Thursday, May 3, 2018

My table at the Chicago show


Thought I would post pictures of my table at the Chicago show last week. I am very pleased at how the new lighting set up worked out. Here is a close up:


I made the arm that the track slides into. It was cumbersome to cut it out on the band saw. I put cross pieces between the two sides to stabilize it which became a perfect spot to hang a photo of my IGMA pieces and "The Story Of Miracle Chicken" I think it looked totally cool! And it was perfectly straight! I thought I'd be shimming for sure.
Here are close ups of the various sections of work. After all this is a miniature blog. Kinda hard to tell with all the snow and ice we had :)


This is my room box, built as a setting to take photos, but works well to display minis at a show. I have hand made working lamps turned from brass and acrylic; a fire screen, turned, carved and painted in oil; scratch built tables and mama cat playing with her kitten. Here is a close up:



A shot of my oil paintings, with a hand carved Ash Hitty doll in the foreground.


Miniature chip-carving, "antique" trays and a chest, with hand made hardware. Oh and another fire screen, carved and painted in oil.


I really enjoyed carving and painting these duck decoys. It was therapeutic at a time I really needed it.


Same with these tool sets, very therapeutic. Once I started I couldn't stop! Real chisels in a tool box with a real leather strop and a turned mallet. To the right is a sea captain's chest. 


My furred critters. Hand carved wood.


Hand carved toothpicks and match sticks. To the right is carved stone.


This is a fun outdoor scene called Autumn Harvest. The tractor is wonderfully aged and dirtied by Scott Hughes and there is my beloved little Miracle Chicken! The girl is chasing her, which is exactly how we looked when Miracle would take off after a grasshopper and me being such a "mother hen" never letting her more than arms length away, would jump up to chase her!

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And with that, I have to say that perhaps the sun has set on this blog. I'm thinking of deleting it. Over the next few weeks I am going to give it serious thought.  Google doesn't make it easy to want to stay either. Things keep changing, one day Feedjit works, the next it is gone....and I can NEVER see my followers list. Only on my phone. I think every site is gearing towards mobile.








31 comments:

  1. Woww....una mesa sensacional.
    Cada pieza es una joya sobre todo esos gatitos que están en el suelo de madera, son adorables.
    Espero que haya sido una agradable feria
    Un abrazo

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  2. Fantastic work Linda, love your mini Miracle Chicken and your 'mini me' chasing her. I hope you don't delete your blog, although I have been missing from blogland for some time I love seeing all my favourites when I do get back here.

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    1. Thank you for commenting and for the encouragement!

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  3. Barbara (Canada)May 4, 2018 at 5:34 AM

    Your lovely work sets the standard for miniatures in my opinion! I imagine maintaining a blog is a lot of work, but I for one would miss reading your posts. You have brightened a lot of dark days.

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    1. Wow...I am floored by your comments....THANK YOU! To think I brightened some days...wow :) :)

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  4. Your table at the show looked fantastic Linda. I love all your new decoys. All the animals are beautiful. I know very well how perfect your paintings are.
    Don't delete your blog. It is a wonderful record of all your gorgeous work.

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    1. Thank you very much--- I will definitely re-think---

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  5. I love your show table and all your settings. Perfectly displayed!

    I'd miss your blog so much if you got rid of it. Even if you don't post that often, it's so nice to see what you've been up to.

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    1. Aww thank you so much! So sweet.
      Maybe deleting is a bad call...

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  6. It was great to see you at the show Linda and have a bit of conversation. Oh please don't delete your blog, I don't have time to post on mine anymore but I leave it up because it is a good reference for my past work and I often point people to it when they ask me about pin routing.

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    1. Great to see you too! Leaving Chicago is always so sad.....Hope to see you again next year---

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  7. Linda, I was at the show and saw you and your marvelous table of truly remarkable work, but you were always too busy for me to say hi! I'm sorry I didn't try harder.

    I'm not a blogger as you know, so I can't really relate to the difficulties you mention . . . but I do know how much I enjoy reading your stories and seeing your incredible craftsmanship. I have read your blog for a long time and watched as you challenged yourself with new projects and "Mastered" new skills.

    Thanks for sharing and know, whatever you decide, you are "known" by many, many people you will never meet who would miss you if you go.

    Fran Casselman

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    1. Oh Fran I am so sorry...I cannot imagine being too busy....Your comment has me in tears. Yes, I know you, and hope to meet you. Next year? You have definitely given me food for thought.

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  8. No need to delete or deactivate the blog. Just leave it up with a message link to your other websites. Even though I am not very active on my blog it still gets a fair amount of traffic as there are many pinterest links to it as well as links to the instructions on how to repair Dremel table saws. If I took it down then those links would be broken and people who wanted to see what they linked back to would be very frustrated.

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    1. Thanks for reminding me to pin stuff, I haven't in a long time! I sorta forgot all about pinterest. I was busy figuring out Instagram before the show.

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    2. Well, my pin it button doesn't work any more :(

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  9. Es cierto que de vez en cuando Blogger es desesperante pero sería una pena no poder ver tus maravillosos trabajos, son fantásticos.Feliz fin de semana.Besos:-)

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    1. Gracias por comentar, sí, exasperante, si me registro en mi teléfono, todo se vuelve un desastre en mi computadora portátil. Entonces no puedo comentar desde mi teléfono ...

