Pottering Around Slug and Jiggers......

I have been Spring cleaning my real house this week but after so much hard work I decided it was time to return to doing some of the things I really want to play with. I hate housework with a passion, I know many people look around and feel a sense of achievement as they work through their chores, me? I just wish I had a cleaner!!

Anyway, I have stained and varnished the pieces for the upper room. I have sanded them down over and over again to distress them but the stain seemed to really bite into this wood. 

 I am not sure whether to tile the back of the sink or not, as it will be covered with gunge, debris and all sorts of bits and pieces I am don't think I really need to.

 I have also added the owl stand by Michael Mortimer as I think Mrs Slug would like a companion in her work. I bought the tiny brass handles at KDF from Pheonix Models and finished off the apothecary cabinet. I really wish I had tried to make a couple of open drawers but it is too late now. Next time!!

 The haberdashery counter has stained really nicely but I do think it needs a proper work top rather than the acrylic top. I bought the counter from Apollo Miniatures a long while ago.

 This is the back view which I really like, it seems a shame to hide it. The chiminea is a piece by Nikki Rowe and the pictures really do not do it justice at all. The coals look amazing. I have had this piece for a couple of years now but I think I have finally found the right place for it. 

 The skirting boards are now in and I have added some LED lights to the upper floor. I also gave the walls and floors a pasting of PVA and water mix to toughen up the interiors.

As I am now looking at the 'dressing' stage of this project I have been looking through various boxes getting together the pieces I have been collecting. This is great fun and sometimes a little shocking, but I do end up spending a lot of time playing.

I found these gorgeous wooden barrels and troughs by S and S Eismont whose work I absolutely adore so........do I put them outside? I want to fill the troughs with miniature herb plants but the barrels are so beautifully made I really don't want to mess with them.

 Barrels and trough?

 Trough high and barrels low? Decisions, decisions......

 I have also added a small table to the downstairs shop as an additional display counter. I even managed to match the paint effect quite well this time which was a bonus!

My next job will be to make some hanging herb sprays for the walls and ceilings and have a major play with all the bits I have been stashing away. I also want to add some copper pipe work upstairs, make a work top and decide where all my grunge, spillages and debris is going in the upstairs potion room. 

Oh and begin dressing all the furniture. More potions to make!!

Slug and Jiggers......Sanding, Staining and Potion Making.

The upper floor furniture for Slug & Jiggers will all be dark wood, a combination of wood stains on unfinished white wood furniture. Plus a lot of sanding and elbow grease. I really wanted an apothecary cabinet with lots of little drawers all neatly labelled, obviously inspired by vintage cabinets and the wonderful miniatures by Jennifer Hatt of Looking Glass Miniatures.

 I had a long think about how I could create a piece myself and dug out this bookcase that was stained for another project and then never used. 

 Using my brilliant new table saw I first blocked up the bottom three shelves.....

 ......then cut out lots of small pieces for false drawer fronts, they are 1.5cm wide.

 I have lined them all up and simply glued the whole panel to the front of the bookcase.

Now I have given the false front a first stain to match the whole bookcase and I think it will work out quite well. I will finish the staining and sanding then add tiny drawer handles and labels. In an ideal world I would have loved to have opening drawers stuffed full of potion ingredients and aged scrolls but a table saw a carpenter does not make!!

 Lots of shelving obviously means lots of potion jars and I have also been busy with these. I had thought I had made quite a few last time around but this project is eating them up at an alarming rate.

They are all different sizes to try and add some variety and filled with a mixture of herbs, beads, scenic  and solid water plus anything else I found lying around my workshop. They will all have a black lid and label......eventually!!