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A repainted and rerooted then restyled Dan Stevens who is the Beast aka the Prince in the live action Disney remake of Beauty and the Beast! This 1:6 scale Disney doll has been redone to capture the Prince as himself in the film.
FOR MORE OF MY ART, PLEASE VISIT MY WEB SITE AT WWW. NCRUZ.COM . Link below:
See more examples of my work at my web site: www.ncruz.com/
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Deviant Art: noeling.deviantart.com/
on eBay at www.ebay.com/usr/ncruz_doll_art
Scale is everything. Some snowflake are fractions of a millimeter, some are giants. This one? Well, it lets you see the difference!
The large snowflake, from left to right-most edges measures just under 1cm in diameter – pretty much as big as they come! The smaller ones are remarkably smaller – one is obvious in the lower left, but can you find all four smaller crystals in this image? One is incredibly hard to locate. A Where’s Waldo search in a snowflake!
These large crystals are incredibly rare. When snowflakes get this big, their fragility dramatically increases. Only the most stable, calm air can create them. Every time I have encountered a snowflake this large, it was when there was no weather forecast calling for snow, and nothing on the radar. During this shoot, it was actually sunny outside! Thankfully the place where I photograph snowflakes was in shade, but consider this an odd “sun shower” of snow.
The real beauty of a large crystal like this is the puzzle-piece connections in the middle of the snowflake. Some branches grow faster to fill in empty space, and most of the pockets of open air eventually get completely covered by crystal growth. If there is an open space in the middle of the snowflake, air and water vapour can pass through this space, allowing the crystals to grow further and further into it until there is almost no space left.
This snowflake was photographed at only 2.2:1 magnification, whereas most of my snowflakes are shot at much smaller sizes: 5x and beyond. If you encounter a behemoth of a snowflake such as this, you’d only need a regular macro lens on a micro fourth thirds camera, or a set of extension tubes on a larger-sensor camera to make magic. No specialized lenses beyond this! Sad that they are so rare, but they are easy to shoot in terms of equipment.
For all of my snowflake photographs, I use a ring flash. It allows me to change the angle of the camera to change the angle of light in a run-and-gun type scenario, where time is incredibly important. Get the right angle with this diffuse light source, and you’ll get the surface of the snowflake to send “glare” back to the camera. That’s what makes it shine here. What ring flash should you choose? Rather than recommend the Canon MR-14EX II, I’d point people towards the Yongnuo YN-14EX: www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1125848-REG/yongnuo_yn_14e... . A fraction of the cost and every bit as good. If you shoot Nikon, I just recently learned that K&F Concept have a ring flash that appears to contain Xenon flash tubes instead of LEDs, and I’ll be getting one soon to test it out and confirm personally: www.kentfaith.com/KF22.008_kf150-ttl-flash-macro-ring-lit...
The Nikon flash is especially interesting because Nikon doesn’t even make a ring flash, and the only other one is a pricey Sigma model. Regardless of e-TTL or iTTL, these flashes can be operated in manual mode on ANY camera body – I’ve used my ring flashes on all types of Lumix bodies and they work just fine.
Want to learn more about the photography and science of snowflakes? Check out Sky Crystals, where you can buy either the book or the poster print: www.skycrystals.ca/
At the dawn of the Nineteenth Century, Christmas was hardly celebrated – at least, not in a way we would recognise today. Many businesses didn't consider it to be a holiday. Gift giving had traditionally been a New Year activity, but moved as Christmas became more important to the Victorians. By the end of the century, Christmas had become the biggest annual celebration in the British calendar. Victorian advancements in technology, industry and infrastructure – as well as having an impact on society as a whole – made Christmas an occasion that many more British people could enjoy. From Christmas cards to decorated trees and Christmas crackers, many of our best-known Christmas traditions are products of the Victorian era.
The theme for "Smile on Saturday" for the 21st of December is "get in the festive mood". Anyone who follows my photostream knows that I love and collect 1:12 size miniatures which I photograph in realistic scenes. The artifice of recreating in minute detail items in 1:12 scale always amazes me, and it’s amazing how the eye can be fooled. I have created such a scene here, where everything is comes from my 1:12 miniatures collection. Therefore I have decided to use them to illustrate a very Victorian Christmas, which I think exemplifies being in the festive mood. I hope you like my choice for this week's theme, and that it makes you smile!
As this is the last "Smile on Saturday" before Christmas, I should just like to take this opportunity to wish everyone in the group a very happy Festive Season. May it be filled with happiness and joy for you all.
This scene is comprised of 1:12 miniatures from my 1;12 miniature collection, ranging from artisan pieces acquired in the last couple of years, to items I have had since my childhood. Fun things to look for in this tableau include:
The Christmas tree is a 1:12 artisan miniature made by an unknown artist. I bought it via E-Bay from a seller in the United States. The tree came full dressed, complete with little gold angel on top, the apron at its bottom and all the baubles and bows between.
The Christmas presents you see beneath the Christmas tree and scattered around the room were made by husband and wife artistic team Margie and Mike Balough who own Serendipity Miniatures in Newcomerstown, Ohio. The Christmas garland hanging from the fireplace was also made by them.
The New Year cards you see on the mantlepiece of the fireplace are all 1:12 size miniatures made by the British miniature artisan Ken Blythe. Most of his work that I have come in the form of books, which he has made may be opened to reveal authentic printed interiors. In some cases, you can even read the words, depending upon the size of the print! I have quite a large representation of Ken Blythe’s work in my collection. What might amaze you is that all Ken Blythe’s opening books are authentically replicated 1:12 scale miniatures of real volumes. As well as books, he also designed other paper based artistic items. This includes these New Year cards which are 1:12 copies of genuine Victorian New Year cards! To create something so authentic to the original in such detail and so clearly, really does make them all miniature artisan pieces. Ken Blythe’s work is highly sought after by miniaturists around the world today and command high prices at auction for such tiny pieces, particularly now that he is no longer alive. I was fortunate enough to acquire pieces from Ken Blythe prior to his death about four years ago, as well as through his estate via his daughter and son-in-law. His legacy will live on with me and in my photography which I hope will please his daughter.
The other Christmas cards seen around the room are artisan miniatures made by an unknown artist and came in their own presentation box. They came from kathleen Knight's Doll's House Shop in the United Kingdom.
The delicious looking plate of iced and decorated Christmas biscuits, which is a miniature artisan piece gifted to me by my dear Flickr friend and artist Kim Hagar (www.flickr.com/photos/bkhagar_gallery/), who surprised me with it last Christmas.
The antique velvet drawing room suite with its button-back upholstery I have had since I was a child of eight. The sofa, grandfather armchair and grandmother slipper chair were a gift to me that Christmas. The small salon chair in the back right-hand corner of the photo also comes from my childhood and I have had it since I was about ten.
The tall Dutch style chest of drawers to the far left of the photo was one of the first pieces of miniature furniture I ever bought for myself. I chose it as payment for several figures I made from Fimo clay for a local high street toy shop when I was eight years old. All these years later, I definitely think I got the better end of the deal!
The two wine tables and the demi-lune tables come from Kathleen Knight's Doll's House Shop in the United Kingdom.
