For the Birds

The stand for this little birdcage just doesn't have much presence, does it?

So, take a bamboo skewer , a scrap piece of 1/32 diameter dowel and a small cap. Add a scrap of cardboard.

Make a cradle out of Play dough or Fimo by rolling a piece to a 1/34 inch thickness, cutting a strip about 5/32 inch and ... long. The length will depend on the size of the cage.  Lay the cage on its side and see where you wish the cradle to be. Poke holes in either end and in the centre, and form the strip in a semi-circle around a generic paint bottle. Let dry or bake.
Soak the dowel in warm water and shape it around a paint bottle and so that the ends will fit into the holes you made in the cradle strip. Let dry.
Glue the dowel and the cradle to form an oval.
Drill a hole in the cap and insert the skewer. Cut the the other end to the desired height, and insert/glue into middle hole of the cradle.
Attach the birdcage to the top of the dowel oval with a piece of thin wire.
The assemblage should look like this.

You may need to add weight to or widen the base to prevent tipping.
Paint the stand and age by dry brushing.
Here is the finished product.

Escape to Gretna Green

For Regency Romance fans....

Take a Cinderella carriage wedding favour.

Coat it with Gesso inside and out.

Paint black. Do the same with 4 horses..
Dry brush with white.

The coachmen are sculpted from Playdough.
The snow is paper machè. The bushes are sisal rope.

Now for the fun part - who are the occupants inside? Are they in love, or is the lady being kidnapped by a dastardly fortune hunter? You decide.....

This scene is designed to fit inside one of those plastic containers which store fresh greens.

Remembrance Day 2015 - When Duty Calls

In time of war, family and sweethearts bid goodbye to so many young men. 

Being a Dominion of Britain, Canada was automatically brought into the war between Britain and Germany, although there was a choice of how deep the involvement would be.

Canadians of British descent widely supported fighting for "the Motherland", and propaganda encouraged young men to sign up.

French Canadians were considerably less enthusiastic, since they did not have the same genealogical and patriotic connections to Britain. When conscription was passed into law by PM Borden, it met with a great deal of resistance from Quebec and other French speaking communities. Resentment which has bubbled up through the political arena to this day.

Saying goodbye to "your boy", your husband, brother or father is gut-wrenching and so many women did so, enduring the uncertainty and fear for their loved ones while battling on the home front. What is Jenny thinking as she bids farewell to Joe?

How am I going to live without you?

Don't get hurt, don't get hurt, I love you, I love you.. 

How can I keep the family going?

How can I earn a living? 

What will become of us?

Cleaning up

Our group worked on a little cleaning caddy.
There is a tutorial from Joanne Swanson, with printies and a pattern for a dust pan. She suggests using a restaurant jelly container for the caddy.
http://joannswansondiyminiatures.blogspot.ca/2011/05/creative-minds-are-rarely-tidy.html

Trim the edging, then cut a strip of cardboard a little smaller than the length of the container.

Now, score a vertical line about 2 inches up the strip. Fold the strip over and trim the edges.

Measure how tall you wish the handle to be. (approximately 1/2 to 3/4 inches). Score this measurement on either side of the first fold

Fold along score lines.

 The strip should now look like this.

Glue the middle together.

Trim the tabs so they fit inside the jelly container.

Cut holes for the handle.

File the handle smooth and maybe file the corners.

Glue the cardboard to the jelly container. Gesso and paint. I used Patio paint.

Here is my finished caddy. 

The gloves are cut from paper, painted and podged.

Remembrance Day 2014 - Farmerettes

WW1 led to many changes in the social fabric all countries involved. In Canada, the boys were shipped overseas to fight, leaving the women to take over the various chores they left behind.
Before the war, women had few rights - they could not vote or hold political office, only a few worked outside the house,
Only 14 years before the War, the Marriage Property Act made ti possible for a woman to control her own property and wages separately from her spouse, while being jointly responsible for child support. Teaching was the only profession which provided a pension.  See this reference for milestones for women in Canada.
One of the most important supportive tasks which needed to be maintained was in agriculture. While women did train to become nurses and went overseas, others remained at home and assumed the farming duties needed t maintain the civilian population at home and the fighting men overseas. June Hitchcox describes her experience as a member of the Farm Service Force.in Ontario.

