One Rug Leads to Another.....

I carved on the door for a while this morning, until I couldn't see straight. The only thing wrong with working in my workroom is the lighting. It is the darkest room in the house. Had I known this when we moved in, I would have probably traded with April. I was a mean mom and made her take the larger bedroom of the two. It has a bay window and a lot of light.

Anyway, after I couldn't see straight I went on to work on the rug that I printed from the net onto #22 hardanger cloth a couple of months ago. This is the original rug that I ran through the printer. The next photo is the resultant print. It is working pretty well. I have changed the colors a bit, but I'm staying true to the design other than that.

I haven't gotten too far. You have to remember that I am working on about 20 other rugs at the same time. Remember the six year old that rules my actions.... And yes, I dripped some water on the center of it. Oops. Thank goodness it wasn't on the part with the complicated design!

You know that Tessie can't keep her nose out of what I am doing. She now has the notion that when she "helps" with a project she will automatically become partial owner of said project. She did three x's before I took the needle away from her. They were all over 3 threads and had to be redone.

She says that this one would look good in her new house....... I repeat"Tessie, don't hold your breath!".

I had to talk her into showing you the edge of the rug that she was hiding. She still hid the edge where I wrote the number of stitches it will take to complete the rug. I don't think that she has a lot of faith that I will stick to it long enough to finish 15,386 stitches.... I will do it. It just won't be this week.

When I got tired of doing that, I opened PatternMaker for cross stitch and did this. I thought that you might like something to do this afternoon. I purposely didn't put in a background color. It makes the pattern easier to read and gives you the option of making it match your decor. The colors in the design are blue green yellow and rose. That's your choice too. Don't forget to poke the picture to make the pattern bigger.

Please remember that this is for personal use, not resale, and there is a copyright. Have fun with it. If you do it, I would love to see.

Now, I have to go see how tangled Tessie is in the floss.

See you tomorrow.

Welcome!

I have two new followers. They are Matilde of Unicorniominis http://unicorniominis.blogspot.com/ and caboose_970. Matilde has lots of goodies to look at on her blog. I can't find any information on caboose_97o. Anyway, welcome to the party, both of you!

Back At It!

This morning I dragged Tessie's cottage back to the living room where it belongs. She went kicking, screaming and under vigorous protest! Unfortunately for her, I'm bigger than she is.

I needed the table to work on the door of the Clockwork cottage. I set up my magnifying lamp and got out my Exacto and rifler files and went to work. I could hear mumbling and grumbling coming from the other room. I ignored it.

I can definitely tell the difference between the work that I did on the wood carving before new glasses and after. Here's the before. I was carving way to deep on the preliminary cuts. Probably because I couldn't see how deep or sharp I was going into the wood. I am hoping that I will be able to fix this without starting over. It would be a shame to lose all of that work.

Here's another area that I did after glasses. The cuts are much more precise and I have a lot more control over what I am doing. These pieces still have a long way to go so I won't bore you with the details. It will take me at least a couple of days to get where I want to go with this.

By the way, this will be the inside of the door. I am going to do a rather plain plank door on the other side. I am too lazy to do both sides.

I found a piece of terracotta tile flooring that I did a couple of years ago that might work for the kitchen. I laid it in there this morning. It is smaller by about an inch, but I think that I can fudge a bit and do some floor based shelves or counters to cover the difference.

I am also still trying to think of a way to disguise the dumbwaiter. I would still like to have it. I just don't want it to show as a dumbwaiter in the kitchen.

I went into the bedroom to get some emery boards. As I came back I heard thump, thump, thump, mumble, mumble. I looked into the kitchen. There was Tessie. She managed to get back into the cottage and had the cappuccino machine with her.

She was stomping around the kitchen with a protest sign. I first asked her how she got in. She said that caterpillar fur, rusty nails and ant whiskers make a very powerful potion when mixed with a couple of other secret ingredients. I didn't ask what the secret ingredients were. I don't think that I want to know.....

