A little aloha spirit

Tags

Christmas, crafts, doll, handmade, miniature, norovirus, research, ukulele, virus

The Hawaiian bungalow has come a good way, but since some of its parts are doing double duty as Christmas gifts, I can’t post them here yet, so here’s a merry distraction I made earlier this year as a belated Christmas gift.

To explain what the heck these are, I work for a large collaborative (a group of universities and regulatory agencies) that does research, education, and outreach for foodborne viruses. Most of what we do is about norovirus (the “stomach flu”), and we make ample use of the cuteness that comes in the form of GIANTMicrobes plushies. One of the things we did last year was a social media campaign where I got to make tiny Halloween costumes for the little grey goobers and we paired the photos with educational quips about the virus. Here was the spooky set:

Don’t let noroviruses suck the life out of you. An estimated 1 in every 15 Americans will experience the virus each year. Help you and your friends avoid the curse (and a lot of quality time in the bathroom) by practicing good handwashing and foodsafety.

Seriously, I got paid to do this :-P. They were even featured on the local news station!

Well, my boss and leader of the collaborative wanted a bedecked beastie of her own, and since she was heading to Hawaii, I chose that as the theme.

One is a ukulele player (surprise) with a real koa ukulele, and the other is a buxom hula dancer. Her skirt is made of some vintage crepe paper, and I made molds of a grocery store bouncy ball to make sure her Sculpey coconuts were appropriately perky.

The leis were made from lots of silk flowers and since kukui nuts would have been too big, I used tagua nuts instead.

We’ll be back to our regularly-scheduled programming soon!

Going meta

Tags

art, bonsai, crafts, dollhouse, handmade, history, Japan, miniature, religion, Undersized urbanite

Sometimes I can take it slow with creating my minis, and sometimes I’ve given a piece away moments after declaring it “finished.” At least twice I have put on the last details for a gift in the passenger seat of my husband’s car on a dark winter night en route to a holiday function.

Well, this Monday night wasn’t the closest I’ve cut things, but it was pretty close.

Monday was the annual Christmas party for my miniatures club, and in addition to eating lots of tasty potluck dishes, we have a gift exchange. Last year I gave a bunny toy (also finished in the nick of time and his bow was still drying on his tiny body in his gift box at the party), and this year I had a whopping six spare hours before the festivities!

The gift had an Asian feel thanks to my UU project, and I made a bonsai tree. Being a bit impetuous and on a 7-hour deadline, I went with my gut on shaping the tree and didn’t look much at the styles and composition of bonsai until I was almost finished. Mine turned out to be a pretty masculine (jagged and angular, with a sturdy trunk) moyogi (informal upright) juniper in a masculine (rectangular and deep) pot.

The tree is made of some of my dad’s copper wire leftover from his electrician business. I spent an evening with some pliers and my parents watching murder mysteries on Netflix and shaped the body. The cardboard bon (“shallow dish”) took a good deal of my allotted time to shape and paint, such that I was gluing green tufts on the sai (“planted tree”) during my lunch break at work.

I included a couple of glass Buddhas (in normal and fun size) since Buddha gained enlightenment under the Bodhi tree, and it is not uncommon to have a small Buddha statue near a bonsai.

My art teacher in high school would always ask us if something was life imitating art or art imitating life. I guess I’ve gone meta, since I’ve got art (a dollhouse miniature) imitating life (a live bonsai), which is imitating both life and art since bonsais are art pieces, shaped to mimic full-grown trees in nature. Perhaps I’ve gone doubly meta, since I made a miniature thing of a miniature thing?

Happy Holidays ya’ll. 😛

“I see a red door and I want it painted white”

Tags

art, cottage, crafts, dollhouse, handmade, miniature, Undersized urbanite

I’d hoped to avoid a big jump in the progress posts on the U.U. bungalow, but honestly, 90% of the work these past few weeks has been painting. One weekend was devoted to whitewashing, because even though it’s a glorified roombox, the house has a goodly amount of white trim. If anyone ever makes this house in the future, I certainly won’t begrudge them just getting a can of white spray paint. It took a layer of gesso (thanks again GOLDEN) and two layers of paint to get a crisp white.

So much white…

The color theorists must be right about hues and moods, because I could paint white for extended periods and feel sort of meditative or vacant, but if I spent more than an hour layering red paint on the front door I became noticeably testy. I wanted a strong red because of the Asian elements I plan to put in the house, and because a red front door signifies welcome and hospitality in many cultures. Part of why I picked the title is the red also likes to rub off on things, and even under a layer of polyurethane, it has turned the inside of my nice white doorframe pink. C’est la vie.

The next weekend I got to move on to colors in earnest. I fought a lot with the inside wall color, adding more and more white until I was sure it was just shy of pure white, but every time I put it on the walls it was still darker and stronger than expected. At about three coats I had to call it done, and aqua is my favorite color, so I was going to be like it regardless.

While it looks like Santa’s after-Christmas vacation home, I did have a reason for the deep green exterior. The original Hawaiian plantation cottages, while inhabited by the workers, still belonged to the plantation owners. Not surprisingly, they looked for what was available on the islands or could be sourced cheaply from the mainland. During WWII, “battleship grey” was plentiful surplus from the military bases and found its way to these houses (which I’m guessing looked a bit drab in the tropical landscape). Dark green was also a common color, and a couple of sources I found described the workers making the paint themselves with linseed oil or tar and “shingle stain green.” As we near yule, mine is an appropriately festive mix of holly and evergreen acrylics.

Insert sound of jingle bells.

I kept coming to the question of how weathered the house should look, and my final answer was “a little bit.” Since I’ve imagined it on a beach, the salt spray would be rusting the nails. The green has some age on it thanks to pastel dust, but the trim received a fresh coat when the current owner moved in.

I also did the floor, which I think turned out pretty spiffy. The porch is bedecked (tehe) in unfinished teak wood, since teak is a classic choice for surfaces that see the elements. The inside area is covered in real Hawaiian koa with a natural tung oil finish, and while my iPhone pic didn’t do it justice, it is a very pretty wood.

The walls are actually vertical now, but that’s another story and shall be told another time :-).

Also, you may have noticed some changes with the site, like actual header images and some widgets moved around. If you see something you like or don’t like about the new look, please tell me.