The two cottages orné pastille burners sitting on the demi-line table have been hand made, painted and gilded by Welsh miniature ceramist Rachel Williams who has her own studio, V&R Miniatures, in Powys. The ornate Victorian ruby glass epergne between them is an artisan miniature made of real spun glass and came from Beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering.
The gilt Art Nouveau tea set, featuring a copy of a Royal Doulton leaves pattern, comes from a larger tea set which has been hand decorated by beautifully Handmade Miniatures in Kettering as well.
The ornate white plaster fireplace with its wide mantle, the fire screen in front if it, and the hand embroidered pole fire screen to the left of the fireplace, the black leaded fire surround and brass fire tools also come from Kathleen Knight's Doll's House shop in the United Kingdom.
The grey marble French barrel clock on the mantlepiece is a 1:12 artisan miniature made by Hall’s Miniature Clocks, supplied through Doreen Jeffries Small Wonders Miniatures in England.
The two ornate fluted Victorian ruby glass vases standing to either side of the clock between the New Year cards are artisan miniatures made of real spun glass and came from Kathleen Knight's Doll's House shop in the United Kingdom.
The family photos on the mantlepiece and on the walls are all real photos, produced to high standards in 1:12 size on photographic paper by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. The frames are from various suppliers, but all are metal.
The four miniature silhouettes featuring a Georgian era gentleman and lady, and two top hatted Victorian gentlemen come from Lady Mile Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
The central portrait of an old Victorian woman in its gold frame also comes from Kathleen Knight's Doll's House shop in the United Kingdom, whilst the Regency portrait of the gentleman to the right-hand side of the photograph was made by Maria Makes Miniatures in the United Kingdom.
The wallpaper is William Morris’ ‘Poppies’ pattern, featuring stylised Art Nouveau poppies. William Morris papers and fabrics were popular in the late Victorian and early Edwardian period before the Great War.
The miniature Victorian style rug on the floor is made by hand by Pike and Pike in the United Kingdom.
The Waikato River, New Zealand's longest river, moves gracefully north from Lake Taupo between banks 100 metres apart. Just before the Huka Falls it enters a shallow ravine of hard volcanic rock. The effect is nature's large-scale equivalent of a fire hose feeding into a very fine nozzle.
The previously placid waters roar and rumble at great speed along the ravine before bursting into space out over Huka Falls to crash into the turbulent pool 11 metres below. This shot was taken from a foot bridge at the top of the falls, a prime position to get up close and witness the frightening display of more than 220,000 litres of water blasting by every second. (Source: www,newzealand.com)
I would have added this shot to the location map, but it shows no sign of the Falls, or Huka Falls Road, whereas Google Maps clearly shows both; ah well, never mind, does anybody (apart from me) ever look at these things anyway.
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"Your first 10,000 photographs are your worst" - Henri Cartier-Bresson
I certainly have mixed feelings about this. Have been trying something new in post-processing and this is the result.
Wasn't sure if I like it or hate it. Any thoughts would be appreciated!
Image taken at Scale Haw Force, one of the many waterfalls in the Yorkshire Dales. I took a step back to pay more attention down the stream instead of the waterfall itself.
Focus stacking and blended in the long exposure. Dodge and burn to add light, colour adjustments, added the Orton effect and finished off with a subtle vignette.
This absolutely stunningly patterned moth is another one of those with a poetic English name - meet the True Lover's Knot (Lycophotia porphyrea)!
This one made a quick stop at some of the tansy (Tanacetum vulgare) by the Nedre Dammen pond in Åva-Stensjödal and allowed me a couple of captures.
The caterpillar on the other hand prefer heather and heath.
Part 1 shows it from the back here: www.flickr.com/photos/tinyturtle/51555014989/
Men's Fashion/Fashions (robes) by the amazing Ryan Liang of SHANTOMMO. Shop the fashions at shantommo.com.
You can also follow Shantommo on instagram at: www.instagram.com/shantommo/
Rock Hudson and James Dean by Mattel as Repainted and added hair that was also restyled for www.myfarrah.com by Noel Cruz of www.ncruz.com.
Regent Miniatures diorama by Ken Haseltine.
More repainted art by Noel Cruz are featured in the 1Sixth Winter Hardbound Edition available in Hardback/imagewrap or paperback cover. Also as a PDF or eBook. Order here: www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth
eBook: www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth?ebook=690084
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
Hey guys!
Here is my latest creation. I decided it was time to upgrade my jeep a bit, so I did. I personally prefer the smaller scale since it feels much better in minifig scale, but that is just me. The jeep can fit a driver, gunner and passenger. Tagged people who inspired me. I'm still learning the ropes of my new camera, so pardon the limited focus.
Also, a question: Do you prefer lightbox or outdoor shots?
Cheers,
-Vicky
:)
1/6th scale. Combination of Barbie, Re-ment and Gloria accessories. Sink is by Tico. Table is from the Deluxe Reading Kitchen from the '60's. I made the hutch.
A small vehicle minifig scaled. It's not based on a particular existing vehicle (as far as I know ;) I just wanted a car with a 1930's look.
Norman’s nugget of poodle wisdom~
“Your hopes and dreams are what define your individuality. They have the power to give you wings and make you fly high.”
Dad forgot his lunch yesterday, so Norman brought it to him at work and visited with folks while he was there. He must have thought his ears were wings and they would work to lift him off the ground even if he wasn’t getting on a plane!
It's hard to beat Andrew's classic Bullpup as the standard bearer of Lego military 4x4 trucks.
I've always wanted to build one in woodland camouflage, so we recently decided to swap truck designs; I'd build a variant of his new Bullpup, and he'd build a variant of my M-ATV. Really fun project all around, go check them out:
My new maledoll - Watanabe - in my story will study on industrial design. Creation of furniture - his professional interest. I took pictures of the booklet which he will show to his teacher
So I missed “Sandwich Time” on the 22nd, “Peeps for Pepys” on the 23rd, and “Potato Alphabet” on the 24th. But here I am on the 25th, playing “Things from Yesteryear” with my grandfather’s scales…and all the other themes thrown in as well.
Fred: "I'm going out to Starbucks. Anything you need from the store?"
Me: "Yes, could you bring me peeps and one potato?"
Fred: "Okay then..."
For We're Here — Sandwich lovers!.
Put some zing into your 365! Join We're Here!
GiGi Hadid by Noel Cruz (ncruz.com) wearing fashions (Dress) by SHANTOMMO. See Ryan Liang's Creations at shantommo.com/with manicured hands by Pure Icon Paris on eBay at www.ebay.com/usr/pure-icon-paris. iPhone & iMac (stunningly real in 1/6 scale) by liluminiature on etsy at www.etsy.com/shop/liluminiature. Diorama by the now retired Ken Haseltine of Regent Miniatures. Magazines,
Pavilion Benches, Tribeca Desk Table and Amazon Parcels by Phillip Nuveen of LMPN visit his site at lmpn.shop.
GiGi is featured in the 1Sixth Winter Hardbound Edition available in Hardback/imagewrap or paperback cover. Also as a PDF or eBook.
Order here: www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth
eBook: www.blurb.com/b/9320555-1sixth?ebook=690084
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
She was cooperative & held still so I could get a close up of her sharp, pointy scales.
