More best laid plans.....

I suppose that in this most disconcerting of years, I shouldn't be surprised that I'd be thrown another curveball.

For the past month or so I've been experiencing weird nerve pain on my right side, running from my neck, down my spine and right leg into my shin.  I put it down to my MS, which often causes neuropathic pain in odd places, but not usually in the same place over such an extended period of time.

Anyway, yesterday morning I woke up, turned over in bed then wailed like a banshee as an excruciating bolt of pain shot through my lower back, locking me in position.  I couldn't move. 

Buggrit doesn't even come close.

A hefty dose of painkillers later I managed to struggle downstairs, doing a creditable impression of Quasimodo. Needless to say, Prexmas plans for working on my little half scale shop have been shelved. 

PP, who is a back pain veteran, reckons I have a prolapsed disc, which after an ad hoc appointment with Dr. Google, sounds plausible.

Back in the day (no pun intended) the advice was to remain horizontal for several weeks but in these enlightened times, regular, gentle movement is recommended.  By dint of trial and squealy error, I've identified which specific movements unleash the worst of the pain and am doing my level best to avoid them, while still remaining mobile. Although tap-dancing is definitely out of the question.

Small Dog has taken up residence on the sofa nearby, and there's a roaring fire.  There are wall-to-wall festive films on TV today so between tentative peregrinations I'm spending my time gainfully, doing some 'research' and forward planning.

Unintended consequences....

I discovered this morning that during its two years of storage, the lift-off shop front has partially broken away from its base, so I've had to re-glue it and attempt to repair and strengthen the splintered section. 

A minor setback, and probably not the last.

I've been thinking more about the exterior decoration of the building, and how to achieve the overall look of a lithographed doll's house.  Every doll's house I've ever built (and over the past 35+ years there have been many), I've strived for realism, inside and out, but I want this little half scale shop/house to look like a Bliss-style house, which requires a very different approach.

I had already printed out some sheets of Ashlar blocks for the facade of the ground floor, but they were on plain buff-coloured card and looked very flat and uninspiring.  So yesterday I spent hours making a new sheet, using Photoshop to create subtly different coloured blocks, similar to the ones in the image above.

I'm undecided about whether to 'age' them so I'll wait till I've completed the front before committing.  They do still look rather flat and featureless as they are, but when they're in situ they should look better.  In any case, I'd have to practice on some scraps to refine the technique as it would pain me to mess it up.

I've also been searching for suitable frieze sections to use on the front and round the sides and have found a good selection online, some of which might work well.  I'm also going to use some around the edges of the internal floors, to echo the outside decoration.

Finally today, I made more windows for the sides of the building. 

I used the original windows as templates and cut more from thin card.  then I glued several together to make thicker window frames.

I thought that I might do something similar to those in the photo, with coloured card in the top sections and paper curtains in the bottom.  However, using card in the front section, where there are window openings, would block any light from the inside, so perhaps tissue paper would be better.  I'll have to experiment to see what works best.

All in all, not a bad start over the past few days.  Let's see if can maintain the momentum...

Prexmas....

I've invented a thing.

Long term readers will know that in the past I've written rhapsodically about Twixmas... those days between Christmas and New Year where time turns in on itself and the days are measured mostly in the consumption of cheese.

Well this year, in the absence of all the cleaning and whatnot, I've discovered a new time period.... Prexmas.

Prexmas: The period of time, prior to 24th December, normally a whirlwind of activity but in 2020 a time of calm, with the unaccustomed freedom to pick up abandoned projects in advance of Twixmas

My Prexmas began on Saturday, when, at a bit of loose end on account of having no frenzied cleaning to do, I decided to revisit my Christmas present from 2018.

Now, in my defence, I did actually manage to get a fair bit done back then, in terms of planning and such, before I hit a snag and 'temporarily' packed it away in a cupboard.  Of course 'temporarily' is an elastic term and most miniaturists worth their salt will know exactly what it means.  A truly dedicated and committed miniaturist will, at any one time, have several unfinished projects on the go, with any number of them 'temporarily' shelved. 

In this case, out of sight is truly out of mind, and although I've occasionally caught a glimpse of it over the past 2 years (TWO YEARS!!!?) I haven't had either the time or enthusiasm to get it all out and resume work.

However, with the advent of Prexmas, a whole five days have mysteriously materialised, and I've had the sudden urge to unearth it and crack on.

So on Saturday afternoon, I took all the boxes of bits into the sitting room and sat by the fire in front of the twinkling Christmas tree, and sorted through them all, trying to get an idea of where I'd got to.

The answer to that is - not very far.

Granted, it may look like substantial progress had been made, but aside from the base floor, sides and back wall and the lift-off shop front, which have been glued, everything else is dry fitted, as the aforementioned snag was whether I should glue the floors in place before or after installing the lighting.  I still haven't decided on the best course of action on that particular conundrum, but while pondering I've been familiarising myself with all the bits and trying to remember my plan.

I still want it to have the look of a Bliss house.... not a realistic building but a more toy-like rendition.  I'd put aside two little tester pots of green paint but now I'm not so sure about the colours.  I'd also printed out some sheets of buff-coloured card to represent Ashlar blocks, but now I'm thinking that maybe I should use a different colour for those too.  

