Past Blog Posts:



Victorians and Poe

Filed under Art Projects, Beads, Collage Sheets, Edgar Allan Poe, Giveaways, Miniatures, Teri Calia, Tristan Robin Blakeman

New art, new goodies, new FREE gift! And…

ALL Halloween Collage Sheets are 40% off — through TOMORROW night (September 30, 2016)! WOW! That’s a huge section (164 sheets) so grab all those spooky witches, goblins and skeletons you need right now for Halloween projects! Includes popular items like the Witchy Little Labels & Ephemera and Spooky Windows Collage Sheets shown at right.

FREE Chipboard Potion Bottles! You may remember a swap we had using these cute chipboard potion bottles. These sets of three Chipboard Potion Bottles are FREE for ALL orders, now through SATURDAY NIGHT, October 1, 2016!

Though cabinets of curiosities were established far before the Victorian age (kind of pre-museum museums for the uber-rich), I think the Victorians were the last (perhaps best) group of humans foolhardy enough to think they could collect and categorize all the wonders of the world. My personal fave is 19th century architect Sir John Soane, for the oddities he collected (and turned his house into). At Soane’s request, his house has been left untouched since his death — almost 180 years ago. Oh, if I could get back to England…


What am I babbling about? Well, Teri Calia has created The Naturalist’s Curiosity Cabinet, in 1:12 scale using the new Millinery Cabinet — and it is wonderful!

NEW Millinery Cabinet! This is a lovely reproduction of a vintage cabinet. Originally for a milliner (hat maker) but Teri has used this piece as the structure for her artwork (and also created a new Cabinet of Curiosities Collage Sheet, with tiny little natural history books and Riker boxes (with mounted butterfly specimen) sized for the cubbies in the Millinery Cabinet, but also useful for other 1:12 projects).

“The collage sheet has Riker Mount drawers to put together so that you can fill in the cubbies with drawers if you want (although you will need two collage sheets to make enough drawers to fill all 16 of the cubbies). I used Small Antique Brass Suitcase Handles on the drawers, for handles, and it was pretty easy to do. I took photos as I added the handles so I could show you just how I did it…

Teri has provided a tutorial on her blog post, with step-by-step instructions for creating the little boxes, including making the metal drawer handles!

Learn more in Teri’s post and see all the goodies she used in her Supply List. (And check below for a larger photo (and more details about what items are hiding in that cabinet)… as lots of items from Teri’s artwork are included in today’s Giveaway!)
 

Next up is a project by Tristan Blakeman: Homage to Poe (see the photo at right and the wide photo below).

Wow! I love all the different parts and how they work together (though each would look great if used individually). Like the tree hung with “tell-tall” hearts. Or the “mausoleum, created from the shortest squat house in the die cut Cabana House Row Set.

Note: The Cabana Row House Mini Set (smaller version of the Cabana Houses in Tristan’s project) are available!

“I made a Tell-Tale Heart tree. I used a 5″ Creepy Tree die cut and gave both sides a coat of black gesso leaving a thick lumpy texture to resemble bark. Using some of the left over pieces from punching out the die cut, I fashioned a stand that would fit onto the tree, so it would support itself freely.”

See everything Tristan used to create his Homage to Poe in his Supply List (and more photos and tips on creating the Poe piece are on the bottom of the I’ve Got Those Dirty DIY Hands Blues post on Tristan’s blog).


 

Hooray for the Cabinet of Curiosities Giveaway!

Yes, I’ve zoomed in on the center section of Teri’s artwork, with a bit of a bird’s-eye view, to capture those items on the top shelf. I chose a big bunch of items from Teri’s The Naturalist’s Curiosity Cabinet Supply List to put in this Giveaway:
– Millinery Cabinet 1:12 Scale New!
– Cabinet of Curiosities Collage Sheet New!
– Tiny Glass Bell Dome
– Tiny Mossy Clay Pots – 7mm Tall (under the bell dome, with some handmade mushrooms)
– 1/4 Inch Wooden Mushroom Plugs (as feet for the cabinet)
– French Riviera 8×8 Paper Pad
– Half Scale Antiqued Urn
– Mini Glass Domes – Bronze
– Miniature Magnifying Glass
– Resin Shell Applique (at the top of the cabinet, behind the bell dome, etc.)
– Small Antique Brass Suitcase Handles
– Tiny Cup of Black Coffee
– Tiny Vintage Letters & Postage Collage Sheet (that tiny tag in bottom left corner… plus some various papers laying about)

Whew!

