It's been a really busy week.
Having embarked on the mammoth task of sorting through all my molds there was no going back, and I am, at last, on the final few boxes.
However the house now looks like a bomb site, assuming that the site in question was a mold-making factory. There is barely a millimetre of spare space anywhere in the dining room or workroom, and even Small Dog has developed a hunted expression on the rare occasions when she pops her head round the dining room door to see what I'm up to.
I'm determined to finish today, so I can work on the actual sale list over the weekend and then hopefully see them all go.
*****************************************************************************
Later the same afternoon..............
Finally finished sorting through the molds and have rehomed the ones I'm keeping in a pristinely clean cupboard where they are all huddled together for reassurance. I'm actually quite shocked by how few there are but I'm putting a brave face on it and keep telling myself it's all for the best.
However the downsizing process has produced one large completely empty double cupboard, which I have bequeathed to PP. While she was out at Tesco this afternoon I thoroughly scoured the cupboard of accumulated plaster dust and revealed it to her on her return as she's always complaining about not having enough storage for her work stuff.
Then I really got the bit between my teeth and started on some of the other cupboards and shelves too, amassing a large collection of useful miniature bits and pieces which will form part of another clearance sale later this month.
At this rate there'll be nothing left in the workroom to work on.
Perhaps there is method in my madness after all.........
Friday, 4 September 2009
Thursday, 3 September 2009
Positive work ethic.........
Well, another 8 hour day bites the dust and I have just about got to the back of each and every mould cupboard.
Of course, as a result, I can no longer get into the dining room, as hundreds of moulds are now stacked up in there, in boxes on the floor, on trays, all over the table.........which is where they will stay pending the Grand Sale which starts next week. I can't face carting them all back into the workroom and stacking them back in the cupboards. In any case,hopefully they will all sell and quickly be collected and taken off to their new lives.
In other news, the sky is glowering again.......it was a very dark and stormy night last night and it looks like it's shaping up for another tonight. Just as well we dismantled and dismembered the gazebo yesterday, otherwise it would probably be several hundred miles away by now.
In other, other news, tonight is a no-wine night.
*deep, mournful sigh*
Of course, as a result, I can no longer get into the dining room, as hundreds of moulds are now stacked up in there, in boxes on the floor, on trays, all over the table.........which is where they will stay pending the Grand Sale which starts next week. I can't face carting them all back into the workroom and stacking them back in the cupboards. In any case,hopefully they will all sell and quickly be collected and taken off to their new lives.
In other news, the sky is glowering again.......it was a very dark and stormy night last night and it looks like it's shaping up for another tonight. Just as well we dismantled and dismembered the gazebo yesterday, otherwise it would probably be several hundred miles away by now.
In other, other news, tonight is a no-wine night.
*deep, mournful sigh*
AIM Magazine.........
The September issue of the Artisans in Miniature magazine is now online, and yes those are our little creations on the cover!
This month's theme is toys, childhood, nursery etc, so I have contributed two articles, one on how my tiny toy dolls are made and another on the Lowther Arcade, a world-famous 'street' of toy and curiosity shops in Victorian London.
It's free to access/download so do have a browse......
Wednesday, 2 September 2009
It's official........
Summer is officially over.
I can state that with some certainty as we have just dismantled the summer gazebo which has graced our patio for the past several months, providing an oasis of shade in times of sweltering sunshine, and a dry haven in times of rain and showers.
The patio now looks very bare and exposed and rather uninviting.
As the gazebo was literally on its last legs, we have completely recycled it for alternative uses.
The legs will be used to prop up vegetable plants next spring, the guy strings have been rolled up into little balls and put in the 'useful' drawer. Ditto the metal D-rings and plastic doobrys.
The actual covering has been put to good use in our metal shed, which leaks in the winter and weeps condensation in the summer, so the plastic woven fabric is performing a useful function as an umbrella.
The weather forecast for the next day or so is wet and windy......it's only 6.30pm but it's so grey and gloomy outside it feels more like 8.30. As we say in Scotland, the nights are fair drawing in.
Finally, after putting in a full 8-hour day, without even a lunch break, I am about to retire to the kitchen where I will pour myself a glass of chilled white wine as a special treat.
In a spirit of health and frugality we're trying to refrain from wine Monday to Thursday (inclusive) but I feel like it's well deserved today.
Cheers!
I can state that with some certainty as we have just dismantled the summer gazebo which has graced our patio for the past several months, providing an oasis of shade in times of sweltering sunshine, and a dry haven in times of rain and showers.
The patio now looks very bare and exposed and rather uninviting.
As the gazebo was literally on its last legs, we have completely recycled it for alternative uses.