This is exactly how I get derailed with projects.... I hit a problem, can't decide how to proceed, pack it all away and BAM.... two whole years whizz by.

I've lost the signage piece for above the shop front, which isn't in any of the boxes.  I have the piece of card it came out of, so I can make another the same shape, but it's annoying all the same.  I'd forgotten that I'd also made lots of additional windows to go on the sides... I must have spent a fair bit of time on it.

Yesterday I managed to track down the folder on my laptop, with all the resources I'd found. After some consideration I think I'm going to go with something like this....

Rather than this....

Or maybe something between the two.   See.... this is what I do, indecision can so quickly become inaction.

But it's all out on the table in my workroom now, so during Prexmas and throughout Twixmas I shall tinker and dabble, and hopefully my meandering method will yield progress.

We shall see....

Best laid plans.....

It's finally, predictably, official.

Christmas is cancelled.

Well... not the actual event, but all the plans which have been made for it.

Normally at this time PP and I would be frantically cleaning, shopping, cleaning, making lists, cleaning, writing meal plans, cleaning, making up guest bedrooms, cleaning, wrapping presents, cleaning... 

Ordinarily my daughter would have already arrived for our early Christmas celebrations, then from 23rd onward the rest of the family for several days of carousing.

None of that will be happening this year.  It will just be PP, SD and myself.

We aborted our tentative plans for a restricted Christmas family get-together over a week ago, while our PM was still asserting that we would all be able to enjoy a jolly safe 5-day celebration.  At the time we were in Level 3. 

Of course since then, the 'revelation' that there is a new mutation of the virus, which increases infection transmission exponentially has meant that U-Turn Boris has had to perform yet another in a long line of volte-face moves, and essentially, Christmas is cancelled.

Hastings & Rother, which for most of this year has seen the lowest infection rates in the whole of the UK, has recently seen a huge spike in cases, and as of midnight we've now been moved up to Tier 4, which effectively means that we are currently back in full belt-and-braces lockdown.

It's like Groundhog Day.

Of course, the one ray of positivity in all of this, is that we now have one vaccine approved and in the process of being rolled out, with hopefully others on the near horizon.  Less encouraging is that only about 140,000 doses have already been administered, out of the 800,000 we received a few weeks ago. Progress seems to be painfully slow.... I'd hoped that they would already have powered through the first batch.  At the current rate it will be March/April before our age cohort is in line, which means another 3+ months of self-isolating, and effectively a whole year during which, apart from a few brief breaks during the summer, we were mostly at home, seeing almost no-one from one month's end to the next.

In the meantime we will be staying as safe as we can while spending a quiet festive season together.   

Take care all of you, and I hope you have as Merry a Christmas as possible, with the prospect of a Happier, Healthier New Year.

Sxx

Cross purposes....

 Scene - It is a mid-December afternoon and the skies are grey and full of foreboding.  It's not cold enough for snow, although it is chilly, so we are likely due yet more rain.

In the sitting room, the Christmas tree lights are twinkling and the fire is lit..... the room is full of cosy warmth and I am sitting on the sofa, notebook on my lap, idly flicking through TV channels looking for a festive film.

Small Dog enters....

SD *perkily* Ah... yuve litt the fyr.  Thatts gude. Ai mite just hav a littel liy daown on the harthrugg.

Me:*warmly* Feel free SD. I didn't think you'd be long after hearing me light the fire.

Silence, except for the occasional crack of a log in the woodburner.  SD eventually gets too hot, and retires to her blanket on the sofa, taking time to carefully scratch it up and arrange it to her liking.

SD: *enquiringly*  Whot ar yue doen?

Me:*distractedly* Hmmm?  I'm writing a list.

SD:*curiously*  A lisst.  A krissmus lisst??  A lisst of delishus treets fore me???

Me:*crushingly* No.  Not that kind of list.

SD*disgruntedly* Hmph. Wel ai hoap ai do gett krissmus treets.  Mai stocken remanes disapoyntinlie emptie.

She stares pointedly at the Christmas stocking, hanging from the mantlepiece, emblazoned with her name and an embroidered Yorkshier Terrior.

Me:*placatingly* OK... if you must know, I'm writing a list of projects for next year.  Miniature ones.... I might do a few valedictory kit projects.

SD:*baffled* Valley Dick Torie???  Whose he?

Me:*patiently* It means a sort of goodbye.

SD:*bamboozled* Gudebie??  Whare ar yue goen?  Yoove onlie jusst litt the fyer.

Me:*calmly* Not that sort of goodbye SD.  It's just that I'm gradually winding down the business. I want to retire, like you and PP.

SD:*grandly* Ho yus.... reetyrmint is knott to badd. Allthoe ai do miss knot bein yore Hedd of Markitten & Komewnikashun.  And bein Emploiyee of the Munth.  I reememb....

Me:*interrupting* Yes, yes SD.  You were an excellent member of the management team and your input was always valued.

SD:*dreamily* Ai maid sum ecksillent sujestjuns abowt biskitts.

Me:*grudgingly* Yes, well.  Anyway... I'm just making some notes about a few final kits that I'd really like to work on for next year.  In fact SD.... one of them is a paean to you.

