Pictures for the house

In all my passion for the new shop project I haven't forgotten that there are still things I need/want for Wentworth to complete it: amongst these were four pictures for various rooms.  When I was home in the Summer I found someone in the States, via E-Bay, who did very nice pictures.  She kindly agreed to search out specific ones that I wanted for the house.  This she did and by August was ready to make them.   I asked her to hold on for a while until I got to the States and I'd order them from there.  This was partly driven by my having had four orders not delivered in the last three months - here and in the UK - what is wrong with the postal services these days!


Jeanette has proven to be absolutely wonderful.  She describes herself as a perfectionist and she certainly is.  Firstly she had to source the paintings.  In the case of the Dreamers she even kept looking for better and better reproductions until she could find the one she was happy with.  She copied and cropped them sympathetically to fit the ratio of the frames.  She even retouched Liberty to improve some dark areas which were throwing up a peculiar result in the miniature.  We had some discussion about frames but my instruction to her was that I'd take the simplest gold frame for them all.  My only criteria would be that they were as thin as possible.  I have already bought and discarded a couple of paintings because of their clunky frames.  If they were scaled up they'd be something like six inches thick!  I have a couple of mirrors in Wentworth which will probably go the same way for the same reason.  The frames on these pictures are lovely and thin and look the part.


She does all this and you still only pay the regular E-Bay price, nothing extra for custom-made.  This is my second experience of having something made for me - remember the wonderful Amanda's food? Both times the process has been a delight, the product just as I imagined and the price the same as if I'd bought it off the shelf.  So (unlike me for ages) don't be bashful about asking.  It seems (some) sellers are happy to do commissions without that meaning the price will double.


The contact on E-Bay is An Elite Dollhouse Miniature Shoppe.    I'll add this to my side bar where I should have already started a list of favourite suppliers - very remiss of me.  


I am sorry about the awful photographs here - they do not do the pictures justice but I don't want to unpack them and repack them as they are nicely packaged for the trip home.


There is a reason for wanting particular pictures.  Wentworth is a sort of homage to my life with my children around 1990.  It isn't supposed to be any kind of replica; it is just a few nods here and there to things remembered.  I set off creating a home for a mom, dad and two children and found my choices were being prompted by things I recalled from my own children's life, so I thought it would be nice to relax into that and go where it led.  When it came to pictures nothing seemed to fit either my taste or those times.  I recalled three long-lasting pictures we had in our house and thought it would be nice to have those again.

The Dreamers was on the sitting room wall above the settee (because the colours went with the decor!!!).  I grew to love it inch by inch and came to remember that I had seen it (and other  Moore's) in Birmingham Art Gallery (I am a Brummie by birth and raising) so maybe that is why it chimed.

Liberty Blake in Kimono by Peter Blake (think Sergeant Pepper album cover) was the first proper priced and framed print my husband and I bought in the early 70's and lasted many years in our Dining Room.  We always said it was a (spooky) premonition of our daughter as she looked like the painting at the same age.

The Kiss by Klimt has become a very corny reproduction as it has been done to death since those times but it reminds me of how fresh and exciting his work was to me when I came across it back then.  This was actually a large birthday card which I had framed in the bedroom.  I do still love many of his paintings even if they have now been debased and border on kitsch.

I can't identify the fourth painting as I simply asked her for a Victorian seaside print and Jeanette offered this.  I liked its simplicity and it is perfect for the pseudo-Victorian bathroom in the house; not that the Victorians would have had a painting in the bathroom!!


So, all four will fly home with me at Christmas and be hung in their places.  Time permitting.