I asked what the sign was for. She replied"It's for the unfairness of Zar getting a bigger and better house than I have!" I WANT THE MAGNOLIA! And I still think it's an ugly name! It will be called Spiderwort Manor when I move in." I had to laugh. She has a lot of nerve. She is now under the impression that I should immediately stop work on the Clockwork cottage and start the Magnolia!

I told her "Don't hold your breath, Tessie!" She instantly drew in a deep breath and held it. That lasted about thirty seconds. Then she sat down on the kitchen floor and started drinking her cappuccino. Heaven help me. I now have a hyperactive, caffeine fueled witch on my hands. Gotta go.

See you tomorrow.

Location! Location! Location!

Isn't that what they always say that the first three rules of having a house are? Well, I relocated until I was blue in the face this morning.

I started out with the idea of moving three of the huge bookcases in the workroom to make room for the dollhouse worktable along the right wall as you enter the room.

First I started in the opposite corner and rotated the corner bookcase to the right. It took me over an hour. I removed all of the contents because the bookcase is made of very heavy MDF and it's impossible for two men and a boy to move with contents. Without them it is still pretty close to impossible for me to move. That's with sliders.

It would have been a lot easier without Mookie trying to help. He kept insisting that it would move easier with him sitting on the third shelf. It wasn't......

Next, I moved the desk about 3" to the left so that the matching bookcase with drawers would fit in that corner. That's when the idea struck to not move the bookcases.

As you can see from the photo, I came up with an easier solution than moving two more bookcases. I decided, for the time being, the Clockwork Cottage is going to live in the center of the room. I made sure that I had plenty of clearance on all sides to work.

After I moved that out of the family room, I had an empty corner. I decided to wrestle the round table and the Mystery House through the computer room doorway. The table is another impossible piece. It has to go around a corner in the doorway to get out. Anyway, this is where it landed.
I'm not sure that I like the way that the house blocks some of the typesetter's drawers. It is going to have to do for now. At least the hole is filled. Now there is a whole new hole in the corner of the computer room......

Zar is filling the time whilst I am moving his stuff around with a visit to the "maid".....I am still not sure about her background. She seems very happy to see him.

I went back to the workroom to do more. There were some changes made. My small worktable is now sitting beside the big one. Tessie has witched her house to that location. Location! Location! She says that she wants to keep an eye on what I am doing to Balthazar's cottage. I think she is really still trying to find a way to get back in.


There she sits, innocently drinking her fruit punch and chatting away with Spike. Somehow I don't quite trust her......She is definitely up to something.

See you tomorrow. Maybe by then I will know the rest of the story.

Welcome!

I have two new followers. They are Carol and Sinem Yildirim. I have no information on either of them. I am still happy to have them here. Welcome to the party, both of you!

Contemplating Change.....

Yesterday, after I left you, I went back and made a table to match the chairs. It was dead easy! I looked around for two shapes that were the same size to make the top and bottom of the table. I didn't want to bother cutting wood so I found a couple of oval mirrors that would work. I'm sorry about the fuzzy photo of the mirror backs. I figured that it was good enough to show you that I marked both mirrors in the same spot so that I could line up the canvas, top and bottom.

I put a piece of canvas around one of them with an overlap of 1/4" added. I cut the canvas that measurement by 2". That was the height that I wanted the table. I used fast grab glue to glue the canvas around one of the mirrors(starting at the mark) face up. I ran the glue down to within one inch of the bottom. Let it dry. Then with the mirror face up on the table I put glue on the last line of holes on the bottom of the canvas and fitted it over that mirror. Thus both mirrors were facing up. I let those dry and then ran 4 courses of linen cord around the top and bottom.

Tessie and Spike are enjoying fruit punch in front of her cottage. Please notice that Tessie was kind enough to let Spike have the larger chair. She says that it is a man's chair and quite unladylike to sit in.