SD:*incredulously* A PEE ON!!!  Luke... thatt was a wun-off acksident and it wudent hav hapinned if yude lett me owt kwicker.

Me:*placatingly* Oh SD.  Not that!  A paean is a creative work expressing enthusiastic praise.  It's a tribute to you in recognition of all your many years of dedication and hard work.  I've been thinking about it for a while and I think I've hit on just the thing.

SD:*mollified* Ah... THATT kined of peeon.  Why dident yue sai so then.  *thoughtfully* a tribewt to me.  Liek a sort of prise.... or a *hopefully* treet?

Me:*hesitantly* Well yes... I suppose so.  In a way.  It will commemorate you and your invaluable contribution to Tower House Dolls.  It's just an idea at the moment... I'll have to design it and make up a sample first. I'm just making a few preliminary working sketches if you'd like to take a look.

But SD has settled down on her supersoft blanket and is already fast asleep. 

The End

Out with a bang.....?

 2020 has been the strangest and scariest of years.  In common with others who have medical conditions which make them clinically vulnerable, I've spent most of the year, from mid March, either shielding or self isolating.  I haven't seen my daughter since early January, and only a very few close friends during the brief summer hiatus.

I planned a carefully calculated circuitous route round our garden so that I could rack up a reasonable daily steps tally, and we carried out a garden makeover to make the many lockdown hours we spent there more pleasurable.

Small Dog and I both had fully lockdowned birthdays in April, during the worst part of the first wave. Not seeing anyone, family or friends felt very strange and we'd usually have had a few days away to celebrate.

We did manage to take our little caravan out for two short holidays during the summer. Being completely self-contained meant we felt safe, and the rigourous infection control measures in place on the Caravan Club sites we visited, further increased our tentative confidence.

Of course it's all gone base over apex since then, and here in the UK we have only recently emerged from a second lockdown.  Pandemic fatigue and complacency have been rampant, and compliance with the rules has been slipping for months.

Predictably, as soon as the lockdown restrictions were lifted, people were again out in their droves, Christmas shopping, plunging many areas into the higher levels.  Here in Hastings/St. Leonards we had the lowest Covid rates in the entire country for many months, but recently we've seen cases rise alarmingly and when the tiers are re-assessed next week, we fully expect to be moved up to level 3.

The government, in its infinite wisdom, has granted a Coronavirus armistice for 5 days over Christmas, where up to three households can mix indoors.  Perhaps the virus goes home for the holidays, or simply stops infecting people in a spirit of goodwill.                                             On the threshold of a third, even more punishing winter wave, that seems to be a strange decision.  The latest in a long string of strange decisions. 

As if all that wasn't bad enough, after four and a half gruelling years, we're teetering on the brink of a No Deal Hard Brexit, the worst of all worse case scenarios, and even in normal times,  this coming January was set to be chaotic and depressing.  Don't get me started.... I haven't got the energy for a rant.

Good things to come from 2020....?

Well, our little family unit of myself, PP and Small Dog is still alive and kicking. Apart from the odd minor squabble, mostly engineered by SD who has taken to squealing at us to go to bed at 7.30pm, we've all supported and cared for each other, bolstering flagging spirits and enjoying sharing small projects throughout.

I finally finished my book.  Who knew it would take a global pandemic to give me the kick up the a*se I needed, to buckle down and really work at it on a daily basis, relinquishing my previous tactics of spending a day or two messing about then putting it back on the back burner?  With nowhere to go, nobody to see, and nothing else to do except work, I've accomplished more in the past nine months than in the past nine years!

There is also the prospect of an end to the pandemic with the rollout of a slew of vaccines, although it will take many months to make any serious inroads into a global vaccination programme. 

Normally, at this time of year, I'd be making plans for the following twelve months... working out projects, kits, new dolls etc, but my heart just isn't in it.  I feel exhausted and really need some downtime to relax and regroup and hopefully regain some of my joie de vivre.  I've worked solidly from March, weekdays, weekends, evenings, with only about 14 days off.  Apparently it's possible to feel burnt out even when doing something you love.... who knew?!

So I'm looking forward to using the time between now and the beginning of January to recharge my depleted batteries....dabbling with some new miniature projects, and hopefully taking up a new hobby (depending on what I find under the tree on Christmas morning!) 

KDF Online Christmas Showcase....

Visit my page here....

https://dollshouseshowcase.com/craftsman/tower-house-dolls/

***

Following the success of the first KDF online showcase in July, I'm pleased to be participating in the Christmas Showcase.  Sadly, none of the usual pre-Christmas fairs are taking place this year, but, thanks to technology, artisan exhibitors, past and present, are able to show off their work.

Our new website has gone live this morning (EEEEK!)  and I will be updating it on a daily basis during the showcase, so do keep checking back for new additions!

I'm also delighted to formally announce the launch of my new book, Making Miniature Mignonette Toy Dolls....! 

Available now on the website! 

The word ‘Mignonette’ has its origins in France, dating back to 1690-1700, and means ‘small and delicately pretty’.  Mignonette dolls are therefore particularly pretty petite dolls.

