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nid_dabeille) wrote2009-05-16 07:15 pm
nid_dabeille) wrote2009-05-16 07:15 pm
Entry tags:
mini bookcase and marmalade
I made a bookcase for Stephen's dispensary (which features so prominently in the "Sir! Sir, it's Mister Hollom!" scene and elsewhere... What, you've never noticed it?) as well as a random jar of marmalade for him to breakfast upon.
I also adapted an old shelf/dresser thing that I've had since childhood in my old dollhouse, but I never quite liked it. However, I found that it fits perfectly in the low-ceilinged sick bay, so I decided to use it there with some adaptations. I think it just may be the only thing that comes from my original collection of miniatures! Mostly because none of those things are good enough for Jack and Stephen.
Bookcase in progress
The shelf with the rail below is to hold his largest bottles that won't fit on regular shelves. The rail is to keep them from falling out or over in a heavy sea (which is also the reason for doors on the bookcase, I imagine.) Really I had no idea what was below the bookcase (even after poring over countless screencaps and adjusting the brightness and contrast to TRY to see what it was), so I decided just to invent a shelf for big bottles. Because it was easy and because I'm kind of lazy and because I really didn't want to have to make more books than absolutely necessary. (Why does Stephen have to have so many books in his dispensary???) So far I've made 3 books. Phew.
Here's the beginning of the breakfast stuff, with the marmalade. (I keep wanting to type marmelade, which Wikipedia tells me is the name of a town in Haiti and a misspelling of marmalade. I think I must have been spelling it wrong all these years!)
I made the jar out of some tubing and jewelry findings, and the marmalade itself out of Realistic Water and some shavings of an orange plastic prescription bottle.
Here's the old dresser shelf thing.
So I ripped off all the fronts of the drawers and made new ones, as well as removing most of the varnish and also some of the stain in the lower portion, because I expect it's gotten wet several times in its life. Probably not submerged in standing water, but what with leaky walls and all, and the sickbay being located right at the stern where the ship goes crashing forward into the waves, I expect it gets wet sometimes. And I dirtied and scratched it up too.
I don't know what he'll put in there. Bandages and lint, non-precious things.
And just for curiosity of how it would look, I took this picture of a view out their window. (I set the roombox up in front of my computer screen.) "There's the Acheron, and - hey wait a minute, that's us over there!"
I also adapted an old shelf/dresser thing that I've had since childhood in my old dollhouse, but I never quite liked it. However, I found that it fits perfectly in the low-ceilinged sick bay, so I decided to use it there with some adaptations. I think it just may be the only thing that comes from my original collection of miniatures! Mostly because none of those things are good enough for Jack and Stephen.
Bookcase in progress
The shelf with the rail below is to hold his largest bottles that won't fit on regular shelves. The rail is to keep them from falling out or over in a heavy sea (which is also the reason for doors on the bookcase, I imagine.) Really I had no idea what was below the bookcase (even after poring over countless screencaps and adjusting the brightness and contrast to TRY to see what it was), so I decided just to invent a shelf for big bottles. Because it was easy and because I'm kind of lazy and because I really didn't want to have to make more books than absolutely necessary. (Why does Stephen have to have so many books in his dispensary???) So far I've made 3 books. Phew.
Here's the beginning of the breakfast stuff, with the marmalade. (I keep wanting to type marmelade, which Wikipedia tells me is the name of a town in Haiti and a misspelling of marmalade. I think I must have been spelling it wrong all these years!)
I made the jar out of some tubing and jewelry findings, and the marmalade itself out of Realistic Water and some shavings of an orange plastic prescription bottle.
Here's the old dresser shelf thing.
So I ripped off all the fronts of the drawers and made new ones, as well as removing most of the varnish and also some of the stain in the lower portion, because I expect it's gotten wet several times in its life. Probably not submerged in standing water, but what with leaky walls and all, and the sickbay being located right at the stern where the ship goes crashing forward into the waves, I expect it gets wet sometimes. And I dirtied and scratched it up too.
I don't know what he'll put in there. Bandages and lint, non-precious things.