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  10. Sad and sorry to read you are thinking of closing your blog. Thank you for the many hours of wonderful sharing you have given us . Hope you keep going but the days are sometimes not long enough. Thank you so very much for all your hard work and the time spent sharing your lovely talent with us. Take care and remember to give yourself time to play , laugh and enjoy life, the years seem to fly by. I will think fondly of you and hope you continue to be as dedicated to share your considerable skills with us lesser talents.

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  11. What a sweet uplifting comment, thank you! I will definitely reconsider, I'm willing but is blogger? Today a bunch of weird black boxes were jumping all over the page but then it stopped. Hmmmm maybe that was my laptops fault? Again thank you :) :)

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  12. Hello Linda,
    Your table was wonderful. How I would have loved to have seen it live.
    Deleting this blog would be such a loss to our miniature community. You give us so much inspiration and the quality of your work is something for all of us to strive for. You might not blog often...I think I do once every 3 to 5 months... but your post promote our art so well.
    Big hug
    Giac

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    1. Thank you so much for this sweet comment, again I am getting misty eyed! I actually had fun posting the weather posts, and blogger was co-operating. As for minis, yeah our art form does need all the promotion we can give. Especially now in the instant gratification computer age---

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  13. So glad you had a good time at the show! And thrilled to see you know Elga. We live close enough to each other to visit sometimes.
    Don't delete your blog, Linda, just retire it. Even if you have not been Pinning your work, other people do, and those pins will still lead visitors to your work here. It is possible to migrate one's entire blog to another platform such as Wordpress or Typepad, but then all your links will change, which means that people won't find your old posts anymore.
    If it was my blog, I would leave it right where it is, and just add a link in your final post to wherever you go next.
    Strangely, I'm a Blogger blogger, and I have no trouble with it. But I do hear a lot of people grumble. I don't worry so much about followers, because I think the main following for blogs these days come from Bloglovin, and Instagram and Facebook links.
    I recently started scaling down my Facebook posts in favour of Instagram. It's so much cleaner and positive, I'm finding it very inspirational and my following seems to be growing with a life of its own.
    Enough blather. Sometimes one just needs to make a change so you can have a fresh start. Good luck, and we will follow wherevery you go!

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    1. Wow this is all good advice :) I did the same as you with less Facebook and more Instagram. I've got the hash tags down, but it never occurred to me, links to my sites DUH! Just put live links with the #'s right? Now I need to see why my "pin it" button doesn't work any more. I'm trying to re-do my website, with shopping cart. I will definitely have to get better at promotion! Thank you for all the ideas. I will probably not bother moving to another platform, and all these wonderful comments make me want to keep blogging :) :)

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  14. It was great seeing you at the show. I echo the comments of leaving the blog up even if you never write for it again. It's a great source of inspiration to me. :D

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    1. I enjoyed seeing you too, even if my card readers were BOTH having a melt down. Don't know what was going on with Square, but the PayPal one kept un-pairing from bluetooth! I straightened them both out eventually...Thank you for your understanding and patience---

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  15. Hi Linda! I think your table at Chicago looks Great! I Love your paintings, and your tiny animal carvings are amazing! I hope you don't erase your blog!!! I have so enjoyed seeing the work you have shown on your paintings... it is very inspirational to other miniaturists! I know I don't always comment, but I read every post (usually on lunch break at work.... and forget to come back later to comment....). I know that it feels as though there are no bloggers blogging any more... but I am planning to keep on blogging even if there are no more readers out there! At this point it is a record of my progress and methods and sources.... so I find it useful and still fun too! Many of the blogs I was following years ago are not very active any more... but I have gone looking for more and have found many new ones to follow too! That's my two... (or rather twenty-five) cents worth! LOL!

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    1. And I thank you and very much appreciate your 25 cents worth :) I will keep the blog and even try to post. If Blogger lets me...

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  16. I have been absent for a while myself Linda so I missed this posting. Your stand at the show looks Fantastic! I love the structure, the color you've painted it and the way you've attached the lights to it. I find the variety of work and the intricacy of your work Phenomenal, so I've enjoyed seeing a collection of what you do, all in one fell swoop, ESPECIALLY you, the tractor and Miracle Chicken. That scene is priceless!!!
    And although I entirely understand your frustration with Google I hope that you'll always leave your blog on-line.
    Each year my laptop get older and a little slower but it seems that every 4 weeks or so a program which used to work fine, no longer does. It's reached the point now, where I can no longer access etsy or ebay anymore which includes mine or anybody else's, nor can I pin my own work or access my own pinterest boards! Talk about ANNOYING!
    Makes me feel like throwing in the towel too, so I DO know exactly how you are feeling, however I continue to press on and
    I DO hope that you will too! :)

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  17. Thank you for the comment, I can relate to my not being able to pin any more. I had a pin it button on the bookmark bar and it no longer works. I still buy on ebay, but Etsy has made so many horrible changes, I don't blame my laptop for that. Everybody is gearing to mobile, and forced obsolescence... :( I would delete my Etsy shop but it gets traffic. But like Blogger, VERY annoying....Thanks again---

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