The legs will be used to prop up vegetable plants next spring, the guy strings have been rolled up into little balls and put in the 'useful' drawer. Ditto the metal D-rings and plastic doobrys.
The actual covering has been put to good use in our metal shed, which leaks in the winter and weeps condensation in the summer, so the plastic woven fabric is performing a useful function as an umbrella.
The weather forecast for the next day or so is wet and windy......it's only 6.30pm but it's so grey and gloomy outside it feels more like 8.30. As we say in Scotland, the nights are fair drawing in.
Finally, after putting in a full 8-hour day, without even a lunch break, I am about to retire to the kitchen where I will pour myself a glass of chilled white wine as a special treat.
In a spirit of health and frugality we're trying to refrain from wine Monday to Thursday (inclusive) but I feel like it's well deserved today.
Cheers!
Ay Carumba..........
This is currently the scene in our dining room.
Out of sight on the floor are another two boxes full of moulds.
In the workroom, one whole wall to wall worktop is covered with moulds.
And I haven't even started on the final cupboard yet.
Let's just say that I have many, many more moulds than I thought I had. Most of them I don't even recognise or remember having. Some of them were bought over 15 years ago and have only ever been cast once. Several dozen have never been cast at all.
I think I must have had some sort of obsessive compulsive mould madness, which compelled me to buy every new mould released by every mouldmaker, back in the day when money was no object.
Thankfully I am now in remission and enjoying the catharsis of having a bloody good clearout. I started off writing a list of the moulds for sale on scraps of paper as I went along, but I'm getting in a muddle so I'm in the process of doing a proper list, on the laptop, in a properly laid out formatted table in Word.
Which is not displacement activity at all.
Not in the slightest.
*sigh*
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Mould cull............
New week, new month, new season, new-found sense of direction.........
For some reason, lost in the mists of time, I never feel the urge to spring clean. For me, autumn seems the optimum time for a bit of a clear out in preparation for some serious nesting when winter sets in.
Mind you, I do dabble with clearouts during the rest of the year, as previous posts alluding to the 'guddle' in my workroom will attest. However I've really got the bit between my teeth this time, and have decided to attack my mould cupboards.
For the uninitiated, mould cupboards are not havens for microbacterial critters. They house my extensive collection of porcelain doll moulds going back two decades, and every now and then I try to 'rationalise' them.
This is a difficult and sometimes traumatic process, made easier by the passage of time. There was a time, maybe 5 years or so back, when even the mention of the possibility of me getting rid of a few moulds would give me a fit of the vapours, so viscerally attached was I to them.
However increasingly, I am finding it easier and less painful to slough off whole work-related areas, and happily, this includes seriously downsizing my moulds. Over the course of today I have carefully and methodically assessed around 50 molds. Some were simply past it.......the casting process gradually erodes detail, the plaster becomes less absorbent and eventually they have to be binned. My emotional attachment to them means that I cannot simply band them together and place them carefully in their final resting place in the bin.
No.
I have to take a hammer to then and smash them to smithereens.
It's the kindest way.
Thus it was today, and I merrily smashed around 20 or so worn out arm and leg moulds.
Those which I no longer want, but still have life left in them are being reprieved, and will be offered for sale as soon as I've gone through every single mould in each of my three cupboards. In fact, although all the moulds are used, there will be moulds which have only been cast a few times, so are in mint condition.
This process will take most of this week as there are several hundred moulds in total. However if anyone is interested in a bargain basement lot of miniature doll moulds (they will range from a few pence to a few pounds) and, (and this bit is VERY IMPORTANT!) can collect, I will be compiling a list as soon as I've gone through them all. Ideally I'd like them all to go together rather than piecemeal, and under no circumstances am I prepared to send any by post.
This is because they are quite bulky and heavy, and the cost of postage would far outweigh their value. Also they're a sod to package, as being made of plaster they are vulnerable to damage, and thus require acres of bubble wrap, bagfuls of poly chips and very big boxes so they don't hit against each other. As they'll be available for sale at ridiculously low prices I just haven't got the time, the energy or the inclination to spend hours and hours meticulously packaging.
If anyone is interested, leave a comment or email me direct and I'll be in contact when the list is completed. If you live in the Outer Hebrides, or mainland Europe, or across the pond, I'm assuming you're not going to be passing through St Leonards on Sea anytime in the next month or so, in which case, please only express an interest if you can actually collect within a reasonable timescale.
Right.
Off to tackle another batch...........very cathartic this downsizing lark.
For some reason, lost in the mists of time, I never feel the urge to spring clean. For me, autumn seems the optimum time for a bit of a clear out in preparation for some serious nesting when winter sets in.