These tiny dolls have a special appeal to miniature collectors, and   although their small scale can be challenging, it is not difficult to acquire the skills necessary to make your own heirloom creations.

From tools and materials, through to mastering basic techniques and costume elements, the designs described in my book will provide you with all the information you need to begin creating your very own tiny, toy dolls.

Once you have mastered the basics, you can go on to experiment and design your own unique costumes. The Projects chapter features different costume styles, from very simple to more elaborate, with  ideas for variations.

All of the patterns can be mixed and matched to create a wide variety of styles, from historical dolls of the 1700s, through to the most elaborate doll fashions of the 1890s and on to 20th century toy dolls.

This book is written with the beginner in mind, but I hope that experienced micro doll dressmakers will also find inspiration.

Woven throughout is the whimsical story of La Mignonette, a French doll shop where the talented hands of Mademoiselle Emilie, bring her beautiful creations to life...

As a special 'thank you' to purchasers of my book, I'm adding a free gift....a kit to make three tiny, wee, doll-sized, fully illustrated, Christmas-themed books, reproduced from my own private collection. 

                               

I've been making tiny dolls for over 30 years and am as much in love with them now as I was way back then.  As a collector of miniatures, diminutive dolls tick many boxes, as they can exist in the most doll-phobic doll's house, portraying as they do, children's playthings rather than people.

My dolls are completely handmade, beginning life as a few thimblefuls of porcelain slip, then undergoing up to 6 kiln firings to transform them from fragile greenware to impermeable porcelain, complete with multiple china paint firings.

They have jointed arms and legs, which allow for movement....

Costumes are created using sumptuous silk fabrics, many of which I design myself and are professionally printed.  Similarly, to achieve just the right shade I often hand dye silk ribbons, trimmings and lace to complement specific outfits.

Dolls have silk underwear, dainty leather-soled shoes and lace petticoats, while dresses and jackets are carefully fitted onto the tiny dolls.

Finally, I use delicate ringlets and curls to create elaborate coiffeurs,  often finished off with be-ribboned and feathered hats and bonnets.

Once complete, I make a colour-coordinated box with illustrated lid, which is lined with tissue paper and the doll is nestled inside.  Each doll  also comes with its own signed and dated Certificate of Authenticity.

Dolls come with a lovely, bespoke box to match their costume.

I hope you can visit the new website during the showcase.  It is still a work in progress so I would appreciate any feedback.  🙂

The final countdown.....

Phew.... it's been a very busy few weeks!  I've spent hours every day listing items on the new website.

It's not an easy task. 

Photos have to be taken and retaken.... resized and optimised to fit.  There's no option to copy/paste listings, so each one has to be done manually, in a series of steps which have to be taken in the correct order otherwise I have to start again.

It's time consuming and frustrating, and every few hours I have to take a break and do something else.

I spent a fruitless half day trying to insert a snippet of code to provide a currency converter for international customers with no success.  I've handed that task over to PP, who has more technical skills than I.  She also sorted out my information pages, which didn't look quite right.

It's clear that my skills are better suited to dollmaking than website management and I'm looking forward to Friday, when the site is scheduled to go live and I can hopefully relax.     The KDF Christmas Showcase will run from Friday 27th November till Friday 4th December, and during that time the December Mini Miniature Show will also be live. 

On an even more exciting note, the final copies of my book have arrived and I've been carefully checking the delivery and making preparations for the launch on Friday. 

Having worked pretty much every day since March, I'm looking forward to some much-needed downtime and decorating our house for Christmas.  Of course, at the moment, we still have no idea what we'll be doing over the festive season.  A big, family Christmas is out of the question, but we're hoping that some form of celebration will be possible.... either virtual or actual.

In the meantime, this week, I'm on the final countdown to my book launch and the KDF showcase.

No pressure then.... *deep breaths*

Moving on.....

It's done.

The old printer has been deposed.  Long live the new printer! 

I ordered it at 4.30pm yesterday and it was delivered at noon today.  How is that even possible? Dark magic perhaps.

It took just 45 minutes to unbox and set it up.  The whole process went smoothly... print was calibrated and software updated.  It effortlessly reached through the ether and found my laptop and they instantly hit it off.

It printed wirelessly at first time of asking, purring quietly without all the hooing and haahing and cartridge shuffling which characterised my interactions with the old printer.

It does my bidding without kicking up a fuss or spitting sheets of paper at me.  It hasn't mangled anything.... yet.

Of course, it's currently on its best behaviour, minding it's p's and q's and going out of its way to anticipate my every need and complying immediately.

It's small and neat and sits unobtrusively on the window shelf by my desk in the office.  The old printer was a hulking great thing.... really heavy and it boded big time.  It's currently boding in the dining room while I decide what to do with it.  I don't want to consign it to landfill so I'll try to freecycle it.  Perhaps someone with much more technical nous than us could return it to health.  At the very least it has about a dozen brand new ink cartridges which might do someone a turn.  

We've never really seen eye to eye... the old printer and I.  It was only a few weeks old when it maliciously chewed up a sheet of adhesive labels and was never the same again.   I'm guarding against getting lulled into a false sense of security by the newcomer though.  Just because everything's fine and dandy at the moment doesn't mean it will stay that way.