Texas Spiny Lizard (Sceloporus olivaceus)
My photos can also be found at kapturedbykala.com
A brand new Cat D11R begins it's first job, clearing a drilling location. 1/50th scale Norscot D11R, and a Ertl F350 used to depict this scene.
During busy times, Boop's Scoops is a swirl of energy with laughter, dining, and dancing.
An intensely private individual, Worker Man* quietly blends with the background as he cleans. When he steps out onto the dance floor, his partner is the mop or broom.
He's become such a familiar part of Boop's Scoops that the patrons rarely notice him. That's just the way Worker Man likes it.
_____________________________
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
* See Worker Man's profile here:
flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/50017050371/
** And his appearances in Boop's Scoops such as this:
Je cherchais du lin en fleurs mais en quelques jours les graines s'étaient formées et les magnifiques pétales bleus avaient disparu.
Mais juste à côté le chemin entre les champs cultivés s'était transformé en tableau impresionniste. Une douce allée fleurie de coqueliquots, marguerites et autres fleurs sauvages.
I was looking for flowering flax but within a few days the seeds had formed and the beautiful blue petals were gone.
But right next to it the path between the cultivated fields had been transformed into an impressionist painting. A gentle flowered avenue of poppies, daisies and other beautiful wild flowers.
"Greetings! Can anyone solve the puzzle... that is ME? AHAHA!"
Oh, it's Rubik!
It's been so long!*
"My name's not Rubik! I am... CUBEMAN!"
Rubik sounds SO much better.
Honestly, 'Cubeman' sounds intentionally generic.
"MmHm! Right? It's... puzzling. Isn't it. That's what makes me so mysterious!"
It's not puzzling!
It's just uninspired.
"Then tell me! Why am I named Cubeman? Go ahead! Solve... the RIDDLE!"
Because your body and head are shaped like cubes!
"Hm. I admit I didn't think you'd figure that out. Okay, so you're a clever audience! I like that challenge!"
Oh, for...
He should have been named Obvious Man.
Don't say that. Sooner or later, I guarantee there will be a Kinnikuperson called 'Obvious Man'.
Look, Cubeman, just get to why you're here!
Are you going to have a match?
"Yes! But... what KIND of match?? Hmm? Hmm?? Puzzling?"
A... wrestling match? Or fight, or whatever you Kinnikupeople call it?
"First, we are Chojin. Not 'Kinnikupeople'. Second, there will be neither wrestling nor fighting in my match tonight. Hmm!? Intrigued!?"
Ugh! Okay, we can't crack your code, there, or whatever.
Just PLEASE tell us and leave!
Such an impenetrable mystery.
More like our inconceivable misery.
"It will be a puzzle challenge-"
...groans and moans...
"-and my opponent will be.... MINDPUZZLEMAN!!"
Gah! When we thought it couldn't get any worse.
Who??
Don't you remember? We saw him about the same time we first saw this idiot.
His body is like those linking ring tricks.
"I know you're digging it now! A puzzle bout for the ages!"
Not all ages, I hope. Maybe I'm too old.
Or too young! I'll assume so and leave.
💪M💪U💪S💪C💪L💪E💪
A year of the shows and performers of the Bijou Planks Theater.
M.U.S.C.L.E. No. 24 "Cubeman"
Painted by Paprika, thus losing all collectible value forever.
* Cubeman was last seen waaaay back in BP 2018 Day 254:
www.flickr.com/photos/paprihaven/43330470951/
* Mindpuzzleman was last seen waaaay back in BP 2020 Day 261:
Newly released images showcase the incredible closeness with which NASA's Cassini spacecraft, now in its "Ring-Grazing" orbits phase, is observing Saturn's dazzling rings of icy debris.
The views are some of the closest-ever images of the outer parts of the main rings, giving scientists an eagerly awaited opportunity to observe features with names like "straw" and "propellers." Although Cassini saw these features earlier in the mission, the spacecraft’s current, special orbits are now providing opportunities to see them in greater detail. The new images resolve details as small as 0.3 miles (550 meters), which is on the scale of Earth's tallest buildings.
Cassini is now about halfway through its penultimate mission phase -- 20 orbits that dive past the outer edge of the main ring system. The ring-grazing orbits began last November, and will continue until late April, when Cassini begins its grand finale. During the 22 finale orbits, Cassini will repeatedly plunge through the gap between the rings and Saturn. The first finale plunge is scheduled for April 26.
For now, the veteran spacecraft is shooting past the outer edges of the rings every week, gathering some of its best images of the rings and moons. Already Cassini has sent back the closest-ever views of small moons Daphnis and Pandora.
Image Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute
For more information about the Cassini-Huygens mission, click here.
© 2013 Paul Newcombe. Don't use without permission.
Thor's Cave, Manifold Valley, Peak District
Best Viewed On White. Then click on the image to come back here.
A year and a month since my last visit. I was planning to revisit in May but with the spring being late this year, the 1st of June is probably still too early.
Over the two visits I only had around 10 minutes of light due to either cloud or getting there a little too late before the sun drops too far.
Just managed to grab the shots this time before losing the sun to cloud.
I would have loved more time to explore more compositions.
Thor's Cave is an imposing sight and you approach from Wetton. It's so big. The tree to the left and the church spire give a sense of scale.
Three horizontal shots stitched into a panorama.
Check this model in 3D on Mecabricks
– Why have I chosen RSS Korolev? Every captain wants such ship. Fast. Huge. Convenient. Never mind, I m just joking. Someone else would say something about a new frontier and a spirit of discovery. As for me, it s just a new experience. You know, if you are captain, it s almost impossible to find anything except cargo ship. Or a liner for the lucky ones. It s not bad, but those routine delivery missions are too identical. Fly somewhere, take cargo, go back, repeat. This research voyage is completely different. Much more responsibility. There are larger cargo ships, but the crew is always low, a couple of dozens at the biggest ones. And all of them are captain s subordinates. Captain is a god on his ship. Here… everything is different. Hundreds of scientists are not just passengers. I have to change course if some astronomer finds some unusual star or if a biologist decides to scan particular planet for life. It s a bit annoying. Some more conservative person could find such situation real headache. But I don t want to return to the freighters.
– They can say everything they want, but NavSystems was a general sponsor of this mission. So our aim is establishing new hyperspace routes and correcting old ones. Most expansive and complicated equipment of this ship are all kinds of hyperspace scanners. Laying a new route isn t a simple task. You have to keep in mind many factors to make it fast, reliable, safe, economic. And profitable for company. Days, when ship had to have huge powerful expansive computer onboard to calculate hyperjump, are gone. Companies like NavSystem provide access to their servers to make calculations as simple as it possible. Global hyperspace beacon network collects all necessary data; servers process it and give all parameters of a jump for a fair payment. This entire infrastructure has high running cost, so we can t do it for free.
– Those bastards from the “navigators guild” think they are masters here. But most of them don t even understand that their precious hyperroutes are useless if nobody wants to use them. Every journey needs a reason. The most common and obvious one is valuable resource deposit. Humanity needs more resources for further expansion. That s why we should check every possible planet, moon or asteroid belt. Moreover, every planet is unique and can tell scientists something new and may be important. We ve already done several discoveries. But “navigators” always hurry us up if they find star system useless for them. We must do something.
