A flower stand with pot of daisies

 and 

A clothes stand with six coat hangers and a baby girl dress (not wearable)

Three years ago I did this puppet theater as a birthday gift. 

 A Christmas present for a close friend (2015)

I thought this one deserved a nice place to try her new dresses...

After all this time I don't even remember how to deal with the new performance of these Blogs.  I don't have much time to update but I just wanted to show some of my last work.

A simple gift to a very special friend - two years ago

 "Abandoned garden"

Thanks for reading me

This is my last one for time being.
Tomorrow... back to school again and my miniatures have to wait...

Usually, I face the last day of holidays
with enthusiasm, but this time I feel I needed another week! I have a lot ofmini work in mind!!!

I promise to be back as soon as I can.

And another landscape, this time a fishing dock. Is still pastel pencil and has 5,5 cm x 4,6cm without frame.

The painted area has 3,7 cm x 5,0 cm. The frame measures are 5,7 cm x 7,0 cm. This is the smalest I ever painted.  The biggest problem is to keep pastel pencils thin enough to draw hands and face details. But even with these dificulties I'm enjoying this work. After finishing some frames (it's not easy tu cut the glass because 0,1 mm becomes a great error and the glass is only 2mm thick and breaks easily) I'll share with you a few more pastel paintings I'm doing now.

I keep on trying pastel work! Slowly!!! I don't have the time I need to develope tecnics and adapt my skills as a full scale painter to a miniature work.

This weekend I had a few hours. I decided to try Derwent and Faber pastels together. After, a very thin brush with watercolour pencils... all together...

The frame is still virtual. May be next week I can show a finished work. Meanwhile I wish you all a very Happy Easter.  

It's not so easy to paint this scale but here is my last work.

It's a pastel with 4,5cmx5,5cm

After cutting the glass and building the frame

I was pleased with the result.

May be it's destiny is my granddaughter's new dollshouse wich I intend to start building soon... we'll see...

If you follow the link below you can find the selected IGMA Artisans 2011.

http://www.igma.org/recognition/artisan.html

Now, in holidays from school I got a little time to take a few photos of the pieces I submit last April to the IGMA Committee.

They took a long time to be back at home. After being presented to the jury they were taken to the Guild School exhibit in Castine where public and students can see every year the work of new IGMA Artisans and Fellows. It was a big honour for me to see my work elevated to this level.

The exhibit lasted till middles of June and only in 1^st August I had my pieces in hand again. Why? Well, the Portuguese custom services wanted me to pay duties as if I was buying the pieces!!! It was my fault, of course, not to take all cares when I send them to USA. I should have post them as “Temporary Export”. Well, after a long odyssey , hours of phone calls and lots of mails, I solve the problem but I could not avoid lots of travels of the package between my town and Lisbon. But thanks God everything arrived well without any damage. Only a small pinnacle of one of the pieces was unglued!    

Misty Barth who kindly sent it to me took the photo below with a cell phone during the exhibit. 

 And now, I’ll post the individual photos.

 Piece nr. 1  

Birdcage dome topped

Basswood, wire, brass sheet, dye old pine, brass hinges and nails, watered wax

emulsion, acrylic hand painted flowers "popular" style. 

The wood is so thin and delicate that I don't use in any case power tools.

I start with pre-calibrated wood. I work with files, sandpaper and a handcrsafter's

knife. Jeweller's saw is also a constant tool in my workbench.

It takes me longer but in the end the piece is more realistic once the artisans in their

times did not used power tools to do birdcages.

Sometimes, when I see that the structure needs reinforcement, I made simple straight joints. If not, a little drop of glue is enough.

Piece nr. 2

Romantic Birdcage (Victorian style)

     To give a more realistic look the sliding tray is intentionally aged.

   The original piece was natural finished. I thought that, nowadays, in an actual,

    modern house, according to the fashion of the moment, a shabby chic look 

    fitted better.

     As I described in the first piece, the same wood and wire. Hand made carved

    and a washable paint in a country blue colour.

Piece nr. 3

Church style Birdcage

To build this model I used basswood mahogany tainted, wire and  to finish  a thin coat of watered wax emulsion buffed with a brush.

Just for curiosity, I must say that I made exactly 278 tinny holes to introduce the bars.

The top finials were once more "sculped" with files and sand paper.

Piece nr. 4

Pseudo Oriental Birdcage

      I used walnut for the structure. To finish I gave it a very aged look.

     The shape of double roof with the outside supporting crossbars shows a

     Japanese influence. This may situate this piece at Belle Époque period.

     Décapée painted, intentionally ruined as if it came directly from 

     grandmother's attic with no more care than brushing off the cobwebs.

     To build the roof I used a spare struture to hold the parts in place wich

     was removed in the end.

Piece nr. 5

"Chinese" Birdcage 

Note that Chinese is inside brackets. Really this is an original of mine.

Having in mind the characteristics of chinese buildings I sketched two or

three ideas.

The structure is basswood. Very thin bars of wood instead of wires once

the original chinese used bamboo.

The birdcage has a kind of tray and to support this tray four tinny feet

dragon shaped, covered with gold leaf. Some decorative details partially

covered with gold leaf as well as the contrasting colours red and green

are according to the common taste of Chinese art.

The Artisan Selection Committee met on April 30, 2011 to evaluate Artisans submissions and I proudly inform all my readers that my membership in the Guild has been elevated to that of Artisan member in the category of Accessories/Birdcages. On May 2, 2011, the Committee's evaluation was reviewed and  approved by the Board of Trustees of IGMA.

My Artisan Certificate arrived today and here I  display it with the promise to continue the pursuit of perfection in my work.

I'll be back soon with the photos of the pieces I submitted