso coat. The painted finish is yet to be... well, finished.

This is another image of the drawers. The hardware will be made of staples - 3 before they are broken apart for each handle.

The closing mechanism of the cabinet doors has been quite a challenge. Because I wanted the doors and drawers to open, I've had to do some weird stuff. I cut holes in the back of the face panel of the cabinets to insert some tiny, super-strong magnets. (I should've photographed them, but I barreled ahead without documenting...) On the back side of the cabinet doors themselves, I cut/gouged out some little cavities for snippets of staples to hold the doors closed. These have since been gesso-ed over and sanded multiple times.

Lessons Learned:
Making mat board look like metal is hard. It takes lots of labor to get a smooth finish for spray painting. Until I do the final spray painting, I won't know if it was worth it. However, other than the repetitive steps, it will be worth it for the ease of cutting the material, accessibility of material, and low cost.

Bonus:

Here's a picture of a credenza that was finished in a workshop by Judy Kincade (at the IMA show in New Orleans). I got the glass jars from Ron's Miniatures in Orlando, Florida for my recent birthday. The soaps are beads from a bead shop in Sarasota and the tiny shells are those collected for me by my boyfriend on our many trips to the beaches here in Florida. the clock, mirror, and porcelain jar are from a Reutter Porcelain set that I received as a gift for renewing either American Miniaturist or Dollhouse Miniatures.

The Best Miniature Shop in the WORLD

The pictures in this post are from August of 2010, but as the title of this post implies, the content merits a belated post....

In July of 2010, I was able to fulfill a life-long dream and got to go to Japan. Typical of any miniaturist, I had to find a shop to visit while I was there. With the help of my boyfriend's mother - who is from Tokyo - we found TYA Kitchen. My boyfriend and I call TYA Kitchen the best miniature shop in the world. Let me tell you why...

TYA Kitchen is located in Tokyo's Arakawa ward. While the shop carries work from other Japanese artists, metal work by Kawai Yukio-san and tiny food by Kawai Asako-san are the showcase. (I'm so sorry but I don't remember his wife's name, but when I find it, I will edit this post.) Not only is the quality outstanding, but these people exhibited the legendary politeness and generosity of the Japanese people. They allowed myself and the 6 other people I was with invade their tiny shop. They showed me their workshop and how to use the tiny food molds that I bought. That summer, Tokyo experienced a serious heat wave, so I look awful in the pictures because of the resulting sweaty-ness. We were given cold mugi-cha - which is a roasted barley tea that cures hotness like nothing else I've experienced - and cookies while we shopped. 

This is the storefront. I hope this helps you find it.

I am ecstatic...sweaty, but ecstatic.

Tiny Restaurant

Tiny Food by Asako Kawai-san

This booth shows more of the metal work done by Kawai Yukio-san.

Kawai Yukio-san, metal works artist, doing a demonstration for a bunch of gaijin.

This is a structure they had on display.

Kawai Yukio, center, and Kawai Asako, left. I will find out her name...

This is a pot he was working on when we were there.

I bought this cake because it had musk melon - a melon we can't get in the U.S. - on it. It's the little yellowish-green sliver with a green/white rind on the left side. The pan from the previous picture, a strainer, and white metal plate also made by Yukio Kawai is in the background.

This is a better picture.

Here are some of the things I bought from TYA (left to right, back to front): blue canisters, green scale, watering can, metal spatula, tin can, pot with lid, white metal plate (other white metal pieces, not pictured), plastic take-out containers, and blue kettle. The cheese on the plate is not from TYA; I have no idea why I took a picture with it...

We left waving and bowing and were totally overwhelmed with the kindness of TYA Kitchen.

I ended up spending a lot more money than I should have, but all of the pieces were of the best quality and I was more than happy to support such nice, talented people. I'll never forget my visit there; I hope to go again the next time I go to Tokyo. If anyone out there wants to go - and you should - here is the address and website info:


TYA Kitchen
5-13-2 Nishiogu Arakawaku Tokyo
116-0011 Japan
Email: tomotomo@minityuan.ocnk.net


http://minityuan.ocnk.net/

The thing with finding places in Tokyo...well, it's tricky. I had the benefit of a native Japanese-speaker who grew up in Tokyo guiding me, so I just followed. However, police stationed at koban - police boxes - can help you. Most Japanese have working knowledge of English. Learn as much Japanese as you can before you go and don't be afraid to use it. The effort is appreciated there. Attempting to speak Japanese seemed to break the ice, and you end up communicating with both Japanese and English.

Random Thought

In the previous post, I mentioned grab bags from miniature shows. I'm a sucker for them, and I tend to be disappointed with them more often than not. Has anyone ever noticed the interesting smells of miniatures grab bags? It's a mix of the "old" smell, potpourri, and dust. I suppose that is what all of our craft stashes smell like. It's funny how I focus on the visual and tactile characteristics of minis, and I forget about the aromatic dimension. It's a very powerful sense that is neglected a lot, I think. I must be wrong. Is there anyone out there that includes scent in their miniatures? Is Jane Freeman one of those miniaturists? I've only seen pictures. Has anyone experienced the "grab bag smell"? Blogs have now created an outlet for those weird thoughts that probably should have stayed quiet in my head.

Plant Rack and Some Other Things

Although I've never had much interest in plants, I have acquired a lot of plant/garden paraphernalia from grab bags and the like. I got a mystery kit for a potting bench in one of those bags and altered it a little. I'm a big fan of using terracotta pots for shelf risers in real life, so that made its way into my minis. I've been collecting a lot of plants from Clara's Cuties, but didn't have a place for them. Today, I finished a plant rack from Joann Swanson's potting bench project (June 2011 post). In an effort to refrain from gushing about how great Joann Swanson is, I will show you my pictures right away.

Here are some other minis I've made. This is a box kit from Tom Walden. I haven't finished the wood, but I sanded it per the directions. The wood is so smooth and the kit went together easily. If you ever run across his kits, I highly recommend them.

The next image shows potatoes with eyes...literally. This is from a Kiva Atkinson project in American Miniaturist a while ago. I've arranged them in a bowl by Jason Feltrope that I bought at the Independent Miniature Artisans 2011 Show and Sale. I had never encountered his work before, but having experience making ceramics, I am awed a his eggshell-thin pieces. Even better, they were affordable for me. 

The pictures aren't great, but maybe my photography skill will improve along with this blog.  I've really enjoyed making these things and sharing them. It takes my mind off of a sometimes depressing job search, and considering this is a non-chemical method, that says a lot. :) Viva la minis!