Taken from

Library and Archives Canada, “Canada and the First World War: We Were There,” Government of Canada, 7 November 2008

All Fired Up!

Cool! Icicles

Chris in Canada writes:
I have found a way to make some really beautiful 'trashicles' for house eaves. These are crystal clear, and with care can be made to have the bumps, forks and rings of the real thing. All you need is an empty plastic water bottle, scissors for cutting the bottle, wire cutters or any strong cutter for cutting the ends from the finished icicles, two pairs of tweezers/needle- nose pliers and a candle of any sort, as long as the wick and surrounding wax is fairly clean. Unless you want a dirty icicle, that is. ;-)

Step 1- Cut off the neck and bottom of the bottle, then snip out a rectangle about 3/4" X 2". This little bit will be a test piece to determine how much time, heat and pulling you'll need to shape the icicles. If you follow the instructions carefully, you'll have made two icicles, but if something goes wrong, relax. It was just a materials test, not the real thing yet, and the materials you used failed to perform as expected. Just repeat the test until the results are acceptable. Can you tell I volunteer with primary grade ESL students?

Step 2- Light your candle, and holding each end of the strip in the tweezers or pliers, lower the centre of the plastic into the flame bit by bit until the strip starts to look wet, then remove it, trying not to pull it out of shape. This is the furthest into the flame that you can go for good results with your particular plastic. Too much heat and it will liquify rather than stretch, or poof into a tiny self-extinguishing flame at the mid-point of the strip.

Step 3- Next, test how it pulls by lowering the strip into the flame again. When it starts to look wet, begin to pull and stretch the plastic gently and evenly, at the same time moving it slowly up and out of the flame. You'll see and feel it getting very soft when it first looks wet, and then becoming almost liquid. As it comes up out of the flame it will stay soft for a few seconds giving you time to start stretching it into a strand. Work slowly, and when it starts to resist the pulling, simply reheat the strand by passing the whole thing through the flame for a few seconds and pull. Pulling slowly will leave the icicle completely clear, and pulling faster will result in tiny bubbles forming which is a common feature of most very large icicles. Repeat as needed until the strand thins out to almost nothing in the middle and breaks apart into two plain icicle shapes. Cut the icicles off at any length you want, possibly leaving a bit of the strip attached (then bent at a 90 degree angle with reheating) as a secure base for the glue if you are making thicker or longer icicles. Smaller icicles cut flat across can be attached with a dab of SuperGlue or simmilar.

Now you can make the basic tapered shape, try twisting the strip as you pull to create bends and twists, or make a forked shape. Cut a lengthwise slit about 1/4" long starting at one end of the strip. Hold the uncut edge in tweezers/pliers and working slowly, heat the cut end using the other tool to pull alternate halves of the end into separate strands. Let cool until firm (10-12 seconds), hold the icicle in tweezers just at the point where the forked section joins the main icicle, then heat and pull the rest of the shape. For rings, make a basic shape. Place the tweezers/pliers where the first ring will be, heat the icicle right above the pliers and give a little tug followed by an immediate push, being careful not to squeeze the tweezers/pliers. Let cool and repeat along the icicle as desired.

WARNING: DO NOT ATTEMPT TO SPRAY THESE WITH SEALER, FAKE SNOW OR GLITTER ETC... DITTO FOR NAIL POLISH AND ENAMELS. ANYTHING OTHER THAN WATER-BASED PRODUCTS WILL CAUSE PERMANENT DAMAGE TO ALL YOUR HARD WORK.

Happy Trashcicling.