Wednesday, April 16, 2014

Editorialising in autumn

It would seem that this whole 'editorial retreat' concept for The tiny Times is becoming a regular occurrence around here.

This time round, my Editor came to Canberra. I met her yesterday afternoon (after I finished the final meeting I need to go to at work this week).
Aerial view of a coffee table, showing cheese and crackers and dip, a glass of wine, a marked-up copy of a magazine and some knitting in progress.
It may all look like beer and skittles (or wine and cheese, as the case may be) but we worked fairly solidly from 4:30 yesterday afternoon until 10:00 last night when I fell into bed, only to crawl back out at 5:00 this morning and get straight back to work.

So I felt not at all guilty when we broke for a(nother) planning meeting over coffee mid-morning.
Two cups of coffee and a notebook on an outdoor cafe table.
Aerial view of a cafe table, showing two empty coffee cups, a notebook page of notes, with one person pointing to it and the other making notations.
And then decided we could justify a little sightseeing. Of the mini sort, of course. Except, as we were looking for stock for my Editor's stall at the Sydney Show, it was actually-almost-sort-of still work.

Some lengths of these Marimekko-esque mini beauties followed me home:
Inside a quilting fabric shop, showing a pile of fabric with Marimekko-like mini prints in the foreground and someone choosing fabric from the shelf in the background.
(where my Editor declared I had the rest of the day off for a job well done. And I realised that, although it's a great thought that the magazine has grown from 16 pages last year, to 20 pages  last edition and potentially 28 this edition, THAT'S A LOT OF EXTRA PAGES TO EDIT AND DESIGN)

Now please excuse me: I believe I'm on leave. I hear the sofa and a pile of not-designed-by-us magazines calling me...

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Holiday reading

Day four of my time off work and I've been busy with domestics and work meetings. Plus my Editor arrives later today to spend a couple of days with me putting together the next issue of The tiny Times.

So I haven't managed to focus much on mini making so far (although I have unearthed both my work bench and my work table from under the piles that have accumulated).

What I have been focusing on is mini reading. First off the pile yesterday was Joe Fig's Inside the Painter's Studio.
Aerial view of a dining table showing a vegetable frittata, a spiralina juice and a copy of the book 'Inside the Painter's Studio' with a pair of reading glasses on top of it.
I'm very late to this party but am looking forward to poring over the models within.

And this morning I visited the Post Office and collected a pile of cheap books I picked up in Booktopia's moving sale, including a copy of Frank Kunert's Topsy-Turvy World (which has been on my wish list for a while).
Outside cafe table containing a pile of six new books and a cup of coffee, overlooking Dickson Post Office.
I had a quick flip through over coffee but am being strong and won't start reading it until I've finished Inside the Painter's Studio.
Aerial view of cafe table showing a cup of coffee and an open book with a picture of a model building in it.
Have you any mini-related book recommendations to share?

Saturday, April 12, 2014

An international random act of kindness

There's one sure way to banish a grey mood: good mail!

Especially unexpected good mail, like I received yesterday morning from Kikka N:
Small package from Finland, covered in colourful postage stamps
I was strong and waited until I got to work to open it
Opened package with Moomin postcard on top of contents.
(then immediately facebooked the above image to taunt my Editor, who is a Moomin fan...)
Opened package with Moomin stickers and wrapped contents.
I'd planned to do a gradual photographic reveal for you but got too excited and took the box down to open over coffee with a colleague, completely forgetting to take my camera.

First out of the box was a kitset.... something.
Small ziplock bag containing pieces of wood and a folded instruction sheet
Which turned out to be a miniature Aalto 900 trolley kit, with instructions in Finnish (kindly translated into English by Kikka).
Pieces for a kitset miniature Aalto 900 trolley, plus instructions sheets in Finnish and English.
Next were two Marimekko books, made by Kikka, and a pair of red reading glasses to match my full-sized ones.
Two miniature Marimekko books and a pair of miniature red reading glasses balanced on fingertips.
 Then there was a bottle of Dior perfume (also make by Kikka) and an Aalto vase.
A miniature Dior perfume bottle and a miniature Aalto vase balanced on fingertips.
Finally, there was a bag of fabric pieces, which you can see in the background of my photos.
Miniature Marimekko books, red reading glasses, Dior perfume bottle and  Aalto vase arranged in front of a piece of full-sized Unikko fabric.
Thank you Kikka, for a wonderful box of unexpected delights!

(And now I have an empty box which I might just have to fill and post onwards...)

Friday, April 11, 2014

A grey mood

I haven't been feeling in the right frame of mind to make minis recently, so the seaside shack sitting room still looks like this a week after I started working on it:
Selection of 1/12 scale modern miniatures set up on a messy work surface.
And, when you're overwhelmed with miniature choices, but at the same time lacking in inspiration, the only sensible thing to do is buy more minis (right?)

