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Because I love miniature books, make them, buy them, give book kits away and sell kits too I thought you might like some ideas to put all those books you have to use. 1) Stack them up and add a glass or wooden top for a clever accent table. 2) Fill up baskets or boxes with a few books and put them all over in nooks and crannies in your dollhouse or room boxes. 3) Mix them in with collectibles in cabinets, book cases and shelves. They look great with flowers. 4) Print or buy tiny books (1:48 scale) and fill up a glass dome. (or print mine smaller by reducing the page on your printer) 5) Tie up a few books with ribbon or string and tuck in a love letter under the ribbon. Or a rose. 6) Make an attic or basement chair: pull off a leg from a cheap chair or use a broken piece of furniture and replace the leg with a stack of books. 7) Stack up books, drill a hole through the stack and make a lamp for a library. How to's on Youtube. 8) Make a decoupage of just the covers (yes, my free books work great for this!!!) Cover a miniature table top. 9) Make a bird house out of 4 books the same size and top with an open book for the roof. 10) And for the bibliophile in your dollhouse make a Christmas tree out of books ! There are tons of images you can Google to see many examples of my above ideas. So do Google and see if anything inspires you. Here's my attic chair which lost a leg somewhere and became a home for mice besides.  Got more ideas? Comment here.
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"Clutter is nothing more than postponed decisions." I wonder, do you know the book "Now, Discover Your Strengths" by Marcus Buckingham? I ask because it is a useful tool to find out how you work best and how you relate to the world around you. You have to buy the book and get the unique code to take the test online and it gives you 5 areas where you are the strongest. I came across the book today and re-read my 'gifts' - one being: I am a collector. Like I needed the book to tell me that. (However, it was reassuring because I am obviously living up to my gifts and I might possibly be featured on an episode of Hoarders) But that is not the point of this blog. Because finding the book has been part of an ongoing declutting of my books. According to Marie Kondo, you are not supposed to LOOK inside a book as you toss them or keep them. HA HA HA. I have been looking through ALL of them. Tossing some, yes, that I know I won't read again. Or have yet to read. And also tossing all of my art history books because I know enough about the masters and my favorite artists and if I want to see a painting again - hello - GOOGLE. I am keeping my decorating books because - miniatures. I love gazing through those. I also have SO many books on dollhouses and miniatures and I hate to admit I have purchased and maybe flipped though and then put them on a shelf. Not all but some. So now became the time to slowly look through EVERY ONE. Needless to say, this process has taken weeks so far and I am not nearly finished. Because I am reading too. One of the books published by Nutshell News of long ago is titled "Treasures in Miniature, from the editors. A tour of six special miniatures collections... from carpets to castles." Published in 1993. Included in the book are the collections of Pat Arnell, Elaine Diehl of the famous Astolat Castle, Mal and Charlotte Dorfman, Eileen Godfrey, Sarah Salisbury and Lee Taylor. I knew Eileen and Sarah, now sadly no longer with us. Both of them had exceptional collections and an incredible eye for quality miniatures and a perfect eye for detail both in choosing pieces and arranging them into their collections. Actually true of all six. To some extent. I am proud to say my work is featured in that book and in the collections of both Sarah and Eileen. Everything has gone off in auctions across the globe and I will never know where went what. This book is a wonderful pictorial of wonderful collections; some long gone of some long gone devoted collectors and some long gone extraordinary artisans. Its fun and its sad too and the work featured in the book is not on the internet and therefore, lost to new collectors. Here are a few shots I took of pages in the book. Probably illegal. Just a taste because you can still get this book. Lots of used copies on Amazon and well worth having to see miniatures in the booming days of collecting and what I hope is now a new and continuing interest in minis. According to my daughter, millennials love miniatures, her being a millennial who arrived the year this book was published.     PS. Clearing out the books left shelf place for - MORE MINIS! Also, Marie Kondo says to keep only 30 books. HA HA HA.
If you have fond memories of these collectors, these artists and these collections, please share your recollections. Keep their memories alive, how 'bout it? Made my way to the IGMA show this past weekend, topping off my birthday week with a miniature shopping trip. Since I have not been to a show for a few years it was fun to see friends, dealers I adore and SHOP SHOP SHOP. I do a lot of damage over the year online and think the internet is brilliant, but for sure, shows are great when you can't find those dealers. Yes, there are those who make it difficult by not believing that selling online is also brilliant. I went to the IGMA auction Saturday evening which benefits the Guild and they had some exceptional miniatures - some from the gone but not forgotten. (Some I have not forgotten but some of which you may have never heard. ) Try as I might, I lost all the lots I bid on - except one. I was after pieces made by the late Chuck Krug because Chuck was glorious and I owned several pieces he made, some specifically made for me. And then I had a moment of lunacy. Thereafter I was minus Chuck Krug among others. But not anymore. I think I got the BEST piece made by Chuck from that auction. I can barely comprehend the astoundingness of it. And here it is. Such a delicate hand painted little French table. I will allow you to decide for yourself, the extent to which this is the most radiant thing you have ever seen.   And there it is in this little setting holding too many books. Which does seem to hide it's gorgeousness. But I wanted to show you my books that you may have for free - to make yourself - in my book kit. Because you can't have too many books. Or too much Charles Krug. You can have it right now RIGHT HERE. And then you will get more wonderful things at times when I feel the need to send a newsletter. Which will be soon, because I have to share this magnificent creation.
So, I was scrolling through my digital photos looking for some of my 'normal' miniature work. Slim pickin's. I do love making the strange and unusual. But I have and still rarely do make conventional miniatures. Those that appeal to the general collecting public as opposed to the quirky variety. Still, I started making the usual miniature stuff, and have photos of past stuff from back in the covered wagon days when film had to be developed. And film came in rolls. And you could not edit the bad stuff out. Some of the mainstream miniatures would have to be paintings. I actually got my IGMA Fellow award in paintings. Then it followed that I would paint on things.
Success is never getting to the bottom of your to-do list. Marissa Mayer
Right now I feel like the worst blogger, I am totally incapable of following a schedule, so I have never made one. When I do even make a to do list, nothing on that list gets done by the end of the day because of so many shiny objects that fall into my path. Sometimes that's fun, sometimes frustrating. I have had this 'normal' project on my so called to-do list for YEARS. MANY YEARS. I got the shell at Eileen Godfrey's shop long ago when that shop existed and when Eileen was here on earth. God, I miss her. She got the shell from the UK and I do not remember the maker. She used to travel to the UK shows to buy wonderful things for her shop. She had the best stuff. This was back in the 80's when one pound sterling was worth about 50 cents US. So, yep, long ago. Anyway, this was the first incarnation of that shop: |