The first test will be a batch of double sided A5 leaflets, which I need to print by this weekend.  Of course before I even attempt that, I need to order more inks.  For some inexplicable reason, printer manufacturers supply new machines with 'starter' cartridges, which contain a mere scintilla of ink and last about 10 minutes. 

Which brings me to my next pet peeve.  Why are branded cartridges so damn expensive?  Granted the new printer takes XL capacity cartridges, which are claimed to print 600 pages for the colours, more for the blacks.  However, as that depends on the print quality used, it's practically impossible to check the claims made.  My leaflets have to be reasonable quality so I'm dubious about how many pages I will actually achieve.

However, for the time being, I'm back in business.  Being printerless always makes me a bit twitchy so after two days without it's a relief to have one again.  But two days of faffing about have put me hopelessly behind on my weekly To Do list so once again I'm playing catch up.

Best go and get on then......

Buggrit.......

I just knew that things were going too well.  Having given the go-ahead on my book to the print company I turned my attention to the next most pressing item on my burgeoning to-do list.... getting the website shop up and running.

I spent all weekend setting up items in the shop (they're not visible yet though!) and working on what I still have to do for the London Dollshouse Showcase.  I have to get all new photos and write up done for my exhibitor's page and the deadline of Nov 18th is looming on the near horizon.

Anyway, everything was going tickety boo, which is always an ominous sign and I should have realised that things were due to go skew whiff... which they duly did.

Our office printer, which I had used yesterday morning to print out address labels for orders, suddenly decided that life was no longer worth living and gave up the ghost.  It's done this a few times before, being a temperamental little sh*t, but we've always been able to get it up and running again by a combination of threats, menaces and doing a hard reset.

It was having none of it.

You Tube videos suggested lots of different fixes, all of which we tried several times, including removing the print head unit and cleaning it, resulting in ink all over the show.

This is the second time a Canon printer has died on us and despite spending ALL DAY YESTERDAY giving trying to administer life support, we have accepted that it will have to be consigned to the great printer scrapyard.

Having washed our hands of it... literally, with bleach, in an attempt to remove the indelible ink, we set about finding a new one, which we thought would be a doddle.

Ha!

Have you tried to buy a printer recently?  They're like hen's teeth!!

Presumably, due to the pandemic, and record numbers of people working from home, the demand for printers has gone through the roof.  Plus, due to the lockdown, stores which sell them are currently closed, so we couldn't just pop along the road to PC World to pick one up.

I have a few criteria which are essential.... separate ink cartridges so that I can replace individual  colours as needed.                                                                                                                      It must be multifunction as I often have to scan/copy.                                                                          It must have an automatic duplex function for double sided printing, which is a nightmare to do manually.                                                                                                                                                    It must have WiFi connectivity as I often have to print from the workroom and the printer resides in the office.

Not a big ask really, but every one I found which was suitable was out of stock... everywhere.

The shelves have been stripped of printers and there is nary one to be found.

Eventually, after spending 6 frustrating hours going round in circles, I found a retailer who had a printer which had all my asks.  It wasn't first on my list.  It's wasn't even in the first ten, but it was in stock and ready to despatch so I had no option but to order it.  To add insult to injury it cost almost twice what I was intending to spend, but, as the saying goes, beggars can't be choosers.  Who would have thought that printers would prove as elusive to source as PPE? 

Anyway, due to the all the stress, the new printer and I are already getting off on the wrong foot.  It should hopefully arrive tomorrow and if it's not quick and easy to set up the air will be blue as I have A LOT of printing to do... all of it double sided. 

I have only one nerve left and it had better not get on it. 

It's here......!!!!!!!

You're reading it here first! 

*drum roll please* The final perfect bound sample copy has arrived...!

Here's a quick sneak preview

I expect to take delivery of the first copies by 23rd November and my new book will be launched at the London Dollshouse Showcase which will run from 27th November - 4th December!

As a bonus, all purchasers of the book will be invited to join my new Mignonette Doll Club, which will be a fun place to share ideas.  

Plus.....

* Access to a private FB group

* Discounts and exclusive special offers on micro doll supplies

* Updates on the story of La Mignonette  

* Monthly newsletter

* Competitions & Giveaways

*  Each month I will be making a new Mignonette doll, instructions for which will be available as a digital download….. free of charge for club members.

Members will be encouraged to show their mini doll makes and share hints, tips and suggestions.  They can also send photos of their dressed dolls to be featured in the Miniature Mignonette ‘Hall of Fame’ on the new Tower House Dolls website! 

So... 27th November is my deadline for having the new website fully up and running.  It will be a close run thing and all my efforts for the next few weeks will be focussed on setting up our new online shop and testing it thoroughly. 

During lockdown I've also been gradually building up a stock of new mignonette toy dolls, which will be making their way onto the website....

To celebrate both the launch of my book AND the new website, we're planning to have a bit of a virtual do with some special giveaways, so keep checking back, or, if you haven't already, sign up for our newsletter.

Small Dog will be making a rare guest appearance so it's not to be missed!

Exciting times.....!

