Hooked......

I know that many of you who have been following Butterfly's recent tours de force on behalf of Small Worlds are now hopeful of reading on here about "An old house in Paris, covered with vines....".    (Pop back to my last post for the links to Butterfly's three posts if you missed them - they are worth the trip!)

The good news is that the old house will come along fairly soon - I am still waiting to complete part of the upstairs. The bad news is that the waiting involves being able to source the right sort of something and that's not going so well at the moment.

However much else is happening in Small Worlds, in particular a gentle flow of visitors which this week included 3 pre-booked school classes and an unexpected visit by a kindergarten class.   These tiny tots, aged from 3 to 5, were completely angelic.   They moved round Small Worlds in awed silence and single file, ushered by their teacher with encouraging cries and repetitions of "don't touch".   Not that I saw a single one attempting to do any such thing.   They were enchanting, and at the end their teacher said "Now what do we do when we like something?" whereupon they all clapped in unison.   And then sang me a thank you song.

I am not quite sure what happens to small children between the ages of 5 and 7 but the visit of the first form on the following day was rather more stressful and exciting.   Fourteen 7 year olds, reasonably well-controlled, but just a bit too excited for comfort.   They enjoyed themselves though, and everything survived.   Although I suspect that being allowed to play in the Children's Corner was the actual hit of the day.

The second form who followed hard on their heels were more engaged, and the third form who had preceded the babies on the first day are already very possessive of Small Worlds.   Most of them had already visited it last year and knew exactly what had changed and wanted to know where their favourite things had been placed in the new order.   

I was amused that, when I asked if something could be written in the visitors' book,  each of the classes had a designated "best writer".....

I've been taking things a bit gently this week, since I had visitors from England to stay, and then spent two days in Prague.   A huge delight there was a visit to the amazing Villa Müller, a 1930s house of stunning perfection, designed by Adolf Loos.  I urge anyone who is interested in architecture who finds themselves in Prague to put it on their "must-see" list.   If you do visit it, make sure to book onto one of the English-speaking tours because the lady taking you round is such an enthusiast it would be a shame to miss any of what she is able to tell you.

One day I hope to recreate in miniature at least "My lady's chamber" - the "Dámský boudoir" you can see on the second row of the link.   The design is based on a railway carriage and Loos has created a perfect "Room of One's Own" for Frau Müller.

Something else I have enjoyed in the past couple of weeks is investigating Butterfly's work in detail.   As I did so, it occurred to me that it is time to introduce readers of this blog to the Czech curtain hook in more detail.

I am often asked what are the most necessary tools when making miniatures.   My reply is toothpicks, clothes pegs and a really good glue.   I now have to add the Czech curtain hook.   Not so much as a tool but as the most versatile object I have yet come across for creating useful things in miniature.

These are English curtain hooks 





So far the only thing I have been able to make out of them are taps.... 

All very well in their place, but not terribly exciting.......

But let us now consider the Czech hook......

It's a veritable treasure trove of possibilities.   I've been counting and so far between us Butterfly and I have come up with at least 9 distinct uses and I suspect I may have overlooked some.   I leave you with some photos, and with the challenge to find all 9.....I'm afraid there are no prizes on offer though!   And the last of them gives you a little glimpse of what you might expect to find behind the doors of that old house in Paris.....

A clue- in case you can't find nine separate uses - two of the photos have more than one in, and don't forget you can click on each photo to make it bigger.

Thank you for following thus far - if you have any more ideas as to what we can do with the Czech hooks, do please let me know.  For that there might even be a mini-prize!   See you again soon I hope.....