Done barking

Woof !

First off I have to say that this was the most difficult photo I've ever tried to take so I apologize for the picture. It had to go against a black background and although I have dark wood floors, black granite counter and dark wood furniture but it is all shiny which made it insanely hard to get a good picture. These are the best out of about 80 shots lol.

If you click the photos then click again you should be able to see the detail better.

All of the bark has been painted on to the branches then etched with a pin.

You can see that the bottom parts are brown.

There are knots in the bark but the camera isn't picking them up well at all :-(

There will be numerous stages of painting. This stage is the first wash of very dark brown....much darker than it appears in the photos. It gets painted on then wiped off before it dries. This will leave the darkest color deep in the crevices and will add dimension to the piece.

Once that is finished I will add further layers of different colors of paint to get the final effect. This is the time consuming but one of the most fun parts for me as this is where it really comes alive :-)

Yet again

England fails to bear Germany.....our day has to come soon. Oh well, we have another 4 years to get it right and learn how to play as a team !

Commiserations to the American team...you fought a tough fight.


I am still busy working on my big project....am applying the bark at the moment which is messy and time consuming.


In the meantime, here are a couple of great new blogs to go check out.

Michelle pointed me in the direction of this one.....check out Susan's plants. Amazing, especially the wisteria.


http://susantrodden.blogspot.com


And Kim, over at Twice Remembered isn't new to blogging at all but is new to miniatures. She recently scored a fantastic deal on a dollhouse on Craigslist. Her dream farmhouse....albeit 12th scale. I hope she realizes how addicting this hobby can be :-)


http://twiceremembered.blogspot.com


Oh well, back to work. Hopefully I'll be back with more piccies soon.

Go boys !!!

Wow.....What a morning... 2 great matches, 2 great results and lots of leaves cut lol

As an English girl living in the US my loyalties are torn. Of course I'd love England to go through but I also want to see USA advance as well

I'd particularly love to see the US go further if for no other reason than the media might start paying attention. I appreciate soccer isn't huge in the US, but the American team are taking on, and doing very well, against some of the worlds best teams.

I cannot think of another popular US sport that is played on such a global scale and am disappointed in the coverage and general media support for the US team.

Anyhow, 2 more matches this afternoon and we'll see who we both play next !

Thank goodness I can work while I am watching them play :-)

Blocking unwanted followers

My dear friends.....for some reason I am unable to leave comments on blogs at the mo. I get the comment box but not the word verification bit so it won't go through grrr.

Anyhow, I have been reading all your blogs and see our little problem has reared it's ugly head again.

Some of you are mentioning you are unable to block followers and I wanted to let you know that you can.

Go to your dashboard and by your blog title you'll see the number of followers. On here you will find a list of all who follow you. Click on the offending follower and you'll get an option to block them.

Nice and simple :-)

Of course this won't stop a person from reading your blog but it will send a clear message that you do not want them there. Maybe.... possibly.... perhaps.... if enough people do it then the message will be loud and clear.

As for my views on it...well it is probably best I don't say anything yet.

However, I will say that although I have an extremely long fuse, you do not want to be the target of my annoyance when the bomb goes off.

I will not stop posting my work in progress nor will I stop selling. Sorry but you just aren't worth that much to me.

All I have to say to you is that if you want to spend almost 50 hours twisting wire and getting the callouses and cuts that come with it the go ahead.

Then, and only then, feel free to come back and tell me my work isn't worth 150 quid !!!


I would like to point out that I personally have not had my work copied but friends of mine have. No one has told me personally my work isn't worth a higher price. However, the idea that people shouldn't have to pay higher prices for hand crafted, well made, original, one of a kind, miniatures really sticks in my gullet and to use this as a selling point for cheap knock off copies is just wrong in my book.

Remember....You get what you pay for !

What do you get.....

If you take 58 meters of wire, 1 1/2 rolls of floral tape, 16 world cup soccer matches and 11 episodes of Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares.

 

Hello friends

......remember me :-)

I have been so busy I've no had chance to keep up with reading any blogs let alone post anything.

I am still busy but sometimes we just have to make time huh :-)

If someone had told me a few years back that I'd be living in California , making crazy plants for a living I'd have laughed my head off...funny how life turns out.


Anyhow, here are some photos of the plants I've been busy with and that have not been shown on here before. Some of you will recognize them :-)

Click on the pics to make them bigger.

Time to get back to work...I am about to make the largest miniature I've ever done :-) I am very excited about this one but likely won't have any pics for some time.



I need to figure out a way to work on the couch in front of the TV...the world cup starts this week...Go England !!!