Just click on this Supply List link for photos and links to everything in Teri’s artwork, including all of the Giveaway items listed above!

 
To enter the Cabinet of Curiosities Giveaway drawing all you have to do is leave a comment BELOW on this blog post TODAY OR TOMORROW (the deadline is 11:59 pm PST, FRIDAY, September 30 2016)!

And tell me: What will you make with your Millinery Cabinet?

Don’t forget to leave your (hello! correct) email address, too, so I can contact the winner; your email address does not need to be made public. Note: I’m offering free shipping, too, but only within the USA. International shipping will still apply.

Please be patient! Spammers try to post crap here a lot so comments are moderated. So if you don’t see your post in the comments section, be patient and check back in a few hours before re-posting it, please!

After midnight, I’ll randomly pick the winner (via Random.org). So check your mailbox on Sunday morning to see who won and for the next Giveaway and Newsletter!

Hey, who won The Charnel House Giveaway? That would be Laura! Congratulations! Check your email for more info.

  
Posted by Leslie, September 29th, 2016

82 responses to “Victorians and Poe”

  1. Kat Cashwell says:

    Love this Millinery cabinet! I would make a witch cabinet that contains all her secret potions! thanks for all the wonderful ideas!!

  2. Jen C says:

    That collage sheet is absolutely the best! I think I’d just simply make a botanist’s workstation. Love this!

  3. itsmebarbj says:

    I would make a curiosity shoppe with halloween things and I would add some hats made just for halloween

  4. Denise says:

    Potion cabinet for the local witch!

  5. Jo says:

    I would add it to my witch’s miniature house as a closet with skeletons!

  6. Amy says:

    I don’t know! anything from Santa’s desk to a witches cabinet…… and everything in between.

  7. Phoebe Diamond says:

    A Lover’s Desk, full of valentines and other romantic things for my sweetie.

  8. LeAnn says:

    Wow! I need this in my life. I would also make a cabinet of curiosities. This is amazing!

  9. Kay Horner says:

    Oh my gosh that desk is so awesome! I would love one of those in life sized. Perfect for the writer in me. I can’t believe all the details Teri got in hers.

  10. Kim Rayko says:

    I would make a mad scientist cabinet.

  11. Cg says:

    I couldn’t make anything with it for a while!!! I’d just have to sit and stare at the dang workmanship of it!! WOW! But then I’d make a sewing/fabric desk with pieces of cloth, thread and bits of feathers,etc. and half finished hats and hat forms and def a sewing machine…ok, well, I guess ii DO know what I’d do with it. 🙄

  12. Judy Roberts says:

    I would recreate my grandfather’s desk.

  13. Jean Marmo says:

    Wow – so very creative! Love the MIllinery cabinet! Love all the fun details!

  14. Karen says:

    I love the Milliner’s cabinet as it is done but, it would be fantastic to have such a cabinet for a sewing area. Use a little vintage looking black sewing machine, have the drawers spilling with teency laces, trims, little scissors and the list could go on. One could even use a little dress form nearby too. I’m really going to have to think more about this!

  15. Cinda Parent says:

    Love the cabinet! So many interesting details to look at. I think I would try to re-create the curiosities look. With Halloween coming up, it would be perfect.
    Great job!

  16. Laurie Sisson says:

    I can see this becoming the perfect gift for a genealogist. Books on Family Trees with a diagram of the tree and research. Tokens to represent the countries and family coats of arms in miniature.
    It could be displayed in a glass dome with a chipboard tree behind it decorated with family surnames the backside of the tree finished to look like a tree outside with carved hearts in the bark.

  17. Wanda Pilder says:

    Love the ideas! Cabinet would be great for Alice through the cabinet of curiosities.

  18. Lana says:

    This is over the top!!!! WOW…where to start….I’d probably make mine like a Marie Antoinette cabinet and use gold gilt paint.

  19. I love these ideas and items It would be great to make a scary Halloween cabinet Thank you

  20. Barb A says:

    Would make a cabinet for Santa’s workshop.

  21. barb macaskill says:

    I am in the process of building a 1:12 scale doll house and the Millinery Cabinet would look gorgeous in the craft room that I am putting in it! How beautiful would it look with miniature ink pads, paint bottles, mists and lots of other beautiful craft supplies in it? I would be the happiest girl in the whole USA (and world) if I was to get the coveted email saying I had won this!! Fingers crossed and here is my email: macaskillbarbara @ yahoo .com Just take out the spaces and send me a note!

  22. Noreen says:

    What tiny little drawers in this mini cabinet! It’s a cool idea for Poe. It would be great as a curiosity cabinet – full of the weird and wonderful.