My adventures in print... Part 2

Recently I've been thinking a lot about my adventures in print over the years.  When I was a child, I remember making little books from a sheet of paper, folded in 4, then cut to produce small 4 page booklets. I wrote little stories, some invented, some about my pets, or things I'd been doing.  They were often illustrated with crude colour pencil drawings...... art was never my forte.

At some point I was given an old Remington typewriter, which had belonged to an uncle or aunt. It was ancient and clunky, but I spent hours hunched over it, laboriously clacking out pages of closely typed print.... stories, poems, lists.  I loved it, although I can see now that the incessant noise of me bashing away at the keys must have made everyone in the house long to through it out the window.

In my early 20s I graduated to an electric typewriter. After school and before college I had taken a shorthand and typing class... apart from learning to drive, learning to touch type has been the life skill I use most.  After the initial slog of fjfjfjfj ghghghgh etc and feeling I'd never master it, something clicked and I was able to type without looking at the keys.  It's like a kind of magic and it never ceases to please me.  I can't remember a solitary thing about the shorthand but the typing has stayed with me and I use it every day. 

My electric typewriter was a revelation. No more bruised fingertips or having to jooosh the carriage across at the end of every line.  One button press and the carriage purred smoothly across the machine.  

It had a back space button! AND, joy of joys, an autocorrect function!  This comprised a little strip of Tippex along the bottom of the ink ribbon, which could be used to overtype errors.  I was in heaven.  It was on that machine that I produced my first newsletters, which I duly sent off to the photocopy shop.

A few years later, I was a founder member of Kent Miniaturists, and responsible for all the printed material... newsletters, programmes, workshop instructions etc. Although I still used my trusty typewriter, having original documents photocopied was expensive, so I bought an ancient Gestetner duplicating machine from the Parish Council and installed it in an old outbuilding.

It was a behemoth.... about the size of a washing machine. It was also temperamental, and I often emerged from a duplicating session spattered with ink and covered in cobwebs.

The process was arcane and messy.  First I had to 'cut the stencil'.... text with my electric typewriter and any drawings/diagrams using a ballpoint stylus tool.  I still have that tool and use it every day in my doll making..... I'd be lost without it!

If I made a mistake I'd have to use a gloopy pink liquid to seal the holes in the stencil.  Actually creating a copy involved loading the stencil onto a drum, having first ensured that the ink reservoir was full.  The ink was like tar, and in the chill of the outbuilding it was always too thick and viscous.  Then I'd turn the handle and the first sheet of paper would feed though the slot coming into contact with the stencil over the inked drum.  The results were often patchy and I'd have to manually spread the ink over the drum and keep trying until an acceptable result was achieved.  I wasted a LOT of paper.

For a multi-page newsletter I had to change the stencils for each page, inevitably a messy procedure.  Also the ink had to dry on the page, otherwise it would smudge, which took time, so double sided printing was an exercise in patience.

My machine was very similar to this one.....

But.... I LOVED IT!  

Fast forward to 1985 and the advent of the first Word Processor.  I bought an Amstrad PCW 8256 and suddenly felt that I was at the cutting edge of printing technology.  

It had a green screen monitor, separate keyboard,  a dot matrix printer and used floppy discs.  It had four different fonts.

FOUR!!!

It was basically a glorified typewriter, but I was once again smitten.  OK so it only produced text, and the printed result was quite clunky, with the individual dots which made up each character often clearly visible, but it made producing repeat pages of text much simpler, cleaner and cheaper. I used my trusty word processor for years, until in the 1990s I finally made the leap to a PC with an inkjet printer.  

Looking back, it's amazing how far technology has come in the past 50 years.  I've gone from pencil and paper to desktop publishing.... it's difficult to imagine a similar leap in the next half century, although perhaps in the future words and images will transfer directly into the brain via an organic implant.  Or maybe there will be holographic printers, which will create 3D animated images from text.  Or maybe the written/spoken word will be obsolete and people will communicate via mind merge telepathy. Who knows?

My adventures in print.....Part 1

There is something strangely satisfying about holding a book that you've created yourself.  In my case I've done absolutely everything, from the design and layout, to the final formatting and editing.  

Granted it's not perfect.  Neither is it a first novel.  

But it is all my own work and the result of more than three decades of experience in making tiny, wee porcelain dolls and even if I never sell a single copy I am almost inordinately pleased and proud.

Self-publishing is no longer the trial it used to be and these days anyone can do it.  Of course, publishing a print book which contains only words is a whole different proposition from one which contains colour images.  I've had to learn the difference between RGB and CMYK, pixels and dots, TIFF and JPEG, file size versus image quality and much more that I've already forgotten.

I've spent hours experimenting with different fonts, seeing which ones work together.  That said, my choice of font for the fictional sections will likely give designers a fit of the vapours, but it works for my specific purposes and as I'm in charge, nobody can give me a telling off. On the reverse side of that coin if it looks a mess it's all down to me.

Mea culpa.

When I was choosing a printer, I got quotes from lots of different companies. The very cheapest ones, though initially tempting, rapidly revealed their limitations.  I had specific questions and the lack of detailed responses or no responses at all, quickly eliminated them from my list.

A few were only really interested in how many copies and when I would be ready to go to print, dismissive of my queries about image formats or embedded fonts.

