Evalina Rose and her little sister Posy Anna are the main characters of a series of children's stories that I am writing. In this blog I will share the final stages of crafting their half scale house--Honeysuckle Cottage--and the miniature stuff that will make up the settings of their stories.

Friday, August 24, 2012

Beach House

These are some porcelain fairies that I made some time ago.  I am planning on having a "Beach House" giveaway at the end of the summer.  I will include a tiny fairy and a fairy -house made of tiny shells.  The bellow picture is of some printed fabric that I have made for pillows and cloth napkins.  I have made far too many and will include some of them in the giveaway as well.  

I am working on my chimney right now.
  First I cut a piece of foam  roughly into the shape of a chimney, and glued it onto the side  of the house.
 I am experimenting with papiermache to form my bricks because it comes in a much larger amount than Paperclay,and coast less.  So far it seems to work.
 I will cover the whole chimney with Papiermache in stages .   I am encasing the top of the chimney where it meets the roof line so that  the roof will look like  it is cut out and not part of the chimney.
  I made one mistake: I made the first batch too moist and it was hard to mark the bricks, so they are a bit large.  The mermaid tile was stuck on with siliconized acrylic caulk which is what I have used for most of my gluing.  Siliconized  acrylic caulk  is a great adhesive  it's thick and you can paint over it easily.  
 
I have used the same taupe acrylic paint to paint some of my foundation stones and the roof shingles to tie the house together visually.



I have a love hate relation ship with porcelain.  I love the finish that I can get, the colors of china paint, the glaze and the gold.  I love the details and the fact that it shrinks a little when it is fired.  But it is brittle, not easy to model and is very messy plus the physical discomfort that I have mentioned in the past, but  I just adore French and British porcelain figurines and have spent a lot of my past trying to reproduce them.  What should I do?  An ongoing question.  I have been unpacking my  miniatures and found these tucked into a little box.  the largest one is one inch.     
I am experimenting with crochet...I am using Gutermann's 100 cotton and a .5 crochet hook. Also I am testing the Burmilana wool thread, it is the peach and green fiber and it is knit.  I am very happy with the results and if anyone is interested please tell me and I will add a post all about it's qualities to my Knitting page.  I almost forgot...the bumilana works well in #40 silk gauze with a #10 needle.  It is for machine embroidery and comes in many colors.
Annabelle wanted a picture of her puppy to appear on the blog. This is Percy, he was too quick to get a good picture of him

A porcelain garden angel that I sculpted many years ago.  I think that I will keep her where she is, in Gwendolyn and Joseph's bed room.

Have a lovely week,

13 comments:

  1. Aw, Percy look a cheeky little darling. Love your porcelain ladies, beautiful detail. Great work on the crochet!

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  2. Wow you have been busy :) The house looks beautiful. I love the little angels and the other porcelain figures. Percy is so cute. Your crochet and knitting are all beautiful.
    Hugs Maria

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  3. Wow, so much to digest! Thank you for sharing all your tips and experiences with materials. I love to knit but usually mine is too hard, I shall try some different yarns as you suggest. I love all your work, you have so many great ideas and I just adore Percy! Hugs.

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  4. Hallo Lucy,

    Je huis wordt prachtig. Erg knap dat je zelf zulke mooie porceleinen beeldjes kan maken.

    Fijn weekend Xandra

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  5. Hi Lucy! I need time to read all your posts, because they are so fantastic and long stories, but I like to read them :D!!! I love those porcelain figurines, they are gorgeous, fantastic work, Lucy! The house is going to be wonderful too,nice colors. I especially love the Mermaid, because I was born at the seaside ;). I too love to work with tiny shells, but nowadays I am living to far away of my beloved sea :(.
    Greetings, Ilona

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  6. Lucy, I love your little porcelain figures. I made dolls many years ago and used to soft-fire them to clean them in water using surgeon's gloves as the porcelain irritated my hands.

    Love all your other work and the thread for 40 count gauze sounds very interesting.

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  7. Lucy, the little porcelain fairies are adorable. I'd really love to win one. I also like all the crochet work. Very delicate. The Sea shells wreaths are great and the little dog is a cute love.
    Hugs, Drora

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  8. Wow!! There is always so much going on in your mini world. Your porcelain fairies are gorgeous and i'm totally in love with the guardian angel. Everything you make is amazing, And Percy is adoreable :)
    Hugs ♥ Vicky ♥

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  9. Wow! Lucy I am amazed at your talent & your bravery at tackling so many things!
    Your porcelain figures are absolutely beautiful! I too love porcelain miniatures but find most of them very expensive - yours are so very good, you definitely have a flair for it & I adore your crochet work too.
    Your blog is a delight to read! You inspire me!
    Hugs to you! :) x

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  10. Hello Lucy,
    Great job on the chimney. It looks vewery well done. the porcelain might be hard to work with, but your results are just wonderful. give Percy a big hug,
    Giac

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  11. Your house is coming along really nicely, Lucy :)

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  12. Great job. I love your porcelain miniatures!
    Percy is soo cute!
    Greetings
    Melanie

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  13. Greetings dear Lucy,
    Oh, so much to see and absorb on this post. I have just come from Morena's (Dreamartdolls) blog admiring her fine crochet work to fit a 1:12 baby she sculpted. And I see you share a similar talent! Thank you for taking the time to document your progress of all the many wonderful components of the Beach House. You are inspiring me!! much love, Rose

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