– This expedition has already given us good results. We collected tons of information and statistics. It will help for new colonists a lot. Some people hope we can find one more earth-like planet. It will be a great success. However, we checked thousands of planets and none of them is suitable for human without any special equipment. We even found some samples of life, but it were just bacteria and a couple of simplest seaweeds. Space is a dead place. I hope we can change this in future.
Great Egret adult - In the Wild - sunlit-white
Saint Augustine, Florida U.S.A. - Summer '24
Independence Day 2024 - Northern Florida
The Oldest U.S. City (1513) - 4th of July 2024
---------Independence Day 2024 ----------U.S.A.!
In the Wild - Nesting - Rookery - profile - 7/4/24
*[left-double-click for a closer-look - eye/sun reflection]
You can download or view Macroscopic Solutions’ images in more detail by selecting any image and clicking the downward facing arrow in the lower-right corner of the image display screen.
Three individuals of Macroscopic Solutions, LLC captured the images in this database collaboratively.
Contact information:
Mark Smith M.S. Geoscientist
mark@macroscopicsolutions.com
Daniel Saftner B.S. Geoscientist and Returned Peace Corps Volunteer
daniel@macroscopicsolutions.com
Annette Evans Ph.D. Student at the University of Connecticut
annette@macroscopicsolutions.com
This same Mushroom has appeared in photographs immediately before these on Flickr. These two images have a link below to Selva Pascuala a prehistoric archaeological site in Spain that has fungoid rock art on the cave walls. This Mushroom on Wallace’s Cave in Scotland in not prehistoric, nor of the psychotropic variety proposed depicted in Spain. One rather base link might be the growing medium. Is the breath of visitors enough to provide the material on the cave to support growth of such a large mushroom? There are prehistoric carvings near The Wallace Cave and it has me wondering on modern and ancient fungiculture that relies on a substrate to feed the growth. Maybe cave paintings display the nomadic seasonal hunt and the potential to cultivate from wild beast and wild growths through tended patches a harvest off the right animal dung that would host the correct fungi?
It seems very likely that hunter gatherers would see growths on dung and degenerating wood and see the potential for collecting the correct medium to continue mycelium and such root like structures to have harvestable growths close to hand. The current Mushroom as seen in the photographs I do not propose as a Prehistoric continuation. I just think of past and contemporary cave users providing breath and other fungi food and maybe here in Wallace’s Cave that hosts a renewed and redressed bed of rushes that someone may also be tending this wonderful growth rooted upon fertile medium in a crack in the cave. The white budding fungi spheroids seem to show a near water fall of growth in the well shaded semi dark of the small cave.
Much less visited than Rosslyn Chapel on the opposite Western Bank of The North Esk river you will find The Wallace Cave. There are several Wallace Caves in Scotland. There is only one Wallace Cave in Roslin Glen. There are also caves under Hawthornden Castle. If you are going to Rosslyn Chapel I hope that you have a great visit and if you have a chance do walk in the Roslin Glen. The Castle and the Chapel retain the older name of Rosslyn and the contemporary village has the newer name of Roslin.
In the pictures uploaded to Flickr immediately before these two those two both the Focused and Focusless Fabulous Fungi a Miraculous Magical Mushroom were a joint effort. I managed in Manual Focus to capture an impressionistic rendering and a photographic view of the same rather large mushroom. My lighting expert is not on Flickr so I cannot link them locally and I do not have permission to link them further afield. He is a great companion to share a historically important cave with. Our focus on photography led us to moths and small gnats and large spiders with varying fungi and moss and lichen. The clean air just 8 miles from Edinburgh enables some fantastic growths that increase in quantity and size as you move further away from the city into more vibrant landscapes that support such greater growth. The size and vitality of the Mushroom was so unexpected that I have labelled it fabulous, miraculous and magical as it certainly appeared that way being the only such branching out extended growth from the rock face with roots nestled in a shallow crack.
The cave shows many pick marks from it having being extended and masoned sections where door and fittings have been fitted and broken away. The valley side opposite Rosslyn Chapel and Castle has a path way and viewing platforms cut into the cliff sides. The cave itself is not too large and the Mushroom as focus of attention and camera here looks quite unlikely to be natural and also at the same time possible so. It does appear like something brought in affixed and maybe even tended. There is a bed of rushes in the cave, changed annually and often dressed into the form of a sleeping figure. This Both Focused and Focusless Fabulous Fungi a Miraculous Magical Mushroom that proudly proclaims itself present and potent whilst discreetly declining any casual further investigation beyond speculation such as I have delivered here.
There is a legend of a Black Hen, don’t say Pullet, that is noted as confusing treasure seekers and grail hunters by digging holes to false terrain the site and to fill in half dug holes for when seekers return to complete their excavations and further still through special skill to carefully indicate the better and best grounds to explore through careful talon and beak soil manipulation. There are further tails of either this Black Hen, or of another such similar still don’t say Pullet, Black Hen, maybe there is just the one, or possibly there are a pair of magical soil shrouders at work? The other hen story relates to a treasure hidden under a stair. The exact stair can be correctly deduced in a manner not fully revealed within the story. Any stair testing and excavating can and will lead to the Black Hen II, this time the truth will not out*, moving the treasure when the excavators are in the right area and also the hen will bamboozle the grail hunters with special Holy Hen Acts that will confuse, strain, enrage and bring chaos to order and the ‘BH II’ wonder guard will clear up after the said chaos and restore all to proper order til the right, maybe even righteous, approach of the mythic legendary treasure grail hunter seekers who are destined to step on the right step at the right time in the right manner possibly with the left foot.
Please only read good humour and faithful following in my words above. I have followed signs to Rosslyn Chapel and parked when there were just a few spaces next to the old barn and byre. I have wandered in the beauty of the landscape and listened to the stories and here share some quickly to say that this is a place of beauty and of mystery, both of folly and of faith with a river bend bringing out rock inscribed from thousands of years ago to natural and extended caves, with castles and chapels, formerly and currently hosting services and battles til a part of the past seems to have been deeply woven here such that we choose to look at it again and again making pilgrimage and enacting rampage all engaged through marvellous mysteries and eldritch histories far beyond our fascination and into our fine fashioned fulgent fabricated fantasies.**
*Black Hen I also assured that the truth would not out, Black Hen II is not a fully fledged sequel as of course it could be one Hen, not a Pullet, successfully stealth working both grounds and stairs.
**Please do not test the Hen, or Hens, not Pullets, as you could be destroying a beautiful and historial protected place that is best left none Hen tested and none destroyed. Age, atmosphere and our antecedents have done more than enough destruction and also they had with them those that fought to give enough preservation and conservation too.
© PHH Sykes 2024
phhsykes@gmail.com
A Cave In Spain Contains the Earliest Known Depictions of Mushrooms by Brian Akers
www.mushroomthejournal.com/a-cave-in-spain-contains-the-e...
Welcome to Rosslyn Chapel
Hawthornden Castle
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawthornden_Castle
Alexander Nasmyth - Hawthornden Castle, near Edinburgh - Google Art Project
artsandculture.google.com/asset/hawthornden-castle-near-e...