One which initially came high on my list was crossed off when I read some online reviews and found that their books were often badly produced, misaligned covers, missing pages, damaged, or sometimes didn't arrive at all! 

I was beginning to despair when I came across an A5 booklet that I had printed about 30 years ago when I was first starting out.  Back in the day, they were a basic copy shop and I often used them for printing copies of my catalogues, patterns, mini booklets etc.  That was before the days of digital colour photocopying and everything was black and white. For colour, the only choice was offset litho printing which was prohibitively expensive.

Anyway, a quick google revealed that the company I used all those years ago were still in business and were now producing a wide range of print products, including perfect bound books!

They have been incredibly helpful, offering a range of free online tools and lots of useful information. My email enquiries were met with prompt, friendly responses, and suggestions to help me get the best results.

So, here we are..... 30 years after first using them, they are now printing my book.  There is a satisfying resolution of coming full circle about this which pleases me.

Who are they....? 

Catford Print Centre.  

I can thoroughly recommend them for quality and value for money.  I don't expect that any of the people I originally dealt with all those years ago are still working there, but it's gratifying to know that excellent customer service and high quality products are still the foundation of their business model. 

Anyway, now that I've reviewed the wire bound sample copy and made the necessary tweaks, I'm ready to submit the revised files and await delivery of the sample perfect bound copy... after which *fingers crossed* it will be full steam ahead the presses can roll.

Eeeeeeek!!!!!!!!

Yes... that was me squealing with excitement!  

Last week I finally submitted my book to the printer and have been waiting on tenterhooks for the wire bound sample copy to arrive, which it did this afternoon.

I am beyond delighted with it, although I now have to go through it with a fine-toothed comb, searching for tiny errors which have eluded me on my laptop screen.  An initial cursory flick through has already revealed an unnecessary comma and a superfluous full stop, as well as an extra space in a sentence which looked fine on the screen, so I need to take my time and work slowly and methodically, even though my tummy is turning cartwheels at actually holding in my trembling hands the result of over a decade of false starts and self-recrimination.

I was worried about the photos, but they're mostly absolutely fine, although I will replace a few. All the images were taken in normal day-to-day working conditions in my workroom, not in a proper photographic studio setting, so I was concerned that they wouldn't pass muster but overall they are pretty good. 

I might tweak the front cover slightly too. 

Despite my desire to push ahead and get it signed off I'm going to take my time and actually enjoy the process, now that all the blood, sweat and tears of the actual creation have mercifully faded from memory.  

In the final fraught days before submitting it, I swore blind that I would never, ever, EVER do anything like it,  NEVER again.   However, while looking through the proof copy, I suddenly got the glimmer of an idea for a follow-up, going down a different and rather more scenic route.

I may have to give myself a stern talking-to...

Sneak preview.....

2020 has been a surprising year. 

During the trials and tribulations of the lockdown period I've discovered a whole new work ethic, freed from the constraints of appointments, shopping, socialising etc.  In common with most of my creative friends I've been acing work deadlines and multitasking like a demon.  Who knew that lockdown would prove so productive? 

My major achievement this year has been finally completing my book, which has been on my To Do list for the last decade. There have been no end of false starts and I've lost count of the number of times I've abandoned it as a lost cause.

But it's been niggling away at me, whispering 'finish me, finish me.....' and although I've mostly ignored its pleas, the opportunity presented by 2020 provided the perfect 'eye of the storm' environment to buckle down and get it done.

Now that it's finally finished I'm in an endless loop of checking and editing, double-checking and editing. 

No matter how many times I go through it, I'm still finding the odd rogue full stop, or an extra space between words, or an ugly hyphenation. I'm a bit of a pedant when it comes to grammar and punctuation and I will be mortified if any schoolgirl errors slip through.  However my over-familiarity with the text makes it really difficult to spot them.

So for the next few days I'm in editing/proofreading mode. However I just know that the nanosecond after I send the files off to the printers, I will notice a glaring mistake.  Thankfully I will receive a printed proof copy, which I'm going to have to go through with a fine toothed comb, on the hunt for inevitable flaws, but once I've made any amendments and signed off the final proof that's it.  I'm also aware that images will probably look different in print to how they do on my laptop screen.

Scary or what?

Anyway.... here's a sneak preview of the cover

I don't have any time to waste if I'm going to have the books delivered in time for the full unveiling of the website.  As soon as it's gone to the printers I don't have the luxury of resting on my laurels as I have loads to do to get the website properly up and running.

Not to mention the small matter of having been accepted to exhibit at the prestigious KDF Online Showcase at the end of next month, for which I must make a selection of new little dolls.

So I'd better get on and do another edit.... just in case.

Plan for the worst, hope for the best......

 Not entirely unexpectedly, the old Tower House Dolls website has disappeared in a puff of smoke.  We had hoped that it might remain online a a marker of our presence but the recent server upgrades completely annihilated it.

The end of an era.

However, there is no time to mourn and work continues on the new, improved website.  It's all fresh and shiny but the back end is really unfamiliar, and I'm proceeding on the basis of trial and error... trying things to see what works and what doesn't.  My learning curve is practically vertical and I'm way out of my comfort zone, also every time I learn something new it pushes old stuff out of my brain... but so far so good and progress is steady, albeit slow.

