My hobbies

[CaroleM]

I have several hobbies, including gardening, driving (not very eco I know, but a disability means the car is a necessity), my cats, my hens, hand spinning and embroidery. Later this year I hope to be able to afford to begin the Royal School of Needlework's Certificate course.

My husband, Stephen, loves trains and has a double 'O' gauge model railway in the garage, which is a bit cool. He's now making me one, in 'N' gauge!

 

[jodiea60]

I enjoy crafts....paper crafts mostly but love antiques and repurposing junk....quilting, knitting, sewing have also been pleasures of the past...Husband and I also collect and restore garden tractors we have 40 and we also have 5 farm tractors....and now our backyard coop is expanding!!!

 

[philter4]

My husband, Stephen, loves trains and has a double 'O' gauge model railway in the garage, which is a bit cool. He's now making me one, in 'N' gauge!

I make scale models, mostly landscaping for dollhouses and model railroads, dollhouses are done in 1:12 or 1:24, railroads I do any scale that someone needs. I don't collect dollhouses or railroads for myself but I do make dioramas of nature for myself. I have only been doing this for about 3 years, before that I had not picked up clay since the first grade, but I am not terrible at it. All of this started as a way to keep from going crazy and to stay busy during an extensive illness (the 2 year anniversary of the last surgery was March 22 and I am still not back to work because of complications) and I love it, besides I was going out of my mind watching so much TV.

I might have posted one or two of these photos in different threads so I apologize up front if you've seen any of these but I am not that good of a photographer so I only have a few pictures that are worth showing my work. I have a lot of help with the figures, I do all of the landscaping, plants and birds and 2 fantastic sculptors along with myself and some others have all contributed to the other animal figures. Hope you enjoy...

 

[Fierlin1182]

philter - those are great!
Did you make all of that using clay? That is astounding. Last time I laid hands on clay, what I was trying to make turned out the wrong shape then fell apart when it dried.

I like trains, among other things, too. I know people who build railway models, and would love to make one myself... but how on earth do you even do that sort of stuff? I'm clueless. I have one of those ridiculously impossible goals of building a scale model of part of a city some day.

 

[CaroleM]

Wow, your models are totally brilliant. I was partly brought up in Kenya, so your first photo brought back some amazing memories. Stephen, thanks to his stroke, only has the use of his left hand, so he tends to stick to commercial models to make, ie building ets, but does have a go at his own greenery.

Me, well I'm safer with a needle and thread. My main reason for longing to do the Royal School of Needlework's Certificate course is that it deals with the techniques of embroidery as opposed to design, (which the City & Guild qualifications cover almost to death here), and if I am going to learn how to do it properly, well it might as well be from the best in the world I guess. Untill now I am basically self taught - you know get the book out and copy or just puzzle through until I get something that looks like what I am hoping to achieve.

It's a beautiful bright sunny Saturday morning, a little breeze, but more like a British June than late March. Later I am off to my Mum to try to help her find her hearing aid - should be interesting. Our girls are in the garden, waiting for the neighbour's cats to put in an appearance, so far the score is hen 5, cats nil! These are rather large cats, so watching them run away from our hens (and our 3 kittens) is very funny. Our big cats just sit and watch, after all when you have younger 'siblings' to do the chasing off job for you, why disturb your sunbathing to do it yourself!!!!

Keep up with your amazing models, I wish I had your talent.

 

[philter4]

philter - those are great!
Did you make all of that using clay? That is astounding. Last time I laid hands on clay, what I was trying to make turned out the wrong shape then fell apart when it dried.
I like trains, among other things, too. I know people who build railway models, and would love to make one myself... but how on earth do you even do that sort of stuff? I'm clueless. I have one of those ridiculously impossible goals of building a scale model of part of a city some day.

Yes, they are clay with different materials for the leaves and foliage, to keep them strong and so they don't fall apart I use wire as a skeleton and for the trunks and branches of the trees and bushes.

I would love to see your model when you decide to start, there are all sorts of premade kits that you have to assemble and paint or you can do it from scratch, there are many companies that produce all sorts of different building materials such as brick walls, cement, windows along with wood and steel, all in scale and all made to create the look you are looking for. Mostly you are limited only by your imagination when making a model, the parts can either be made or purchased and you just have to put them together.

Wow, your models are totally brilliant. I was partly brought up in Kenya, so your first photo brought back some amazing memories. Stephen, thanks to his stroke, only has the use of his left hand, so he tends to stick to commercial models to make, ie building ets, but does have a go at his own greenery.

Keep up with your amazing models, I wish I had your talent.

Thank you I am glad you liked the models, I am very sorry to hear about your husband, I am dealing with illness right now and it is very difficult so I have some idea of what he must deal with. In a different life, about 100 years ago it seems now, I used to work with wild animals and had kept them for most of my life, there was a time when I raised a pair of abandoned cheetahs from day old kits until they were about 5 years old, they were supposed to be on display at a nature preserve but it took that long to finish the enclosure they were to live in because of funding for the park. I would go and visit them as often as I could until both of them passed, it was hard to give them up and even worse for my wife, they were very tame and could be in the house with supervision and both were leash trained. Thankfully they both lived longer then the average so I know they were happy and had good lives

To make the trees takes very little talent, I teach a class the first Saturday of the month on how to sculpt model trees. It takes about 3 hours to go from wire and clay to a model tree that looks as good as any of the ones in the photos I have shown, as I mentioned above, it is only your imagination that limits each of the pieces that I make.

 

[CaroleM]

Stephen used to make most of his own buildings etc, but with only one useful hand it is quite an achievement to make trees, hedges and the like. He has far more patience for modelling than I would ever have. However, put a needle and thread in my hand .....!

 

[Fierlin1182]

Yes, they are clay with different materials for the leaves and foliage,  to keep them strong and so they don't fall apart I use wire as a skeleton and for the trunks and branches of the trees and bushes.

I would love to see your model when you decide to start, there are all sorts of premade kits that you have to assemble and paint or you can do it from scratch, there are many companies that produce all sorts of different building materials such as brick walls, cement, windows along with wood and steel, all in scale and all made to create the look you are looking for.  Mostly you are limited only by your imagination when making a model, the parts can either be made or purchased and you just have to put them together.

Awesome. I'm glad to hear that there are premade kits, otherwise I don't think I'd be able to get anywhere. I'm usually hopeless without a starting point. It would be a good place to start anyhow. Do you know where you can buy this stuff from? I don't recall having ever seen it in shops before, but then again I'm probably just not looking hard enough.

CaroleM: Your husband sounds like an inspiring man, being able to do what he does. Patience is a quality I am still attempting to cultivate.

 

[CaroleM]

Fierlin, if you go to a model shop or a childrens toy shop you should be able to find kits for buildings and other items. Some building kits are cardboard and others are plastic, you just choose what takes your fancy and the era you are replicating. Otherwise try on line, maybe ebay or similar. Google model railway suppliers and I am sure that you will find something suitable. Good luck with getting started. I guess the patience comes with trial and error. It's strange, modelling would not be for me for one second, yet I can sit for hours working a complicated embroidery or spinning - or just idling a few hours away!!! I guess we all find the one thing that brings out our patient selves sometime in our lives.

 

[Fierlin1182]

OK. I am making it a goal to start in these upcoming holidays, despite all the other things I'm also going to be doing then (like Script Frenzy. I have a tendency to take on more than I can handle, but hey that's the fun in it. )

There aren't many things I can sit for hours doing. Perhaps this will be it, who knows.