Edouard Black's Blacksmith Shop and Home

I am Edouard Black, welcome to my smithy and home. I’m pleased to have your custom. My Aunt Cecelia Alyce graciously gave her aid to build my forge and thus gave me my start in life once I achieved my mastery in smithing.

It may be humble, but it serves my wife and I well. Aunt Cecelia planted a cutting from her own apple tree so that we might enjoy fresh fruit and with the village well close by we want for nearly nothing.  We suffered from mice for a time but a couple of kittens from my aunt’s wonderful mousers look to have that problem solved.  Thus all our winter stores of food are secure in their jars and chests.

We recently were blessed with a daughter and Aunt Cecelia has promised to take her under her wing and teach her to spin and weave once she’s old enough. For now we all sleep together in our cozy upper room secure knowing that the thick door with our family sigil and stone walls keep us safe.

Those are my four submission pictures.

And here are a few more with extra details.

At some point I'll put up another post with the sources for all the things in the build that I wasn't able to make. 

For now though, I'm going to try and get caught up on my blog reading. I'm really behind!

Hope everyone is having a happy Holiday season!

Hardscaping & the Tree - Again

So over Thanksgiving I did a lot of work on the Blacksmith's shop and home.  I took a couple vacation days so I have almost an entire week off and it was a good thing I did.

I hunted up all my 'wares' for my blacksmith and added them to the storage chest beneath the window.

There was the issue of the landscaping for a Tudor period building set in a town rather than the countryside. So I needed to make cobblestones.

I used cardboard, paint, chipboard, paint, tinted spackle and black sand.

The tree which was looking so promising had to be set aside. Caspia Grass has a scent to it which Dante found irresistible and I couldn't keep him away from the tree. The tree was also large enough that it couldn't be hidden from him either.

So I started over and instead made a much smaller apple tree with the Candytuft I had on hand. 

So far so good!

I was able to get my set up for the submission pictures done and have them all picked out with my little description of the build written. 

And a good thing too. Because someone at work got Covid over Thanksgiving and didn't realize it until they came on Monday.

Guess what?

 Yep. My husband and I have it again.

It's not as bad as it was the first time around but it's not good either. 

Hoping to have my submission pics and the extras up on Sunday maybe. Just writing this was exhausting!

Anvils

Tools

Whetstone

Finished goods

Forge Roof/ceiling

Forge Bargeboards - skip, too fancy

Second floor/ceiling beams

Second floor/ceiling

Second floor walls

Second floor fireplace

Second floor railing (so no one falls down the stairs)

Bed

Candlestick

Dormer

Windows

Forge Chimney

House Chimney

Dragons for chimney and chimney pots

Benches/stools for kitchen. 

Oven/bread paddles (at least one)

Baskets

Rush mats

Knitting/sewing...something for the upstairs bench.

Fur throw

Fireplace tools, (tongs, shovel, poker)

Pease Porridge Pot

Sink with dishes

Bucket of water

Barrel of water for forge

Roof

Shingles - living quarters

Shingles - Forge

Tree

Well/water pump with Water!

Landscaping

Electrical wiring - final

The Tree

 Well I've been organizing my workroom/dining room for a bit and working on my tree. I run into times when the glue has to dry so that's when I clean up and organize.

I've also had a cat with some issues so he's had to have medicine and monitoring and strangely enough, chasing a one and a half year old cat around at my age is a little tiring. Though to be fair, age wouldn't have as much to do with it if I wasn't also out of shape.

But he's better, done with his antibiotic and muscle relaxer so we'll see how this week goes.

The tree is progressing slowly, I'm getting low on Candytuft so I ordered something that I hope will be comparable and blend well with what I have. 

Here's the tree so far though.

The organizing will continue when the new (really wonderfully cheap) shelves come in and I can get things out of the boxes and off the floor and onto them. The goal is to have space to set up the table with the Cricut and work on some of those projects as well as minis. Since the tree and its glue drying process allows for other work to be done.

And if anyone has a source for sage/basil colored candytuft I'm definitely interested!

The list is progressing:

Anvils

Tools

Whetstone

Finished goods

Forge Roof/ceiling

Forge Bargeboards - skip, too fancy

Second floor/ceiling beams

Second floor/ceiling

Second floor walls

Second floor fireplace

Second floor railing (so no one falls down the stairs)

Bed

Candlestick

Dormer

Windows

Forge Chimney

House Chimney

Dragons for chimney and chimney pots

Benches/stools for kitchen. 

Oven/bread paddles (at least one)

Baskets

Rush mats

Knitting/sewing...something for the upstairs bench.

Fur throw

Fireplace tools, (tongs, shovel, poker)

Pease Porridge Pot

Sink with dishes

Bucket of water

Barrel of water for forge

Roof

Shingles - living quarters

Shingles - Forge

Tree

Well/water pump with Water!

Landscaping?

Electrical wiring - final

Base

China Sets For the Etsy Shop

 I've been experimenting lately with things I can put in my Etsy shop and came up with a couple of listings that I think are worthwhile. 

I love mini dishes but it seems like they're never modern designs.

First I experimented and came up with a pretty set that I thought Jodi might like for Roz. But Roz's kitchen is already perfectly outfitted and Goldie loved them. So the china is Goldie's now. Roz is such a generous Beary Godmother. 

Jodi took these pictures. Even her photography is better than mine!

I came up with two other designs. One with Blue Flowers and another with Country Wildflowers and used the music room box as my display area.

First the Blue Flowers. A Twenty six piece set.

Four dinner plates, four lunch plates, four bowls, four cups and four saucers.

Two large serving bowls, one large platter, two smaller platters and a pitcher.

The Country Wildflowers set is a little different. It has twenty seven pieces. 

Four dinner plates, four lunch plates, four bowls, four cups and four saucers.

Two large serving bowls, one large platter, three small platters and a pitcher.

I put them on Etsy this morning so hopefully they'll do well. My plan is that every set is unique.