Hawthornden Foundation Hawthornden Castle
www.hawthornden.org/hawthornden-castle
Hawthornden Foundation
Wallace's Cave, cave and rock carvings SM6825
portal.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=1505:300:::::VIE...
ROSLIN GLEN AND HAWTHORNDEN CASTLE GDL00327
portal.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=1505:300:::::VIE...
Roslin Glen
Rosslyn Chapel Trust is responsible for the conservation and care of part of the picturesque landscape known as Roslin Glen, which is adjacent to Rosslyn Castle and Rosslyn Chapel.
www.rosslynchapel.com/about/roslin-glen/
Roslin Glen Country Park
www.midlothian.gov.uk/directory_record/171/roslin_glen_co...
Roslin Glen Country Park
www.rosslynchapel.com/about/roslin-glen/
Wallace's Cave, cave and rock carvings
canmore.org.uk/site/51808/wallaces-cave
Archaeology Notes
Roslin Glen And Hawthornden Castle
Date of Inclusion: 31/03/2001
1:20,000Map Scale:
Council: Midlothian
Designation Reference: GDL00327
portal.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=PORTAL:document:...
ROSLIN GLEN AND HAWTHORNDEN CASTLE
GDL00327
portal-beta.historicenvironment.scot/apex/f?p=1505:300:::...
Gorton House Rock Carving(S) (Post Medieval)(Possible)
For scale, its abdomen just barely covered the dot on a playing die when it hopped there. It's the same kind of jumping spider as this one.
There were several passes considered for Canadian Pacific's railroad across the Rockies. At least 2 passes to the north and the Corwsnest to the south. The direct route west of Calgary was chosen, and it was not the easiest path.
West from Calgary it was fairly simple building up the gently graded Bow River to Kicking Horse Pass. From the summit of Kicking Pass west is where the problem presents itself, Kicking Horse Pass is 5334 feet above sea Level and Golden is 2625 feet. A 2709 foot decent.
The original plan was to make a long 2.2% decent across the face of Mount Stephen (to the left) down to Leanchoil where the railroad would continue its 2.2% journey into Kicking Horse Canyon. This route however was expensive and would take time to build.
A temporary line was built out Field, BC. The small railroad town can be seen in the center of the photo along the banks of Kivking Horse River. The line started with a 2.4% ramp to a location just east of the Mount Setphen Tunnel. It was here the 4% Big Hill started. In the photo the Mt. Stephen Tunnel can be seen center left.
A manifest is exiting the tunnel and the rock shed, the curve the manifest train is entering, is the aproximent location of where the 4% diverged and began. The sections of highway seen in the photo, lower left were once part of the Big Hill Line. Canada Highway 1 now uses most of the former Right of Way.
The Mount Stephen line was never built, it was to costly, lots of rock work and high cliff running, instead the Spiral Tunnels were built to drop the tracks to Field on a mostly 2.2% grade. This was modeled after the Gothard Tunnel in Switzerland. This created a couple new problems, the route would have to use the first 3 miles of the "Big Hill's 2.4%, and would require the rebuilding of a short grade east of Field which was also suppose to have been temporary, as the Mount Stephen line would have been above all of this area, hanging on a ledge higher up the mountainside. This solution was still cheaper and easier than the Mount Stephen route, and the Spiral Tunnel route using 3 miles of 2.4% was ultimately built, and is what is in the photo.
The section of track on the lower left is Partridge above the Upper Spiral Tunnel. The 2.4% section of railroad the manifest is clinging to is still referred to as the "Big Hill"! The vantage point gives a great look at the what man conquered thru engineering, and the fantastic scenery that makes the Canadian Pacific (CPKC) spectacular!
Also of note, is the Highway running along the right side of the river is aprox location of a railroad branch line from Field that served a large mill located just right of the highway bridge over the river. Ore was brought to the mill from aerial tramways that defended thousands of feet from the mountains on both sides of the river. The mines produced lead and Zinc. Production scaled down after WW2, and ceased in the 1950's.
It's difficult for a photo to demonstrate the scale of the steep slopes lining the upper end of Carlin Gill (and most other Howgill valleys), but those trees beside Carlingill Beck are indeed tree-sized – they're not huge, but they're not bushes!
I suppose they have a sheltered, well-water location, with thin glacial soil improved by nutrients washed downhill.
Maybe statistics express it better. The very flat slope to the left of the trees ascends ~125 m from the Beck to the ridgetop, maintaining a 1-in-1.76 incline for a horizontal distance of 220 m. No wonder the sheep walk single-file on narrow terraces.
Even then, the end of the flat section isn't the top, which is beyond a further, teasingly convex slope.
The furthest ridge on the left descends rightwards from Knowles (461 m) towards Back Balk. The nearer ridge is simply on the side of Carlin Gill, between the tributary gulleys of Small Gill and Heskaw Gill. The right bank is the sparser-vegetated Screes of Black Force.
The hill in the background is Greyrigg Pike, 4 km away.
Guess who got Pacific Rim for Christmas! I kind of feel like a disgrace to the Geek name because I never saw it in theaters. I know, Shocking isn't it?
Like many fans of the film, I instantly fell in love with the Russian Jaeger, Cherno Alpha. It's just 2,412 Tons of pure badassery! So of coarse I had to build one.
This MOC is in Microfig scale and stands in at 2' 11" tall. It took roughly 70 hours to build. I didn't keep track of the part count, but if I were to wager a guess, i'd say it contains no-less than 5000 pieces.
5 foot long, minifig-scale fully-rigged interior-and-exterior LEGO model of the 18th-century British Navy frigate HMS Enterprize, launched in 1774.
19,700 bricks!
For more information see: HMS Enterprize on MOCPages
For highlights see: HMS Enterprize Highlight Album
For even more pictures see: HMS Enterprize Flickr Collection
Ted Merrill opens up the throttle on the Maryland & Pennsylvania #36, a Railroad Supply Mogul. While he was making good time for it's scale, a 1/10th of a second shutter speed helps the diminutive steamer look like it's running flat out.
Cram's Universal Terrestrial Globe
10 1/2 inch
Made by
The George F. Cram Co,
Indianapolis
Indiana
Natural scale: 1 = 47,800,000
One Inch = 755 Statute Miles
68.12 mi Length of a degree of longitude shown at each 10 degrees of latitude on meridian 30 w
Spellings conform to rulings of United States Geographic Board and Royal Geographic Society
No. 105
Copyright
The George F. Cram Company
Indianapolis, Indiana
Made in U.S.A.
Here's a good pic of the finished quilt. The colors are pretty spot on. The squares finish at 1/2 inches. I used Terrie Sandlin's foundation method to make the center from her book "Miniatures in Minutes".
Center - Ruby by Bonnie and Camille
Border - White Kona
Binding -Grunge Origins Basic Grey
I really love this little quilt - imperfections and all!
This is the main camera that ESA’s Hera mission for planetary defence will be relying on to explore and manoeuvre around the Didymos asteroid system.
Hera – named after the Greek goddess of marriage – will be, along with NASA's Double Asteroid Redirect Test (DART) spacecraft, humankind’s first probe to rendezvous with a binary asteroid system, a little understood class making up around 15% of all known asteroids.
