Studio E: thrift/junk drawer

Showing posts with label thrift/junk drawer. Show all posts

Thursday, 10 October 2019

A Bohemian Rhapsody

Bohemian Rhapsody
Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?
Caught in a landslide,
No escape from reality.
Open your eyes
Look up to the skies and see,
I'm just a poor boy, I need no sympathy,
Because I'm easy come, easy go,
Little high, little low,
Any way the wind blows doesn't really matter to me,
to me

For the past couple of weeks, I have been feeling at loose ends and in a creative limbo.

I have promised my sister that I would begin working on her bedroom roombox project so I've been mulling that over in my head, whilst simultaneously considering what I will be working on for myself.
One thing I knew for sure-

I didn't want to do another long term BIG DOLLHOUSE project;
any time soon!

Villa Leone is still sitting on my only work table in the middle of my Studio with nowhere else to go. The updated interior photos I took of it using my phone are stuck somewhere inside my computer and I can't seem to get them onto my blog: I need my techy daughter to come here and show me all over again what I'm still doing wrong.

ALSO

I currently have no more room in my studio to do any work, although I have been trying to thin things out, and getting things organized in order to make the space I have, more USER FRIENDLY rather than the Hoarder Horror that it currently is.

ALSO #2:

I'm Unable to DO ANY major clean up of it until AFTER our Canadian Thanksgiving which is this weekend, which explains to me, why I'm feeling STUCK creatively.

In the meantime:

I've been re-organizing my collection of mini furniture pieces which are stored on a couple of high shelves so I can SEE them and remember what I have.
It was during the course of shuffling and grouping, that I was inspired by some of the furniture to play and to rough out a loose living room scene on my already messy desktop using some of my favourite and usually forgotten pieces.

One thing led to another and before I knew it, I was flipping through reference books, rifling through storage boxes, and tearing through stuffed drawers: re-discovering many minis which had been tucked away for "safekeeping" never to be seen again!
It was like shopping second-hand- at home!

And so, as things began taking shape, I started thinking of a story behind my one room scene which could reasonably explain the presence of the various disparate furnishing as representative of a salvage/ bargain / and thrift-store shopper lived;
mixing both old and new found items together as she saw fit-

"Little High, Little Low"

...doesn't really matter to me"

As it happens, I've been playing around with this scene for a few days (when I SHOULD be doing some REAL HOUSEWORK, i.e. vacuuming and dusting- for when my company comes for dinner this Sunday

But Hey!!!

"I'm just a poor [girl],

I need no sympathy"

because doing 1:12 scale housework is much more fun!

FYI

Scrapbook Wallpaper is only held upright by kleenex boxes, stacked bead containers, and Blue Tac, so if the paper "walls" of the room appear to be leaning funny-
it's because they actually are;

now on with the show-

I began my scene with an
old brown leather sofa
clawed to shreds by the cat;
[naughty kitty!]
There are assorted old rugs
which had been found languishing
in the corners
of various charity shops.
They're layered one on top of the other,
in a bizarre mix of colours and styles
i.e.
a blue Chinese
on top of a graphic Arts and Crafts rug,
on top of a
multi colored
Persian carpet

a narrow drop-leaf mahogany table
sits behind the ruined sofa.
fyi
(I've balanced the unstable Victorian window frame by seating it on the table,
which was the only way I could get it to stay upright,
so my green lamp from the early 90's
is currently shadeless for lack of tablespace)
A tatty lace shawl, is draped over the back of the sofa which the cat likes to sit on and chew on!
Assorted needlepoint cushions
are casually strewn about.

A lush bouquet of fragrant old-fashioned roses
(from Linda Park's garden),
are temporarily displayed in a handmade blue pottery bowl
and are positioned
between
a reclaimed bust from the city salvage yard
and a
wire nest of blue eggs by a local nature artist.

The view outside is of a misty country morning.

a peeling tea table on rusted casters
was rescued from a city sidewalk.
It holds a collection of well-loved,
mismatched china.
A tiny ornament
of a dog in a basket,
was a gift from one of the homeowner's friends.

by the front door sits a
rusty milk can:
(garage sale find)
soon to store
canes and/or wet umbrellas.
The owner's
dog,
sits silently beside it
and
waits to go out-

What! AGAIN?

really!???

Fading vintage mismatched wallpapers
adorn the walls

a TREASURED
AND
Very expensive
side chair
was a
bequeathed gift
from a great aunt

A "new" unfinished bargain desk
was purchased from
a local discount dealer.

still waiting ...
Meanwhile-
the cat moves off of the battered old sofa
and is later replaced
by an exhausted toddler with his tiny teddy tucked underneath him.