On to other things for today. It is the time of year that always gets me to thinking about moving furniture around. I think it's a spring cleaning thing. I cleaned out the laundry closet today and am working on my closet as well. It's time to bring out summer.

While I was cleaning, I was thinking that I might change my workroom around a bit to make room for the table with the Clockwork Cottage in there. I think that I can do it.......We shall see.

As always happens with me, the chain of thought kept going. While I was thinking of moving the Clockwork Cottage I started thinking of things that I want to do to it. Suddenly it hit me! It was one of those "Duh!" moments. I was thinking about finishing the dumbwaiter. It is almost done. Then it hit me. Dumbwaiter from kitchen to "secret room"??? What kind of a secret would it be if there is a dumbwaiter in the kitchen that goes up and there is no visible corresponding space upstairs? There would be no secret! It would be like having a sign on the outside of it, pointing up and saying "Secret room this way!"

I hate to eliminate it because I am going to have to patch the floor/ceiling, but I do think that it is a necessary evil. Zar agrees. He says that he will sacrifice carrying his own food and drink up the stairs and through the secret door. He doesn't want the maid messing about in his territory.

I am going to quit thinking before this chain of thought gets me into more trouble. Back to moving furniture.

See you tomorrow.

You Asked For It!

Not all of you asked for it, but Kat did. I think that she has been taking wheedling lessons from Tessie. She asked so nicely that I decided to make another chair and document it so that if anyone wants to try it, they can. This is going to be a long one. Here we go.

You will need:
Quarter inch thick balsa wood at least 2 1/4" square.

A piece of interlock canvas about 8"x8". Please don't try this with regular canvas. It will ravel and you will be very unhappy.

A piece of bonded batting about 3"X6". I use a double thickness.

One piece of fabric about 4" square to cover the seat.

Some Linen cord to match the canvas. You could substitute something else for this, but the linen cord is available almost anywhere and is not expensive. Use what you have if you have something that you like the looks of. Be sure to use natural material though. It is much easier to work with and glue than synthetics.

You will also need white glue. I used fast grab. You will need sharp scissors, pins and a clothespin or two.

Tessie and Spike are here to help. Just ignore them and maybe they will go away.

The only real pattern that you need is the seat. As you can see from the photo, I cut it from 1/4" balsa. I sanded the corners to a bit rounder shape so that the stiff canvas would curve around with more ease.

Cut a strip of interlock canvas that is 1 1/2"x 8" to go around the bottom as the skirt. Then you will cut another piece that is 3" x 5 1/4" for the arms and back. Cut slits in from the edge 1 3/8". These will be cut straight down from the top to 1 1/4" from the bottom. Trim off all of the little threads that stick out to make a smooth edge on the slit.(see photo) Don't cut anything off of the arms yet. Fold the back in half and use your glue bottle or something similar to draw a curve on each side of the back piece. Cut this off.

Fold down the arms straight across. The make a second fold 7 holes out from the front edge slanting back to nothing at where the arm meets the back. It should look like the photo with my hand holding it.

Next cut two layers of the bonded batting to fit the seat. Use a dab of glue to affix these to the seat. You don't need much. Now lay the seat, batting side down, on the wrong side of the fabric. Put glue on the inside corners of the fabric and a line of glue on the bottom front and back of the wood. Pull the fabric around the front and back and glue it down. Wrap the corners as if you were wrapping a package. The glue should hold the corners in and then you can glue the sides to the back. You should have a smooth top. Don't worry if the sides and bottom aren't perfect. They will be covered by the canvas.

That's the next step. Put glue around the edges of the seat and glue the 8" strip around it, lining up the top edge of the canvas with the top edge of the wood. Run glue down the center back and overlap the canvas. It should be no more than a quarter inch overlap. If it's more, trim it.

Don't let the dog get under the seat while the glue is drying. Tessie might pull off the clothespin and trap him!

