Orgue de Barbarie

I'll stick to French for this one. In my opinion it sounds much better than street organ or crank organ.
And, by the way, this one belongs to French gypsies on their way to the Saintes-Marie-de-la-Mer.
In the same spirit than the gypsy vardo... but with different colours.

Much of the design is inspired by a French manufacturer "Le Ludion" who makes a variety of organs and of decorations. It's a street organ working with punch card books. There are other manufacturers like the ancient Limonaire.

I bought the monkey a long time ago, he is from Annie Willis- UK  and  was in my voodoo boat. Now that the boat is dry-docked, he has moved in the gypsy vardo.

 

 

The beginnings...part 1

The beginnings...part 2

 

Blue painting

 

 

 

Final results

 

Minerals, shells and fossils

I had a lot of shells, crystals and minerals in my drawers. I began to collect them a year ago, with my Curiosities Cabinet in mind.
Last week I bought two very nice fossils from https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Lilliputstreasures. They are very finely painted and such a finding for my cabinet.
It was time to organise a new display and to add the few pieces I collected for the room during the summer.

In addition to the fossils - dinosaurs - I set in the layout a turtle shell, an amethyst geode, trays full of shells, antique bones and minerals : a tiny piece of meteorite, dravite, tourmaline and kunzite. There is more to come, I'm waiting for some crystals shaped in pyramids.

 

 

I found an old furniture kit in my shelves, it's a Shenandoah Designs  Tiered Server that I completely forgot. It would be perfect for more minerals display.

 

With some effects for the fun.

 

 

The final results. In front a round bottle full of golden flakes and an old camera, gift from my daughter.

 

 

The fairy shoes

I decided to make more fairy shoes. For different kind of fairies, living in the deep forests or on the sandy beaches, near the water. Not in the water, that's for the mermaids and they don't need shoes.

 

The green mossy slippers wear silk roses and leaves. On the sky blue shoes, there are real shells, laces and silk roses.

A fairy garden

It has been a long time since I posted something on my blog. In my defence, I was in Provence, South of France, during the 2 months of vacations and the house is almost "a miniatures free " zone. Actually, I can't bring my workshop with me and I have a lot of things to do in the house itself...
But I have something very cute to share with you.
Just before the vacations I had a special order on my Etsy shop. A customer asked me to create a single fairy shoe. It was intended as part of a surprise for two little girls.



Here is the shoe. The results were sent back to me in the form of an amazing movie.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKttzdkzWFo&feature=youtu.be

The two girls are so cute and they were so happy. I'm so proud that my little work was so well received ! The fairy bottle in  the second fairy garden was made by Caroline of Pixie Dust Miniatures. I love fairy gardens !!!

Back to the Art Nouveau

I didn't like the bedroom of my house. It wasn't really Art Nouveau, the colour was too yellow and the whole thing was a little bit tacky, so I tore it all off...

 

 



It's much better now. I only kept the door and the floor, and reused the wiring. I changed the colours, a greyish blue and a champagne that are more in the tone of the era. I bought a beautiful wallpaper by Susan Bembridge, called "golden lily." It's a William Morris design with blue lilies. But unfortunately, the room is too small and the print is way too heavy, so my bedroom looked like a candy box. I decided not to use it, but I kept the matching fabric...

 

I made my own design for the new "Iris bedroom"and the window frame that I hadn't done before. Now the walls are ready.

 

 

The electricity and the furniture are back in place, but I still have no bed. The next step will be : me making an Art Nouveau bed.

 

 

That's the house now, still a lot of work to do !

 

 

 

Victorian boots

I'm very proud of this new model of Victorian Boots. I have made the "faux leather"with fabric. Real leather is too thick for tiny boots. The lace-up gave me hard time but the results are nice.

Asian corner

The Asian corner is officially open in the Curiosities Cabinet.

 

I recently added a nicely made statuette in my personnal collection of Buddhist/Hindu artefacts. The beginning of a new corner in my Cabinet, only consisting of religious statues for the moment. The left one (the new one) comes from Seribatu, Patrick Duclou's new Etsy shop. It's a Guanyin, the female bodhisattva of compassion, venerated by East Asian Buddhists. She's riding on a turtle supporting the world on its carapace. The right one represents the same bodhisattva. The one with the elephant head is a Ganesh, a widely worshipped Hindu deity. He is the "Remover of Obstacles". The last one sitting on the right is Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge, music, arts and science.

 

 

I placed them on top of the display cabinet in order to study them.

 

And now, back in the shelves ! Here's a picture of the latest arrangements.