nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
On a sudden whim I decided to make an ambulance volante, or flying ambulance, as invented by Dominique Jean Larrey, surgeon-in-chief to Napoleon's army.  He designed them in the 1790s, and I've always loved them and him.

Pictures:


pictures )

More to come later!

nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I've been making lots of bonnets and hats!  Tanti tanti, and tiny!  These are all 1:12 scale unless otherwise mentioned.

  

bonnets and hats! )
.
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I've made a new poppet for a friend. He's a mid-18th century British marine corporal and his name is McIntyre. I love him and think he's heart-snatchingly handsome and possibly my finest poppet yet (though still imperfect).



pictures! )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I haven't entirely finished the sick bay, but I decided to take some photographs of it today.  I'll take more when I have all of the electricity hooked up (two lanterns and an oil lamp.)  I've almost made some more bottles of specimens (some of which are available at my Etsy).  And I was given a pair of "live" specimens by my friend [personal profile] latin_cat , so I took some pictures of them investigating their new surroundings.

   

pictures )

.
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I was commissioned to make replicas of the Chawton Cottage table and chair where Jane Austen did much of her writing.  It was a very enjoyable endeavor!  I hope the owner will be pleased when she receives them.  I think I can say they're some of the finest things I've made. 

The front legs of the chair and the turned pedestal of the table were adapted from existing miniature turned pieces, but everything else I made from scratch.



pictures )
.
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
A brief poppet picspam.  I just got these little model ships today and couldn't resist showing them off. 

It's funny to see how CLEAN and pristine Jerrold is compared to Jack, but that's because he hasn't seen any action yet.  Jack and I are rather proud of his scars, though I'm glad there's not a Killick around to nag us.  Jack's lost 80% of his gold braid, and I've given up trying to glue it back on.


pics )

nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
My latest poppets are Lt. Martin Jerrold and Isobel Dawson from The Reluctant Adventures of Martin Jerrold series by Edwin Thomas.



pictures! )

bonnet!

Jan. 10th, 2010 01:32 pm
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I've suddenly become obsessed with making miniature bonnets.  Here is one.



bonnet pictures )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
My poppet of Elizabeth Bennet received a brown velvet bonnet as a Christmas present, made by me.  Actually it was a gift to Lizzy's owner, but it fit the poppet better than it fit her.

I'm rather pleased with my bonnet making of late!




bonnet pics )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
My newest pair of poppets, a Christmas gift for a friend.  Meet Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy!



pics! )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
General Sir Arthur Wellesley, Field Marshal the Duke of Wellington, who of course belongs now and always to [personal profile] latin_cat .



pictures )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
It's a poppet picspam and travelogue from Jack and Stephen, from their time in Kent visiting poppet friends Cotton and Maggie.



pictures )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I have at long last finished a set of specimens in jars, some to keep for Stephen's dispensary (though not for dispensing purpose, I hope) and the rest for Etsy.  

I also finished another batch of mini books.  I'm much more efficient now that I know what I'm doing.  It's nice to know what I'm doing.

No commentary, just pictures.



pictures! )
.
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I've made some new poppets for my friend sharpiefan!  And I think they might be my best yet.  Of course Jack and Stephen will always be my favorites, but I'm very enamored with this pair.  I could easily get addicted to making poppets...



meet Cotton and Maggie )

poppets

Aug. 16th, 2009 12:06 am
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I'm making some new poppets for a friend, and it reminded me that there were some Jack and Stephen poppet pictures I never posted after my Alaska trip, showing all the wear and tear they'd been through and their happy reunion with their wives.  Also, my niece made up a song about them when I stopped in California on my way home, and I have a video of her singing it.


poppets )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I have more or less finished Stephen Maturin's dispensary!  There are still a few things I need to make and add, but I'm ready to reveal pictures.



lots of pictures )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)



A couple of days ago I was on the front page of Etsy!  At least, some of my miniature apothecary bottles were.  (First column, third row down.)  Amazing!  They sold quickly, and then I got several messages from other people who wanted to buy some, so I whipped up some new ones.  I feel really undeservedly lucky in my Etsy endeavor.  But I've just had my first repeat customer, so that's great!  I'm so glad people like my things.

Also, I forgot to mention that recently my miniature books were featured on Fluffy Bricks!  Thank you, longlongwaytogo!  I feel special and famous!




nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
My mini dispensary is, I think, structurally finished now!



pictures )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I'm mini-spamming because I'm mini-crafting quite a lot lately.  Here are just a couple of Jackish pictures, primarily to show off the new inkwell and quill I made for him.

   

miniatures for Jack )


nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I have been making more miniature books, and I have also sold some to my first customer!  I made a set of six which have found their new home in a hobbit house.  It makes me happy to think that Bilbo and Frodo Baggins will be reading my tiny books.  

