A mini Family Crest - of sorts

Life has intervened to the point that I haven't done much in the way of mini work for the past few months. Part of that time we had the pleasure of entertaining some of Lloyd's French cousins here in New Orleans. One of the highlights of visiting New Orleans is the food, which was a total surprise to the cousins, who admitted well into the visit that they'd been apprehensive, since they expected to be eating nothing better than fast food.

The thought of bread pudding really put them off until Lloyd ordered it for dessert one day and asked for five spoons. The plate barely hit the table before the entire generous serving disappeared!

The happy cousins, Fabienne, Bernard, and Romain.

The cousins developed a new respect for American cuisine. By chance the spoons were arranged this way. From then on through the end of the visit, we ordered at least one helping of bread pudding wherever it was served. We recognized a symbol -- and a tradition was born.

Sometimes the design got a bit more complicated. The more wine we drank, the more ambitious the design. This one was done after a very relaxed dinner cooked by Bernard in the house they rented for their stay.

Others stayed true to form. We decided that this must become the family crest.

This one has six spoons to include another cousin who dined with us one night.

The crest became such an integral part of the visit that I felt moved to note it in some way. One day in an art supply store I found two 3-inch frames, each holding a 2-inch stretched canvas and about a half inch deep. Perfect! The frames were black resin, so I painted them red and then used a gold wax to spiff them up. I found the plates at the Black Butterfly in New Orleans, and the Chrysenbon spoons on line at the Miniature Market Place.

I love how the red, white and blue reflect both the US and French national flags. 

I can't wait to mail one of them to the cousins but I'm going to give the E-6000 glue that holds the spoons to the plate and the plate to the back of the frame a day or so to set. The other one will remain here.

Working Ceiling Fan Tutorial

In an earlier post I shared the ceiling fan I made for the Quilt Shop Room Box and told you I wanted to make a working version. Later I posted a short (poor) video of the working fan. Here is a much better video of the fan in motion. I think the black bars in the earlier one were from the LED lights in the box. This time I didn't turn them on.

In response to several requests for a tutorial, here goes:

Here are the basic components of the fan itself. For a photo of the origins of the fan blade hardware, look at the earlier post. The clear plastic star is a mirror fastener that was replaced by a plain disc as the build evolved. The fan blades are cut from a sheet of frosted Mylar. I chose the Mylar because it was thinner than a credit card (so more to scale), wouldn't warp like paper/card stock might, and has a "tooth" surface that takes paint well. Note the tiny hole in the end of the eighth-inch wooden dowel that became the shaft. The translucent red bead serves as the motor. Because of the variety of materials that had to be glued together, I went straight for the E-6000.

You may have noticed the gloss black paint in the previous photo. I didn't use it. The matte finish looked more like "old fan" to me, so I used it exclusively. I gave the small end of the hardware bits a slight twist before gluing them to the center flat bead, so the blades are canted slightly, as in a real fan.

My apologies for the out-of-focus picture of the loop at the end of the shaft. I have a new camera and haven't yet figured out the close-up settings. I stripped the paper from a twist-tie to get a pliable wire to make the hook. I ran the two ends through the hole in the shaft from opposite sides and then did some simple twisting to get the loop you see. That slight bulge at the top of the shaft is a narrow strip of tape covering the hole. I'm not sure it was necessary, but the wire was a bit rough in that area and I didn't want it to get hung up while threading it through the base cap and ceiling.

This is a view of the ceiling cap. The clear star that you saw above was replaced by a plastic pull-seal from a carton of half-and-half. I cut off the ring part and cut a hole in the center. That is a wooden bead glued in place to form a bit of a sleeve for the shaft to keep it from wobbling. If you look carefully, you can see that the hole in the bead and the hole in the ceiling don't quite match up. I had problems with the shaft sticking when I tried to thread it through. As luck would have it, I had some plastic drinking straws that just fit into the space. A snip from the end of a straw became a smooth lining for the sleeve. Wobble cured.

There's no magic formula for the length of shaft or ceiling base. I eye-balled it and made several small trims to get it to the point where it all worked together.

This is the twirler that I ended up using. It is battery operated and came with an extra battery from Christmas in Prescott.  It is sitting over the hole that I drilled in the room box roof. The scrap bits of angle molding are glued in place to keep the spinner from moving from the vibrations. (You're right -- I don't throw anything away!)

Here's how it goes together. The fan shaft is passed up through the ceiling cap and the spinner hooks onto the loop. I wanted the fan to be removable to spar it from jarring in the event the box needs to be moved an appreciable distance.

When the shaft is hooked, the fan looks like this.

What would I do differently next time? I'd be sure I have hardware for both sides of the blades. It's not noticeable to the casual viewer, but I know it's missing.

So Close to Finished ...

A miniature is hardly ever finished. There's always some tweaking that can be done. The quilt shop room box is at that stage. More can be done, but it can wait. I spent a good bit of today inhaling rubber cement fumes as I arranged the quilts and sample blocks on the walls. 

The photos are a bit dark on the outside, as daylight was fading as I took these. The LED lights make the interior bright and cheerful. The bricks on the outside are printed cotton fabric. The raw wood box was primed with gesso. The fabric was glued in place with diluted white glue (two parts glue, one part water). When that dried thoroughly, it got two coats of satin finish clear polyacrylic. Although the bricks are a bit large for 1:12 scale, it makes a satisfying finish to the outside.

Inside, the  shop is shaping up. I discovered a nice open spot in the middle of the shop that is crying out for a round table heaped with sale or seasonal items. The customer with the shopping bag is waiting patiently!

Back in the corner, I found room for a wastebasket. Check the scene out the window in this and other pictures. Notice the shadow of the window on the sky? Bad news. Am thinking about putting translucent plastic on the window, as I did on the door. It will indicate light outside, but it won't be possible to see through it. Hate to lose the view, but shadows on the sky are annoying.

There is a channel that runs across the bottom of the box and up the two sides to hold a piece of Plexiglas. A fourth piece of channel slips over the top to complete the frame. I have no plans to do much dusting in this cluttered scene!

Now for the big reveal -- the working fan! I used Casey's idea for the ornament twirler. It rotates slowly, just as one would want. Wouldn't care to have bits of fabric blowing all over! For some reason, the camera kept adding rolling black bars to the picture, only while filming the fan, but I think you'll get the idea. Update: See a better video here.

So, still tweaking to be done, but for now, all is well in the quilt shop.