Mind you, I do dabble with clearouts during the rest of the year, as previous posts alluding to the 'guddle' in my workroom will attest. However I've really got the bit between my teeth this time, and have decided to attack my mould cupboards.
For the uninitiated, mould cupboards are not havens for microbacterial critters. They house my extensive collection of porcelain doll moulds going back two decades, and every now and then I try to 'rationalise' them.
This is a difficult and sometimes traumatic process, made easier by the passage of time. There was a time, maybe 5 years or so back, when even the mention of the possibility of me getting rid of a few moulds would give me a fit of the vapours, so viscerally attached was I to them.
However increasingly, I am finding it easier and less painful to slough off whole work-related areas, and happily, this includes seriously downsizing my moulds. Over the course of today I have carefully and methodically assessed around 50 molds. Some were simply past it.......the casting process gradually erodes detail, the plaster becomes less absorbent and eventually they have to be binned. My emotional attachment to them means that I cannot simply band them together and place them carefully in their final resting place in the bin.
No.
I have to take a hammer to then and smash them to smithereens.
It's the kindest way.
Thus it was today, and I merrily smashed around 20 or so worn out arm and leg moulds.
Those which I no longer want, but still have life left in them are being reprieved, and will be offered for sale as soon as I've gone through every single mould in each of my three cupboards. In fact, although all the moulds are used, there will be moulds which have only been cast a few times, so are in mint condition.
This process will take most of this week as there are several hundred moulds in total. However if anyone is interested in a bargain basement lot of miniature doll moulds (they will range from a few pence to a few pounds) and, (and this bit is VERY IMPORTANT!) can collect, I will be compiling a list as soon as I've gone through them all. Ideally I'd like them all to go together rather than piecemeal, and under no circumstances am I prepared to send any by post.
This is because they are quite bulky and heavy, and the cost of postage would far outweigh their value. Also they're a sod to package, as being made of plaster they are vulnerable to damage, and thus require acres of bubble wrap, bagfuls of poly chips and very big boxes so they don't hit against each other. As they'll be available for sale at ridiculously low prices I just haven't got the time, the energy or the inclination to spend hours and hours meticulously packaging.
If anyone is interested, leave a comment or email me direct and I'll be in contact when the list is completed. If you live in the Outer Hebrides, or mainland Europe, or across the pond, I'm assuming you're not going to be passing through St Leonards on Sea anytime in the next month or so, in which case, please only express an interest if you can actually collect within a reasonable timescale.
Right.
Off to tackle another batch...........very cathartic this downsizing lark.
Summer's Last Hurrah................
Returned home yesterday following Bank Holiday camping trip. Weather over the weekend was mixed - biblical rain on Friday, high winds, brief periods of scorching sunshine - but yesterday the sun shone from a mostly cloudless sky and temperatures climbed, producing a shimmering heat.
However, today, 1st September, as if by magic, there is definite autumnal taste to the air. The leaves on the trees in the woods at the top of our garden are starting to turn and there is a fresh edge to the breeze which is a harbinger of things to come. The nights are now noticeable drawing in, and our BBQ on the patio last night had an indisputable 'end of summer feel' about it.
I am also painfully aware that with the demise of the summer, there are so many things that I haven't done, and the lack of items ticked off my 'to do' lists is getting me down. The 'helpful' countdown timers on my desktop inform me that just 66 days remain until our next fair, so there's nothing else for it but to roll up my sleeves and buckle down to some serious work over the next month or so.
Today, I shall be mostly doing casting.........tiny toy dolls and little toy animals. I'll take the radio into the erstwhile casting room (aka dining room) and immerse myself in technical endeavour.
And I can confidently declare that there will be absolutely NO displacement activity for me today.
However, today, 1st September, as if by magic, there is definite autumnal taste to the air. The leaves on the trees in the woods at the top of our garden are starting to turn and there is a fresh edge to the breeze which is a harbinger of things to come. The nights are now noticeable drawing in, and our BBQ on the patio last night had an indisputable 'end of summer feel' about it.
I am also painfully aware that with the demise of the summer, there are so many things that I haven't done, and the lack of items ticked off my 'to do' lists is getting me down. The 'helpful' countdown timers on my desktop inform me that just 66 days remain until our next fair, so there's nothing else for it but to roll up my sleeves and buckle down to some serious work over the next month or so.
Today, I shall be mostly doing casting.........tiny toy dolls and little toy animals. I'll take the radio into the erstwhile casting room (aka dining room) and immerse myself in technical endeavour.
And I can confidently declare that there will be absolutely NO displacement activity for me today.
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