Table for the museum, and some new pieces

Yay, it's done!

It only took one afternoon of work, but I am happy with the final result.  This was a serving table that I purchased from Beautifully Handmade, and that I wanted to incorporate to Kassandra's museum.  The drawers did not have holes for me to put on the pullers, so I had to do them myself.  Good thing that my husband had the right tool for me to do it!

I simply stained it with Scalecolor Inktense Chestnut ink, and let it dry.  Then, I added the handlers, which are, of course, pieces from Bindels Ornaments.

And vòila!

The lower shelf has a bit of uneven color, but it was hell trying to stain the little rail between the boards!  I had to use a double 0 brush, and even so, ink got everywhere.  But alas, I am guessing most of the shelf will be covered by artifacts, so I do not think it will matter in the end.  Here are already some pieces decorating the table:

You can see here the sides of the Egyptian jewelry box.  The round box is supposed to have lapislazuli inlays.

Also, here are some religious artifacts, made with Bindels pieces as well:

Today I put a huge order with them, hoping I can recieve it for next weekend, which will be four days long!  I cannot wait to start crafting with them,  I have plenty to do!

Crafting for the museum

Isn't it wonderful when you just have to craft something because you cannot wait to see it finished?  The museum room is starting to have pieces to display.  First one: a jewelry box that used to belong to an Egyptian queen!

Remember that old jewelry box that I repurposed into a Tarot cards box?  Well, it has been repurposed again into a jewelry box!  I removed the golden sun charm from the lid, and painted it again for a new decoration.  Hubby lent me the paints - I had to use a mix of two colors to match the box's brown:

Then, I used an scarab charm to decorate the lid.  I wanted it to be yellow gold, like most jewels were in the Ancient Egypt.  I simply painted the scarab with a golden paint, let it dry, and affixed it to the lid:

Before and after painting

I even added a red jewel to the center of the piece!

Then I decorated the sides with scenes taken from Egyptian papyrus, depicting scenes from the Book of Dead.

And the most fun part: to add the jewels inside!  Naturally, they are pieces from Bindels, except the Ankh, which I already had.  A nice pair of lotus earrings, a bracelet and a charm piece!  I love them!

I hope to be able to do the table in which everything Egyptian will be displayed this weekend.

Tom Bishop Show 2019

Back home from Madrid, after attending the Tom Bishop Show!  This year I did not get a lot of stuff, but some of the stuff I got is out of this world.

First purchase, a showcase cabinet for the museum, from Mariví Sacristán:

I already have pretty much all the furniture I need.  I do not think I will be buying more pieces, unless they are small, but we'll see...

Then, the fabulous hand-made pieces!  First, a couple of items for the museum, courtesy of 64TNT Miniatures:

A wonderful collection of bird eggs...

... and a tall glass dome display with a big egg

Loredana's work is simply astounding!  Every year I come home with at least one piece from her.

Then, a kit from Taller Targioni:

I will use the dome to finally make the Phantom of the Opera shrine I have wanted to make for a long time.  

And a couple of pieces for the soap shop.  Two pillows from Pilar Alén:

And one from MiniMaribe:

But the crown jewel of this year is this espectacular beauty:

This is the otherwordly creation of Elena González.  She makes dolls, but her specialty are these amazing gothic ladies.  I fell in love with her, and my mom bought it for me, as an anticipated Christmas gift.  Here she is, getting acquainted with Kassandra:  

I'm guessing they will make friends very fast!

New minis for the museum

Happy Day of the Dead, and belated Halloween!

Nothing like a free day to craft and enjoy minis.  Today I was busy with some pieces from Bindels Ornaments.  I made two sets of vanity tray, one for me and one for my mom:

Marijke shows you how to do the lovely box in this video.  And you can see how to make the rest of the pieces here.

I wanted to include this tray in the soap shop, in the Black and White shelf.  I think now the shelf is finally finished:

And I made another box for the museum scene.  This one is a piece recovered from an Egyptian site, with lapis lazuli inlays:

I am still waiting for the furniture to arrive, but in the meantime, I can share this lovely fossil from the hands of Val Harper, owner of Unique Miniatures:

See the box with the triceratops head?

Triceratops have always been my favorite dinosaur!  I was very lucky to snatch this piece!  I am currently working on more pieces for the museum.  Very soon Kassandra will have lots of tales to tell you about the new "acquisitions"...

The new scene has been started!

A couple of days ago, I mentioned that I was going to start the process of making a museum scene / curator workshop / curiosities room.  Today the process started with putting the floor on the roombox.

I will be using a little greenhouse that a co-worker found for me some years ago.  It is lovely; it was going to be an organic product shop, but I think the new scene is more atune to Kassandra's taste.

