Waikato Miniatures Club Retreat
2 - 4 November 2007: Workshops

Friday Night

Tonight we had a choice of making paper flowers or trunks. Also commencing tonight was a full weekend Table Lamp project. I sat down and happily made 9 flowers tonight with a further 2 flowers on Saturday morning. Pictured are my flowers and the tutor's flowers and supplies.

 

I'd ordered the trunk workshop as a kit. Back in my cabin I made the fabric-filled halfscale trunk from 8.30pm to 10pm. Pictured is my trunk and the tutor's trunks in halfscale and quarterscale. The trunk is made from cardboard lined with envelope paper. The outside is painted brown.

 

Saturday

This morning the choices were a wall clock, iced cake with blackberries or a quarterscale letterbox. As you can see in the photo I made the wall clock. Mine is on the left with the tutor's samples next to it. I stained mine with Wattyl Denim Blue Wood Gel Interior Stain. My blue fingers simply washed clean with soap and water and, as this was a water-based stain, there was no odour plus it was fast drying. I will be replacing the clock face with something else.

The Saturday afternoon workshops were a bedside country bookcase or a Mammy. I got the bookcase as a kit and made the mammy which has a twisted wire body sandwiched between felt making it pose-able. Pictured are the tutor's mammy holding piccanninny and my unfinished effort posing on top of the instruction sheet.

   

Sunday

The workshops on offer today were a Praxinoscope, a halfscale Xmas stall and a golly. As there were no kits available for the Praxinoscope workshop I opted to do this one and got a Xmas stall kit to take home. I already had a golly kit from a kit swap  last year.

   

The Praxinoscope was invented in 1877 by Frenchman Charles Reynaud and is one of the earliest moving picture devices. I didn't want to cut up the graphics sheet until it was scanned so I built my version as far as I could minus the graphics. We made the box from black cardboard, scored and folded, with ironed-on wood veneer. I've never ironed-on wood veneer before and it showed. I will be making the box again but this time it will be wood. Pictured is the tutor's model on the left and then mine with the graphics sheet in the background.

 

Waikato Miniatures Club Retreat:    The Venue   : : :   The Workshops   : : :    People In Action