It's All About The Weather!!!

Well here in Oxfordshire it's been raining - heavy, heavy deluge type rain!! Clearly it's been doing the same elsewhere to judge by the number of us who've been complaining that our beautiful paeonies and roses have been battered to bits.
So it's out of the garden and back to the workbench.

An elderly little lady (1/12th scale of course) has been waiting for her new easy chairs - not too posh, comfortable and upholstered in nice hardwearing material.  So the Coombe Crafts workshops swung into action to fullfill this last furniture order before shutting up shop.  Hope she likes them.

There are creatures who have flourished in this weather - unfortunately in my garden!! The slugs and snail have marched in battalions and have chewed their way through some of my prettiest plants and flowers.  I hate the pesky creatures!
I'm hoping that the frogs who live in my tiny ponds.....I call them ponds but really they're vintage wash tubs....will jump out and redress the balance.

Talking of ponds - this beautiful and also tiny water lily has just flowered.  Perfect!

I've also seen a very precious wild flower here in Oxfordshire, although I won't say exactly where - this is a Bee Orchid one of our rarer wild plants. Up close it looks like a little bee settling on a flower.
Sadly this beautiful wild plant has disappeared from many of its natural locations, as have many others of course and there are lots of reasons for this, including unscrupulous 'collectors' who dig up plants, often destroying the habitat.

Fishermen don't seem to mind rain, and a little fisherman is my last commission before I down tools and I hope to show him to you in another blog.....then I shall have to think which little character will be the first one to create, just for me.

In my last blog I mentioned and pictured my Staghorn Fern that I was endeavouring to repot.  Almost the next day I was stopped in my tracks to see the most wonderful miniature Staghorn Ferns on Illona's blog...I run out of superlatives to describe her exquisite talent so do take a look at her blog on http://minimumloon.blogspot.co.uk/2016/06/hertshoornvaren-staghorn-fern.html


Thank you for looking
Robin

So What Shall I Do Next??

First I have to say a huge thank you for the kind comments and emails from so many lovely miniature friends after announcing my imminent retirement as a professional miniaturist - I'm quite overwhelmed.

I've been trying to get the last bits and pieces sorted for our workshop on 2nd July, organise 'last orders' and tackle a few essential gardening tasks while the sun shone. We did manage to give the strawberries a nice straw bed to ripen on before the rain came down again and the blackbirds bagged the lot!

I dragged yards and yards of goosegrass (cleavers) out of the borders - so much that it rolled up into bales!
The garden looks great if you don't look too closely - in this first picture believe it or not that's a tall ancient chimney pot filled with houseleeks (sempervivum) disappearing where the border is supposed to meet lawn....and there are some lilies in there somewhere.

When we originally laid out the garden from scratch we created a series of 4 different 'rooms' leading one into another but not to be visible all at once, in time. WELL that bit is true anyway!!!

Finally after months of looking at it hanging in the conservatory where it was getting larger and larger and being scorched near the glass roof, I found time to tackle my Stag Horn Fern.

 It took hefty cutters and the bread knife to get it out of its pot after which I crossed my fingers hoping that I wouldn't kill it and took the bread knife to it again and chopped out a big chunk to repot separately.

 Now I've got two and it looks better than ever, or will do when the scorched leaves are replaced with new ones.

Digging around in my 'archives' checking details for the new doll I need to make in a day or two, I came across Geppetto and Pinocchio, a particularly favourite commission in 1/12th scale I created about 10 years ago.

 As doll makers we all try to improve our skills but I think he stands up to the test of time fairly well and I know he's still in his workshop on the South Coast.

Thank you for looking
Robin

The Times They Are A'Changing.... Special Announcement

On Saturday Celia Thomas, my partner in Nostalgia in Miniature Workshops, and I hosted our  workshop with a lovely group of miniaturists at Bicester Avenue Garden Centre. It featured our latest workshop  - 13 different ones in all since we began.
On 2nd July we shall  do it all again...and then folks....as I said......times are changing.
 

This spring I had what is deemed a 'significant' birthday.....my hands and wrists caused problems again making it difficult to sculpt for any sustained length of time...the old back played up.....I realised I'd had a great run for over 30 years and loved every minute of it, but had neglected my much loved garden recently and hadn't got around, for yet another year, to do any 'me' things on the famous 'to do' list.  Hmmm......

