It was
way too gorgeous outside today to be fussing with miniatures indoors! Sunny, blue skies and summertime temperatures enticed me out into the garden to apply gilt paint on the Entrance Hall stair.
Enough of that for today! Time to take the dogs out for a walk down the street to
Minnehaha Park!
Wow! The leaves are really changing...hard to believe that in a month they will all be gone.
The Sumac are really on fire!
In the middle of the park sits the
John Stevens House, the first home built in Minneapolis. It originally sat downtown, where the Main Post Office is today. It was identified and
saved from demolition and moved to this spot in the late 1800's. I love this little home! Wouldn't it make a great dollhouse?
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| John Stevens |
Also situated in Minnehaha Park is the
Longfellow House. It was built as a 3/4 scale reproduction of the home of the poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Longfellow immortalized
Minnehaha Falls in his epic poem,
The Song of Hiawatha. The poem was such a sensation in its day, it made Minnehaha Park a
major tourist attraction. Sorry about the exposure.
I think this would make a great dollhouse, too. The pilasters could
hide the seams where it opens up! I made a birdhouse modeled on the Longfellow House once a while back but I don't have any photos of it.
The flower gardens in back of the Longfellow House are winding down. We've already had a few overnight frosts.
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"From the forests and the prairies,
From the great lakes of the Northland,
From the land of the Ojibways,
From the land of the Dacotahs,
From the mountains, moors, and fen-lands
Where the heron, the Shuh-shuh-gah,
Feeds among the reeds and rushes.
I repeat them as I heard them
From the lips of Nawadaha,
The musician, the sweet singer." |
Minnehaha Creek flows for several long miles from the eastern shore of
Lake Minnetonka, where I grew up, and empties into the
Mississippi River, near where I live today. None of my photographs of Minnehaha Falls turned out --I'll have to show you it some other day.
Whew!
Edie & Jack the Shelties are exhausted! Best get
back to the house...Maybe I can get the stairway finished?
Later that night: The ends of the railing are whispering that they want a
curlicue finial to finish themselves off. I've never used FIMO before, but do you think that would work? Also, since I finished the stair runners in black marble, should the landing runner be black marble as well? I kind of like it 'as is,' personally.
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6 comments:
Hello John!
I have really enjoyed the photos of the park is beautiful with these fall colors! And the houses seem really dollhouses! Makes you want to reproduce them to scale!
A big hug!
Thank you for a tour to the Minnehaha park. It is so interesting to see how this hobby effects all of us, miniaturists: we see almost all objects around us in 1:12th scale, or at least we think how they will look like, true?
I like the gold detail on the spindles and I think I agree with you regarding the landing, otherwise it could be "too" co-ordinated, perhaps? I can't help you with the fimo question - I've never used the stuff but it would be nice to have something at the end of the handrail.
Thank you, everyone! Pedrete, I know! I would love to make dollhouses of both buildings! Maybe next project? Natalia, you're so right about that! Thanks to both of you for following my blog and for your comments.
Irene, Giac pointed out that it might look more like an 'entry landing' instead of a 'stair landing' if I continued the marble there.
I also thought I might try my hand at carving an ending from wood...wish me luck!
Have a great week, everyone!
Hi John. I love the gold accents, they look great. What a lovely park, and those house are beautiful. Good luck with the carving.
Si
Not only are you inspiring both in making one want rush off and work on one's DH but you are also making me rethink my "it'll do's" and shortcuts! Holding out for just the right item to create the look you really want is worth it. I'm looking at some of my own bits and thinking there could be a lot of improvement made.
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