Ceramics & succulents from Malta.

Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well!

Here are some new additions to the Conservatory project; a lovely set of hand made ceramics and succulents, which arrived here from Malta. They were made specially for my project by the lovely and well known Rebecca Micallef, and obviously I'm thrilled with them! The tea set consists of two tea cups and matching plates, a tea cup, a cake stand, and two cake plates. They all have an antique pheasant theme, and look stunning!

 

  

The lovely succulents were also made by hand, leaf by leaf, and look extremely real!! I cannot express how happy I am with this totally unique set of miniatures, of which there is only one in the  whole world!

 

Many, many thanks, dear Rebecca, for these little gems! They will look great in the Conservatory!! 

 

That's all for now, folks. Thanks for visiting, keep safe, and see you next time!

© José Pereira Torrejón. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this blog may be distributed, published or reproduced without prior authorization from the author.

 

The Conservatory: A nightly snapshot.

 Hi all, I hope you're doing well!

As the 'Conservatory' project nears completion, I take little breaks amidst the work in progress to play a bit with my camera. Here's an atmospheric, 'nocturnal' snapshot of the conservatory's front garden. I tried to recreate the beautiful, mysterious atmosphere of the movies from the 1930s, 40s, and 50s that I love so much, and I think I succeeded pretty well in doing that.

Now I want you to look at this photo, and imagine a late summer night in a garden; the cool fresh air of the night caressing your face, the faint scent of flowers, a cricket performing his nocturnal serenade...  Get the picture?

 

That's all for now folks; keep safe and see you next time!

 

© José Pereira Torrejón. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this blog may be distributed, published or reproduced without prior authorization from the author.

The Centennial: a mysterious view of the kitchen.

© José Pereira Torrejón. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this blog may be distributed, published or reproduced without prior authorization from the author.

 

Family Portraits.

Hi everyone, I hope you're all doing well!

With the conservatory project nearing completion, it's time to add the final details to it. Those come in very gradually, because I want them to 'grow' in place, as if they've always been there.

One of the latest additions are a few old family portraits. I remember growing up seeing these at my parents home, that is, the full scale version of them. And in fact they're part of the very few surviving portraits of that era. 

From left to right you see my mom when she was a few months old, my grandparents, and then my mom again, when she was a little girl. The gentleman on the right is the iconic tango singer Carlos Gardel (1890-1935), whose songs I love. 

So, in the end, this project ended up being a tribute to my mom and her parents, that is, my grandparents. I never knew my grandma; she passed away very young, when my mom was only 5 years old. From her portrait I can see she was a beautiful lady, very sophisticated, and played the piano very well. In fact she was a piano teacher. My grandpa passed away some 40 years ago already, but I was lucky to be his 'favourite grandson' for most of my childhood. He claimed having met the famous 'Che' Guevara and shaking his hand, when the latter visited my home country in 1961. He was quite proud of that. I still miss him very much.

 

That's all for now, folks. Thanks for visiting, keep safe, and see you next time!

© José Pereira Torrejón. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this blog may be distributed, published or reproduced without prior authorization from the author.

 

Rust & Steel Photography: SNCB Class 12 engine 'La Douce'.

 

 Hi all, I hope you're doing well! 

Today I'm posting an 'atmospheric' pic I took this evening of a very nice 1:160 scale train model, just for fun. It represents the beautiful Belgian Railway Company 'Type 12' steam engine.

This class of 'streamlined' engines was built between 1938-39, and remained in service until the 1960s. Only 6 were built, and of these engine No 12.004 is preserved in Schaerbeek, Belgium.

Just to illustrate how she looks in real life, I'm adding a picture of '12.004' here. Copyright belongs to the owner.

That's all for now, folks. Thanks for visiting, keep safe, and see you next time!

© José Pereira Torrejón. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this blog may be distributed, published or reproduced without prior authorization from the author.

 

Adorable Teddies series: Archy!

Hi everyone, I hope you're doing well!

Here's someone I want you to meet. His name is Archy, and he has been one of my foster bears for a few months now.

Hand made by the lovely Dutch 'bear maker' Marrie van Vliet, he's destined to be picked up by his adoptive mom: miniaturist and dolls house guru Rebecca Micallef, from the beautiful Mediterranean island of Malta.

But until that happens, little Archy is staying with me, along with his sister Pebbles and other bears of my own. Here you can see him sitting on what I call the 'loading platform' of my latest dolls house acquisition. I think he's totally adorable, don't you??

That's all for now!  Thanks for visiting, and see you next time!

© José Pereira Torrejón. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this blog may be distributed, published or reproduced without prior authorization from the author.

 

Transforming a little chair.

Hi everyone, I hope you're all well!

Today I'm sharing a little 'project' I just did, just for the fun of it.

It came as a by-catch with some miniatures I bought recently: a wooden chair wrapped in some 'silky', pink fabric, indicating it was probably part of some 'wedding' theme of sorts. In any case, the fabric was stained, and even if it weren't, I found it pretty ugly anyway.

So I removed it, and found this rather stiff looking chair hidden underneath it. I didn't know what to make of it, so I decided to turn it into something of an old 'kitchen chair'; the type that had been witness to many conversations throughout the years; the type that knows stories of joy, of sorrow, of love, happy times, less happy ones, and even the casual domestic quarrel.

I sanded it down, and as I went along I gave it its distinctive weathered look, including a slight 'depression' in its seat.

 

 

At some point, the whole thing fell apart under the violence of the sanding and the dremel, but I put it back together and finished it just the way I wanted. The images here show the chair through its different stages of transformation. And to be honest, I'm pretty happy with the result!

 

 

That's all for now, folks. Thanks for visiting, keep safe, and see you next time!

© José Pereira Torrejón. All rights reserved. No part of the content of this blog may be distributed, published or reproduced without prior authorization from the author.