Those darn vampires

Dear Friends and Followers,

Though I have tried to follow your activities, I may not have always succeeded.

But know I've missed you guys and gals, we've got a lot of catching up to do.

I do hope you are all well.

It has been far too long since I've done anything mini, and being horribly busy at the time due to all the chores I should have done these past months but did not do and thus have to do now, it will be some time before I do another post :s. That is, unless I find a way to divide myself in two or three, but if that is the case I will probably not do any chores but be very busy putting up a production line :D ;)

One of the positive things of my retraite is that I have got some more outlined ideas of mini things I want to try this next year, but more about that when the time is due.

My sweetheart of a daughter took me on a trip to Amsterdam, to get my mind off things, and we went to a rockconcert; some time later we did this again, only now I took her. It was a really nice opportunity to see each other in another perspective.
And what do you know,  after the concert yours truly even got kissed by the popstar LOLZ, Who will remain to be unknown btw.
We've got a saying over here, that goes: hoe ouder hoe gekker. Or: the older the crazier. Go figure haha. I'll show you the pics we took in the Rijksmuseum  another time. Now, back on topic. 

Couldn't keep my focus so this was an endless -so it seemed- practice in getting my mini stuff out-starting working on it for five minutes- putting it away again for weeks and so on.

But here it finally is...... a must have for every home ;)....... the ultimate Vampire Killing Box!

Mind you, boxes like this really did exist, this one is based on an 18th century one, and it contains:

- a vampire skull, with it's vampire teeth intact, and directions on it on where to find the most 

   vulnarable places on the skull in order to kill the vampire.

- a bible

- a rosary with cross 

- wooden stakes and a silver stake

- a bottle wich contains poison

- an empty bottle

- a bottle with holy water

- a little mirror

- a candlestick

- a gun and a bag of gunpowder, well filled

- a knife 

- garlick

- a cross (an extra, better be safe than sorry)

- cloths for cleaning up any mess

and hidden in the lid:

- drawings and instructions on how to kill a vampire and a notebook.

As you probably already noticed due to the scratches, this box has long been in use.

                                       

                                       

I used mahogany for making the box.

Don't know about you, but having this item at hand, I know I will sleep peacefully tonight ;).

Please take care and keep smiling your lovely smile,

Hugggggsss to you all,

Gee

PS: John, Simon, Andy: how are you doing guys?

finally finished!

Good evening loyal readers,

The game table, I am glad to say, is finished.

Taking in consideration this, besides the simple bookcases in the library, is
the first piece of furniture I made, without having any instructions or measurements to begin with, in spite of the flaws I am quite satisfied with how it turned out.

Notice the bands of veneer go in opposite directions? that was the most fun to
work on. That and the sliding panels.
I've got a hunch that I will try my hand at more furniture in the future, simply because it is fun to experiment with.
And no matter the end result, you always try new ways and learn from it.

after sanding the (far too) glossy finish off, I gave the table a veneered skirt and put a matt varnish on. imho the skirt brings the table more in proportion.
The matte varnish is a lot better to my liking. It is the same varnish that was used on the bookcases in the library, it has a bit of a yellow-ish shine to it what doesn't make it look so new.

After that the table was smeared with a dark wax and then rubbed with a soft cloth.

So that is the game table.
Now off to new adventures.

By the way, have you all seen John's (Merriman Park) centerfold  pages :p in Miniaturas magazine? super! Again congratulations, John! (if you haven't, make sure you take a look!).

The past year so far has been very chaotic; I tried to work on minis so often, but every time I sat down to get started something more important came up.
That is why I posted so many pics of the gametable, when I show a lot of pics, maybe I can fool some of you in believing I actually worked hard on minis all summer ;) :D
Just kidding, hope I have some new stuff to show you in the next post.

Hope you'll all have a lovely weekend!
hugs,
Gee

Tonight I was searching the internet for houses that I could put on my wishlist to see if I ever get the opportunity.
I came across this link:

http://dovegreyreader.typepad.com/dovegreyreader_scribbles/2012/04/a-visit-to-dennis-severs-house.html

A Visit to Dennis Severs' House

At the time of writing this it is two weeks since my twilight visit to Dennis Severs' House at 18 Folgate Street in Spitalfields. Yet I can still see and smell so much of the house which makes me think perhaps I did manage to glean something from an experience that felt like no other.
The game is that you enter the house as if you have interrupted the lives of the Jervis family, early 18th century Huguenot silk weavers who were in mid-meal when a time-traveller from centuries hence crept into their house having paid £14 for a good look around.

Dennis Severs was 'an artist who used his visitors' imaginations as the canvas' and who apparently lived in the house until his death 1999 in much the same way as the original occupants might have done in the 1720s. I can vouch for the fact that a visit is a truly memorable and extraordinary encounter. If the intention is to have passed through the surface of a painting then I most definitely did my best.
No photography is allowed inside the house and this feels right. To have been distracted by my camera would have felt completely wrong, as would have been any reproduction of those pictures here...I needed to see it and feel it, smell it and hear it all and let that leave an impression on my imagination which it most certainly has.
My visit started at 6.15 pm with a brief introductory talk outside from the curator who asks that I remain silent, no talking and definitely no mobile phones, thus making for a visit of complete concentration. I did make some notes and interestingly the notes revealed something afterwards of which I may have been unware at the time.
You don't need to to be able to read what I wrote...but just look at pages one and two...

and compare with pages five and six...

The whole house is candlelit, but to varying degrees and when the visit starts down in the kitchens, in the cellar, the crowded table laden with food and manuscripts, the delft tiles around the sink and the range glowing and radiating warmth from a real fire, with the freshly baked scones on the griddle, are all just barely visible to the eye. This is 18th century light and with the ceiling a scant three inches above my head below stairs, as I moved on through the house and through time, (because the final room brings the visitor into the 19th century) that light had gradually increased, but in a way that I might have missed but for my notebook.
This is still-life drama, the chance to become lost in another time, and not so much what you see as what you imagine too, and little signs and notes constantly upbraid the lazy visitor...

