A Blogging Year!!!

A year ago I tip-toed hesitantly into Blogland....with much encouragement from friends who assured me that I could do it!!

Twelve months on and I'm no longer hesitant about filling my blog with ramblings about our miniatures - and the garden when I can find an excuse - although the exciting technological add-odds, side bars and other twiddly bits do still faze me.
SO - thank you ALL!!!!!

I'm bemused that 95 friendly folk have chosen to Follow, reading on a regular basis and leaving such lovely comments too!
It's been such a great learning curve - and the enjoyment and inspiration from reading and following other blogs has been enormous. To be able to enjoy the creative talents of others who are so ready to share - and encourage - is a terrific privilege I think.


One of my favourite roses - Striped Tiger - fabulous heavily scented flowers, much deeper in colour than the photograph shows.....to say.... 'Thank You'.


Berkaya - a mad , fun, bright spikey plant in my gravel garden .... for like-minded bloggers.

Thank you for the fun and the humour - from daft small dogs (and cats) to mini-disasters recounted with a chuckle - from around the world.

Coombe Crafts (me and 'im in the shed...sorry...workshop) endeavour to create original handcrafted work to a high standard and it has also been such a bonus to take these to a wider audience, acquiring new friends and customers along the way and meeting some new creative challenges. It's a fact that the 'customer' often has the best idea and translating that is such fun!!! I'm also grateful to those who've been kind enough to allow me to share their photographs on my blog.


Finally - it's a miniature blog - so here comes the promised early 1900s 1/24th scale racing driver all kitted out with his leather helmet, boots and goggles to take a turn round Brands Hatch with his lady watching from the stands.




See...I said I've learned a lot....the scarf or covering, right up over his face is to prevent injuries from flying stones and gravel as he hurtles around. Truly, there is a proper sculpted face under there!!

Thank you for looking!!!!!
Robin

Posh Hats and Cabbages.....

It's a given that I like gardening.....and gardeners....so you won't be surprised to see another little gardener on this blog.

I do enjoy adding the little details that I hope bring my characters to life so the gardeners, whichever scale, usually wear a warm scarf, scruffy trousers and generally have some raffia tucked under a belt, ready for tieing up the tomatoes.
As a rule they are proudly showing off some produce from the garden......as a rule its a cauliflower or carrots that I've made. Now - a top quality food maker I ain't.......'adequate' about covers it....and I greatly admire those that make wonderful fruit and veg.



I thought my little gent deserved a fabulous cabbage and I've been looking for a good excuse to buy some of the amazing Savoy Cabbages made by Mouse House Miniatures who make some of the very best food I've seen. Although they don't have a website, you can contact them by email or see their wonderful work at one of the major fairs.

And now for someone completely different - wind back to the early 1900s and the first cars. As a lady passenger a new outfit was clearly required - and a rather important part would have been the hat. The car not being quite as sedate as a pony and trap, the huge and elegant hat needed to be secured very firmly with a enveloping and beautiful scarf!
A pair of new-fangled driving goggles would have completed the outfit and as racing cars became a new and fashionable sport Brooklands racing car circuit and aerodrome was certainly the place to be seen.



She's really waiting for someone to drive her....he's waiting for a helmet..... but when that's done I'll bring him to the blog.

Thanks for looking.
Robin

......on Peeling Paint, Pansies and Slugs......

If you've been following the exploits of Celia and I as we've embarked on our Nostalgia in Miniature Workshops.....the 'individual' details may appeal to you.....

I wonder ..... should I worry about her?? How does she sleep with those great big 1930s 'Woodworking Handyman" books, under her pillow??
For our new workshop on September 18th - "Down the Little Garden Path" - we decided upon an authentic cold frame - every garden had one! This meant much research - Celia loves that - she's besotted with the period.

After producing a beautiful cold frame with sliding glass cover, authentic rusty handle and peeling white paint...I think I disappointed her when I remarked airily "Oh yes - Uncle Norman had one like that." Well...I knew she'd produce something fabulous!




She got her own back and demanded Hostas! Not any old hostas, but authentic hostas....hostas with nibbles and holes......and slugs! And weeds. That, I was informed, was my department!!
To be fair the research for this was terribly easy!!



So...we've got peeling paint, slug-eaten hostas, weeds and a crazy-paved path....we need a bit of beauty in here.
In need of beautiful flowers we headed for Georgina Steeds at The Miniature Garden Centre and ordered purple pansies. Lovely!!!! I just hope I did her justice in making them up.



If you want pansies and other wonderful flower kits, just take a look at Georgina's blog for contact details as well. If you'd like see see pictures of the whole of the new garden in "Down the Little Garden Path Workshop" click here and go to the 2nd Garden Project. Booking details are all on the website as well.

