Creatin' Contest

In 2014 the girls and I entered the Miniatures.com 21st Annual Creatin' Contest.  For this contest, entrants were invited to create a miniature scene from the Houseworks Garage kit (minus the working door.)  We made a ghost house, complete with headless ghost dolls.

To decorate the house, we made miniature headless portraits from internet photos and antique frozen charlotte dolls.

We even found a headless horse:

As I write this, I believe I may have insight into to why we did not win this contest.  But it sure was fun to make!

SCWBI Anti-Valentine Contest

The Society of Book Writers and Illustrators used to host regular on-line writer and illustrator contests.  In February 2008, the challenge was to draw or illustrate an anti-valentine.  I responded with this:

Bob was the model, which I disclose now to avoid centuries of speculation.

What the Fluff? Festival

Marshmallow Fluff was invented in Somerville, Massachusetts in 1917 by Archibald Query.  To celebrate this important event, Union Square Main Streets  hosts an annual What the Fluff? festival in Somerville.  The festival features Fluff-themed cooking contests, games, and exhibits.  Read more here.

If you know me at all, you have already guessed that I did not enter the cooking contest.  However, in the first year of the festival there was also an art contest which invited entrants to create Fluff-themed art.  My original plan was to create a giant Rothko using real peanut butter and Fluff, but the rules prevented me from using actual Fluff as a medium.  I settled for acrylic and colored pencil instead, and invoked the styles of Lichtenstein, Pollock, Rothko, and Warhol.    

New Project

For my next project I have decided to enter the Real Good Toys General Store Challenge. For this contest, we are invited to create a miniature store of our choosing using the Real Good Toys kit.

I confess that I am partial to both miniature stores and contests.  While I wait for my kit to arrive, I will describe some of the contests I have entered to date.

Adam Cadre Lyttle Lytton Contest

The Lyttle Lytton Contest is a shorter version of the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest, which challenges entrants to write the worst possible introductory sentence to a novel. Adam Cadre's Lyttle Lytton contest offers the same challenge, but the sentence must be 30 words or less.

I am proud to say that I received honorable mentions in the 2007 and 2009 contests, which pleased me disproportionately.  But the finest moment of all was when Megan's entry placed in 2010.  Here was Megan's entry:

   "Once upon a time, there was a talking lamp whose lightbulb fell out and hit a person and the person got shocked and destroyed everything."

Cadre wrote of her entry, "This is such an uncanny recreation of the way five-year-olds tell stories that I assume that the Axe Cop audience would buy up the entire first printing." Megan was actually six when she wrote this, not five, but close enough.

Family Heirloom

We visited Bob's parents in Florida this year for Christmas.  While we were there, my mother-in-law showed us these wonderful plaster sheep that Bob's father had made as a child.  Bob's father was born in 1934, so these are most likely from the early 1940s.

I love that they still have them, and they look perfect with the other sheep in the manger.

Here they are with the full nativity scene.

Happy Holidays!

Travel Charm Bracelet

I've decided to share my charm bracelet as well.

To me, the most interesting bracelets are the souvenir travel kind.  I thought it would be fun to recreate my own travel bracelet with charms from the places we have visited.

We traditionally take one vacation a year during the last week of August.  When our kids were younger, this represented the uncovered child care week between the end of camp and the beginning of school.  The girls are in high school now, but I still look forward to that week as the official end of summer and start of the new school year.

Since I retrofitted my bracelet, I had the luxury of scouring eBay, Etsy, and Ruby Lane to find the perfect charm for each trip.  I will describe them now, moving from left to right:

1) Bovina Center, NY - Bob and his family spent a week at Bovina Center every summer when he was young.  They stayed on Mrs. Todd's dairy farm, and he loved playing there with his cousins. We took the girls back to the farm when they were toddlers, and they loved it just as much.  To represent this trip, I found a celluloid Elise the Cow charm from the 1939 NY World's fair.

2) Montreal - We went to Canada in 2015 and toured Montreal, Toronto, and Niagara Falls.  In Montreal we visited the science museum and saw an imax movie about pandas who were bred in captivity and then released into the wild.   Before releasing the pandas, scientists tried to teach the pandas some basic survival skills.  And to do so, the scientists dressed in full sized panda suits that were smothered in "panda scents" so they could approach the pandas without suspicion.  (The suits looked a bit like the Elmo costumes in Times Square.)  The narrator described the process of covering the suits in panda urine.  During this description, the camera focused on the face of one of the scientists who was dressed in full costume, but carried the head piece as he walked closer to the panda habitat.  His expression was both miserable and  priceless.  And to remind me of this experience, I chose this retired Pandora panda head, which looks very much like the costume.    

