David Hochbaum's Villages in Cans

Classes have finished. A marathon term. I hope to start blogging regularly again soon. In the meantime here is a link to another art project involving miniatures. Chicago artist
David Hochbaum is building tiny houses from off-cuts of his larger works. And only $25.00 from his website (I better order one before they all disappear) Interesting to see how mini art is taking off. I've got another example to post in the next day or so. Here are some examples of David's work from the Coolhunting article. Click on his name above to take you to the full article and a link to his website. .


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Blurfing

I'm really busy at the moment, with a colleague off sick and life moving at double time it seems. I have some lovely new things but no time to photograph or set up scenes. I keep my mini passion fed by what I call blurfing. Starting with my favorite blogs, I click through to their favourites, then someone else's, and on it goes.

I am always so taken by the different ways people do miniatures: the scene setters, the story tellers, the big project builders, the exquisite craftspeople, the collectors, the teachers, the connectors. What a rich world it is and there truly seems to be no end to it.

Tonight I found Tee Bylo And her many wonderful projects. Have a blurf!




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Jen Spectacular

I've been away for a looooong time, but am about to launch two new projects, so watch this space. In the meantime take a look at Jen Spectacular. I found an article on her tonight on Coolhunting.



She's a San Francisco artist who refurbished and populates old dollhouses, complete with stories, most of which seem to have a kind of gothic twist. She has a film coming out next year.
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I have been to the mountain (apologies to MLK, jr)

I am in Paris, with a friend, and today we struggled up Montmartre to go to Lea Frisoni' s Montmartre minis. It felt like visiting a shrine.
Ike most mini people I admire her work so much, although its not a style I emulate. U fortunately she wasn't there. The store has a great selection of bare wood minis. I bought a modern chest of drawers and an old fashion toilet for the French flat.

The section wasn't spectacular but in the window there was one of her beautiful French shabby chic dollhouses. It was worth going for that alone. I took a picture through the shop indow:




Very lovely to see.

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Why it is important to read mini blogs: a true story!

This weekend I rented a car so I could explore some parts of Cornwall relating to my research. In the process I was forced by a $&%#€ b****** to back down a very narrow road with hedgerows on either side. [There were 6 pullover spots behind him and the nearest behind me was about a kilometre back] And I do mean VERY narrow. In the process the passenger side of the car got scraped by brambles in the hedgerow. Gone was my £100 deductible.

While driving and cursing I remembered a tutorial by Fabulously Small for restoring scratched surfaces. So I stopped the car, whipped out my toothpaste and a tissue, and voila! Scratches all gone! Fabulous Small you really lived up to your name.

Not much mini-ing going on at the moment. Work, work, work! Here's a photo anyway.



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Tynies

Was looking through my pictures today and realised I hadn't shown these --bought in a toy shop in Ithaca commons. They have many different kinds. I bought three but only seem to have photographed two. As usual I should have gotten more since I have already give two away. They are called Tynies

Here's the turtle



And the parrot





The turtle is about 3/8 inch long. The parrot about 1/2 inch. Should have got more!
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Next phase

I left the US on Friday. I'm now in the UK. It feels like a different planet. I loved Ithaca, so beautiful and parts of it are such classic small town US. It was like driving through an Andy Rooney set. I stayed at the Best Western. I'm not given to commercial plugs, but the staff there were just terrific, such a nice group of people. They really made a difference to the quality of my stay. Things I won't miss: bad coffee, eating and drinking off paper and plastic. What a treat to have china cups and metal cutlery.

Yesterday some fiends and I went for a walk in bluebell woods in the Cotswolds, just north of Bristol. The we went to see a Gothic revival church with stained glass designed by William Morris and his early partners. It was a perfect day. Then this morning I got up and looked out my hotel room window and this is what I saw:





It's going to be a good month!

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