After that dries, wrap your back and arms piece around to check for fit. Glue it around making sure that it is centered on the back and the arms are even. Here you see it glued and the arms being trimmed. The closer arm is already trimmed and the far one is waiting to be trimmed. The front edge of the arm should only be trimmed on the outside. Not the top or inside. Now glue the bottom edge and the back edge to the side of the chair and pin in position to dry.


Run a bead of glue around the back edge first. I put on 4 courses of linen thread on the edge and then another 3 about a half inch in all the way around the back.

Then I ran 4 threads around the arms. Next around the top edge of the seat and last around the bottom of the chair. Let it dry. Sit back and enjoy. Maybe tomorrow I will do a matching table.

Your dog sitting on it will do no harm. Most mini dogs don't shed much.

Notice......Tessie got her way in the end. She said that if she sat in the smaller chair no one would be able to see the detail. Whereas Spike would let people see everything.

Still no beach building. I think that I am going to quickly put these in a room box so that she will forget about the sand.

See you tomorrow.

One Thing Leads to Another.....

This morning I hit a garage sale on the way home and bought this for 4.00..... The last sewing chest like this that I saw at the antique mall was 40.00. I didn't buy that one. How could I pass this one up? The legs were just a little wobbly, but tightening the screws did the trick. When I turned it upside down I found "Poland" printed on the bottom. It was probably meant to be. Walter's grandmother was from Poland and she worked as a seamstress!

Anyway, that got me to thinking about how they used to do things and how we are slowly coming around to the same ideas once again.

One of my favorite sayings has always been the old Pennsylvania Dutch one that goes "Use it up. Wear it out. Make it do or do without." From that, the thought process turned to what I was going to do today in miniature.

I went into the clean workroom and rummaged around a bit. I remembered the French blog from the other day. I knew that I didn't have any perforated paper, but I did have #14 plastic canvas. It's kind of the modern version. I took some out and started cutting. It worked. It was a bit thicker than the paper and had to be cut with an exacto. That lead to trying the same thing on some interlock linen needlepoint canvas that I bought for less than nothing on sale years ago. I didn't like working with it much because it was so rough on my hands. It also worked.


OK. So I proved that it could be done. No further need to mess with that. I did have a lot of the canvas and it seemed ashamed not to do something with it.

Next I dug around and found an old balsa seat form for a chair. Hmmmmmm.......Chair seat? Linen canvas? Logic dictated that I try to make a chair. A beach chair came to mind.

I padded and upholstered the seat. Then I cut a strip of canvas at chair height.(1 1/2") I glued that around the edge of the seat with a seam at the back that overlapped about a quarter of an inch.

I took another piece of canvas and wrapped it around the chair on the back and sides and cut it to size. Then I rounded the back and left the sides in a long strip. First I curled the flaps for arms. They didn't quite look right. I did a sharp fold. That was better. Then I folded it again. This time I formed a triangle on the top and the front stuck out some. I cut that part off even with the inside of the chair arm. It needed an edge. I got out some linen cord and glued a strip around the back and around the front of the arms. I wrapped and glued the same cord around the seat four times. It needed more, so I did the same around the bottom and around the edges of the arms and back. It looked kind of like a resort deck chair.

When I was finished, Spike claimed it as his. Tessie wasn't fast enough for once. He used his growler voice to let her know that he wanted it. Knowing how she does things, I am sure that she will talk him out of it. She turned around to me and crooned......"If we only had a beach......." It was kind of to the tune of "If I only had a brain."

I am NOT going to build a beach. No matter how much she wheedles and whines!


See you tomorrow.

Three Day Vacation.......

No.I'm not going anywhere. The vacation part is no cooking and very little cleaning. Walter is playing golf the next three days and when he does that, he usually likes to bring home take out. Who am I to argue?

