Miniature Clock from Grahamstown

Recently my aunt visited us from South Africa.  She brought me my combined birthday/Christmas present which she had commissioned last year from a miniaturist in Grahamstown, as she had spotted his work at the annual Arts festival in the city.

A long time ago, just before I left South Africa, my best friend and her mother gave me a lovely little chair and occasional table made from Yellow wood and Imbuia wood, a popular and enduring combination in SA, and I was delighted. What a pleasure it was to discover that the new gift from my aunt was made with exactly the same types of wood.

This miniature Grandfather clock has a working movement. One of the weights had come off the chain in transit, and I haven't yet fixed it back on, so the photo of the front shows that the weight is detached. But apart from that the clock is beautiful. It was made by Koos Jonker of Grahamstown (he doesn't appear to have a website).

And the long blog silence?  We moved into our new home in January.  We ripped out all the old smelly carpets during the following weeks as we sought to get settled, we built a new much larger workshop in our back garden (with plenty of space left for the garden), then in April and May we gutted the old kitchen and installed the new kitchen ourselves just after the electrician completely rewired the entire house.  We've also made improvements to the garden, have had some relatives to stay (meaning the spare room has been pressed into service) and my husband has been boarding the loft.  My Westville dolls house sits on its table in our bedroom waiting for the various other full sized home improvements to be done (we have no wardrobes, so need to build them) so that I can get back to miniatures.  I have given a talk to the local Trefoil Guild about my dolls and miniatures collection, and have done some doll related sewing during the past 6 months, and now that major upheavals in our home are less urgent I'm planning some more creative miniature work.