A Brand New Workshop - With The Emphasis on Vintage!

A couple of years ago Celia Thomas and I closed the doors on our final workshop after a number of very happy and successful years.....finally I opted for a 'graceful' retirement.  But I'm delighted to be able to tell you all that under her own KT Miniatures banner she's going it alone and has just announced her first workshop. Fantastic news!

As many of you know, as well as being an immensely talented maker of items that have that much loved vintage look, she is also a highly respected expert in vintage and antique dollshouses and miniatures and very experienced in the restoration of both.  It is this very popular vintage emphasis that will be the unique focus of her workshops and I'm sure will have wide appeal as she shares her knowledge and tricks of the trade using very ordinary and readily available materials.

Numbers at each workshop will be limited so if you might be interested don't delay as I know bookings are already being made. It's a great venue, and I know it will be a friendly and productive day, working at your own pace whether you are a novice or more experienced.


THE EARLY 1900s GERMAN STYLE KITCHEN WORKSHOP
Celia is offering two options of workshop kits...

Option 1 : Early 1900s German Style Kitchen Workshop -   Main Room Box With Furniture & Accessories Kit @ £105.00
Are you an antique and vintage dolls house collector who has been wanting an antique German kitchen but unable to find one at an affordable price? Well, at this workshop for just a fraction of the cost of a genuine antique one, you can make your own. Or are you a miniaturist seeking a workshop where you can create a miniature room setting that is just that little bit different? If so, then this first workshop option that contains the kitchen room box plus the furniture & accessories kit, may be perfect for you.

Option 2: Early 1900s German Style Kitchen Workshop - Furniture & Accessories Kit Only (No Main Room Box) @ £89.00
Are you an antique and vintage dolls house collector with an empty dolls house kitchen that needs furnishing? Or are you are a miniaturist who has run out of room for any more large projects and would prefer to just make the furniture and accessories for your own display or project. If the answer is yes, then this second workshop option may be ideal for you.

There are two dates, either Saturday April 21st or Saturday May 19th and the workshop is being held in the Conference Room at Bicester Avenue Garden Centre just off junction 9 of the M40.

If you hop over to her blog - ktminiatures.blogspot.co.uk you'll see lots more details and pictures too.

It's so exciting to watching a project develop from beginning to end.....think I'll have to pop along and hand out the paint and glue just so that I can see....

Thanks for looking
Robin

Getting Back to Miniatures

So without too much enthusiasm I thought I might as well slap a few layers of paint on the basic 1/12th scale white-wood dresser, dig about in my boxes of treasures and concentrate on vintage/antique pieces where I could. It was better than tackling the pile of ironing ......

And what do you know....I was enjoying myself.  Before the second layer of paint was on the dresser I was rooting around and rediscovering pieces that had been displayed 'temporarily' elsewhere or actually acquired because I'd imagined them on an old dark and distressed shelf one day. Top of the list was this lovely vintage but damaged clock and the elderly wooden plate from my friend Celia at KT Miniatures, and the old gent and his wife which I painted decades ago, a perfect miniature reproduction of the china pair that sat on my Granny's mantlepiece.

There is a sprinkling of Elisabeth Causeret, and the full size Duke and Duchess of Cambridge (Staffordshire) on the top shelf were once in the family home.  Victoria Fasken's glorious blue bowl picks up the colour from the 'plate' behind - actually a vintage enamelled brooch. Some items have been with me for a time like the Staffordshires and the stoneware jars at the bottom, and sadly although I can't recall all the makers' name I will always appreciate their artistry.  On that very bottom shelf an old handmade pewter pendant, made by an aunt, doubles as a tray and the wonderful set of pans was made for me by a lovely craftsman many, many years ago after he retired as an engineer on the Great Western Railway.

 

If I have a favourite item it's probably the 1900s bentwood Scandinavian style storage box, (that, and the clock started me off) purchased at an antique's fair, I've never seen anything quite like it  before.

Now all I have to do is find a home for the dresser...... I think the perfect place is next to one I finished last year and the late C19th dresser which contains a wonderful selection of antique glass.  I expect it was played with by the girls in the (1920s) photo alongside and probably originally belonged to their mother and aunts......

.......and fill in the gaps on other displays where I have taken pieces for the vintage dresser. Oh, and I've found a 1/24th scale set of glass-fronted shelves........that had already been painted.....

Thanks for looking
Robin

A New Year.....thinking of what comes next.

I don't know about you, but I don't do New Year Resolutions....far too depressing when they're broken almost immediately.  I have a kind of  'might do' list and a 'really should do' list....I'll just see how that goes then....

I would like to wish each and everyone of you a very Happy 2018 and hope all your 'might do' and 'should do' lists come to pass.

 Our Strelitzia (Bird of Paradise) burst into flower in time for the New Year and I'm really thrilled that there are five more buds coming along. Believe it or not it is around thirty years old, grown from a seed by my lovely Mum - until the autumn it was one of a pair, but our conservatory isn't made of elastic so that has gone to a new home.  I hope they have five buds too.


Looking around I'm reminded how many of my plants, or their offspring came from her and friends. Nice!


Top of my list after Christmas is MARMALADE.  This is an ancient family ritual originally vested in my Mum and before her, no doubt, her Mum. Now of course it is my turn and Granny's Marmalade needs to be made in sufficient quantity to supply family and special friends (and us) with a few jars 'in case'. Off and on it lasts about a week, the house smells lovely and I have an annual meltdown about having enough jars ......and I pop a few Seville oranges in the freezer in case we run out later in the year.

 So now I'm revisiting my 'might do' miniature list and looking at a 1/12th basic whitewood dresser I've had for ages and thinking it would make a nice old dark 'vintage' piece to display some of my vintage/antique odds and bits. Like all collectors I have lots of treasures squirrelled away and not a lot of room to display them.  Then again when I see Elisabeth Causeret's stand I just can't resist...Still thinking - I'll let you know.

Thanks for looking
Robin