Star Gazing & Other Useful Objects

Hey everyone, hope you're all having a Happy Father's Day.   My Step Dad is in Florida with my Mom and we don't have kids so it's quiet around here today.

I got some more channels for wiring routed out but they're boring so I didn't take any pictures.  I did wire up the candelabra to a battery and test it to be sure it worked.  Yay! It did.

I had to put it in the house because it wouldn't show up as lit until then.

Then I started to work on my orrey again.  I didn't like how clunky the wire I was using looked so I started over.

And because I don't know my planets I set my laptop up so I could make sure everything was in the right place and orbit.

It was very helpful to have it there.  I might have to do that more often.

I replaced the hematite bead with a lighter one for Jupiter because the hematite bead was so heavy.

I think it looks much better this way.

I'm not sure what this is called, the idea is candle light reflects on a mirror and you get the effect of the sun shining on the earth and moon.  I saw one on Pinterest and liked how it looked so I wanted to make one of my own.

This is the simpler version, I'm adding gears and some support filigree type trim.

Right now it's being braced in place while glue dries. Again.

Oh, speaking of glue drying.  Here's a slightly better picture of the telescope.

I bought a little hourglass but I got another as a charm and wanted to turn it into a fancier larger one for the tower.  So I got some wire and wood and built a little frame for it.  I'm pleased, it turns and everything.

I'm testing the Magic Brik on a scrap of the oatmeal containers and while it's drying I decided to test out my beams for the timber and lathe part of the house and tower.  It's very thin wood used for flooring but it bends easily like a veneer and takes stain well.

I like how it looks so far.  And I think with some more texture on the plaster portion it'll work out nicely.

Because I need to add the beams around the oriel window I glued it in and then taped around it to be sure it would stay in place while the glue dried.

Lots of tape, which seems to take some of the paint off of the plaster but I don't mind it so much because I plan to add more of the texture on top so any imperfections caused by the tape will be hidden.

I'm planning on not touching it for a bit.  Everyone cross their fingers that the cats won't get curious.

While that was drying I began working on some more stuff for the laboratory/stillroom.

I decided that in addition to the orrey I wanted an armillary sphere.  I like how they look and it'll be a good space filler.

Here it is in progress.  The base, planet, one ring and the other three rings are drying with glue on them to keep them circular on the tops of the paint bottles.

And here it is complete.

I wanted a few things for the stillroom/laboratory table so I decided to make a crystal ball and some quills and inkwells.  I got a marble with a slight opal sheen to it and rounded out a square of wood for it to sit in.  The inkwells and quills are tiny feathers and beads.

The glue is still drying on this piece and I'll have to remove the excess but I just had the idea that it would look cool on the table.

And I also wanted a type of scrying pendant, the type that swings and gives you a direction?  I'm going to look for something like an old compass print for the base.

The last thing I did was a brazier for burning incense.  I used some wisps of cotton to make smoke... but they don't show up very well yet.

I need to spend some time this week cutting out stone for the cottage walls.  Hopefully if I do that a bit each night I'll eventually get enough done to cover the lower floor of the cottage.  It's not my favorite thing but it needs to be done.

Doesn't feel like I got much done to cross off the list but I know all of these little things will fill out the tower and stillroom nicely.

One last thing.  Kristine of Paper Doll Miniatures very graciously took the door design I found on Pinterest and the door shape and laser cut them out of wood.  She sent me a couple versions, plus her first couple attempts.  I cannot believe how gorgeous she made this and how crisp the design is.

I finally trusted myself enough to trim the bottom of the door so it would fit.  She'd purposely made them a bit taller than my measurements so I could be sure of a good fit.  Then I tested it.  OMG.  So excited.

I can't thank her enough for doing all this work.  I'd tried multiple ways of getting something even vaguely similar onto the door and couldn't make it look even half as good.

It looks so pretty!

Hope everyone else is having a good weekend.