Smokers Chair 1/12th scale

Been relaxing and having a play this week at furniture making, having never been trained in any sort of furniture making or miniature making I have this week managed to get hold of a lovely piece of an exotic fruitwood, took a bit of doing chopping it down to size but eventually did it and this is my first attempt at a decent piece of furniture, it measures just over 2-1/4" tall and is based on a smokers chairs from one of my reference books, for a first attempt I am more than happy.

Now I know how to build it I can now make a template and hopefully produce a few more chairs of different types.

No staining here, 12 different grades of sandpaper and finished with a couple of coats of lacquer, which has given a real nice smooth finish.

I'm afraid my carpentry skills does not do this piece of wood justice, but I shall keep trying, but must say 17 turned pieces and two carved pieces tested my patience to the full.

New bench

Photo is of my prototype for a cartwheel bench (3" long), just need to iron out a few things before making any more, but was an interesting learning process in making this, I will show it on my table tomorrow at Stafford and if there is any interest I will proceed and make a couple more.

Still a lot of ideas in my head so lots more to come yet.

But for now it's watercolours time, want to see if I can get the two miniatures I am working on finished in time for tomorrow.
Any yes I have, Eltz Castle, two versions, thanks Chell!

And if you are in the area then do pop into the County Showground at Stafford for what promises to be a quality Dolls House and Miniatures Fair, open 10.30 till 4 and it's only £3.50 to get in.

Do say hello to us at Harvington Miniatures if you come along.

Chamber Pots

Well a week today (Sept 9th) and we shall be at the County Showground in Stafford for the Stafford Dolls House and Miniatures Fair over 60 exhibitors at this well established fair.

And as I've said before, again we shall have new items on our stand, we somehow to manage to introduce a few new miniatures at every fair we do and for this fair we shall be selling our new Chamber Pot (or Potty).

Have done this in 1/12th and 1/24th, the photo above shows them painted in stoneware style against a background of a £1 coin, they will also be painted up in other styles.

Have also made some more new stoneware in 1/24th scale plus a couple of new pop bottles and also currently working on a couple of new paintings which I hope to have ready.

After this fair it is 6 or 7 weeks till the next one, stills lots of ideas on the table which we are working on, so I may be quiet for a couple of weeks.

Hope to see some of you there.

Thame Miniatures Fair

Well we had a great fair yesterday in Thame, lovely to meet up with old friends and some smashing customers.

Contrary to the forecast it stayed dry most of the day, even had some sunshine.

There were some quality stands and customers flowed through the door all day long, a very busy day indeed, we shall be back next year for certain.

The above painting, my copy of the 3rd Earl of Bristol (after Thomas Gainsborough) went to a really nice lady, the best painting I have done in my long career of painting and was sort of sad to actually see it go.

It is a painting that I shall not be repeating, but with a few more paintings being sold yesterday then I now have to get the paints out again.

It is the Stafford fair in just under two weeks time and have some real serious re-stocking to do, my miniature bottles and stoneware are proving very popular lately, also I have noticed a real upward trend in 1/24th scale this year, so planning to move ahead in that scale, don't know how much my poor eyes will take though.

This one is a tiny watercolour of Buckingham Palace, it measures just 7/8" x 3/4".

another miniature

Well it's just 8 days now till the Thame Miniatures fair, still busy in the workshop, as always!

Have finished a few new miniatures which will be on our Fair table at Thame, the above is a wall plaque suitable for a church, I can supply these with other inscriptions or even left blank.

This measures just 3" wide and the text has been designed by myself.

Still a lot of new miniatures in the planning stage and hope to get quite a few more new items in production over the next few weeks and with Stafford and Droitwich coming up I really need to get some extra stock made, plus I really want to get the watercolours out again.

And just before I sign off I was asked at the Worcester fair if I could make some Turps & Meths bottles. see pic below, they are now added to our extensive range of hand turned bottles.
They are both under 1" tall.

Another new miniature

Well the new fair at Worcester was quite a success for us, lots of customers through the door, special thanks to those who bought from us, look forward to being there next year.

Now we are coming towards the end of Summer we are busy replenishing our stocks, especially as we now have some of the larger fairs just round the corner we need to be prepared, so lots of time in the workshop over the next few weeks.

Plus I must find time to revamp my website, it is long overdue an overhaul.

Still lots of ideas to come, one of which can be seen above, pub signs or even shop signs, hope to have a selection for the Thame fair which is on Bank Holiday Monday August 27th, will have some blank ones as well so you slip in your own picture.

My mind is still full with ideas, downside is there is not enough hours in the day!

It's a nice sunny day here, perhaps Summer has finally arrived, I won't be holding my breath though.

Moving more toward 1/24th scale

And still going smaller, the last few fairs have seen some good sales on 1/24th scale, so a few new items will now be on our table for forthcoming shows, the photo is of some of my latest work on the lathe, a tad small and not doing my eyes much good. A few ideas are also in progress on this smaller scale and should have a much larger range of 1/24th come the autumn.
And just had to add this painting, I say this in a B&W photo the other day and just had to paint it, it is Lea castle which is no longer there and it once stood at the head of the village where I was born, Cookley.

Tomorrow we shall be exhibiting at the new miniatures fair in Worcester, it is at Perdiswell leisure Centre and hope to see some of you there.

Then it will be a three week gap until the next one which will be down at Thame.