So this morning, what did I do? I spent a couple of hours in the back yard raking and pruning. We have a small yard, but sometimes it gets to looking like a jungle. I have a plot that is about six by nine feet that is sectioned off to feed the birds and squirrels. That had to be cleaned and some bushes had to be trimmed so that I could get to the hose. What vacation?

Rewind. Start again. Vacation. I decided to sit and do needlework for a while........Guess who showed up to help? Tessie announced that she didn't like the afghan in her cottage since it was a "hand me down" and not made specifically for her. "Teach me to crochet and I'll do it myself.".......Need I say that this was not the best idea in the world? In the first place, the hook on a #14 is small enough for her to handle, but the handle is about as tall as she is. I will give her credit. She got about 10 chains done before she gave that up as a lost cause. All the while "Spike the Stoic" stood by watching.

She was sitting in one of my embroidery boxes to work on the crocheting. She noticed that she was surrounded by all kinds of pretty colors and she was perched on a pile of hardanger fabric. One of the pieces was a rug that I started a couple of days ago. No pattern. Just the rug. She started working on that. All the while she whined and moaned about the canvas being soooooo heavy and the needle was tooooo big.

That gave me an idea. I have been working on some fancy towel sets. It stood to reason that she could handle those.

I threaded a #12 between needle. They are the smallest, shortest needles that I have. She settled down on one of my largest thread spools and put her feet up on a smaller one. Then she shouted at me for not moving a "seat" for Spike.

She really does catch onto new things quickly when she wants to. The last time I saw her she was humming to herself and happily stitching. She has almost finished the first towel. Maybe she has found her niche......Well at least for the next 20 minutes.... I am going to go try to get something done before she switches gears.

See you tomorrow.

Come On In!

I have a new follower this morning. Her name is Angela. She is a writer and an artist. She has two blogs. Her first one is Dreamspace. http://dreamspace212.blogspot.com/ From there you can get to her other one. Go take a look. Welcome Angela.

Mirror, Mirror On the Wall....

I had one of those six year old wake up calls this morning. I was in the mood to do something with clay. Remember when you were in the first grade and there was nothing like a new package of clay to play with. No one else had used it and it wasn't all wadded into a grey lump. I love new clay right out of the package. I don't, however, like kneading poly clay for hours to get it soft enough to work with.

I went to the trouble of getting out and setting up the pasta machine. I think that is one reason that I don't do more poly clay. I dislike all of the setting up and getting ready. Anyway, I dragged it to the kitchen and clamped it to the counter. I selected gold Premo and started cranking. Admittedly it is a lot faster with the pasta machine, but I still don't like doing that part. No instant gratification there. It seems like the gold Primo is stiffer than some of the other clays.

After all the fuss of getting it ready, I went and found my drawer of mirrors. I wanted to do a couple frames for them. When I opened it, I found that I had saved a round piece of clear glass about 3 " across for some unknown reason. I guess this was the reason.....Remember I am the one that never throws anything away unless influenced by brute force applied by someone else.

Here you see the start. I used the clay gun to make 1/4" flat strips to go around the edge of the glass. While I was at it, I also used it on two oval mirrors.

I could see right from the start that the gold Primo was not going to be gold enough. It looks more yellow ochre than gold. I extruded two different sizes of worms through the clay gun and started doing some spirals on the edge of the glass. I put larger diameter coils on first and then filled in with smaller ones and tiny balls here and there.

I didn't have a pattern. I saw this technique done on Altoid tins on Polymer Clay Central. I have been using it a couple of years now.

After filling in the whole frame, I used some of the fine gold powder that you can buy in the scrapbook section of Michael's. I applied it with a small, soft brush. Here you can see the contrast between the regular clay(dull) and the part that has been dusted(shiny). I think that the powder is a vast improvement.It needs to be applied before baking if you want it to stick.

I think that the clear glass piece will either be a table top or maybe a window in a fantasy scene somewhere.