( this house must be well insulated!)
FYI
I have had this boy doll since 1984/85 after my son was born.
When he was a baby, he used to sleep in the same way
with his bum up in the air which was why
I bought this little guy from
Jean Day
who was making Wonderful porcelain dolls
back then,
and believe it or not;
it's the first time I've used this doll in a scene!

***
The huge and badly cracked
stone fireplace surround,
is yet another of the thrifter's,
"salvage rescues!"
*** fyi #2
I really did salvage this fireplace!
It was originally a tea-light candle holder
I'd found at Value Village.
I hand-sawed the thick resin hearth from the base of the fireplace surround -
and let me tell you-
THAT
was a job and a half!

An ever evolving
display of second-hand treasures
on the mantle.

******

The mishmash of items you can see
in the foreground below,
are just some of the many rejects on my desk
which I haven't put away yet.
however
I don't dare show you the entire desk with its
piles of
papers, books, fabrics, boxes, minis,
missing tweezers,
my glasses...

"WHERE ARE MY GLASSES!!!!?"

whew!
finally found them!

And so there it is-
my
temporary
Bohemian Rhapsody
along with a tiny glimpse of
the chaos
Behind the scene!

*******
AND SO!
after I'd played with everything for a couple of days,
I began to wonder
IF
I could actually find a solid home for it.
Hey!
What about....?

...this old HERITAGE
which I bought for $20
at a garage sale last year?

It's in really rough shape-
it's filthy dirty-
it's badly damaged with parts missing.
the wood's very dry and quite brittle-
in other words
IT'S PERFECT!!!
yes
I think that with some concentrated
TLC
this wreck could be given a new lease on life
and
what could be better
for a second-hand house which has seen better days,
than to be filled with beloved,
eclectic
Old Stuff
from an inveterate and unrepentant mini collector;
[such as myself]
wink wink! nudge nudge!

And
as QUEEN says

"Is this the real life?
Is this just fantasy?"

"caught in a landslide,
no escape from reality"

"Open your eyes
look up to the skies
and SEE.... "

that it's
another
BIG DOLLHOUSE project

for me! 😎

elizabeth

https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-sz-001&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=sz&p=Bohemian+Rhapsody#id=37&vid=b5bc500bc2e4821fc5deaa6191d2bb4b&action=view

Sunday, 14 January 2018

"You Can Leave Your Hat On!" - ballad of a Stove Hood

Inspiration can come from many different sources.

As I was writing this blog, the theme song from the movie
The Full Monty
was looping through my head- hence the blog's title:
"You Can Leave Your Hat On"
In a way, it was an appropriate choice
in that throughout the making of
the STOVE HOOD,
I kept putting things ON,
only to

strip'em off....

But once again, I am getting way ahead of my story.
so
Let me begin it this way

***
When working on the left side of Villa Leone's kitchen my original muse was a
MINWORKS blogpost
from several years ago.

http://minworks.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2012-01- 09T10:48:00-08:00&max-results=7

My friends

Janine and her hubby Bruce,

had produced a Fab Hall Lantern for her
Award winning
French House,
by gluing together
2 night lights from the dollar store
to form a single hanging fixture.

Remembering what they had done, had me cruising the aisles of different dollar stores,

looking more closely at what night lights had to offer.

Last year I stumbled across this one which I thought might one day make a pretty good stove hood.

It's shape of it reminded me of a hat.

Funny thing is that what I both Liked and Disliked about the shade, was it's unique hat-like shape, however I didn't want it to continue looking like a hat once it was installed in the kitchen.

But another reason that I thought the shade might work as a hood, was that the plastic was easy to drill through, and since it was already hollow, adding lights and hiding the wires inside it would be pretty easy.
I was eager to try it out with my FANTASTIC- NEW-TOTALLY GORGEOUS 8 gas burners, double oven, MOLLY SUE MINIATURES
ITALIAN STOVE. http://www.mollysueminiatures.com/

I could see the potential of a beautiful relationship between the two, so I decided to proceed with the hood
as planned.

I would need a tiled wall behind the stove,
so
I dug through my
"used- to- be-organized- but- is- now- really- messy"
stash of building supplies,
and located some leftover plastic embossed "tin tile" which I would paint and install beneath the hood.
I used an earlier tutorial of mine for painting these particular plastic tiles
"Big Tiles- try- try again"
http://studioeminiatures.blogspot.ca/2015/02/big-tiles-try-try-again.html

To widened the base of the hood I cut a rectangle of foam core board to equal the width of the stove, and glued 2 wooden corbels to the underside for supports.
These I'd also found in my messy stash.

I cut some wood trim to bulk up the base, then tried it out with the doll "cooking" at the stove.
UGG!
What I had was a plastic hat with a wooden brim. Clearly additional work was required.

