Tiny Little Bowl of Tiny Little...

Fruit!

My second medium (which I love to use even more than the first) is modelling clay. I first discovered the love of it when I had to repair my church's nativity scene, in which a lot of the characters had lost their noses/fingers/etc, and I had to rebuild them and then repaint them. They turned out great, but I didn't take any photos. Next christmas when it's all out I'll go take a picture to show you.

But check this out...




I am beaming with pride about this one. This was my first try with making a set from the clay that actually hardens and then you can keep it rather than the stuff you just muck around with (or blue tac). I only finished it yesterday (painting and spraying each piece with varnish to protect them), and I love love love the finished product, so excuse me while I bore you to death with too many photos of them.

The banana...

The orange...

The pear...

The apple...

Aren't they adorable? Or am I biased due to them being my creation? I don't know and I don't care because I am nuts for them. My husband has already claimed this one to go on his desk at work (the man never eats fruit so I don't quite get it). I will be trying things like tiny cupcakes and lollies and a tea set soon, and I have so many other ideas too, like christmas decorations and a little tiny basket with little tiny easter eggs. I seriously could make this bowl of fruit a million times, so if you want one please let me know and I'll be more than happy to make one for you, it is so much fun!

Here it is in my hand to give you an idea of how tiny they are! It makes my hand look huge...actually it's causing me to develop a bit of a complex about my hands being too big. But it's so CUTE! Tee hee! If I was a barbie doll I would totally have that as a centrepiece on my kitchen table, and I would totally want to take a bite out of that apple.

Here it is again in a very artistically lit photo. It looks like it should be an oil painting doesn't it? Very old school still life portait-y.

I'm now going to go and fantasize about making other very tiny things...

xnata

A Pretty Little Dragonfly...

I am finally putting on my first few creations! I know, I procrastinate.

Making jewellery is so much fun, and has given me such a wide selection of jewellery at relatively little cost, some even tailor made for a particular outfit. However, sometimes while making jewellery my mind would wander and all of a sudden I'd look down to see I'd made something like this...

Wow, where did that come from? Okay it's not as accidental as I'm making it. This isn't so much a miniature of a dragonfly as a life size interpretation of one. I made this about...a few years ago I'd guess, and as you can see I often have it hanging from a piece of fishing line by a window, so that it's wings catch the light. Very pretty and serene.

I've made lots of other things like this over the years, a lot of which I've ended up giving it away because friends/family have spotted it and liked it and so I've given it to them. Butterflies, dragonflies, other winged things, flowers and little tiny men. I have a bunch of bead flowers that I'll post another time and one of the little men as well.

I'll be back shortly to show you another medium I like to make tiny things out of.

xnata

My Work Space!

Before I begin the revealing of my various creations (and perhaps before I make some more to be more accurate), I thought I should show you what I've been up to for the last week. I am currently writing this on a laptop, the only computer I have, and have been writing this blog on this laptop for my whole blogging life. And frankly, the novelty of the portable computer has worn off. It's great sometimes, like when you are busy and want to be on the computer at the same time as watching television or doing crafty things, or when you go on holidays, but as the only option it loses its appeal for me.

The main reason I haven't had a PC despite having a computer man for a husband is because I haven't had a desk to put it on, and the room this theoretical desk would be in was stacked high with boxes of STUFF. Stuff to give away, stuff to throw away, and stuff to actually go in the room once it had furniture. Here it is as it was last Monday (try to stifle your screams in horror)-

Before:


Yes, what a dump. This was the room we hid by closing the door pretty much all of the time. It severely let down the rest of the house and was the project I had been avoiding for months. But, last weekend after a tantrum thanks to the slowness of this laptop, I decided I was going to get a desk and a bookcase and sort that room out and then my computer tech man could build me a great pc and I wouldn't have to deal with the aching neck/back and slow laptop anymore. After searching and searching and checking prices and searching some more, we found the right pair and bought them:

Ah, flat packed furniture. What a joy; furniture and a puzzle all in one. So last monday and tuesday I emptied the room of all the junk, and then opened the boxes and built the bookcase and desk ALL BY MYSELF, using the terribly unhelpful instructions, wood glue and my intuition. Wednesday was spent putting things into the room and taking old clothes and other unwanted stuff to lifeline, and filling the bin with rubbish. It was therapeutic and tiring. I could not be prouder of the finished project:

After:

TA DA! Isn't it great? Look at the bookcase:

There's just two or three things left to be done in here that taking the photos made obvious to me - the trim, the lack of curtains, and a second chair. The chair is low priority, seeing as it's just to put on the other side of the desk so that should my freelance editing career take off I can have the client come in and chat with me about the work to be edited across my desk. The curtains aren't so much to keep out light or for privacy (there are blinds already as you can see), it is a purely decorative thing. I'm thinking something sheer and either teal or purple. But before I go doing that, the trim is the first issue to attack.

As I took photos I was reminded of the bewildering colour scheme of my house (done by the previous owner). Beige. Beige walls, beige trim, just beige. Bleeeeuuuch. See:

Now why they though it was a good idea to camoflage the doors and trim into the wall is beyond me. It looks horrid. This picture doesn't quite depict how bad it is, but just trust me on it. So, I have bought some nice white paint to repaint the trim and doors with, and while I'm at it I'll be replacing the brassy old lady door handles too.

So get ready for more before/after photos once I've painted.

xnata