  23. Elizabeth H. says:

    What a fun piece to work on! I think I would go with a Halloween cabinet. Lots of great ideas.

  24. Sandi James says:

    The mad hatter, of course!

  25. marykay chisum says:

    A mad scientists cabinet!!

  26. Ann C. says:

    I would make a combination of a Halloween cabinet and a Mathematician’s desk plus a little Poe added in. Wow!! This thing has endless possibilities. Thanks for the opportunity to win one.

  27. anne stodghill says:

    Love this and all of the ideas. I would probably make a curiosity cabinet as well.

  28. Louise Kush says:

    I see this as a 3D “scrapbook” for the life of a lady-what she has loved -brooches, toys, dried flowers, love letters and shells- always there for her to enjoy and reminisce about her adventures with her guests.

  29. Emily D says:

    Love the cabinet!! I’d make a curiosity cabinet.

  30. Angie Cook says:

    Wow!!! My mind is swirling with all the possibilities. I just might have to go with a botanist collection work station. But I can see making several of these in several different themes.

  31. M. C. Sparks says:

    I have some Tim Holtz fabric so I would use that somehow

  32. Traci says:

    I want it!!! I would make a safari guides desk. But there are so many possibilities wish I could make them all. >^..^<

  33. Barb Striethorst says:

    What a wonderful crafting cabinet this would make – cardmaking, miniatures ..!! Much neater than my work area!

  34. Michelle says:

    This would make an excellent desk for the spell teacher at the wizard school!

  35. Denise Bryant says:

    That cabinet is amazing! I’d make a miniature stamper’s desk, loaded with papers, stamps, adhesives, ink pads, and all the fun tools we use when making cards!

  36. Jen R says:

    Definitely a cabinet of curiosity. Oh my goodness this is the most amazing one yet!

  37. Evelyn Reyes says:

    I would like to make it into a modern work office! I think that the old mixed with the new would be appealing!

  38. Verna says:

    Of course I have always wanted to do a cabinet of curiosities. I have been saving items over the year. What a great possibility! Thank you.

  39. Ronda Liebert says:

    Love this cabinet. It would make a darling mini stampers closet.

  40. Rise St Arno says:

    I would make a fairy cabinet with my granddaughter, Lucy!

  41. Kee Ostler says:

    These are such inspiring examples! I would put it into my Witch’s Emporium that I am making for Halloween. All those fun cubbies just beg to be filled with creepy bits! 🙂

  42. Cynthia says:

    What an awesomely creative way to use this cabinet! I love all the crafty possibilities with this. . .and could definitely see it used as a desk, too. . .

  43. Carolyn says:

    I’m simply amazed by the creativity of this cabinet. The possibilities are endless and I’d love to win, of course.

  44. LOVE this, would be a lovely modern day witch’s apothecary dresser!

  45. Sandra Manring says:

    I am torn between a witches cabinet with jars of potions or of course a lady’s shabby chic cabinet with perfume bottles and lace lingerie spilling out of the drawers

  46. Karen Wood says:

    I love this! I would love to make a ‘student of nature’ desk. I would make it in a more feminine color with extra feminine decorative details added to it.

  47. Lou Anne says:

    I love the way you modified the millinary cabinet. The naturalistic additions are charming. At this point, I might try to make one like it but you never know what I’ll think of once I get it!

  48. Peggy Kosier says:

    I think this is awesome! I love this site and will be purchasing more. I really like the Naturalists Curiosity Cabinet because I like nature and it peeks my interest.

  49. Christine says:

    Oooo – My main love is Dolls Houses and miniatures, already done a Witches cabinet and Harry Potter inspired display and so I think I would go back to the original idea this cabinet was based on and do a Milliners display – it would look wonderful in my next planned project, a 1/12th scale Haberdashers & Milliners shop.

  50. SusanB says:

    I see the millinery cabinet as a witch’s “beauty” station. All the things to make her ugly/beautiful. A mirror in the middle, with all her supplies in the cubbies, and little monsters in the spaces below the cubby sections.

  51. I always wanted to make a Maesters room from Game of Thrones. This would work in it.

  52. Stefanie Ladley says:

    Oh Wow!!! Love the Millinery Cabinet! It’s amazing :o) I would make an alchemist’s desk/workspace so books, bottles and magickal symbols…..

  53. Kathlene Ford-Walters says:

    Everything Halloween! My favorite holiday. I’ve been reading lots of books about alchemy recently. I think I’d make an alchemist’s case–things warty and icky.