I think that's what you'd call a decision made for me - so I've decided to retire as a professional miniaturist.
I have a lovely commission to finish but cannot  undertake further commissions and I'll stop trading during July sometime. The miniature doors on Coombe Crafts will be closing with huge thanks to our many wonderful friends and customers.  Of course it will take a while to sort out closing the website (too technical for me...need help) tweaking this blog and such 'stuff' and there is some (mostly 1/24th scale) stock if anyone would like to enquire.

I plan to keep Blogging so I hope  you may stay with me to see more of my garden, cats, 'archive' miniatures pics. and whatever I manage to get up to in miniature for myself. Apart from anything else I love your fantastic Blogs!

So - that's  the Coombe Crafts announcement.

Nostalgia in Miniature Workshops has been around since 2011 - 13 different workshop projects, some repeated two or three times,  and a number of magazine features and 'How To' projects.  Celia and I have had a great time - it's been such fun bouncing ideas off each other and coming up with original projects using very ordinary materials in innovative ways using our different but complementary skills.  We've had such a ball, made lovely new friends and we hope inspired a few along the way!!

My own decision happens to coincide with a particularly tough time for Celia and her family.  Many of you know that her lovely husband is seriously ill and 2016 is an especially testing year.  SO - time to close the little doors on Nostalgia in MiniatureWorkshops  too after the next workshop.
I very much hope that things will improve for them and that another time Celia will pick up workshops again; she's still got lots to offer  and is only a 'youngster' - I'll volunteer if she needs a sweeper upper.... so do keep an eye on  KT Miniatures website.

Let me end this blog with pictures from our Saturday workshop and thank all the ladies for their fun and enthusiasm  - they all worked really hard and should be proud of their acheivements.  We look forward to seeing what emporia the little shops become in due course and of course look forward to seeing another group of talented miniaturists in July.  There are more workshop pictures on our Nostalgia in Miniatures Workshops  Blog if you want to see what Janet and Celia were waiting to see unveiled. .......

Thank you all for looking
Robin

This and That Blog...

At this time of year I'm torn between the garden and miniatures.  Mostly the garden won although a visit to Kensington Dolls House Festival was very inspiring.
Thanks to the warm wet weather, the garden is very colourful - also full of very healthy weeds which require serious attention.  The beautiful apple blossom I hope means we might get more than the two little apples we had last year.

My great mate Celia Thomas, and I have had our heads down working on the kits for our Nostalgia In Miniature summer workshops which are just around the corner. The Early 1900s Little German Style Shop is very versatile so we're looking forward to seeing what kind of emporia they all become. 

Talking of workshops and the prototypes we create - we do run out of space so a few get sold - mostly we keep them.  Celia has taken ownership of last year's 1/12th scale Little Vintage Toyshop and enhanced it with her own collection of antique and vintage toys - I love it!!!

The Original Toyshop

The Interior now that Celia has worked her magic

As many of you will know,  as KT Miniatures she is an acknowledged expert on antique and vintage dolls houses and their furnishings, so she is enjoying including  her personal collection of toys in the replica antique toyshop alongside those we created.  Her recent blog all about it is super - pop over and take a look here and read all about it.

Last weekend, KDF  - as we all fondly call it - was super, duper, inspiring. Actually I run out of superlatives and don't dare list all the stands that inspired  - just too many!! The Perfection In Miniatures (PIM )exhibits were particulary wonderful and I can't imagine how the judges were able to make their decisions. Pictures and details on KDF website.

I'll settle for showing you what I was able to purchase - rather more than usual thanks to a very special birthday present.  Thank you 'girls'.

Glasscraft candle sticks

Pansies by Sandi Sandri

Sally Meakin - Cabbage ware ceramics

Vase by Elisabeth Causeret

Thank you for looking
Robin

One Of Those Weeks!

We all get them don't we....a week when things go 'not according to plan'. Days you'd rather forget, appliances that cease working and arrangements arranged and re-arranged....

It was one of those! Consequently no work was done on the miniature front except for a start on kits for the two workshops this summer.  To be fair my other half has been in the workshop sawing manfully for us so that the shop room boxes can be part constructed,  while Celia and I have been chasing down mountboard and extra paint..........don't even ask!!

On the much brighter front the garden looks super (also the weeds), bluebells are out and the weather perked up long enough for a lovely trip to Badbury Clump, a bluebell covered hill located just outside the historic market town of Faringdon in Oxfordshire.

This has been a favourite haunt since I was a child and we try and visit at this time of year, although it's wonderful at any time.  The hill is an iron age fort set in ancient woodland and managed beautifully by The National Trust - a truly magical and spiritual place.