The DART spacecraft – due for launch this November – will first perform a kinetic impact on the smaller of the two bodies. Hera will follow-up with a detailed post-impact survey to turn this grand-scale experiment into a well-understood and repeatable asteroid deflection technique.
Produced by Jena-Optronik in Germany, this lightweight camera is being supplied to OHB System AG, leading the Hera industrial consortium for ESA. The camera will be used both for spacecraft navigation and scientific study of the two asteroids’ surfaces.
The camera is based on Jena-Optronik’s existing ASTROhead design. ASTROhead has already been proven in space, aboard Northrop Grumman‘s Mission Extension Vehicle, MEV-1 in 2019, helping it perform a historic autonomous docking with a geostationary telecommunication satellite in order to extend the satellite's working lifetime.
Credits: Jena-Optronik
In 1923, the Soviet authorities decided to organize an All-Russian Agricultural and Handicraft Industrial Exhibition on the territory of Gorky Park. In 1928, the first Soviet park of culture and recreation was established here, conducting extensive cultural and educational and political-educational work. For the first time in Russia, a park appeared in which there were exhibition and sports pavilions, attractions and a children's playground. In 1932, the park was named after Maxim Gorky, and in the 50s a large-scale reconstruction took place here. The appearance of the park has been transformed. People began to come here not only for sports competitions, but also for simple walks, to walk along the elegant alleys and sit on the embankment of the Golitsyn Pond.
В 1923 году советские власти решили организовать на территории Парка Горького Всероссийскую Сельскохозяйственную и Кустарно-Промышленную Выставку. В 1928 году здесь был создан первый советский парк культуры и отдыха, ведущий широкую культурно-просветительскую и политико-воспитательную работу. Впервые в России появился парк, в котором находились выставочные и спортивные павильоны, аттракционы и детский городок. В 1932 году парку присвоили имя Максима Горького, а в 50-х здесь прошла масштабная реконструкция. Внешний вид парка преобразился. Люди стали сюда ходить не только на спортивные соревнования, но и для простых прогулок, чтобы погулять по изящным аллеям и посидеть на набережной Голицынского пруда.
The aptly named Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, is remarkably Earth-like. Its diameter is only about 40% that of our planet, but Titan’s nitrogen-rich, dense atmosphere and the geological activity at the moon’s surface make comparisons between the two bodies inevitable.
This image, taken with the radar on the Cassini spacecraft, shows just how similar the features in Titan’s surface are to Earth’s landforms.
Aside from Earth, Titan is the only other body where we have found evidence of active erosion on a large scale. There are seas, lakes and rivers filled with liquid hydrocarbons – mainly methane and some ethane – that etch the moon’s surface, in much the same way water erodes Earth’s.
A striking example is Vid Flumina, the Nile-like, branching river system visible on the upper-left quadrant of the image. The river, in the moon’s north polar region, flows into Ligeia Mare, a methane-rich sea that appears as a dark patch on the right side of the image.
Researchers in Italy and the US analysed Cassini radar observations from May 2013 and recently revealed that the narrow channels that branch off Vid Flumina are deep, steep-sided canyons filled with flowing hydrocarbons.
The channels are a little less than a kilometre wide, up to 570 m deep and with slopes steeper than 40º. This suggests they have been sculpted by liquid methane, flowing into the main Vid Flumina river, that has persistently eroded the canyon walls – a geological process reminiscent of the carving of river gorges on our planet.
The study is the first direct evidence of deeply entrenched, methane-flooded channels on Titan. Finding out how they formed provides insights into the moon’s origin and evolution and could help understand similar geological processes on Earth.
The Cassini–Huygens radar team is hoping to observe the Ligeia Mare and Vid Flumina region again in April 2017, during Cassini’s final approach to Titan. The mission is a cooperation between NASA, ESA and Italy’s ASI space agency.
Credit:NASA/JPL-Caltech/ASI
“So, where are you going for vacation?” Joyce was preparing for a week off from work as a nurse case manager at Duke University Hospital and a lot of folks were curious as to where we were going. “Death Valley”, she said. She was left with wide-eyed stares… “Say what?” “Come again?” “You’re going where?” I need to explain something here for my friends outside the U.S. as well as some here in the states. In August of 2017, our vacation was to a much different destination. Early on the morning of Joyce’s birthday, we were standing in a long queue to U.K. Customs after a flight over to Heathrow Airport in London. Finally, reaching the attention of a U.K. Customs agent, he asked for the reason for our visit. I usually let Joyce answer these things for us. Here’s what I remember her answer was: “Blah, blah, blah… vacation.” I perked up immediately with the realization that we were no longer standing on American soil, “No, no, no, Joyce! We’re not on vacation. We’re on holiday!” The agent cracked a big grin, stamped our passports, and sent us on our way.
Apparently, some folks can’t seem to wrap their minds around the aspect of a “holiday” and “death” in the same sentence. Too bad! We live in subtropical North Carolina. Death Valley is nearly 2,500 miles away across the country, but for as different as it is from here in Durham, it may as well be another planet… although a wondrously beautiful planet.
As I’ve explained in previous images, I’ve been going through some older images and wondering why I never posted them. This is from that vacation of March of 2015, the aptly named Artist’s Palette in Death Valley. I went back and forth along the road to this point looking for good light on this face of the Black Mountains there. I remember on this day hoping for enough clouds in the sky beyond the mountains to light up at sunset. After looking at this image, I realize that light from the “Golden Hour” is exactly as it should be to highlight this extraordinary scene in Death Valley.
Death Valley is known for many things, not least of which is being arid and blisteringly hot in the summer. Just a short way down the road from this spot is also the lowest point of elevation in North America at -282 feet (-86 meters) below sea level. For as arid as it is, it is also a geological treasure trove because of eons of erosion, moisture, and volcanic activity. The Artist’s Palette Formation provides evidence for one of the Death Valley area's most violently explosive volcanic periods. The Miocene-aged (the Miocene Epoch occurred between 23.03 to 5.3 million years ago… on a Thursday) formation is made up of cemented gravel, playa deposits, and volcanic debris, perhaps 5,000 feet (1,500 m) thick. Chemical weathering and hydrothermal alteration cause the oxidation and other chemical reactions that produce the variety of colors displayed here along Artist's Drive and nearby exposures of the Furnace Creek Formation.
During the day here, the colors are quite muted. The golden light of sunset draws them out through contrast, however… it pays to know your subject. The reds, pinks, and yellows of Artist’s Palette were created by the oxidation of iron, the greens came from the decomposition of tuff-derived mica, the purples stem from the oxidation of manganese, and turquoise from copper ore and salts... it truly seems a rainbow palette of hues. Contrary to its name, there is much alive throughout Death Valley, yet the barren aspect here truly emphasizes how incredible nature can be, even in lifelessness. By the way, another photographer is standing on one of the lower slopes... I left him in there for a sense of scale. Can you find him? Other images from Death Valley are jumping out at me... stay tuned!