3) Niagara Falls - This was part of the same Canada trip in 2015.  There are many vintage charms available from Niagara Falls, both New York and Canada.  I chose this art-deco Bates & Klinke charm from the 1940s/1950s.

4) Nantucket - Nantucket was our tradition for a while.  We rented a house there for a week during the summers of  2012, 13, 14, and 16.  We live in an apartment in Queens, so it was a nice for the girls to experience stairs, grass, and their own rooms.  We rented bikes for the week, and toured the island by bike and on foot.

Our longest bike ride was from Nantucket to Siasconset, roughly 7 miles each way.  It was a beautifully scenic ride which took most of the day to complete.  But since our girls are from Queens, they were unaccustomed to biking, and one of them (I will not reveal which) spent the majority of said ride and therefore said day screaming "MY BUTT HURTS!" So I chose this "Entering Siasconset" road sign to remind me of this magical moment.

5) Yellowstone - We visited Yellowstone National Park in 2017.  Yellowstone was extraordinary, and I was completely amazed by the landscape and geology.  Here is a picture of the girls enjoying Sulphur Caldron:

But my favorite part of the Yellowstone trip was seeing the bison up close.  For this reason, I chose a bison Cracker Jack charm from the 1930s to represent our Yellowstone trip.

6) Disney World - We went to Disney World and Universal Studios in 2018.  There are many Disney charms available, but I opted for this Mickey topiary bead.  It reminded me of the beautiful landscaping that we saw at the parks:

7) First Robotics National Competition - Detroit, Michigan- Megan is part of an all-girls robotics team called the Fe Maidens.  They made it to nationals in 2018, and I went with Megan to the competition.  This was a fantastic experience, and I found this Pandora robot bead to mark it.

That summarizes our travels to date. I still have room on the bracelet, so more to come in 2019!

Macy's Parade Charm Bracelet

I confess that I am partial to charm bracelets.  First, they have an interesting history, and second, they are essentially portable miniatures.  I have a small collection of  Cracker Jack charms which I've used in various miniature settings.

My mother likes charm bracelets also, and I decided to make her one for Christmas.  (By "make" I  mean assemble pieces that other people have made.  If you have read my blog, you may be noticing a pattern.)

My parents moved to Manhattan when they retired.  Their apartment is on 6th Avenue between 56th and 57th Streets, which means on Thanksgiving they have an angled view of the Macy's parade.   Our new Thanksgiving tradition includes watching the parade from their apartment.

So for my mother's bracelet, I thought it would be fun to use a Macy's Parade theme. Since I am not a jeweler, I opted for the European style bracelet which is easy to construct with slide-on beads. The European charms are also rounder and appear more balloon-like.  I found the charms on eBay and Etsy, so I am not entirely sure of their origins -  but I will label the ones that I know.

1) Pillsbury Doughboy - This was the first charm that I searched for.  I found a pendant from the 1980s and attached it to a bead that was compatible with the European bracelets.  (I found both the converter bead and jump ring on Etsy.)

2) Charlie Brown - This bead is made by Persona, and looks almost exactly like the balloon.

3) Macy's Star

4) Marching Band - This is an English toy soldier bead by Pandora.

5) Macy's Elf 

 6) Santa 

7) Mickey Mouse -  This is one of the Pandora Disney charms.

I also found letter beads to spell out "Macy's," and clips that looked like marching band drums.  The full bracelet is below.

Finished!

I confess that I did not want this project to end.  But despite this sentiment, I completed the final blocking of my miniature museum.  Here it is from many angles:

And here it is next to the miniature shop.

Thank you again to Bob, Megan, and Devon, the Edward Gorey House, and the Cultural Center of Cape Cod.  This was amazingly fun, and I look forward to the auction in the Spring!

Mini Signs

The signs were a small but crucial detail.  I mounted them in tiny half-scale frames.

They definitely added to the museum feel:

And now for the final blocking!

Exquisite Amber

I made a large, rare amber specimen from this amber-colored teardrop that I found at the kickoff.

Using a 1:12 scale, this sample would be approximately 30" long.  Exquisite indeed!  I tried researching world's largest amber sample, and found this history of the Amber Room instead.   The Amber Room was built in 18th century Europe, and once contained several tons of amber.  I won't reveal the rest, but it's well worth the read.