The town of Faringdon itself is dominated by an eccentric folly - called The Folly Tower, built in the early 1930s on a wooded hill above the town (already called Folly Hill) by Lord Berners, reportedly as a birthday present for his protege. Some present!  Still it's a lovely view in the distance from Badbury Hill, as is the ancient White Horse carved on the hill just above the village of Uffington, in the other direction.  

Thanks for looking
Robin

Our 1/24th Scale Little German Style Shop is Complete

Such a lovely moment when Celia and I look at each other and nod. Another project prototype is finished and we can embark on the mammoth task of kit making. Time to take a walk in our gardens and enjoy the spring flowers!
And here it is - true the old fashioned scales are not yet in position or the old lovely hanging lamp - but they're made and we're having fun creating a little packaging etc.  The early 1900s German Style shop will be whatever kind of emporium the participants at the workshops choose to make it and there's lots of scope from wonderful hat and frock shops to high class groceries.  We're so looking forward seeing what it and the 1/12th scale version becomes when individuals put their own very personal stamp in it.

If you'd like to see more of this and past projects go to our Nostalgia in Miniature Workshops website.www.miniatureworkshops.com     
And here are the scales - both scales.

One of the supermarkets has been selling bunches of daffodils with a proportion of the sale price going to charity - what a lovely idea!  Incidentally I'd love to grow some of these in my garden next year - does anyone know the variety??  They're in one of my favourite vintage enamel jugs.
 

In the garden the spring flowers are a picture - these are  Fritillary uva-vulpa which I've grown in a pot this year but they will move into my wild patch where I already have a lovely group of Snakes-Head Fritillaries establishing really well.

Thanks for looking
Robin

Some More Little People

The two latest 1/24th characters have arrived in their new home and are ready to groom the horses!

I always have fun and original commissions from my friend Diane - and the last one was another.
Her club, as their new project were making sheds - nothing new there - then it got more interesting.  Sheds, but not as we know them! I'm dying to know what all the members came up with but I know one might end up as a beach hut and the other stables!  Which is where I came in.

Clearly the stable needs someone to keep things neat and tidy and the horses and ponies mucked and well looked after, which of course is where Dad comes in, not to mention a young teenager mad on riding ready to take out the pony.

I've loved creating these little characters and hope very much that in the fullness of time I'll get to see them in situ.

A friend in the north tells me they've had snow, torrential rain and wonderful sunny days in the same week - that's British weather for you! Further south we've missed the snow but had the rest.  Yesterday I had a lovely productive gardening day and my little cats came out to sunbathe.

Lily chose a sunny spot right on top of plants in the border of course and positioned herself photogentically next to a clump of bluebells.


Thanks for looking
Robin

Back to Some Little People

I've enjoyed myself the last couple of weeks getting back to some serious sculpting  creating some familiar 1/12th scale characters that I haven't made for a while and also, in another scale, some new ones.

 

A lady  of a 'certain age' out doing her shopping is an old favourite of mine. As well as always sculpting a new face I can ring the changes with sensible coats and shoes and switch between a stylish felt or comfy knitted hat and a well- loved handbag or a sturdy basket. So this new lady who has now departed for her new home has a rather nice pale green winter coat and a very warm pull-on chenille hat - she's carries a good sized basket made by the brilliant Mouse House Miniatures, as she's obviously doing the weekly shop. Their baskets are super and the vast range of the most realistic vegetables and fruit, just wonderful.

I've decided she could easily be a Granny.... so maybe she's meeting the children from school?

Both in school uniform - both in the ubiquitous navy gaberdine mac - he's wearing the standard grey shorts, which always seem to be a little too long, to allow for growing, and the hated school cap. His sister wears a blue check frock under her mac and a grey felt hat. 
I had one of those - how I hated it!!! Wearing the same one from aged 10 1/2 to 18 it became a dreadful shapeless affair which we all loathed with a passion. On leaving school everyone signed each other's hats in biro or chucked them in the school pond. Mine (signed) ended up as a cowboy hat for one of my small sons in due course - much better!
In the summer as sixth formers we were obliged to wear straw boaters...........I think I donated mine to an amateur dramatics group!

As you can see the children have leather satchels and also scarves, because it might be winter  - I've left their new owner to decide whether they need to wear them or not so they aren't fixed in place.

My next commission was in 1/24th scale and I'll show that to you next time as at the moment the little people are en route for their new home and I don't want to spoil a surprise.