Inside NASA’s historic Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at Kennedy Space Center, towering steel gantries and massive cranes dominate the cavernous interior. This is one of the largest single-story buildings in the world, designed in the 1960s to stack the Saturn V rockets of the Apollo program and now used for assembling the Space Launch System (SLS) for the Artemis missions. The central high-bay area, seen here from above, includes multiple platforms and access decks allowing engineers to integrate and inspect rocket stages with millimeter precision. The structure’s immense scale—capable of accommodating vehicles over 500 feet tall—remains a defining symbol of America’s spaceflight engineering capability.
James Dean repainted and styled with hair added by artist Noel Cruz of ncruz.com .
Rock Hudson and James Dean are wearing fashions by The Confusion 83 on Etsy at www.etsy.com/shop/TheConfusion83. Photographed in a 1/6 Scale Highway 61 1957 Chevrolet Corvette Venetian Red With White Coves.
Noel's repainted Celebrities are featured in the 1Sixth (1sixth.co) Winter Hardbound Edition available in Hardback/imagewrap or paperback cover.
Check out the 1sixth.co site, all things Farrah & Regent Miniatures at 1sixth.co
& the first issue is up and available of 1sixth Magazine www.blurb.com/b/8447547-1-sixth
Magazines and books that feature photos from this account and 1Sixth.co (1sixth.co) & 1SixthWorld.com (1sixthworld.com) are available for order through Blurb.
Click this www.blurb.com/user/smckinnis for those books/magazines and ebooks. They are also available on iTunes.
Photos by Steve McKinnis of stevemckinnis.com
The scales of a sunset moth (Chrysiridia rhipheus) that I bought in for this purpose. The first pic I've taken for months and months whilst my PC has been to the computer doctor and back, and whilst I've been preoccupied with other projects. This is a day-flying moth and the iridescent parts of the wings which make it so beautiful apparently do not actually contain any pigment; rather, the colors originate from optical interference. I actually even slightly desaturated this image believe it or not!
Scales are usually pigmented, but some types of scales are metallic, or iridescent, without pigments; because the thickness of the platelets is on the same order as the wavelength of visible light the plates lead to structural coloration and iridescence through the physical phenomenon described as thin-film optics, the same optical process responsible for the pretty colours floating on soap bubbles. The other interesting thing to note is that these scales are curved to an unusual degree so they probably reflect and pick up on light from a wide variety of angles, more so than most. See for example the difference in curvature compared to these scales from a different type moth last year.
I used a single flash at 1/16 for this at 1/180, diffused with a polystyrene cup over a Nikon CFI Plan 10x/0.25NA, with a Raynox DCR-150 as infinite tube lens at c.210mm. The Raynox, as expected, performs wonderfully as a tube, and once I'm back into the swing of things after finishing my website I hope to use it a lot more and have decent writeups on the equipment setups. And a bit better, it's amazing how rusty you get after a little while =). The lighting was rather flat from a bottom right direction and although little reached the other side (for shadow fill) some may have bounced off the polystyrene to fill in the shadows. This was 78 images stacked, step size 10μm, lazy pmax method stack with zerene stacker, no slabbing.
The magnification here is a shade over 10:1, I'm not especially experienced at this ratio but not bad for a first attempt after a long time. It's pretty hard to control an image like this because the bright iridescence actually really overwhelms everything and you get all sorts of posterisation if you're not careful and specks of dust are obviously volcano sized at this scale! I actually found the hardest part to be getting the wing parallel to the lens, so there are lots of lessons to be learned, especially before braving the JML 20x. Pretty though =).
View larger: farm9.staticflickr.com/8230/8505186866_8d1b9084b4_o.jpg
ED: updated 26/2 with EXIF'd retouched version
Explore #90 25/2/2013 - Thank you!
UPDATE 2014 - I have put together an extreme macro photography learning site to explain the techniques and equipment used for all my macro photos here in Flickr which is now ready. To point to a few of the links that people who want to learn this stuff might like to have a browse of:
Focus Stacking, Focus Stack Preparation, Shooting A Stack, Stack Processing, Stack Post Processing, Schneider Kreuznach Componon 28 mm f/4, Schneider Kreuznach Componon 35 mm f/4, Schneider Kreuznach Componon 80 mm f/4, Nikon El-Nikkor 50 mm f/2.8N, Reject Enlarger Lenses, JML Optical 21 mm f/3.5, 20 mm Microfilm f/2.8, Anybrand MP-E 65 Macro Lens, Manual, TTL, Rear Curtain Sync, Extreme Macro Backgrounds, Single Colour Background, The Gradient Background, Adjustable Flash Shoe Mounts, Extension Tubes, Eyepiece, Field Monitor, Flash Bracket, Focusing Helicoid, Holding Tools, Lens Adapters, M42 Iris, Macro Tripod, Making A Macro Beanbag, Insect Photography
A cropped Bi-Color processing test of Pickering's Triangle (or Pickering's Triangular Wisp) in the Veil Nebula (a Supernova Remnant).
NGC 6974 and NGC 6979 are luminous knots in a fainter patch of nebulosity on the northern rim between NGC 6992 and Pickering's Triangle.
Ha & OIII Bi-Color:
Photographed in the Hydrogen-Alpha and Oxygen III spectral wavelengths of light (Ha mapped to Red, OIII mapped to Blue, SynthGreen).
Narrowband filters:
H-Alpha
OIII
Processing:
Pre-Processing and Linear workflow in PixInsight, and finished in Photoshop (experimenting with Wavelets, Photoshop Actions and new bi-color processing techniques).
Astrometry Info:
nova.astrometry.net/user_images/1381741#annotated
RA, Dec center: 312.019287471, 31.6310735368 degrees
Orientation: 0.443881002562 deg E of N
Pixel scale: 2.4980010893 arcsec/pixel
Martin
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Just inside the porch is this statue of St Peter, holding a very large key to Heaven. I suppose it wouldn't quite work if he was just holding a standard Yale door key, but as usual this one is on a very large scale.
The Brighton Festival launched today with the Children's Parade, after a two year break because of covid restrictions. The truly appropriate theme was rebuilding and hope, broken down into three subjects areas, rebuilding nature, homes and communities. The schools and children were invited to create large scale artworks and costumes, that explored ideas for children to learn together through making. They certainly did not disappoint.
Anyone who follows my photostream knows that I love and collect 1:12 size miniatures which I photograph in realistic scenes. The artifice of recreating in minute detail items in 1:12 scale always amazes me, and it’s amazing how the eye can be fooled. Part of that artifice requires making sure that everything is in place as if the inhabitants of a room have just stepped out and will return at any moment, and I often spend far more time setting things up and adjusting the position of items, sometime by millimetres, to make it just right.
As well as photographing the miniature room as a whole, I sometimes photograph individual items within the tableau. On occasion it is so I know what is set where in a room if I decide to recreate it later, but more often than not it’s because I think the miniature artisan item deserves its own focus, be it a hand made hat, a hand painted teapot or a realistic biscuit tin containing biscuits.
The theme for “Smile on Saturday” for the 20th of November is “collage”, and whilst I have toyed and made a few different collages, I decided to use this one, to show some of the finer details that go into making a scene realistic. I hope that you like my choice for the theme this week, and that it makes you smile.
