Stocks and shares

As I am still working on the Chinese Armoire, another distraction from the stairs I thought that I would share recent acquisitions. Etsy, EBay, Amazon and AliExpress save my life as stuck in the country means that I don't get to shops, unless I count the Emmaus and Junk shop but there is limits to what I can find there. 

 Some more Egyptian themed stampings for the Soane Room of Ramsay House. The smaller profiles might embelish the lower doors in the bookcase wall and the 'mummy' on a desk. I obviously didn't get the quantity right as I was suprised by the number of same ! That is so me. They came from 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FancifulsBrass

 This wood I ordered from AliExpress , each piece measures 60 x 100 x 2mm and is solid wood, not ply. They sell them as 'blanks' but for minis the size and thickness is really good although the wood is realy hard to carve, I did a sample test to countersink hinges. 

 This looks like a mini Junk shop! A collection of recent finds, not all for use now but possibilites.

 This piece of marble was given to me and although the pattern is a big large the size of it could make a good 17th century style table with blackened legs. 

 Venus is fun, cost 50 cents, might work one day in a hallway with a bowler hat on her head ! 

 A fun little piece , again a few cents, might be good to paint it up as an old kids bike and leave it lying in the hallway of Ramsay House ! 

 Everyone knows these pencil sharpeners ! Some are to scale like this one and others are just silly. I might transform it in one of the future attic bedrooms. Cost 10 cents.

 I purchased this on EBay.uk as an 18th century antique from a specialised seller, cost 9 pounds. It has a repair which I intend to redo with the Kintsugi Japanese method of visible enhanced mending with red lacquer covered in gold. 

I will do a post on this technique later. It is slightly too large in scale but maybe filled with bulbs on the hall table or under it. 

 I found this in a lot of two pieces on EBay.uk. The scale is just right and I love the colour. 

Again cost a few pounds. 

 This is what most would call the 'motherload' of vases. It is hard to find the right scale in Cloisonné, mostly are too big although they seem right in the photos. These came in the box below and are from the 70's according to the seller. I admit to not having seen these before in my past researches. I might turn a couple into lamps with or without the bases and might not use all of course to avoid the 'Chinese Emporium' look !!!! 

 Ok for the moment this is a jewellery box and a nice one with lovely music in good vintage condition. I was looking for an inlaid box to make into a table for the drawing room and this one is good in size. 13.5 x 10 cms or 162 x 120 in real scale, maybe a big big will not take it apart until the room is finished so as not to waste it for nothing. 

 I have heard of this maker SWANN-MORTON for some time and decided to order some from Distrimed.com a medical supplier found by chance and they take even small orders. These came this morning in an the most enormous cardboard box stuffed with brown paper ! 

 A hundred blades, normally for unique use, each individually wrapped. 

 The blades were about 12 euros for 100 and the scalpels less than 5 euros for ten. The quality of course being medical is great, a good purchase. SO much cheaper than in craft shops.

 I have meant to buy this for some time. As part of the Kintsugi process of repair this glue can replace the traditional Japanese mixture they use. Amazon.

I wanted to try making my own hinges, yup !! so found this metal sheets sold for stamping and embossing. Sold by PONERA on Amazon for 6.82 . I also ordered brass but from another seller. 

 Still stocking up on tools slowly ! good to have choices. Amazon from AMATT , 5.99. 

 Finally I decided that the Chinese Armoire I am working on needed to be filled with household linens, quilts and sheets and blankets etc. As usual with me never to be used or seen but still made as if they were. I tried just folding up some fabric for effect but ,,,,,As I was taking a night off to watch Netflix I needed something to 'do' with my hands and decided to make a miniature quilted bedspread. I had a roll of this gorgeous silk twill amongst other gorgeous silk twills in my huge stock of fabrics and liked the scale and colours. This roll of wadding is a funny story. I was out shopping for my mum in her village in Scotland and this roll in its original wrapping was just lying on the pavement. I am always picking things up from the pavement to put in the bins which are usually just nearby but on looking closely I thought that I could use it for minis.  

 I assembled two strips of wadding loosely widthways and covered with the silk machining all around before turning it right ways and then hand quilting all over. 

 The fine silk and thin wadding makes it quite soft and supple when finished to in scale visually. This is an easy little project to do, takes almost no experience or material or time as the handstitching is supposed to be 'naive' in style so no worries about getting things 'right'.