A little time

In my bid to find some free time and a little head space, I’m ring-fencing Wednesday afternoons and blocking them out in the diary. This will be a few hours respite each week for me to do something just for fun, not for profit, absolutely non-business related, and purely for my own amusement. It’s intended to give me a bit of space so that I don’t feel ‘on’ all the time. Some weeks it might be for painting or drawing, some weeks it might be for making things, some weeks it might just be quiet reading time.

In a previous life, nearly thirty years ago, I began making 1/12th scale miniatures. Recently I’ve found myself wanting to return to making little things, and after our house move I’d like to create a twelfth-scale model of my new work room. A psychologist might suggest that immersing yourself in a tiny world over which you have complete control is a perfectly natural response to the uncertainties of real life. Maybe. I just really like tiny things.

I began this little enterprise over Christmas, when I took a week off. I began by having a go at recreating this real-life blanket box:

real life blanket box

Bought many years ago for my first home – originally cheap orange-pine veneer, which I collaged with some vintage magazine pages. I covered the top in thick foam and stapled the fabric on.

My first attempt at recreating it in 1/12th scale was ok but I thought the fabric could be better:

tiny blanket box with little magazines

For the first attempt above I coloured the fabric with felt tips, which turned out to be a bit too bright in this scale. I had another go, with watercolours and a finer fabric:

second attempt, better

The model blanket box holds fabrics, unlike its real-life counterpart:

that inner lid needs glueing down better!

And then I had a go at recreating my vintage 1960s sewing basket:

real life 1960s yellow sewing basket

And this is how that turned out:

1/12th scale sewing basket

I made the box itself out of cardboard, and created the wicker effect by glueing on a tiny piece of weaving with perle 12 cotton thread. I’ve painted the woven outer and lined the insides with yellow silk. The inner top is slightly padded, as with the real version. The handle is a pipe cleaner wrapped with perle 12 thread and poked through the sides so that it can swing up and down.

Yesterday I had a little play creating its contents.

1/12th sewing basket contents

I photographed some full-size needle packets and my tin of pins, then shrank the photos on Procreate to print them at scale. The little red pincushion is a scrap of dyed silk cocoon stuffed with a tiny ball of quilt batting. The tape measure is a bit of narrow silk ribbon, and the thread spools are just fine thread wound round short sections of cocktail sticks – technically slightly out of scale, but I don’t think it matters too much. The scissors and spectacles were bought years ago, carefully saved and put away after selling my dolls house in 2012. I’ve painted the spectacles silver (they were bright brassy gold) and I really need to figure out how to get lenses in them.

And then of course I needed my faithful birdie in miniature. I found a perfect tiny bird (made by Chik Sculptures on Etsy), painted it gold and added a tiny pincushion and googly eyes. Real life birdie is a little bemused, but it was such fun to make.

big bird, little bird

I enjoy the challenge of figuring out how to recreate something in a smaller scale, using what I’ve got. After a little time out yesterday I’m also feeling suitably refreshed and ready to dive back into real life, which today means more thread winding. Enjoy the rest of your week and have a lovely weekend 🙂

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Author: Karen

Textile and mixed media artist

31 thoughts on “A little time”

  2. Nice product placement for Uppercase magazine! They should pay you a bit for that!! 😉

    1. ha, they were kind enough to feature my work a while ago so I’m just returning the favour 🙂

  3. Your miniatures are so much fun — and there’s a lot of successful problem solving going one here, too, which I hope gives your brain space from real life concerns. I laughed in recognition of your Wednesday afternoon decision. I was in university long ago at a time when there were no lectures or labs on Wed afternoon — it was reserved for sports! Healthy body, healthy mind and all that. (Although we art students generally found ourselves either in the library or a tea shop.) A mid-week break is just the thing. And Birdie has a wee chick. Lovely.

    1. ha, yes, the Wednesday afternoon is a recollection of my own university days too – a midweek breather. And yes, this has provided a wide range of problem-solving issues, dexterity, concentration and general creative thinking. Perfect! 😍

    1. aha! thanks so much – I’ll have a look. In the years between making miniatures 20 years ago and now, there have been all kinds of innovations and new products.

  6. Amazing work Karen!
    My favorites are the John James needle packs 💙 and the tiny bird pin cushion 💙
    👏🏼

    1. thanks so much, Pam. Discovering that Procreate can shrink images to any scale was a moment of pure delight 😍

      1. I’ve been wanting to learn how to do procreate, but keep putting it off doing quilting instead… never excited to do computer type stuff 😬

        1. I know what you mean! I’m very much a beginner but it’s a great programme and very useful for all kinds of things. It does take time to practice though.

  7. Your attention to tiny details is amazing. I do love dolls houses! Such lovely work.

    1. thanks so much, Elaine. I love looking at other people’s dolls houses. I’d love to design and build my own one day, though goodness knows where I’ll find the time for that 🙂

    1. ha, that’s very kind. There are hundreds of things I can’t do and plenty more that I don’t do at all well 😆

  11. What a delightful post today Karen, and such a good idea to take time out from life’s “everydayness”! Your miniatures are very challenging and there must be a sense of achievement after completing them. Love them all but especially the little bird. So sweet!

    1. thanks so much Robin. I do enjoy a challenge and it’s very satisfying (as well as a nice surprise) when something works out. The bird has been beautifully made by Chik – I just had to paint it and figure out how to stick a pincushion to it. I really enjoyed a little time out too.

    1. ha, thanks so much. I prevaricated about sharing this because it’s so different from what I normally do, and the Almighty Algorithm exhorts consistency lest all your followers desert en masse… But then I figured why not. The blog is always just me being me and sometimes that means going off-piste to explore something a little out of the ordinary. So glad you liked it. Tweezers and magnifying glass are immensely helpful for not getting horribly tangled, btw 🙂

  15. I love your miniatures especially the wee bird pincushion! I, too, have been yearning for some unstructured creating time. Between the holidays and our 22year old son moving back home, I’m feeling socially spent. I’ve decided to dedicate Thursday afternoons to my own solo quiet pursuits—I can’t wait to see what happens!💜

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