As for the mirrors, I did one with a pretty traditional frame. It is simply strands of poly clay wrapped around the mirror atop the base piece. I took two of the smaller diameter pieces and twisted them into a rope for the straps all around the mirror. Then I rolled small balls and placed them between the ropes and made sure that they would stay in place by poking the center with the end of a bamboo skewer. I know that they don't look it in the photo, but the two mirrors are exactly the same size and shape. It's all in how you make the frame.

Tessie arrived just as I was finishing the preparation for the oven. She immediately grabbed the jar of gold powder and the paint brush. "More gold! Everything needs MORE GOLD!!!". I took the paint brush and the jar away from her. I had visions of the outside of her cottage all in gold. When she says "everything" she means EVERYTHING! I am going to have to go restrain her now.

See you tomorrow.

Welcome!

This morning I woke up to another new follower. Her name is Deborah and her blog is Deborah's Daily Dish. http://dlsarmywife.blogspot.com/ She is just starting in minis and does wonderful poly clay food. Go take a look. Welcome to the party Deborah!

Why Did I Do That???

This morning I hit the floor running and started cleaning out the dreaded laundry basket in the workroom. That was the last of the stuff that I still had to put away. Did I mention that there was another smaller basket on top of that one. I thought not. There was.

Piece by piece I evaluated the things that were left and trotted around the room(and out into the rest of the house) putting things in their proper places. It was good exercise, if nothing else. Here is proof of finishing.....Yes. Both basket are(were) totally empty! That last parenthesised word is a clue as to what happened next.

I went out for a well deserved break and a bottle of water. When I came back, I heard whispers and soft woofs coming from the direction of the baskets.... Yup. Tessie found them.

I listened in and the gist of the conversation was Tessie explaining to Spike that they could use the smaller basket to gather things for her "new house" and store them out of site.... Spike replied with a reluctant "Woof!". I think that he knows that she is going to get him into trouble once again.

The plan was to get everything into the basket and then witch the whole thing under the skirt of the table in the family room. Nobody would ever look under there. I think that she may be more than a bit delusional at times. My paint and my sewing things are both in the drawers under there.

I went back out and had a go at cleaning up the kitchen from breakfast and then came back in. This is what I saw. One of my cabriole legged tables was being dragged into the basket. I finally couldn't stand it. I asked why she didn't just witch it into the basket. Her answer? "Oh! What a good idea! Thanks Casey!".

Do you think that was a well thought out trap to get permission to take the stuff or could she be innocent enough that she just didn't think of witching the stuff that she wanted to grab? I hate to say it, but I think that I was duped once again. I left the room scratching my head in wonder at her cunning.

Before I leave you, I have a favorite French blog that has a great idea that could be adapted to mini work. I love the perforated paper borders that are shown on this entry. They would make great room borders. Some of the all over patterns I could see as paneling. Go take a look and come up with some more ideas. http://sakartonn.over-blog.com/article-30308920.html If you dig around in this blog, you will see all kinds of neat ideas.

See you tomorrow.

Lighten' Up!!!

Those were the very words that Tessie responded with this morning when I accused her of being a thief. She not only took the chandelier that was meant for the dining room of the Clockwork Cottage, but she also took the candle tree that was going in the master bedroom and one of the wall lights that was going elsewhere in the cottage. I have proof!

Here she is with said chandelier. She also stole some of my E-6000 to hang it with. There is no hook in the ceiling so she had to resort to stick um. Don't tell her I said so, but I quite like it with the pilfered Reutter's golden tea set. Oh! And it also goes quite well with the mismatched Victorian key plate that she grabbed for the door.

I guess that I can always make another chandelier. But then she witched herself upstairs and I followed. She has the candle tree by the side of the bed, perilously close to the curtains. She says that she needs it to read in bed. That's about all I have seen her do in that bed. I am suspicious that she never sleeps. How else would she have time to do all of the sneaky things that she does when I am not looking?

