Japanese sake bar in Asahi beer can

For our club display at the minis convention in Nelson, we have made displays in food tins of various kinds.  I wasnt feeling inspired by biscuit tins and chocolate tins and cracker tins etc.  Then I came across a 3 liter Asahi beer can, when having dinner in a local Japanese restaurant.  Bingo!  Here is the can:

Then I cut out one of the panels on the side:

I had a round wooden presentation box for wine bottles, with a flexible sheet of wood, and I cut the bottom and top off, leaving a useful sheet of wood.  I cut a couple of panels out of that:

These will be painted and glued to the inside of the tin, either side of the doorway.


I cut the rim off a tin lid, a very pretty tin, but just taking up space in my pantry.  Actually, hubbie cut it off, using my Dremel. 

I found cork stickers in the scrapbooking shop, and used them to tile the inside of the tin lid:

The tin will need a strip of something for the skirting board, to go inside the lip of the tin.

In Daiso, the Japanese $2 shop (actually $3.50...) I found fridge magnets.  The wine bottles arent 1/12th scale, as wine bottles, but as sake bottles, they are just the right size!  Here are the fridge magnets:

 I pulled the bottles and the fruit and veggies out of the wooden crates, and gouged the magnets off the back.  I am left with a dozen very useful wooden crates, of a good size for some other scene, some extremely weird vegetables, mostly un-usable, 24 perfect sake bottles, and a couple of bleeding wounds on my left hand, where the broken screwdriver slipped:

I have found some sake bottle labels on the i-net, and will stick them onto the bottles for my bar.  There are several different colours of bottles, pale yellow, some rose looking ones, and some dark ones.  That's fine, as sake comes in all different colours, as I found when doing some research in a Japanese restaurant.  Honestly.  Research.

The next thing is sake barrels.  I found a place (long live Google) where I could buy new sake barrels, if I wanted to make my own sake.  I could do that, I made my own wines before now.  They even won prizes, at the agricultural show!  In Zambia.  Anyway, that was a good place to see how a sake barrel really looks, and I can use some napkin rings, that I found in the Op Shop, that are just about the right size.  Good thing too, they are ugly as sin, and I didnt know what else to do with them:

So I have also printed out some images of sake barrel labels, and will then add the soft white rope which traditionally ties up the barrels.

1/12th scale Knole sofa and foot-stool

Everyone knows the Knole, I'm sure.  It's a surprisingly old design, and a must for the Eclectic Moderne look in any house.  This is a workshop at the January 2013 minis retreat, by Jean.  I arrived a bit late, so there wasnt as much choice in the fabrics.  I liked the dark blue, but I need to make this whole project again, in a much thinner fabric, since this blue raw silk was thick and very hard to sew.  Raw silk is TOUGH.  And it didnt fold well, and the sofa looks a bit lumpy to me.  Ho hum.  The pack of bits and pieces doesnt look very promising, but was easy to do, apart from the difficulty in getting a nice crisp fold in the fabric.  We used two colours of embroidery thread to twist together to make the braid trim.  That took a LOT of twisting, to get the braid to take the twisted form required, that doesnt immediately spring to the unwound position when you let go of it.

I'm always very impressed with myself when I actually finish something, as I am great at starting, but not so good on the home stretch...  so am happy that this got done, both the sofa and the matching foot-stool.  When I make the next one, this one will end up in an attic...


It would probably be nice to see the finished piece, so I'll find a picture and post it later.


Gotta love Wikipedia:  The Knole settee (sometimes known as the Knole Sofa) was made in the 17th century. It is housed at Knole in Kent, a house owned by the Sackville-Wests since 1605 but now in the care of the National Trust. It was originally used not as comfortable sofa but as a formal throne on which the monarch would have sat to receive visitors. It features adjustable side arms and considerable depth of seating, it usually has exposed wooden finials at the rear corner tops, and some exposed wood may be present on the otherwise arms. The arms, more correctly sides, are of the same height. The side arms are tied to the sofa back by means of heavy decorative braid, often with an elaborate tassel.

1/12th scale Kauri wall-mounted plate rack and shelves

Agathis australis, commonly known by its Māori name kauri, is a coniferous tree of Araucariaceae in the genus Agathis, found north of 38°S in the northern districts of New Zealand's North Island.

Kauri is a really pretty wood, with a lovely warm honey colour.  I've seen this sort of plate rack style described as Victorian, and as Edwardian.  Either way, it will be great in the kitchen of my dollhouse, which will be Eclectic Moderne, With Antique Accents.  Like my real house, in fact.  But probably tidier.

This is another of Alie's great workshops, at our minis retreat in January 2013.  We arrive on Friday evening, and start at once, the workshop is designed to be finished during the evening!  I love the carved spindles, aka the ubiquitous toothpicks.  I have noticed that the good ones, with the carved shaping at one end, are becoming more difficult to find, and we are seeing more of the ones that taper at both ends.  The next time I see the good ones (if there IS a next time), I shall have to stock up.

The kit went together so easily, although one or two people didnt read the instructions quite right, and got the spindles on backwards.  Dont ask.  Anyway, I managed to get it all right way round, and was very pleased with the result.  And then, I won a raffle and got Alie's prototype as well!  And even better, I cant now tell which is which!  So I must have done a good job...