In spite of all that’s going on currently I have finally managed to get the kiln on, not without difficulty.
When the peripatetic kiln engineer last visited he carefully placed the new control knob upside down. Being kind to him and skint, I didn’t insist on him replacing it as removal would have destroyed the knob, and I have suffered as a consequence ever since, attempting to diagnose the setting by turning my head upside down and cleaning the garage floor with my hair. There is a chapter ring around the knob with an arrow to indicate the point of interest, which, additionally, he had replaced a quarter turn from the correct location. When I was using the kiln regularly, I had worked out what this all meant, other than frustration, but the long pause caused by the situation with my mother had washed so much information from my brain I was behaving like someone who came down with the last shower. Or, an idiot, as we like to say in English.
I drew diagrams, I asked the family, I nearly phoned a friend, I would have paced the garage but you can only do one pace before hitting the mountain of stuff which is the abandoned make-it-yourself arcade games machine by which we attempted to raise the spirits of the S&H when he lost the last job prior to becoming self unemployed.
Two firings later I had finally worked it out and for Lo! here is the new stuff.
It’s all 48th nominally, though some may do for small 24th quite nicely.
Here are some comfy chairs, they are a porcelain shape, upholstered.
There are two new sets, the first is a telephone and a bowl of fruit, the second a pipe, ashtray and clock. Each of these tiny items (that’s a cotton reel in the background) have gone through three firings. First to fire to bisque, a second glaze firing and finally the china paint firing. The value is terrific, the telephone set is £4, the pipe set is £4-50.
There is also a tiny figurine, of a gypsy dancer. In 46th scale it would be a very large ornament or small statue, in 24th scale it would be a mantel piece piece, in reality it’s this big
There are also some returning favourites that I struggle to keep in stock such as the bathroom set
and the solid fuel cooker and the cat
these always sell because they are just a nice thing to own, even if you haven’t got a dolls’ house.
There will still be the full complement of dolls
in fact there’s an entire stand of them
and, of course, I will have the Brodnax prints wallpapers with me in 48th and 24th scales.
I am bringing back the 12th scale marionettes, clowns and ladies which I’ll show you if I have time to photograph them and whatever else I manage to cook up in between visiting my mother and doing wedding stuff.
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JaneLaverick.com – busy