And I've also finally set up an Etsy store!  My store is called honeyandbee, and I am selling many things similar to what I make for my own miniature Jack and Stephen.  Some are indeed prototypes of things I've made for them (such as the pocket watch, some of the messy bottles, and the dirty well-worn ledger.)

So, on to pictures!

     

miniature books and more! )

nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I've been making a ton of miniature books, filling up the bookcase that I recently made for Stephen's dispensary.  They're made with real leather and hand-marbled papers, and some have gold tooling in the labels.  They don't open, though.  They simply grace the shelves.  Or the floor, or any other surface requiring a book.

I might consider making and selling some more.  

And in case you ask, I get the leather and marbled papers from the place where I work.  I don't know where one would get such materials by retail though.



mini books )

nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
I bought some miniature marbles from J.R. Hooper, and they're amazing!!!

I had been wanting some clear beads without holes that I could use as stoppers for my miniature bottles, and then I realized that I could probably ask the marbles man that I kept seeing on ebay.  And of course, since his regular marbles were so wonderful, I just had to get some of them too.  So he custom-made the clear ones for me, and I ordered a tiny sampler bag of a variety of his different marbles.  So incredible and beautiful and tinier than I could have imagined.  Each one is like the head of a pin.



TINY! AWESOME! MARBLES! )

linked at [community profile] miniature .
nid_dabeille: bee (jack acheron)
There was good lighting today, so I decided to take some daylight pictures of the cabin.  After all, its not always night time with music and candlelight.



pictures )

linked at [livejournal.com profile] doll_houses  and [livejournal.com profile] little_world .
nid_dabeille: bee (stephen book)
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.

     

pictures )

nid_dabeille: bee (jack shrunk)
This is not one of my miniature projects, but one that was posted in [livejournal.com profile] hms_surprise  and in the Aubrey-Maturin Appreciation Society on Facebook.  It is James Choi's model of the Surprise, and it's just wonderful!  Look at it!  It will fill you with glee.  It's just marvelous.

       

     

Sigh, it fills me with glee AND with envy.  I want to make it too!  I wish I was making it.  However, I don't think I would enjoy the rigging at all, and I would also possibly get bored making dozens of the same things over and over, like all the guns.  Maybe not though.  But it would also be hard for me to work at that small scale.  Hmm.  Still, oh, it's very tempting.  Also, oddly enough, I don't really care to have the finished product of a ship.  I just want the process of making it.  What I really need to make is a 1:12 ship with no rigging.  Hmm...  Maybe a ship made out of lots and lots of roomboxes that fit together like a puzzle.  I don't know what it is that I want, but I WANT IT.

Edit:  Aww, look at this picture and caption particularly.  It will give you heartbubbles.

nid_dabeille: bee (jack shrunk)
Structurally, the miniature great cabin is finished!  Only structurally, mind.  It is also furnished and somewhat adorned and fully electrified, but I'm sure it will always be a work in progress.  It will never be officially FINISHED, of course.  And while I'm still working on the sick bay below, I'll have to keep unplugging it and taking all the furniture and accessories out so I can move it around, so I haven't even really had a chance to lay out all the little things - sextant, books, bicorn, sheet music, maps...  I did do a mini photo shoot though, with some of the things in place.  So take a peek!



pictures! )

linked at [livejournal.com profile] little_world  and [livejournal.com profile] doll_houses .  Oh all right, and [livejournal.com profile] hms_surprise  and [livejournal.com profile] perfect_duet  and [livejournal.com profile] anything_aos and the Gunroom, because lots of comments make me happy.

nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
The last time we heard from Jack and Stephen, they were visiting the north pole (or close to it), having tried unsuccessfully to catch a ride with passing Eskimos in their umiak.  So they had to search for other ways to get home, having had enough of the cold and wanting to go home to their sweethearts.



final arctic adventures )
nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
Or about as close as they're going to get for a good long while.  The north pole, that is.

When last we heard from our poppets, they were journeying through the arctic tundra, overcoming great obstacles...

And now, they journey well into the arctic, up above even the arctic circle where no poppet has gone before.

Facing great perils!!!




pictures )

nid_dabeille: bee (Default)


The last time we heard from the poppets, they were in California meeting Captain Bob and his charming wife Rose.  Well, after riding on the back of a dolphin for a while, they found a suitable ship to take them north. 



nid_dabeille: bee (Default)
Jack and Stephen are on the move again, this time traveling with me to California.  They met a very gracious hostess - two, actually.  One my niece Amelia, and the other a small porcelain lady named Rose.


Jack and Stephen in California )