The Ballet Studio has a mirror!

Finally!  Some days ago the mirror for the ballet studio arrived, and Kassandra installed it on the chosen wall:

"How wonderful!", she said. "Now I only lack a portable barre.  And I already know who I am going to ask to make it for me."

"Who?"

"A very skilled professional who made a perch for my raven Eddie.  It was ages ago, but I see that from time to time he stills posts his work for sale.  I will have to talk to him".

"I cannot wait to see it.  I am sure it will be really nice".

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Fantasy apart, I did not want to use a real mirror for this project.  I was afraid it would weight too much to stay put on the wall, and also it could break.  So I chose some acrylic mini mirrors instead.  They are very light, and they cannot break.  The reflection is not bad, although not as good as a real mirror.  But I am very happy how well it looks!

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!