The details I have displayed around the main photograph are from top left to top right in an anti-clockwise direction:
A black dyed straw hat with purple roses and black feathers, which was made by an unknown artisan. 1:12 size miniature hats made to such exacting standards of quality and realism are often far more expensive than real hats are. When you think that it would sit comfortably on the tip of your index finger, yet it could cost in excess of $150.00 or £100.00, it is an extravagance. American artists seem to have the monopoly on this skill and some of the hats that I have seen or acquired over the years are remarkable. This hat is part of a larger collection I bought from an American miniature collector Marilyn Bickel.
The shelves of the Welsh dresser in the background are cluttered with different patterned crockery which have come from different miniature stockists both in Australia and the United Kingdom. There are also some rather worn and beaten looking enamelled cannisters and a bread tin in the typical domestic Art Deco design and kitchen colours of the 1920s, cream and green. Aged on purpose, these artisan pieces I recently acquired from The Dolls’ House Shop in the United Kingdom. There are also tins of various foods which would have been household staples in the 1920s (when this scene is set) when canning and preservation revolutinised domestic cookery. Amongst other foods on the dresser are a jar of Marmite and some Oxo stock cubes. All these items are 1:12 size artisan miniatures made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire, with great attention to detail paid to their labels and the shapes of their jars and cans. Marmite is a food spread made from yeast extract which although considered remarkably English, was in fact invented by German scientist Justus von Liebig although it was originally made in the United Kingdom. It is a by-product of beer brewing and is currently produced by British company Unilever. The product is notable as a vegan source of B vitamins, including supplemental vitamin B. Marmite is a sticky, dark brown paste with a distinctive, salty, powerful flavour. This distinctive taste is represented in the marketing slogan: "Love it or hate it." Such is its prominence in British popular culture that the product's name is often used as a metaphor for something that is an acquired taste or tends to polarise opinion. Oxo is a brand of food products, including stock cubes, herbs and spices, dried gravy, and yeast extract. The original product was the beef stock cube, and the company now also markets chicken and other flavour cubes, including versions with Chinese and Indian spices. The cubes are broken up and used as flavouring in meals or gravy or dissolved into boiling water to produce a bouillon. Oxo produced their first cubes in 1910 and further increased Oxo's popularity.
Sitting on the table in the foreground of the main photo is a McVitie and Price’s Small Petite Beurre Biscuits tin, containing a selection of different biscuits. The biscuits were made by hand of polymer clay by former chef turned miniature artisan, Frances Knight. Her work is incredibly detailed and realistic, and she says that she draws her inspiration from her years as a chef and her imagination. McVitie's (Originally McVitie and Price) is a British snack food brand owned by United Biscuits. The name derives from the original Scottish biscuit maker, McVitie and Price, Ltd., established in 1830 on Rose Street in Edinburgh, Scotland. The company moved to various sites in the city before completing the St. Andrews Biscuit Works factory on Robertson Avenue in the Gorgie district in 1888. The company also established one in Glasgow and two large manufacturing plants south of the border, in Heaton Chapel, Stockport, and Harlesden, London (where Edith’s father works). McVitie and Price's first major biscuit was the McVitie's Digestive, created in 1892 by a new young employee at the company named Alexander Grant, who later became the managing director of the company. The biscuit was given its name because it was thought that its high baking soda content served as an aid to food digestion. The McVitie's Chocolate Homewheat Digestive was created in 1925. Although not their core operation, McVitie's were commissioned in 1893 to create a wedding cake for the royal wedding between the Duke of York and Princess Mary, who subsequently became King George V and Queen Mary. This cake was over two metres high and cost one hundred and forty guineas. It was viewed by 14,000 and was a wonderful publicity for the company. They received many commissions for royal wedding cakes and christening cakes, including the wedding cake for Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip and Prince William and Catherine Middleton. Under United Biscuits McVitie's holds a Royal Warrant from Queen Elizabeth II.
In the foreground on the table there are several packets of Edwardian cleaning and laundry brands that were in common use in the early Twentieth Century in every household, rich or poor. These are Sunlight Soap, Robin’s Starch, Jumbo Blue and Imp Washer Soap. All these packets were made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. Sunlight Soap was first introduced in 1884 by William Hesketh Lever (1st Viscount Leverhulme) and introduced to the market in 1904. It was produced at Port Sunlight in Wirrel, Merseyside, a model village built by Lever Brothers for the workers of their factories which produced the popular soap brands Lux, Lifebuoy and Sunlight. Before the invention of aerosol spray starch, the product of choice in many homes of all classes was Robin starch. Robin Starch was a stiff white powder like cornflour to which water had to be added. When you made up the solution, it was gloopy, sticky with powdery lumps, just like wallpaper paste or grout. The garment was immersed evenly in that mixture and then it had to be smoothed out. All the stubborn starchy lumps had to be dissolved until they were eliminated – a metal spoon was good for bashing at the lumps to break them down. Robins Starch was produced by Reckitt and Sons who were a leading British manufacturer of household products, notably starch, black lead, laundry blue, and household polish. They also produced Jumbo Blue, which was a whitener added to a wash to help delay the yellowing effect of older cotton. Rekitt and Sons were based in Kingston upon Hull. Isaac Reckitt began business in Hull in 1840, and his business became a private company Isaac Reckitt and Sons in 1879, and a public company in 1888. The company expanded through the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. It merged with a major competitor in the starch market J. and J. Colman in 1938 to form Reckitt and Colman.
Sitting atop a stack of neatly folded 1:12 size linens sits a wicker sewing basket. Sitting open it has needles stuck into the padded lid, whilst inside it are a tape measure, knitting needles, balls of wool, reels of cotton and a pair of shears. All the items and the basket, except for the shears, are hand made by Mrs. Denton of Muffin Lodge in the United Kingdom. The taupe knitting on the two long pins that serve as knitting needles is properly knitted and cast on. The shears with black handles in the basket open and close. Made of metal, they came from Doreen Jeffries’ Small Wonders Miniature Shop in the United Kingdom. The blue cotton reel and silver sewing scissors come from an E-Bay stockist of miniatures based in the United Kingdom.
In the foreground on the table there is a packet of Edwardian soap that was in common use in the early Twentieth Century in every household, rich or poor. This is Imp Washer Soap. The packet was made by Little Things Dollhouse Miniatures in Lancashire. Imp Washer Soap was manufactured by T. H. Harris and Sons Limited, a soap manufacturers, tallow melters and bone boiler. Introduced after the Great War, Imp Washer Soap was a cheaper alternative to the more popular brands like Sunlight, Hudsons and Lifebuoy soaps. Imp Washer Soap was advertised as a free lathering and economical cleaner. T. H. Harris and Sons Limited also sold Mazo soap energiser which purported to improve the quality of cleaning power of existing soaps.
Sitting on the large kitchen range in the background is a 1:12 miniature replica of a copper kettle and a steel iron. The kettle’s lid may be removed.
Sitting on the table is a cottage ware teapot. Made by French ceramicist and miniature artisan Valerie Casson, it has been decorated authentically and matches in perfect detail its life-size Price Washington ‘Ye Olde Cottage Teapot’ counterparts. The top part of the thatched roof and central chimney form the lid, just like the real thing. Valerie Casson is renown for her meticulously crafted and painted miniature ceramics.