Thank you for looking.
Robin

Let's Look at Some Furniture for a Change!!

Pretty obviously anyone reading my blog regularly can see I'm hooked on character dolls and anything to do with a garden...my real one or the miniature version......

You're probably bored rigid reading that Coombe Crafts has been around for decades...sadly I'm grey haired so it's true. However it's never quite been just about just the characters, although they are top of my personal list and I never get tired of creating new characters whether they be 1/12th, 1/24th or the ultimate challenge 1/48th - we also make the 'interesting things to go with them'. (That's the phrase in the advertising folks!!)

I'm fortunate in having an 'other half' who can translate my seemingly random ideas involving 'wood' into something really super and who creates amazingly detailed small things without any help from me whatsoever!!! Sometimes I get to titivate a few of them.....

So in the interests of fairness and equality and all that jazz - this week it's about the furniture - 1/24th this time. Most of it is featured on the website and if you email me I can give additional details or prices as required.

Here goes.....oh...yes I've sneaked in a little maid to dust the Edwardian-deco-Macintosh inspired furniture and 'interesting things'.....and a couple of plants......



And finally - as they say in the build up to important announcements - I'm thrilled to be able to announce that Celia Thomas and I, who in collaboration make up Nostalgia in Miniature Workshops, are to hold our first Full-day workshop next March at the truly inspirational venue of Waterperry Gardens in Oxfordshire. This is one of my dream world-famous gardens and wonderful places, so you can imagine how excited we are - for full details and also for those of the half-day workshops this year click HERE!
Our next one is "Down the Little Garden Path" - it'll be different - and a fun day if the last one is anything to go by.

Can't resist it......picture of one of Waterperry's glorious, seemingly endless perennial flower borders coming up......



Thank you for looking.
Robin

Three Real Little Characters......

I can just imagine these three ladies holding their own in any situation - and it's been such fun bringing their individual characters to life and sending them off to their new homes.....


In the 1950s this lady ran a pub - and while she looks a friendly soul - I think 'last order please' probably meant just that!!


The gossips, Nora and Pearl were commissioned by Jennie to have a natter over the garden fence in the little old garden she was making - they're clearly putting the world to rights in a break from the housework. If you'd like to see where they're having their gossip just click here and go to Gallery 2.



Meanwhile my own garden is bursting with colour...and weeds...although it's great that at this time of year the weeds are mostly hidden by the flowers!!

I did intend to put up a sales page of my garden items but as you can see I haven't got there yet. If anyone has seen an item on the blog recently and would like to know if it's still available do feel free to email me and I'll let you know.

Thanks for looking.
Robin

Our Workshop Sunday ....and a Little Video!

It was SUCH a hot day on Sunday.....and though we all sweltered in the heat, and the paints and glues practically dried as we squirted them from the tubes...it was a super day!!

Twenty lovely, enthusiastic and creative ladies joined us for our first workshop, 'Over the Little Garden Fence' and - to judge by the kind remarks and the feed-back they left - enjoyed it as much as we did.
It would be fair to say Celia and I felt a little nervous and rusty - it's been a while since workshops on this scale for either of us - but Hey - we're looking forward to the next one now!

So thanks to our 'students', and help on the day from some special people, and for the contributions that raised over £44 for Breast Cancer Campaign.

We hope you'll enjoy our little video - details here for future workshops - or go to our website if you'd like to see pictures from the workshop itself as well.




In a day or two I'll post details of some of the new garden items pictured here in recent weeks that are for sale.
Thank you for looking.
Robin

Morris Men ....and a Bit of Gardening....

In my last blog I mentioned that I'd been working on some fun 1/24th characters...and a bit more miniature gardening....

We think it must have been around 10 years ago that a lovely lady asked if I could make her a couple of 1/24th Morris Dancers to go on the Village Green outside her 1/24th cottages......
I said 'yes' because she's a lovely lady and customer - coming from Oxfordshire I love Morris dancing and the whole tradition anyway - and it was a bit of a different challenge!


The original old boys have been dancing for a good few years now so recently she asked me to create another couple of team members and here they are - now dancing their way around the West Country! Since the first ones - my little Morris men have moved to all parts of U.K. and the Commonwealth wearing a variety of different waistcoats and trims and have also put on a bit of weight and increased to 1/12th scale as well.

In the last few weeks, in between making new dolls, I've managed to get some more miniature gardening projects completed. I've planted some lavender, made some more varieties of the garden succulents that we call houseleeks in these parts, to plant on rockery stones and chased a cockerel down to the bottom of the little garden path.
These will all be at the workshop this Sunday.


Lovely lavender in 1/12th and 1/24th scale 'planted' in terracotta pots.