The flooring came from Jessica Cloe Minis.  It is a lovely tile in black and white, which is a combination that I like very much.  I printed one A4 sheet, hoping it would cover everything.  Alas, it was a tiny bit short:

So I printed some extra and attached it to the end.  The joining point is invisible!

Now, it is ready to be cut to shape and installed:

I affixed it with some double-sided tape

It looks gorgeous!

I am very happy with how well it looks.  I have a couple of things already put in place.  Currently waiting on some furniture to start planing the design of the scene!

Trash to treasures - Egyptian jewel

Have you ever notice that when you want to make something in miniature, you have stuff laying about that is just precisely what you needed to finish your piece?  That happened to me today.  Let me explain.

I have decided that I am making an scene as a curator workshop: lots of ancient artifacts, everything mixed together, in an ecclectic collection.  Remember the Natural history cabinet?  It will be the first piece of the collection.  I may also include the chest with the coin collection. It really is out of sight in Kassandra's study, so I hope it will be more visible in the curator's shop.

Well, as usual, instead of starting putting floors on thinking about displaying furniture on the scene, I started with a minute detail.  I bought this golden crescent finding from Bindels Ornaments long ago.  I always knew it was going to be a jewel, but wasn't quite sure about what kind.  Today the answer presented itself.

Here is the finished piece: 

My husband uses microscopy covers that are 12 mm round, and they come in these cute clear plastic boxes.  Naturally, they have no use for the boxes once they are empty, so they discard them.  But I had a couple of them and I could upcycled them, which gives me great satisfaction.  I thought it would make a great display case for a recovered Egyptian jewel, and voila!  It was super easy to do.  I simply covered the protective foam with red velvet paper, and inserted it in the box:

Then I simply added some red "rubies" to the golden piece, and glued it to the case.  It measures 2 square cm. Love it!

Some time ago I used another one of these boxes to make a Ferrero Rocher box for my mom's patisserie.  This was so much fun, and she loved the final result.  I simply baked some small polymer clay balls (18, to be precise), covered them up with golden paper from a Ferrero Rocher chocolate, and used the tiny sticker in the bonbon to make the label for the box:

You  can't get more authentic than that!

I hope this is the first post of many in the making of the curator office.  It is such an out-of-the-ordinary scene that I can't wait to start crafting!

ETA: I have just found out that Bindels Ornaments is on Etsy, selling beautifully handmade lamps and some other knick-knacks!  Go get yourself something, you won't regret it!

New chest piece for the study

This one was so much fun to make, but very challenging too!  Here a picture speaks more than a thousand words:

I saw this original piece in Unique Miniatures' shop, and I wanted to make one as well.  Working with such tiny coins was difficult, but fun:

Now the piece is displayed on the cabinet in Kassandra's study:

Display table with snuff boxes

As I mentioned in the previous entry, here is another mini directly from an episode of Downton Abbey:  a Queen Anne table showcasing a collection of snuff boxes.

Here are a couple of stills from the episode in which you can see the table in question, belonging to Lord Grantham:

Lord Grantham in front of the table

Several snuff boxes...

... but one is missing...

You can check out the episode 5 in season 1 to find out what happened to the lost box.  There is also a mention of snuff boxes in the movie Amadeus - a maid mentions that Mozart used to have 7 boxes but now he only has one left.  You can see the maid holding a box, but you cannot see it:

The maid showing the box to Salieri

The history behind snuff boxes is fascinating, so I encourage you to do a bit of reading on them.  

Let me talk about how I made the snuff boxes.  First, I looked for an appropiate table to display them, and found it in the shape of a mahogany Queen Anne table.  It even has a small drawer, but as of now, I have kept the drawer empty:

Picture courtesy of Beautifully Handmade

As always with miniatures, the most difficult part is: how do I make a box so tiny, and how to make it look good too?  The answer is Bindels Ornaments.  I perused their catalogue to see what I could use to make and decorate little boxes.  Do you know they have a workshop to teach you precisely that?  I purchased several kinds of findings, and my imagination took flight!

I made the boxes in several sizes, but mostly two shapes: round and square.  I found out that some snuff boxes had erotic art in them, so I tried and found several paintings that suited the purpose.  I scaled them down, printed them and glued them to the lids of several boxes.  Some others have metallic decorations and gems.  Here is the final collection already in the display table:

The silver box in the second line is actually a powder box from Aderon, made of sterling silver, and it even opens!  The rest are pieces from Bindels.  The painting in the smallest golden box is 6 mm!  I had to use a puncher to cut it.  The rest I cut by hand.

I am so happy with it!  It is already in its final place at Kassandra's parlor:

It's kind of big, but who cares?