And just for curiosity of how it would look, I took this picture of a view out their window. (I set the roombox up in front of my computer screen.) "There's the Acheron, and - hey wait a minute, that's us over there!"
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It's great that you put the before and after pictures of the dresser, because you can see what a huge difference you made in the doors. And your use of the plastic pharmacy bottle is inspired.
I love the view out the windows!
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Hee, the view out the windows is kind of funny. It looks like I did it with a blue screen.
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Perhaps you could look up some of the medical terms listed on Kerry Webb's Maturin Medicine site -
Maturin's Medicine
to create labels.
Yes Stephen I'm sure likes Sophie's marmalade almost as much as Jack, but unfortunately no hot buttered crumpets are to be found on a man-of-war, just hard tack. *g*
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I do like that website! But the labels are about the size of a grain of rice, so I wouldn't be able to write anything on them. I've made some tiny indistinct pencil scribbles on them, but that's all.
Hard tack and toast! I'll have to make those next for the breakfast scene! There was a fellow miniaturist who was going to make a plate of hard tack with two weevils for me, but then she disappeared. Oh well, I'll just have to do it myself.
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You know, I'm tempted to make a Merlin miniature scene, Gaius' laboratory. But that's faaaar down the list, after an Antarctic hut and a Hebridean blackhouse and the basement of the perfumerie in "Perfume"... Wait a minute, that shop was on a bridge. How did it have a basement?
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Haha, well, I have no idea. Maybe the strange construction was the reason for the bridge collapsing in the end?
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But I think the perfume basement and the Gaius lab are mainly because I love Stephen's sickbay and dispensary and all the BOTTLES and chemical/scientific gadgets. I'm really surprised I haven't seen any Merlin miniatures yet. There are SO many Harry Potter miniatures. Somehow I would have thought the same magic/olde-tyme apothecarian things would correspond.
(HEE I LOVE MERLIN)
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I especially love the marmalade jar and the view out of the window!
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Everything you make is amazing. The refurbishing of the old dollhouse piece is excellent. It was an odd little piece. It looks like the top over the drawers is not level, but slopes down a bit. But now it really looks like something, and no doubt Stephen will find it very useful. I particularly love the little white knob handles on the drawer. Very nice!
And, what a view! Of course, if any other ships got that close, I suspect Jack would be taking pot shots at them! Oh, but they are British, of course, or they would never have gotten that close!
Delightful, as always!
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*snug* You're a treasure.
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It's crazy, being a conservator has been so freeing. I have much less respect for objects now and have no fear in ripping things apart, bwahahaha. It used to be I would NEVER have altered something store-bought, because I wanted it to be pristine and all. But now, NO RESPECT. Rrrrrip!
Bookcases, gilly!
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I hadn't really worked in miniatures since my undergrad days (early 20s), and back then I hardly had any money, and I was also easier to please with the way things were when purchased. Plus I was fitting out a 1930s/Victorian dollhouse, and it's not so hard to find things suitable for that era (1930s family living in a Victorian house, that is). Fitting out a dirty dark damp leaky ship demands a whole different style of furniture - stuff that's dirty, damp and leaky and also sturdy and either built-in or highly portable. I really love the idea of campaign furniture now, and things that fold up or come apart or put together, or even things like the bookcase that has doors and rails to hold things in place... The chest/dresser and the bookcase I've decided were purpose-built for the spaces they are going to occupy.
Anyway. So conservation does have some to do with it, and probably also has a lot to do with my hand skills and confidence.
Previously I did do SOME adapting, like changing upholstery or bedlinens when I didn't like them. But never anything quite so drastic as ripping the fronts of drawers off.
Long answer!
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I made a little Stephen with a dollmaker. Don't know how accurate it is, for the pics usually don't show his lower half.
http://christianisthelawr.deviantart.com/art/Stephen-Maturin-Doll-122931753
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And little miniature dolls would be cute too, but I don't think I'd ever be quite satisfied with them.
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I made a bunch of little BB dolls and now I'm trying to make some M&C.
http://chrisisthelawr.livejournal.com/2669.html
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(here via
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