These are Cobweb Houseleeks (Sempervivum arachnoideum)...there's a clue in the Latin here... they're also known as Spider Houseleeks. I do have fun looking for the pebbles - this one has a pool of 'water' too.


This garden arrangement is in 1/12th scale as well - the feathered cockerel has found a spot at the bottom of this rather overgrown garden. I loved making this one!

Welcome to new Followers - I do hope you'll enjoy my ramblings.
Thank you all for looking.
Robin

Emigrating to Australia...in 1/12th Scale

Many of us have family or friendship ties to other countries......and some more of my little people have emigrated to Australia.....


A blog or two ago I featured super pictures from Hazel who was creating her miniature 'family' in a truly stunning house and I was thrilled to see how at home my characters looked. Now she is stepping back in time to the mid 19th Century and her latest characters have arrived in their new home. Technically the combined Post Offices of U.K. and Australia made this possible but in real life this lady and gentleman sailed on " Branken Moor" in 1849 to begin their new life.
She went on to manage a rather smart tea shop and he ran the general store.



Hazel's photo (thank you Hazel) pictures them outside the second storey of her lovely house, but I do believe they're destined to have their own establishments one day. The second photo shows them before they set off on their great adventure - amazing to think of the courage of this generation and just what they achieved!




Meanwhile - elsewhere in sunny Australia, Susan is settling in Hilda Grace and James George, a cheery, comfortable couple if ever I saw one - again photographed before they left these shores..... I'm told they're doing just fine!



I've been busy this week working on some fun 1/24th characters and another spot of miniature gardening - and our first workshop is only a week away so I've been checking I've bought the coffee as well as enough paint! If you'd like to see what Celia (KT Miniatures) and I have been up to in Nostaglia in Miniature Workshops click here and catch up with our joint blog.

Thanks for looking.
Robin

P.S. June 19th. Susan has put up a lovely post on her blog -minicrochetmad - with the real life history of Hilda and James and great pictures of them in their new Australian home. Many Thanks Susan.

STOP PRESS - NOSTALGIA IN MINIATURE WORKSHOPS !!!

This really is a STOP PRESS moment .... NOSTALGIA IN MINIATURE WORKSHOPS is a completely new venture between KT Miniatures and Coombe Crafts.....SOooo exciting!



Celia Thomas of KT Miniatures and I are great friends of course - but not only that, when it comes to miniatures we share the same passion that our work reflects both realism and nostalgia. Although our individual skills are quite different they are complementary.....and it seems to work!

Over the last few years we have often collaborated on special projects and commissions, but we wanted to extend that collaboration in an on-going and regular basis and this year planned and arranged a series of workshops. You may have seen in recent weeks the advertising on both our blogs for our first Workshops - "Over the Little Garden Fence" to be held in Thame in Oxfordshire, this June and October.

Our respective blogs and websites were getting crowded with the Workshop news, so was time to give NOSTALGIA IN MINIATURE WORKSHOPS it's very own space!!!

If you'd like regular updates and news - our new blog is http://miniatureworkshops.blogspot.com/

Our new NOSTALGIA IN MINIATURE WORKSHOPS website with all the details and Booking Information is - www.miniatureworkshops.com

We should really love it if you'd take a look.

Finally, a personal 'thank you' to Celia. It's well known that technology is not my forte (I can hear the chuckles from friends as I type) - so - thanks for the techie stuff mate!
Robin

OCTOBER in the Little Old Garden....

When we advertised our workshop - "Over the Little Garden Fence Workshop" - to be held on June 26th In Thame, Oxfordshire...we were hopeful, a little nervous but very optimistic........



Celia Thomas of KT Miniatures and I were (in the modern idiom) gobsmacked when all 20 twenty places were filled so very quickly - and realised that June wasn't a great month for a number of folk who would have otherwise joined us.

So........we are delighted to confirm that we shall run "Over the Little Garden Fence Workshop" again on Sunday 23rd October at the Girl Guide H.Q. in Thame.
This is a 3 hour workshop, in an informal but friendly and productive atmosphere where a unique corner of an old, slightly dilapidated cottage garden will be created, and the advice, and encouragement will enable you to take away some new skills and be inspired to do even more in the garden of your own small houses.


You can choose to create your garden in either 1/12th or 1/24th scale, build a wobbly, aged fence and force your early rhubarb in a rusty old bottomless bucket - and tackle the weeds too! Or you could just sit on that nice old bench.....

We are limited to 20 places so if you are interested, please get in touch soon ..... click here and, as if by magic - and the skill of my partner in crime Celia - find out all about it and see more pictures too.


Thank you for looking - and welcome to my newest followers.
Robin