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Art Gallery

I know it has been a long time since I posted anything.  Life has gotten in my way.  I am sure you all understand.

I started an Art Gallery for a friend of mine, Ann, because she is an amazing artist and I believe she should have her own show.  I tried to remember to take pictures along the way but I'm not sure how well I did on that front.  

I had a vision in mind and did a quick mock up of the gallery.

                  

I gathered pictures of the paintings Ann had done and put them into categories.  I wanted to have lights over some of the paintings but they were expensive.  My friend Marilyn suggested I make them, which I ended up doing.  I made the lights from paper straws adding LED lights.  I pulled the wiring through a small styrene tubes.

                  

One of the things I wanted to do for this gallery was to put in a revolving door.  Not something you would see very often in an art gallery but I desperately wanted to make a revolving door.  So I started by figuring out how big the door would have to be.  (Hence the peanut butter jar)

                            

This was my first attempt at the revolving door.  It didn't work out the best so I decided to try again.  I was more successful with the second attempt which you will see in the final pictures.

I had a vision for the front window of the art gallery as well.  This took many attempts and no matter how hard I tried to cut is so it looked perfect, it just didn't work.

My friends daughter Shauna, new a guy who was just starting with laser cutting.  I contacted Kevin and he said he could do the job.  I wanted two windows cut so I could set one of the walls back giving the overall look some depth.  Needless to say it turned out beautiful.  Again you will see this in the final pictures.  

I'll add more to the blog this week.  I'm a little short on time today.

 This will be a short post today.  I have had my hand surgery so I have not been able to mini.  My hand is healing well but is still quite tender.  I was lucky enough to be able to watch the surgery on my hand.  Ohh it was so interesting.  Darn!!! I should have taken pictures.

Last Friday my Hubby and I had to take our lovely little Bella to help her cross over the rainbow bridge.  The house is so empty and quiet without her.  We both miss her terribly.  I took a video of her in her little doggie cart earlier in the week.  She wasn't sure if she like it but she tried.  I think had she been younger it might have been easier for her.  We had ten years with Bella which was most of her life.  She was less than a year old when we got her.

Run and play in the fields with your friends, enjoy the sunshine, rest in peace sweet Bella.

 I realize I haven't posted in quite a while.  Of course, I have lots of excuses but truth be known I've been having quite a bit of trouble with my hand.  My mini-ing has been limited.  I will be having surgery on my hand on the 5th of May.  I am looking forward to getting this behind me.

So the first, and very important, event that has prevented some blogging is my lovely little "Bella".  She has been going down hill for some time and my hubby and I just didn't want to face that fact.  She is a 10 year old French Bulldog/Boston Terrier mix.  According the our vet the life span of these dogs is between 10-12 years.  We just got a wheelchair for her and we are hoping this will help.  Her front half is still in good spirits but her back half doesn't work so well.  

Secondly we decided to put our house on the market.  It sold in four days, and yes we got above asking price.  We found an apartment, a one bedroom, so needless to say I am purging big time.  I now have boxes labelled "apartment", "auction", "storage" and "give away".  We are moving from a two level house to a 680 square foot apartment.  We plan on being there about a year and then we will be off on our boat adventure.  Of course, this is conditional on us not killing each other in such a small space.

I have been doing some mini-ing.  I am doing an art gallery.   The art gallery is going to feature a very talented artist that I worked with some years ago.  Ann Ryer is a self taught artist and does amazing work.

I am doing this project in half scale.  The building is about 12"X12".  The gallery will be called Avenue Ann.  I made the floor to look like marble tile.  The two pieces that you see in the background are two small walls which will hold paintings as well as the other walls in the gallery.  

 

                              

I made a bench so you could sit and admire the beautiful paintings.  I also made a display case that explains all about the artist.  I also made a few unusual looking easels to display a couple of paintings in the window.  I'll show those in my next posting.

I decided that I wanted to make a revolving door into the gallery.  It is not finished yet but the picture below will give you an idea of what my plans are.  I will definitely update these pictures as I move along.

I hope to get back into posting on a more regular bases.  It does keep me on track.  And, by the way, my good friend Marilyn has a birthday coming up next month.  I have made her a present which you will have to wait and see what it is.  Big Surprise!!!

I have been able to get some work done on the farmhouse.  One of the biggest jobs so far was to paint the 19 windows.  That took quite a bit of time.  I finally got all 19 painted.

Some of the windows are working windows so I made screens.  Now in actual fact these screens did not look new in any way, shape or form when I was a kid.  But since I just can't bring myself to rough them up, what you see in the picture below is what the screen looked like the day it was put in, not like it looked when I was growing up.  

I love the look when miniaturist make things look old and well used.  I just can't do it.  

I posted some pictures earlier with the outside walls taped in place.  The windows and doors have now been cut out and it sure makes a difference.  As I look at the picture below I realize just how big this house is going to be when I am finished.  Where am I going to put it?  I have three other dollhouses and a big barn, not to mention all by Camp Mini Ha Ha projects, etc. etc..  Oh boy....sure can't take them all on the boat.

I think I will work on adding the second floor and the room dividers on the second floor.  

I am finally back.  I have not been able to do minis since about the beginning of December.  I have found out that I have what is know as "trigger finger".  So it's just me and Annie Oakley.  In the meantime I have re-organized by miniatures.  You have to understand that since I am not the "fly by the seat of my pants" girl everything was organized but now it is super organized.  My sister, Joyce, said the hoarders would love me because they wouldn't have to get rid of anything.

Anyway, moving on.  I was getting a little worried that since I've been doing a lot more of my friend's, Marilyn, flying by the seat of my pants that in the end nothing would fit together.  So after enlarging the house slightly I decided to join the outside walls to the floor and put the main floor walls inside together.  (Just taped, not permanently put in place)  So with the exception of one wall which I have to trim by 1/2" it all fits.  Boy, do I feel better.

 

                    Kitchen                                                        From kitchen looking into dining room

             

                 Looking into living room and den                Looking from dining room 

So, overall, I'm okay with the fit of the outside walls.  I am going to start cutting out my exterior doors and windows from my outside walls.  Actually I'm hoping to talk my husband into doing that but only because I have very little use of my hand right now.  

My next step will be to put all the windows in (all 19 of them) and the three doors. Then I can put the wallpaper up on the inside of the outside walls. 

Oh dear, I think I'm confusing myself.  Hopefully you know what I mean.

Farm House

 I didn't get much done on the farm house this week.  I've been working on Christmas gifts and exchanges.  So much to do, so little time.  This week I decided to make our television.  I was about four when we got our lovely black and white television.  Back in those days unless you had a great antenna you could only get two channels.  My older brother talked my Dad into letting him build an antenna.  He was ten years old but an avid reader of Popular Mechanics.  So we were lucky and got a few more channels.

I started by making the box.  Old TV's weren't 70".  I think ours was 13".  Then I made the inside frame for the picture tube and made some legs.

I think the most difficult part was making the curve for the tv tube.  My brother fortunately knew that it was an admiral TV.  I made a mid 50's Admiral TV.

I stained the cabinet a dark wood color.  It probably was actually wood in those days.  Remember the test pattern anyone?  I think sometimes we saw the test pattern more that we saw TV programs.  But, I do recall watching Walt Disney, Ozzie & Harriet and George Burns.

Once this part was finished I only had to make the rabbit ears.  

This was one of the quickest farm house pieces of furniture I've made yet.  Unlike the wringer washer which took a very long time.