Building model furniture may not have been my overwhelming focus this week, but it was still my main achievement. The arrival of the long-awaited 3D printer has stirred the waters up and sent me off on a new quest, but hand-building a stage set with model furniture was a fun, grounding project to take on.

The idea behind the mini furniture

All I wanted was a replica of the chair from Joan Armatrading’s album Me Myself I.

I couldn’t find out anything about it, like who designed it or where it came from, so that was disappointing. It wouldn’t have made much difference to the process of making it, but it would have been cool to know.

Naturally, the entire goal was to replicate Joan’s stylish pose on the album cover, but it’s so hard to get the right lines when you’re made of plastic.

I made the chair from mountboard and paper, using a homemade jig. I guess I could always design one for 3D printing but it makes sense to use simple materials for simple designs.

A leather sofa and a room of one’s own

When we opened up the the 3D printer we spotted a lot of very useful styrofoam that had to be useful for something. Well, it made a great sofa, with the addition of some recycled leather fabric and hot glue. Again, easier and quicker to make by hand, although the perfectionist in me wants to redo it with less rushing.

I actually made the sofa last week, but because I managed to crank it out as quickly as I did, I was in turn motivated to finish the chair and then finish a room to put all of my tiny furniture into.

Thanks to a bit of paper and scrap mount board, I’ve now got a set for my small people to populate. Late in December I started formulating all sorts of grandiose ideas for settings but it stopped me from creating them.

This time I just made a corner, and decided to see what happened from there. It’s been ironic that in the very week that I finally got a 3D printer, I ended up creating a miniature living room using analog techniques – cutting and gluing card and paper.

As for my weekly portrait, honestly, making a portrait was the last thing on my mind this week but I forced myself to give it a go. You can tell something about my frame of mind with this picture – rush rush and broad brush. I can only give so much detailed attention to any one thing, and this week I’ve been pouring my efforts into learning Blender.

Last week