It's the first time I've been without a website in 25 years so I do feel a bit cast adrift, but hopefully it's only temporary. 

End of an era.....

Eeeeek!  So it's done.

The THD website is in hibernation...we have no idea whether it will remain online as it is, or whether it will suddenly disappear in a puff of ether, but aside from the home page it is essentially dormant.

I feel a bit panicky, as though a lifeline has been cut, which is ridiculous, as I still have my blog and the THD FB page which I can use as sales channels, but the standalone simplicity of the website has gone.

There will be a slight hiatus before the new site is ready to launch.... partly through necessity and partly deliberately, as we need to thoroughly test it to remove any glitches and I'm still working on uploading content.  Also I will have several new lines and need to make sure that I have enough stock.

So the next few weeks will be a whirlwind of activity, although there is a limit to the amount of time I can spend on the new website before my brain attempts to clamber out through my ears and strangle me. 

However, in other news, the book is coming along nicely and I'm tentatively on track to have it ready to go to print by the end of October.  I have to complete photos for 30 pages, then thoroughly edit, edit, edit and check for errors.

The cover design is also progressing and overall I'm pleased with how the whole thing is turning out.  Of course until I see an actual proof copy I won't know exactly how it will translate from my laptop screen onto the printed page, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it. 

So.... I'd better go and get on then. 

No displacement activity here.

No siree.

*sigh*

Final Clearance Sale.....!

There will be an inevitable hiatus between the closing of our existing website next week, and the unveiling of the new one.  Hopefully just a few weeks but it is going to take us longer than originally anticipated to get it up and running.

So I've decided to have one final clearance sale which is now live. I don't intend to have any old stock items on the new website, so there are reductions of up to 60% currently up for grabs, from mixed lots of miniatures, to discontinued kit components, all at greatly reduced prices.

Just click on the image below to go straight to the website.... happy shopping! 

Happy days......

 Quick update on my recent mega firing.... it was perfect!!!

Porcelain perfection.... no chalky spots, no shiny noses, no cracks or bubbles.  It couldn't have gone better, for which I am supremely grateful as the contents of the kiln represented many, many months of work to get to the point where I was ready to bisque fire and a disastrous firing would have been a mortal blow.

Happy days indeed.

It will take many more months of china painting sessions and subsequent firings before they reach the final stage of re-uniting all the bodies with their respective arms and legs in several marathon stringing sessions, but the really worrisome part is over and I can take my time with the rest.

Onwards and upwards..... 😊

Feeling hot, Hot, HOT!

After several weeks of fairly autumnal weather.... cool mists, grey skies, rain etc.... summer has returned for a last hurrah, and the next three days are set to be sizzling.

Which is why I'm now berating myself for choosing today to do a full bisque kiln firing.  This is the current temperature it has reached, thankfully the top temperature, which it has to hold for 15 minutes before switching itself off.

Which I time to make sure it does.....then

Inside it's hotter than Hades.... a white heat that would melt your face off if you were ever mad enough to open the lid.

It will gradually cool down over the next 24 hours and around this time tomorrow it will be cool enough for me to open the lid, although the contents will still be uncomfortably hot to handle.

Contained within are around 300 assorted tiny dolls, with their respective arms and legs.... so approximately 1200 limbs.  It's taken many months to cast, soft fire then laboriously soft clean each piece ready to bisque fire, and it will be several months more before all of the faces have been meticulously china painted and fired 2-3 times more.  Then arms and legs will have to be re-united with their bodies and carefully strung to create jointed, movable limbs.

Despite packing the four kiln shelves with military precision, I was unable to fit everything in, and I estimate that there are enough limbs left over to half fill the kiln for a future firing, so I know I will be tempted to cast more in order to fill the remaining space.  Seems such a waste not to.

Opening the kiln after a bisque firing is always a nail-biting, trepidatious time. Hopefully I will discover a perfect fire, no breakages, bubbling or cracks.  The vitrified porcelain should be a velvety matte, not chalky, or more disastrously, bubbled and shiny.  

An underfire, although frustrating can be remedied by re-firing. An overfire is impossible to rectify and the entire kilnload would have to be dumped.  In all my 30+ years of dollmaking, this has only ever happened once, a long time ago, in a previous kiln, where a piece of porcelain fell against the kiln sitter, preventing it from tripping the kiln off when the correct temperature was reached. As a result the temperature climbed and climbed, and we were only alerted by the smell of burning as the floor beneath the kiln melted.

Thankfully we found out before the whole house went up in flames, but since then on I mount the kiln on a piece of old kitchen worktop and ensure that I am always present in the final stages.  Of course it's much easier to monitor what's going on inside with the aid of the computerised panel on my current kiln, which accurately relays the internal temperature, and stage of the firing. 

However, it's impossible to gauge exactly what's gone on until the lid can be opened. Pieces can shift, shelves and shelf supports can collapse, kiln elements can slip out of their grooves.... any of these could cause catastrophic results.

So fingers crossed.  In the meantime we're trying to disperse the heat by leaving all the doors open.  I'll keep you posted on the grand opening tomorrow.....