  54. Rosemarie Grant says:

    This would make a great work desk for my Sherlock Holmes room box. It is to be brimming over with his books, test tubes, and chemicals.

  55. chark says:

    love these projects! gotta gotta do a witch theme!

  56. Sandy says:

    Oh, must order this cabinet right away. So many ideas swirling around in my brain!

  57. Mary Mac says:

    I would definitely try Terri’s wonderful idea.

  58. Karen Mallory says:

    Fabulous giveaway! I think I would make an artist’s desk with all the things an artist would have!

  59. Alexis Mills says:

    I really Love this one!
    I would have to give this some thought, I like it as a witchy, wizardy cabinet. But it would also be great fun to make it into an artist studio, I am a potter and mixed media artist, so I would love to create this as my studio, complete with my cats to mess things up!

  60. Jennie Ingram says:

    Maybe a fairy sewing cupboard… Pixie patterns, moonbeam thread, tiny bolts of gossamer cloth. 🙂

  61. Cheryl Lee says:

    This is so nice. I think I would probably make something in memory of my 82 yr old Dad, who recently passed away. I could honor him somehow.

  62. Evleta Gruber says:

    Love this Millinery cabinet! Would love to make it into a specimens display cabinet for Halloween. All things weird and scary.

  63. Rose says:

    I’m blown away with this fabulous cabinet! I’m a biologist and I would love to model my cabinet after Teri’s delicious natural science cabinet of wonders!

  64. Tammy Oviedo says:

    I love all of your Halloween goodies! And I would like to use the millinery cabinet for a Witches supplies desk for her awful brew. Fill the little cubbies with bones, rats, potion bottles, the tiny glass lid bottles you have too. And hang her witches hat broom and black gloves over the top corners! Oh spider webs all over it too! Oh this is just to much fun just thinking of what to do with your millinery cabinet, I love Halloween!

  65. Nancy E says:

    I just love this cabinet. I would definitely try some type of displays? Perhaps something to entice the fairies in my life?

  66. Jackie Barth says:

    Love it! I would make a curiosity cabinet with some things I have collected that don’t fit anywhere else.

  67. Randi Scholl says:

    This is the bet website ever. I am working on an alchemy scene that this woul really put over the top.

  68. Roxanne Pafundi says:

    Love this sweet cabinet-wish I had a full size one! I would make a craft & sewing center with this cabinet. Filled with lots of crafty goodness (from Alpha Stamps of course) and also a lil sewing machine in the middle. This would be great to have store all my studio fun in one easy station! I’m guessing a tiny person would love this one too! 🙂

  69. Ina Good says:

    The cabinet of curiousities with drawers is fabulous!! I would make Alice in wonderland because she was always curious and was how she fell down the rabbit hole!!!

  70. This is by far my favorite project from Alpha Stamps, and 1/12 is a fantastic scale to work in. I would love to do a cabinet that has a collection of Fairy Memorabilia and folk lore.

  71. Beth says:

    This is amazing! I would love to make my own spooky curiosity cabinet !!

  72. Marilyn Hughes says:

    Beautiful Curiosity Cabinet! I love it.

  73. Valli says:

    Just sent this to my sister – maybe she’ll win and make me something!

  74. Dawnn says:

    Almost wish my sister hadn’t sent me the link; that’s amazing. I’m thinking rubber stamps and paper crafts if I made one for her; for me it would be scrapbooks, family tree charts and old photos. Having said that, I love the naturalist theme!

  75. Dennis L. says:

    As always, great artwork! Tristan’s idea of setting the reliquaries in a frame is wonderful, and would work well with some vintage photos. Great tribute to Poe! Would like to win the giveaway and make a nature-themed “hobby desk” that Albert Einstein might use when he wants to clear his mind.

  76. Jennuifer Purciel says:

    I love the cabinet. I would make a mad scientist desk with lots of potions and equipment.

  77. Jennifer J says:

    I love it with the butterflies. I am tempted by others ideas like mad scientist. Tough choice. Thank you for the chance to win. 🙂

  78. Susan M L says:

    WOW! Loving Teri’s cabinet! So many great ideas from everyone. Would have to make something similar to Teri’s art. She has a great eye for detail.

  79. Carol Slowik says:

    I would definitely make something curious with a Christmas theme!

  80. Thalia Kottke says:

    I love Poe and Curiosity Cabinets! What could be better than the two together?!

  81. Kimberly says:

    Is that Poe’s writing desk?

  82. Laurie Yoder says:

    Love, love, love the cabinet. So many great possibility ways to go with it. Thank you for the opportunity to win it.