Incredible luck and what to do with it

As I have mentioned before, whenever I go to town for a haircut I browse the charity shops on the street where my hairdresser is. Sometimes they have tiny things that can go into one of my projects, sometimes there are things I can use to make something else. Occasionally there is dollhouse furniture. But yesterday I found something I had never seen before.

All these things were in a basket with a price tag of £2.99. It turned out that the price was for the basket, which I didn't want, but there was no price for the things I wanted. Since it is a charity shop they can set their own prices, so I got the whole lot for £2.99.

Of course I could put these things into various houses and roomboxes as they are. But the temptation was too great to paint them.

The most obvious was to paint some things pewter, such as the pitcher and the tankard, but to my dismay I discoverd that I was out of pewter paint. So they will have to wait. (This means a visit to a hobby shop, and these are always dangerous).

I started with oil-and-vinegar, and it was straightforward: gold paint for the holder, although it is very hard to make wood transparent.

The cauldron must of course be black, and I "aged" it through a common technique: after the black paint had dried, I rubbed the cauldron with a candle, painted copper and very quickly wiped off the paint. It made the surface shiny and more like iron. I did the same with a pan. They will both go into the Tudor kitchen.

The candlestick and the mortar are brass (although it looks more like copper). I made the candle in the way I described just the other day:

 

The rolling pin and the basket will stay as they are. They will fit into the Victorian kitchen.

Finally, at least for today, I made two ceramic vessels which I first painted ochre, then added darker brown on the upper part and covered with a coat of varnish to make it look glazed.

 

To be continued.