To make it look more interesting, I cut up a plastic picture frame to add some carving.
It was very heavy- looking carving and Naturally, I thought I could "lighten it up" with Even MORE HEAVY CARVING

I kept on adding things: a lion head, a plastic circle, rhinestones, and metal bits and more wood trim.
hmmm?
"maybe it will look better, once it's painted"

Base coat on

then 2 finish coats of black acrylic paint.

Hmmmm?
And although wouldn't admit it out loud,

I thought it looked like
a halloween witch hat,
however,
I persisted in the belief that I could fix it up
by adding still more to it.

I randomly brushed a gold nail polish over the black paint which gave the hood metallic highlights.

The general idea was to make it appear in harmony with the brass trims on the Italian stove.

However, no matter what I did

it still wasn't doing it for me.

This was THE Moment

my career as

A Stripper began.

Off came the top!

to bad for me-
the crowd WASN'T going wild

Perhaps once it is actually installed in the kitchen?...

*sigh*
so I was back to putting things on again

"BABY TURN ON THE LIGHTS-
ALLLL THE LIGHTS"
(lyrics from the song)

so I drilled two holes into the plastic bottom
of the night light hood,
then
I added two gold glass buttons I'd found in my stash.
I threaded the bulbs through the buttons,
then gathered the wires into the hood,
which were then fed through the kitchen wall
and hooked up to the transformer.
At the back of the hood, I covered over the hole with filigree
right where the shade would have attached to the night light bulb,

this became the hood's Exhaust Fan.

I tested the lights before gluing the hood to the wall

The buttons make the lights HUGE!

SCORE!
I remembered I had some brass strips and some brass doweling.
I cut the brass trims to fit the hood
then glued them both in place.

The I glued the tiles to the wall,
with the hood positioned above.

I couldn't get a crisp a bend at the corners with the brass, but it still looked better than I'd expected.
I was stoked about both the brass and the tiles.

The copper fry pan was a Christmas gift from Linda Park! ♥
and since I'd made hooks for utensil bar,
I was able to hang up her pan right away and
♥ LOved it! ♥
Linda emailed me, asking about how things in the kitchen were progressing.
I had been on a roll-
I had already done a lot-
and I liked it a lot - well mostly

BUT I WAS STILL NOT LIKING THE Top of the HOOD!
To me
My dollar store night light still resembled
a hat-
specifically-
a tall Top Hat wearing a lot of brass!

Interest in the kitchen, suddenly "bumped and grind" to to a halt.
I felt like slinking off stage.
In my frustration, I was going give up on the kitchen and go to work on the second floor of the villa instead, since nothing I did; helped, and I could no longer pretend to like-

THE HAT!
However, working on the second floor of the villa meant working on the second floor staircase- Arrgggh!!!-
nooooo, I'm not ready for that yet either!

So, I put on my thinking cap to try and come up with an viable solution; because having glued the hood to the wall, I had no other choice but to leave the hat on.

Then a light switched on!... I had an idea
What if- I lowered the ceiling height to hide the hat?
i.e. like a burlesque FAN DANCER, it's still behind there, but you just can't see it

I tried out a section of wood across the top of the hood to see if it would work and what it would look like.

"YES-I think that I could live with this"

but first I had to pry off that lion medallion

Sudden Exposure-
(you can see it's undies!)
then
I made second hat
to cover the first hat

I cut a length of foam insulation to span
the width of the wall, which I then covered with
wallpapered cardstock on the narrow front face
as well as on the underside.
Then the new hat was glued in place
right over the old black hoodie.

I added the ceiling beams for a little Venetian character
and permanently affixed the lantern to the ceiling.

To finish off the top of the hood, I cut 2 strips of self-stick gold ribbon, doubled up, and glued them to the top of the hood to form a thick band to cover the gap at the cut out.

I chose to use ribbon because it was flexible and would easily conform to the contours of the hood AND because I had lots of it, therefore, IF I made a mistake,
which I usually do;
I could try again.

This gold lame ribbon has a fuzzy texture like velcro

I applied the first of 2 layers

I used my finger to smear a layer of drywall putty over the surface of the gold ribbon which I had painted black.

I smoothed drywall putty over the ribbon and let it dry.

I cleaned off the overage and waited until the putty had set.
When it was dry to the touch, I painted it again with black acrylic paints.

then highlighted it with more gold nail polish.

FINALLY!!!!

Everything was

Looking good and
The crowd was going wild!!!🎉

Ta Dah!

With the new dropped ceiling over the stove,
the rest of the kitchen
became fun to play with again.

In the photos above and below, you can see that
I've placed the sewing box which I won last year as part of a multi- Giveaway from Pepper's
MitchyMoo Miniatures blogspot
https://mitchymoominiatures.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2017-04-16T16:47:00%2B02:00&max-results=20&start=12&by-date=false
I'm treating it in the kitchen as a Spice Box.