Is one of those things that gets into modern conversations quite a bit.
You’re supposed to think you are the best thing since sliced bread.
How weird is it that exactly the people who think they are, aren’t? I can think of quite a list of, for example, politicians and leaders of assorted countries who consider themselves to be World Number One but are obviously, very poor at maths.
One of the aspects of the miniature hobby that I discovered early on was that there are very few of the above type of person in the hobby. I have met one or two but there is something to do with scale that magnifies consequences rather more rapidly than reality. I have interviewed miniaturists who charged very large amounts of money for what they were making but not for long. The reality in this hobby, which helps you to escape from reality, is that the majority of collecting miniaturists have carefully collected pocket money to spend, and, as they are miniaturists and of an enquiring turn of mind, are solidly aware of exactly what is available to buy and, to the penny, how much it costs. Artists who give good value for money are going to last the longest.
What of the stuff you make yourself? I’ve never met a miniaturist who has only been a collector. Sooner or later, everyone has a go.
What do you think of the miniatures you have made yourself?
In the last posting I stopped posting the posting because the horrible plastic shoes of the OH were making crunchy noises in the hall where I had the twelfth scale furniture proceeding from the laundry basket via the carpet to the safety of the Chinese box.
He didn’t say sorry. He complained that sitting outside in the sunshine had made him blind.
So he couldn’t see the small furniture carefully put to one side of a massive gap with just carpet put there to walk on, and instead staggered all over the furniture.
He just shouted at me.
Today he managed to say he was sorry, heavily disguised in a sentence about something else and still shouted.
So I was able today to repaint the two dining chairs and a chest that I glued together the day they were utterly smashed.
This was for the first house I did. I made all the furniture, mostly from kits at first and from scratch later, all to fit in the house which is dated about 1910, which is when it was made by the simple expedient of copying a real house but changing the feet for inches. This made life simple for a beginner because it was true twelfth scale. I was able to start off furniture production by using the German kits that were readily available at the time.
You can still see the crack on the top edge of the chest lid, so I’ll have to sand and paint again but
They’re not bad, are they? This is partly because the kit manufacturer did a good job but
So did I.
It is a very long time since I looked at the contents of this house which have been in the laundry basket since the real house makeover. The installation of better one scale stairs being the reason for carrying the house (twelfth scale) around the house (one scale).
As this was my first house I made this furniture about thirty eight years ago.
Suddenly I have reverse self esteem.
Wasn’t I good?
I knew this was one of the beneficial aspects of the hobby. No matter what you are doing, or not doing in one scale, with the right help, kit, class, material, instructions or just plain inspiration, it’s so amazing what you can do in miniature that I urge you to put away, a house, a room box, a kit you made, and leave it. Go off and do other things and then
thirty eight years later, retrieve it.
Put it at the back of a high shelf. Put other things in front until you have forgotten about it.
Years later find it and be amazed at how clever you were and are.
It’s shelf esteem.
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