Probably my last plants

I was looking through my stash of things to see if I had a pot for my proposed Swiss cheese plant and discovered a white rose kit which was a lovely surprise.  This led to continuing the stock check to see if I had enough vases or pots or whatever for my proposed three plants; inexorably this led to me treating myself to these.

I wanted to share this purchase in case you are looking for perfect scale, hand blown, paper-thin glass at a price you can afford.  The vendor is just the very best.  Glasscraft
Nothing here costs more than £7 ($8.80) and the cute tadpole in a jam jar at the front was all of £3.50 ($4.40)

The bon-bon dish is 'silver' with two gilded cranberry glass dishes

The perfume bottle has a removable long-stemmed perfume stopper and is incredibly dainty

apologies I put the stopper back in wonky.

With enough vases now but still no answer to the Swiss cheese plant container I decided to press on.

Ladies Mile Miniatures

as usual I added veins

wires glued to the back

I made a cardboard pot; later it was painted silver grey.  In these pictures it is at its inception with the surplus cardboard on its bottom waiting to be cut off, trim added and then painted.

When the leaves were all cut to different lengths but not yet finished, they were shoved into their proposed embryonic container and placed in the room to see if they were going to work.

chair at the front with plant at the back??

the reverse version??

The grey pot was soon discarded as it was too clunky and I found this over-size vase/pot in my things and used this.  The leaves were bent into shape and glazed with Americana triple thick brush on gloss and glaze - any pva glue will do the job.

The first decision for the final room was this

After eating a pizza and wondering what to do with the lovely little 'table' in the box the next iteration became this.

now centre front and small rocking chair added into the left hand corner

 It sits very well on its pizza box spacer, smack bang in the dormer window grabbing all the light it can.

So, on to the roses.  I have shown you a picture of the real plant first, so you can see how careful Theresa Stringer is in making her plants realistic.

Rosa x alba 'Alba Semiplena'

White rose of York

the real one

great kit as always Ladies Mile Miniatures

top

side

back

ten and and one extra

Looks best in front of the mirror .......

............. but I wanted them on this side of the hall where there was going to be a painting but I think they will be too 'busy in front of that.  I have a fetish for symmetry.

This little tweak will cost me a good amount of money as I now have to buy another Jim Coates Trumeau mirror for the other side of the hall for perfect symmetry.  The postage will cost me as much as the mirror.

My second flower was a rose.

Pink Standard Rose 'Maiden's Blush

the real one

Ladies Mile Miniatures

in process

top

side

 I loved making the buds.  The pieces for these buds/centre of the rose are cut on a sort of angle - like a child's windmill so they 'want' to overlap each other.  If you just gently roll them between your fingers they fold over each other beautifully.

A word about stamens - all flower makes start with adding a small blob of glue to one end of the paper covered wire to stop the petals being pushed off.  You need to decide if this is going to be visible or not and, if visible, what colour it needs to be painted.  In something like these roses they were not intended to be seen so they can be left like this.  The glue dries almost clear and takes on the colour of the green paper underneath so they are very subtle.

ta - dah

This story has a bit of a sad ending.  I bought these for the music room without really thinking about it and now realise they just don't look nice in there.  It proved difficult to find a place for some flowers in that room and, if I did, they really need to be yellow as the room is grey and gold, this pink just jars.  Hey ho, one for the sell-it box.

Cleome - Ladies Mile Miniatures

I absolutely love making plants.  I barely ever find it frustrating or annoying.  It is one of those tasks that I slide into happily; radio four drama (or two) to keep me company and an afternoon or a morning is whiled away allowing me to feel omnipotent and able to create a 'living' plant.

Ladies Mile Miniatures offers a fabulous choice of kits if, like me, you don't have the requisite punches and such like to work from scratch.  The service is excellent and prices good and quality top notch.

I chose a Cleome (Spider Flower) for my dining room vase.  This was a bit of a daft choice as this is a three to five foot high shrub and is rarely used as a cut flower because of its size.  Hey ho, I like them and I don't have any outside growing space because my house is part of a row of Georgian terraces so they are going to have to go in a vase.

This is how my blissful afternoon went along .....

Always a nicely packaged and presented kit with absolutely perfect instructions.  I won't do the step by step thing as it is done so well in the kit but I thought I would share some moments which might add something to your understanding of what's going on if you are doing your first flower kit and show you what 'tools'  I use to complete them

First thing is to take your wire stems and add a blob of glue.  The photo is to show you what I work on.  I have a glass tile - a few pence from B & Q years ago.  As you can see it is handy for any small amounts of glue or paint.  When it gets rather full it just goes in a wash basin of warm water and soaks for a  little while, then a bit of a rub and, voila, brand new again.

This photo is maybe a handy tip.  All my wires are poked into a bit of styrene.  I couldn't find my spare piece so I just grabbed the one I use to keep my drill bits in; but you get the idea.

I then discovered the blobs of glue were sort of running down the wire slightly so, with a bit of ingenuity, gravity was inverted.

This is a share in case you ever see one of these any where.  It is just the best way to keep glue handy and ready to go.  I used to keep my glue upside down in a mug until I had this.  The downside of that method is that the cap is always full of glue when you take it off.  This little stand allows the glue to stand in its own little puddle of glue without a cap and that seals it nice and airtight.  It comes free easily when you want to use it.  Absolutely ready to go at all times.  I can't help with buying one of these stands as it was bought at an American show years ago and I was told it was the last she would have.  I am sure some of you can make one like it for yourself .  The glue stand part of it just has a support and a base with a small groove in it for the nozzle.

Often the glue blobs are painted yellow to represent pollen coated stamens but cleome just have a bud filled centre so it needed to be painted a matching pink.  So the tip here is to just google and check out your real life plant to be sure you are on the right track.  I had some very, very, pale pink, acrylic paint (paint samples) so (here comes the next handy tip) I just mixed in a little red water colour to get to the right shade.  Both paints are water based so they mix just fine.  I couldn't paint the glue blobs with water paints as they don't have the sort of pigmentation and durability to do the job that acrylic has.

Pink bud centres all ready to go.

Tweezers are useful when making plants for picking up and placing things.  These are the three I own.  Any would do, but the bottom pair is very much the best for this task if you do have to buy some. 

From now on its a simple case of threading and gluing three lots of petals.

A small amount of glue behind each section.  The photo is to show you the tool used - a cocktail stick.

Left to right - three with three layers, three with two layers and four with the small first layer

How the flowers look when finished, now for the leaves.

From the left, top row; one side pale colour, the other side darker green, and the third shows lines drawn for the veins.  Bottom row of two leaves turned over to the right side.  On the left hows the indentation made near the stem and the right shows the stalk bent back ready to stick to the stem.  Using a mouse mat you make indented lines on the reverse of the leaf (all in the instructions)  I am mentioning it because I usually do this with a very sharp coloured pencil just a shade darker than the leaf colour.  I know it is on the underside but it can sometimes add some 'interest' and reality to the finish.  It looks crude in this photo but remember you are seeing the leaves much bigger than they are in real life.

They are a bit OTT but I love them.

I am feeling a very sad that I won't be making any more flowers when I have done the next two kits as this is to be my last project.

If you are considering having a go I would say a good rule of thumb is, if your eyesight and dexterity are good enough to thread a needle, you will be able to make plants and maybe enjoy it as much as I do.

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If you are reading this across the pond - when I spent half my year in the States I used to buy from SDK Miniatures LLC which are also good to do.