At least that one will be easy to take back. E-6000 is not easy to remove.......The chandelier may have a home where it is. I think that she outfoxed herself on that one though. If she ever really does move she is going to have trouble getting it off the ceiling.

Now, about that wall sconce. How she even found it, I have no idea. It was in a box of lamp parts. Half weren't even lamp like. They were just a bunch of wires and bulbs. She must have dug through the mess to find the one finished light.

What she is going to do with this one is any body's guess. She doesn't have electricity. I guess she thinks that she can light it by magic......

Maybe it's just the bug beer that she is drinking that is fueling her imagination and the light. It's kind of hard to see in the photo. She propped it up on the back of the table and leaned it against the wall. Then she witched the frog to a frozen state to keep it there. No frogs were harmed in the making of this blog. He will be back to normal as soon as she finds some other way to prop up the lamp.

I guess that I should go and try to make more lamps and chandeliers to replace the ones that she swiped. The only problem is, how do I keep her from taking the next ones that I make?

See you tomorrow.

I WANT THE MAGNOLIA!!!

No way. No how am I starting another dollhouse! I was working on a Chrysnbon pot belly stove for the workroom of the Clockwork Cottage this morning. When I looked up at the directions it was because there was the rustling of paper, not because I needed them. This is another of the kits that I have put together several times before.

What I saw was Tessie with her dragon friend. She witched his log into the workroom so that she could watch what I was doing. Her first question of the day was"Why aren't you building MY Magnolia? By the way, I don't like the name at all." I basically told her and the dragon that she rode in on, to buzz off. That didn't work.

Next question....."Is the stove for me? I do get cold, you know.?" I explained that it was for the workroom in the cottage. "Hmmmmm.....But it could be for me..." No Tessie. Not everything will fit in your cottage. That was the wrong answer. A long tirade followed. "I NEED A LARGER HOUSE! My cottage is tooooo smalllllll!" It went on and on. It was all either shouted, or whined.

I pretty much ignored her and kept building. I finished in about a half an hour and of course, she had to try it out. Sometimes she reminds me of "Goldilocks". The chair was too hard. The stove too warm and the little stool hurt her feet. I kept ignoring her.

Balthazar stopped in to try it out. He declared all of it just right.

While he was sitting in the chair, Tessie fussed around and then all of a sudden she glanced above her head. She looked at Zar and got a wicked grin on her face. She said, and I quote"A manly man like yourself wouldn't want this silly,sparkly chandelier in your house, would you?". Zar looked up and told her "No way!" He is so gullible. Manly man? Two words was all it took.

Two minutes later, without asking me, she had the chandelier down. And I heard her say as they faded from sight......."No new house? MY CHANDELIER!!!!". I can't win!

See you tomorrow!

Continuing the Chandelier Saga

As promised yesterday, here's the rest of the story. When I last was here, we had the body of the lamp together. The next step is putting the swags around the bottom. Again, you will have to decide on how many beads look good on your lamp. I used 5 seed beads, a larger crystal, and five more seed beads in each one.

I pulled the double wire down through the hole that the top to bottom swag went into from the top. That gave me a starting point. Then I threaded the beads on the wire and brought the wire up through the corresponding hole to the left. I wrapped the wire around the bottom of that vertical swag a couple of times. Again I went between the bead and the finding.

I probably shouldn't even mention it, but you can do a complicated wrap to attach the candle cup. It is much easier to just glue it on with E-6000 jewelry glue. Don't even attempt it with any white glue or super glue. They will just fall off.

I glued the caps on to the finding where each vertical swag meets the large finding. Let it dry. If you have some small gold scrap booking grommets, they make great collars for the candles and give the piece a more finished look. They aren't necessary, but they do add a little something. I got an assorted pack of different metal finishes at Walmart. I am not sure if they still carry them. They have changed up their craft dept. so much in the past year.