'You either see it or you don't...you are looking at the thing rather than what the things are doing...'

and a few rooms later another reminder...

'What! You are still looking at 'things' instead of what 'things' are doing...'

and then...

'Would you recognise art if it fell out of a frame...'

and suitably chastened I vowed to try harder.
There are bells peeling and footsteps, the floor creaks and the clocks tick and chime and then you catch background whispering which had me looking over my shoulder and about to say 'Shh' to other visitors who must have been talking ...except they were about to say the same to me, and it dawns that this is the family who have just left. As you approach they depart, as you depart they re-enter.

Then a voice off-stage says ...

'Rebecca, we'll need more fuel in the morning, keep an eye out for someone peddling it on the street..'

And a very unnerving moment when I coughed and so did the invisible resident... I'm telling myself that was a coincidence.
The smells were a heady mix of ginger and spices various and coming as a consistent and gentle reminder to use all my senses as I then heard a baby cry and bird song, and noticed the wig on the chair and upstairs in the withdrawing room, the half-toasted waffle still on the fork, the broken tea cup perhaps knocked over by the ladies of the house wearing their large hooped dresses. The sewing basket lay open, the music cast to one side..they had been singing 'Mrs Spriggs Gave Parties' just before I walked in it would seem, the little house of cards behind the chair...perhaps that was the children.
And I desperately wanted to sit down and watch and listen to what my imagination was telling me, but of course that wasn't allowed. I was a bird of passage not a resident.
Up into the bedrooms and an imprint in the cushion in the window seat...someone had seen me approaching and disappeared... leaving behind a full chamber pot I hasten to add which I decided not to sniff.

I moved on up to the attics and clearly a time of poverty has descended on the family. The light was stark, the air noticeably cooler, the fire a mere flicker in the grate though still real, and everything much grimier, crumbling lathe and plaster giving way to gaping holes in the ceilings, washing hanging on the landing, the rugs rumpled enough to snag my feet on and make me look down, a plate of oyster shells on the table perhaps not the luxury food then that we view it as now, and in the background gunfire. At this point I knew that explanations would follow if I looked hard enough and sure enough this is 1837, the King has died a new young Queen is about to ascend the throne.
The final room back downstairs and a Victorian parlour crammed to the gunwhales with all that wonderful Victorian clutter, the smell and the light different again and I realised this was the oil lamps.
I did a great deal of standing and staring which is built into and an acceptable aspect of the visit during which you are never made to feel rushed or hurried, if you go to walk into a room, or approach a stair case having missed a room, someone just silently stands in your way. In fact everyone was overtaking me but my imagination wanted its moneysworth and most certainly got it.
As I emerged blinking back into the 21st century I did have that sense of the disorientation of time travel were it possible, with every inch of my imagination out on stalks and working overtime as I walked back along Folgate Street....
and then around Spitalfields where so many of the old buildings remain and signs of a bygone era are in constant evidence..


until in creeps the 21st century with quirks of its own..

I even managed to preserve that imagination through a journey on the tube back to Bloomsbury and into the next day and a visit to Sir John Soane's Museum, more of which soon.
But if you are in London please don't miss a visit to Dennis Severs' House, it really is magical.


Sounds great, huh?

Bibliotheek1/ Library1

Het eerste vertrek is klaar, op wat kleine dingetjes na.
Het is een van de kleine kamertjes die ik vorig jaar aangebouwd heb.
Op de fotoos ziet u de bibliotheek.
De vloer, de muren, boekenkasten, het bankje en het trapje zijn gefineerd met frans eiken.
De vloer is naar voorbeeld van een vloer uit het paleis Versailles.
De meeste boeken zijn leesbaar; de kaften van de boeken zijn kopieen van echte 18de eeuwse boeken.
Elk boek is met de hand gebonden.
Onderin een van de boekenkasten staan 18de eeuwse spellen.
De prachtige rapieren zijn gemaakt door Jens Torp.
De openhaard is zelfgemaakt (daar komt nog een foto van).
De haken waar de gordijnroedes aanhangen zijn deel van een slot van een ketting,
de gordijnen en embrasse zijn van groene zijde.
De spiegels achter de lampjes en onderdelen voor de haard zijn gemaakt van onderdelen van een waxinelichtjes-houder.
De afbeelding achter het gordijn staat er tijdelijk, het is een afbeelding uit het boek Rococo in Nederland.


My first ever room is nearly finished, this is the library.

This is one of the small rooms I added last year.
Maybe I'll change this interior in future, once I have more experience regarding miniatures
but for the time being this will have to do.

The floor, walls, bookcases, the bench, all parts of the interior are veneered in french oak.
Inspiration for the floor came from a floor at the palais Versailles and took lots and lots of tiny pieces of veneer to cut and glue.
Most of the books are readable; the bookcovers are copies of real 18th century books.
All pages are sewn by hand into the bookcovers.

In the lower part of one of the bookcases you’ll find 18th century games.
The beautiful rapiers are made of silver and gold by Mr Jens Torp.
The rapiers (swords) are actually much, much prettier than in the picture,
the detail in them is beautiful.

The fireplace is handmade (pics will follow soon) out of cardboard and veneer.
The hooks on wich the curtain rods hang are part of a lock and chain.
Curtains and embrasse are made from silk.

Mirrors behind the sconces and parts of the fireplace are parts of a tea-light I took apart.
The picture behind the curtain is just there for the pics, it’s a picture from the book Rococo in Nederland.