Easter is nearly here.  In U.K. our clocks go back one hour so it will be light and bright in the mornings and hopefully spring will well and truly be here.  In my garden I have delicate primroses and blue amenomes and bluebells just beginning to break bud - a beautiful and hopeful time of year.

There is so much sadness around the world, so however you celebrate Easter - and if you don't - may I wish you all a peaceful and special time with those you love.

Thanks for looking
Robin

1/24th Scale Furniture At Sale Prices - Part 2

The final items of 1/24th scale furniture at reduced prices are now pictured and listed - if you would like any more details do get in touch.

If you are interested in purchasing any of the following items, please email me (contact email on the side bar) to first check availability.  We do also still have items that were on the last Blog - Part 1 of our 1/24th scale . Please can you quote the picture number and the item identified with a letter - ABC etc.
Click on the picture for a larger image.

Picture 1

A. Shop till - £3.50 
B. Counter - it is open at the back with one shelf - £5
C. Single bed - £8
D. Bench - suitable for tudor or perhaps a pub - £5

PIC 4.

A.  Matching wardrobe and chest of drawers in palest yellow handpainted with pink 'roses' – drawers and doors for effect only - £15
B.  Natural wood high chair with baby fixed in place – would also work well as a toy in 1/12th setting.- £13
C.  Natural wood high chair – tray is removable. - £11
D.  Macintosh Chair - £11
E.  Bentwood chairs - set of 4 - £15
F.  Filled tea-chest for attic or garage - SOLD
G.  Tiny breakfast trays with teapot, cup and saucer and plate - £6 blue decoration only
H.  Macintosh chair – straight top rail - £10
I.  Folding deckchair - £3


I'm busy sculpting again with an interesting 1/12th scale trio - when they're finished I'll let you see....then  I'll get around to the last few pieces of 1/48th furniture that are still available at reduced prices.

How lovely to see the Spring that has properly arrived now - daffodills everywhere -  perfect!!

Thanks for looking
Robin

1/24th Scale Handcrafted Furniture At Sale Prices - Part 1

As promised I have now properly organized our 1/24th stock that has recently been reduced in price.  I hope I've photographed and listed the details in a way that makes absolute sense to you all......in a while I'll do the same with  another group and then 1/48th scale pieces, although there is less in this scale.

All our items are original designs and entirely handcrafted - unless otherwise stated the colour is mid-oak, not all pictures show this clearly. The number in stock of each item does vary a great deal - from just one to three or four so to avoid disappointment may I suggest that if you are interested in puchasing you email me (contact email on side bar) as soon as possible to check availabilty and be advised of postage cost.

Each picture is numbered and the items also indentified by letter (A, B, C etc) - please quote.  Since I mentioned the sale several of you have been in touch and some items have been sold - thank you. Clearly marked on the pictures are those that are no longer available. Click on the picture to enlarge.

Picture 2.

A.  Closed Bureau -drawers for effect only – non opening - £7
B.  Open Bureau – drawers for effect only - £8
C.  Chest of Drawers –  drawers for effect only - £6.
D.  Wardrobe - doors for effect only - £8
E.  1930s radio - £6
F.  Revolving Bookcase – Edwardian style, it really does revolve and is a replica of a real one - £13
G.  Small octagonal arts and crafts style table - £13.
I.  'Throne' chair - £8
J.  Tudor style chair - £8.
K.  Oblong side table – Arts and crafts style  - £13

Picture 3.

A.  'Bamboo' set of table and 2 chairs - £15
B.  Handpainted with  a dainty scene of rabbits and countryside, matching wardrobe (non opening doors) and a trunk which does open for you to fill.  Looks sweet in a nursery - £15
C.  Kitchen table – drawer for effect - natural wood - £4
D.  Round Edwardian/Victorian pot cupboard – replica of a real one. Faux marble top and one shelf inside.  Cut from one  piece of wood - £17
E.  Round cupboard with drawers which all open – original and unique piece of furniture inspired by the pot cupboard - £19
F.  Tea box/caddy on stand - £4.
G.  Panelled chest which opens for storage - would suit tudor home -  £13
H.  Folding ironing board – natural wood - £7 each

Picture 5.

What-nots - £15 each – choice of three – A, B or C. Each of these delightful little Victorian/Edwardian style What-nots is filled with a unique collection of handmade teapots as well as the shells, ornaments and decorative plates and other items so loved by this generation.

There are further items to bring to you, which I'll do in a day or two.

Thanks for looking
Robin