Here I am ...

Long time, well, very long time no see. Had some health issues, but now have decided to take early retirement. Lots better!

Still doing real miniwork wasn't that easy; everything I tried turned out a disaster. Then , during my holidays I read an article in an old DH magazine about making a bunka rug. Thunk : I can do that ! So went to the website of  Little Trimmings (UK) , then to this page ( scroll down ) and ordered some kits.

Tadaaah, here is the first result :

Not exactly your Great Master work, but it looks nice enough! It is 16.5 x 10.5 cm.

A nice online tutorial can be found here ( Casey's minis ).

Pansies

While my kitty was asleep on my seat, I planted little pansies, also wire flowers, into a little white dish. Not exactly artisan, but I think they are recognizable as such.

Basic instructions for wire flowers can be found here .

and here are also some flowers to be found ( Spathyphylum) , using the selfsame technique:

Shelly Norris was the one who taught me; she makes wonderful flowers and her flowers can be found here .

How to adapt a clock kit, to make it work

This was something which came up at The Camp , a miniature- minded , very lively Yahoogroup.
The question was , how to make a working clock from a clock kit.

I did this some years ago. The trick is to substitute a piece of wood or cardboard for the clock face and to use an insert , like , f.i. from Teepeecrafts . Can probably also use a cheap watch , but I never see the right kind of watch to provide a clock face.

I did not glue the clock insert into the hole, it is just a tight fit.

I also left open the top of the clock ( just using min-wax , or you could use moveable miniature glue ) , so that it is easy enough to open the top of the clock and push the insert out when you want to change the battery.OTOH , you can also just make use of the rim of the clock insert.