The last piece on the chandelier is a drop at the center bottom. It consists, in this case of a seed bead strung on the fine wire. It is centered and twisted to hold. Then a larger crystal was strung on it and it was threaded through the bottom loop and the tail wound around the neck and cut off. Sorry about the photo. You can barely see it in the center.

The very last thing is candles. You can buy fancy ones at the mini store or do as I did and paint toothpicks white and cut them all off at the same height. Glue them in the grommets. Do some straightening of the swags and candles and you are finished.

You can get as fancy as you like with these. More swags. More drops from each arm. Just make the drops like the center bottom one with a stop bead and other beads of your choice. This one is fairly simple just to show you how to get started. Good luck. I would love to see what you do when you try it.

See you tomorrow.

Welcome

I have two new followers. First there is Linda pin1056 from the Greenleaf forum. She has a blog over there, but I had no luck getting to it. Linda you might want to check to see what is going on.

Next is a mystery person. hEP_AEMrlJs8zPwnsLV2P6XJp.QOZv4- I have no idea who it is or anything about them. Anyway, welcome to the party, both of you!

More Light on the Subject.....

First of all, I have to show you what Tessie made. She found a typesetter's drawer kit yesterday. Today she has a nice place to put all of Spike's collars, one for every day of the week.

She is very proud of her accomplishment. She has been making collars all week. I wondered what she was going to do with all of them.

Spike is very pleased, but not one of them has any spikes. I think he kind of misses those. Although it may be easier to lay down and take a doggy nap without them.

Now on to other business. A couple of days ago I noticed that Gina from More Minis had posted a question on the Greenleaf forum wanting to know about making chandeliers.

I thought to myself, I can do that. I haven't made one for a long time. I think that the last one was in the triple room box with the fancy kitchen, dining room and sunken living room. I wasn't really sure if I could remember how I did it. I decided to get to work and put one together and write instructions while I was doing it.

It is going to be a two day affair because I am going to be busy this afternoon. So.....Here goes.

First of all, you may not be able to find the exact same findings as the ones that I used. Not to worry. All you have to remember is the ones that you choose must have the same number of holes around the edge, whatever size they are. I used findings with 8 holes. Thus an 8 swagged chandelier. Here you see the top part of the fixture. I used a piece of #22gage brass wire for the center post. It is flexible, but will be straightened in the end.

I twisted a loop in the top of the wire with round nosed pliers. Then I threaded the three pieces that you see in the first photo and a round filagree ball(you don't have to have that piece), put a dab of E-6000 on them to keep them from sliding. Then i proceeded to string #11 seed beads on the center post to the length that I wanted the light to be when finished. I put on another of the small findings on then a larger finding with 8 sections on it, another of the small ones to keep it from wiggling and then did a loop in that end. I will put a dangle of some kind on that tomorrow.

After that I started adding swags from the top finding to the bottom one. You will have to experiment and see how many beads it will take to get from the top to the bottom. In my case, I used 6 bugles alternated with 5 of the #11 seed beads.

The way that you do this is, using #32 beading wire, String a 10 inch piece with 3 seed beads to use as a stop at the top. Push the two ends down through the hole and pull tightly. Give the wire a twist. You will then have a double wire to thread the rest of the beads on, going down to the bottom finding.

When you get the right number of beads on the double wire to make a graceful swag, poke the double wire through one of the holes at the bottom edge. You will want to choose one that sticks out the furthest. Pull the wires tight and bring them back up around the edge and wrap them twice around the wire just below the last bead and above the finding. Leave the tail. You will need that tomorrow.

This is what your chandelier should look like so far.....That is, It should have the same number of beads in every swag and the swag should be fastened to the bottom. Don't worry of the center wire isn't quite straight or the swags look kind of funny. They will be better tomorrow.

I'm sorry that I can't finish it today, but real life is interfering. Tune in tomorrow for the rest of the story.

See you then.