So I ordered this set from Miniatures by Neu:
Modern miniature five piece grey velvet modular sofa set by Town Square Miniatures, in package.
 And now I can make booth seating:
Modern miniature three piece grey velvet booth seating.
 And sofas of many sizes.

Two seater...
Modern miniature two seater grey velvet sofa.
 three...
Modern miniature three seater grey velvet sofa.
 four...
Modern miniature four seater grey velvet sofa.
 five...
Modern miniature five seater grey velvet sofa.
 and six!
Modern miniature six seater grey velvet corner sofa.
I have ten days off work starting tomorrow. Hopefully I can coax my mini mojo out of wherever it's hiding this time.

Saturday, April 05, 2014

Monochrome miniatures in the May mag...

Thanks to Pepper from Mitchymoo Miniatures for emailing me to let me know we're 'magazine mates' in the May issue of The Dolls' House Magazine:
Two page spread of an article 'Monochrome miniatures' about my work in the May 2014 issue of The Dolls' House Magazine.
The newsagents here still have the February issue on the shelves, so I'll have to wait patiently to get my hands on a hard copy. 

Oddly enough, after I'd answered some questions from the magazine several months ago I'd pretty much forgotten all about it. So seeing the screen dump Pepper sent was a surprise end to a pretty blah week.

Wednesday, April 02, 2014

Seaside shack: sitting room

The sofa that I bought this past weekend reminded me of the one at the Blue Mountains cottage my friend and I stayed at during last month's trip. Which made me wonder how well it would go with the fireplace I bought off eBay in February.

And then I got thinking that maybe it was time to create another room in the Seaside Shack. One more suited to the cooler weather that's approaching.


And so it started...

Grey velvet modern miniature sectional chaise sofa in front of vintage miniature white brick fireplace.
I pulled out the scrap booking paper I'd used in the kitchen as a guide for colour choice
Grey velvet modern miniature sectional chaise sofa in front of vintage miniature white brick fireplace, with giant vintage rose 'wallpaper' behind, in colours of cream, reds, greys and blues.
then rummaged through the other treasure from last weekend's show stash and my unused pieces to add some accessories:
Selection of vintage miniature accessories displayed around a dolls' house mantlepiece. Colours are predominantly red, cream and mid=blue.
(Cue gratuitous close-up shot)
Selection of vintage miniature accessories displayed on a dolls' house mantlepiece. Colours are predominantly red, cream and mid=blue.
Next I started experimenting with wall colour choices that would work with the kitchen colour scheme. A dusky blue worked well
Modern miniature lounge scene with grey velvet sofa, white fireplace and cane table and vintage accessories. A choice of two 'wallpapers' is shown, one a large-scale rose pattern in cream, red and dusky blue, the other plain dusky blue.
(but reminded me a little too much of another scene I did, but I guess recycling a colour theme once in three years is allowed, right?)

But picking up the green from the kitchen paper resulted in a nasty look.
Modern miniature lounge scene with grey velvet sofa, white fireplace and cane table and vintage accessories. A choice of three 'wallpapers' is shown, one a large-scale rose pattern in cream, red and dusky blue, one a plain dusky blue and the last an olive green.
So decision made: blue it is.
Selection of vintage miniature accessories displayed around a dolls' house mantlepiece, with a dusky-blue coloured wall behind.
Finally, in the early hours of this morning, I remembered a box of Typo cards I picked up last week which included a heart shaped cloud design. And, as my mind is wont to do when awake at such an early hour, it came up with an interesting plan, which I had to get up to try:
Modern dolls' house miniature grey sectional sofa and cane table with a selection of heart-themed images arranged 'above' them on a wall (actually a desk, with the dolls' house furniture tuned sideways).
I'm still trying to decide if it's too different in style to the kitchen/dining/sunroom of the seaside shack.

Perhaps I'll sleep on it...

Tuesday, April 01, 2014

It's in the bag

I know you're itching to see what was in the 30 cent bag of treasure I bought at the show.
A5-sized bag of bits and bobs for miniature use. Bag is marked 'Bits 30c' and contains a variety of vintage earrings, containers and jewellery pieces.
So, not being one to disappoint my readers if I can help it, here's The Haul:
Contents of the bag of miniature bits, laid out in an orderly way.
Once I'd laid everything out I got a clearer idea of what was there and what it could become. The metal vases I already knew about, along with the blue waste paper bin and the cork coasters.

But I was excited to notice these, which I think would make fabulous modern light shades,
Collection of vintage plastic bits that could make modern miniature light fittings, plus a tiny embroidered box and a little round metal platter.
and this selection of metal charms. This sort of thing always comes in handy as wall decoration or popped into a group of collectables on a shelf.
Three metal tubes, a selection of metal charms and two vintage brooches.
I think I got my 30 cents worth, don't you?