Rain: "Glück"

© 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. Extract from "Glück" © Lunar Aurora.

The transformation of a little coffee grinder.

Hi all, I hope you're doing well!

This past weekend I've been quite busy with all sorts of miniatures related stuff. And one of the things I'm most happy about, is the work I did on a 1:12 scale coffee grinder.

You see, I have a beautiful, old coffee grinder, which serves as some kind of 'prop' in the kitchen, for looking totally cool, albeit broken. So, when I came across a nice, miniature coffee grinder, I decided to subject it to an extreme make-over treatment, to make it look like his big brother as much as possible.

The miniature grinder was made out of wood and metal, which is good, but otherwise boring as a bag of beans, at least to me! The below image shows the 'before and after' look of the little bugger, just to give you an idea of the extent of the 'metamorphosis'.

I'm not going to run through the details of the make-over process here, but rather give you a pictorial account of how it turned out, and how it compares to the real life one. 

Enter the big, fat coffee grinder and his 'mini-me' version!

The above picture illustrates the additions to the miniature quite well: little 'pillars' on each corner, and small legs underneath (where else?).

The below shot shows how I made the grinding mechanism look rusty like the original. And yes, I know they're not exactly the same, but at least one can say that they're family!

Anyway, when finished, I put the cute little grinder on the kitchen counter of my 'Centennial' dolls house as shown below. I think the little guy looks happy, don't you agree? As if he has always been there.

That's all for now, folks! As always, thanks for visiting, and please check out this blog from time to time for news and updates. Have a great one!

© 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.

Old Ruins.

Hi all, I hope you're doing well!

I bought this vintage WWI German field service postcard (Feldpostkarte), depicting ruins in Arras; a town in Northern France. The town was close to the battlefields and subsequently suffered heavy damages.

Although this particular postcard didn't saw any use, it does contain a printed quote on its back from the German writer, poet and philosopher Schiller, which I find very beautiful and telling.

"Das Alte stürzt, es ändert sich die Zeit,

Und neues Leben blüht aus den Ruinen."

Friedrich von Schiller (1759-1805)

"The Old crumbles, Time changes,

And new Life blossoms from the Ruins."

The untold human suffering and loss of life of WWI trench warfare has always captured my imagination and made me somber. And although a century has gone by since it all happened, I feel that those tragic events should never be forgotten.

That's all for now, folks! As always, thanks for visiting, and please check out this blog from time to time for news and updates. Have a great one!

© 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.

Working on an old lamppost.

Hi all, I hope you're doing well!

I'm currently experimenting on a prewar vintage lamppost, which lacked its light and wiring. The post is meant to be used as part of the scenery of 'O gauge' toy trains.

So what I did was to find a miniature spot light that would match with the 'industrial' style of the lamppost. Then I weathered the spot, otherwise it would look too new, compared to the aged look of the post. 

The spot was then fitted to the lamppost in a temporary way, just to get an idea of how it would look like (see above image). When finished, the electrical wiring will run through the inside of the pole, so it won't be seen. I will also add some kind of hook or chain to hold the spot light in place.

Note that I'm not trying to make a copy of the original lamppost, but am creating a variant of my own that will work.

That's all for now, folks! As always, thanks for visiting, and please check out this blog from time to time for news and updates. Have a great one!

© 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.

Halloween 1919: The Spade Girl

Hi all, I hope you're doing well!

On this Halloween 2019 Day, I'm introducing to you my latest project: Halloween 1919: The Spade Girl!

It was Halloween Day of 1919, that saw the birth of a spectre of unusual blood thirst, that became known and feared as The Spade Girl. 

Inspired in part by Nick Cave's song "Needle Boy", I created this ghost with a very dark and gruesome past. More about her will follow, but for now, these pages offer a detailed guide of a shadow box that I made for her.

I hope you'll enjoy it..

The shadow box measures roughly 13 x 18 x 7 cm, or 5 x 7 x 2.8 inches, and the spade girl is only 5 cm ( about 2 inches) tall.

Great attention was given to detail: from the shrubbery and dead wood in the corners (above image) to the hand-painted background.

Above: the shadow box positioned inside one of the rooms of "The Centennial", my oldest, 100-year-old dolls house. To check out a previous blog about this beauty Click here!

Below: The Spade Girl's Lop Rabbit Halloween mask and spade. Like everything else, these were hand made.

Above: as is standard practice with all my shadow boxes, a brass label was applied to mark the completion of the project.

That's all for now, folks! As always, thanks for visiting, and please check out this blog from time to time for news and updates. Have a great one!

© 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 arrival of an 'Ascot' kitchen boiler (1:12 scale).

Hi all, I hope you're doing well!

I just wanted to share a miniature kit I just got, and that I definitely will enjoy assembling.

It's a 1:12 scale 'Ascot' kitchen boiler of the type that was used back in the day to heat water.

It's made of white metal parts with a resin barrel. I'm sure it will look the part in an old kitchen once it's done!

That's all for now, folks! 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. 

A Spade for a Girl

Hi all, I hope you're doing well!! 

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy for me, and the weather has not been very helpful either, but nonetheless I managed to work on a few things.

Apart from the big, long term "Sad Kitten" project which I'm currently involved in, I did a small, Halloween-themed shadow box in between.

I won't reveal much of it right now.. after all, it's not Halloween quite yet! But I can tell you that I'm quite satisfied with this little shadow box, and that it only took me three evenings to complete!

However, it being a bit off-scale (meaning not in a specifically defined scale like 1:24 or 1:12), it was hard to find miniatures that fit. One of the things that I needed was an old spade, which, of course could not be found in the required size (not even a new one, for that matter). So I decided to make one myself, which you can see here.

I'm pretty happy with how it came out, considering how small it is! I made it out of aluminum and wood, because I consider those 'natural' materials, unlike plastic, which I try to avoid as much as I can. Below is a close up pic of it in the shadow box. On Halloween the whole box will be revealed. It's definitely not a 'one-off' project, because the main character will feature in other ones!

That's all for now, folks! 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.