EARLY PROJECTS REDUX

Earlier when I was writing about "A Door For All Seasons" I mentioned former Miamian, Donna Parker. I discovered her in the early 80's and was delighted to take some of her classes. I think it might have been her projects that had me find my love for detail and that has been my mainstay all through my work in miniatures. Donna had wonderful projects and what was unusual was that everything in her roomboxes was made by the class attendees. There might be one kit or two, but if so, the kits had to be put together and painted or in some way made to be one's own. In the project pictured here we made a Christmas florist shop. We constructed the box from a kit and then made everything inside. Most of the flowers were made from Fimo and there were shelves to be built, garlands and wreaths to be made and a lovely Christmas tree to be decorated. At one time that Christmas tree was lighted, but unfortunately, this was very early for wiring and it did not last very long. The project was a lovely one and still is even though it was built in late 1982.




Next was a breakfast room/patio, a more elaborate project, but an interesting and lovely one. Again everything in it was made by the ones who took the class. Donna had patterns for everything and what we could not accomplish in actual classes was done at home between class times. This particular roombox had a bit of landscaping, my very first attempts and I soon discovered how much fun landscaping could be. We even made the dishes for the hutch because Donna had learned a technique somewhere of making dishes using wallpaper coated heavily with several coats of Decal-It. The dishes turned out quite well and because wallpaper was used for the patterns, they could match the chosen decor. Again, there were some kits, mainly the four chairs for the table and Fimo came out again only this time desserts were made. Now for a couple of pictures.......






The next project was one I made as a Christmas present for my sister-in-law in Maryland. She collects music boxes and this was my version of Christmas music box. She loved it and I enjoyed making all of the holiday items to fill up the space in the windows.