I’m having a fun time working on the apothecary and his shoppe and I now have a bunch of shelves, a counter, and part of a shoppe front.
There’s some apothecary magic going on with those jars suspended in mid air. ;)
The dollar tree was a great source of little empty wood trays that would make great shelving and all I needed was some bass wood for the actual shelves. I cut up lots of little pieces of shelving, painted everything in Burnt Umber acrylic, and tried different arrangements to see how many shelves I needed and how to space them.
I found a cute book of faded wallpaper designs (4.5 x 6.5 inches) just the perfect size, with just a little trimming, to fit inside the trays - and it turned out the papers were self adhesive so it seemed they were a match made in heaven!
Was that really $10.99? OMG! The patterns were so perfect I got swept up in a buying frenzy at Hobby Lobby and didn’t think about the cost until I looked at this photo. Oh well, I can make shelving for all eternity now!
Once I had the shelves arranged I glued them in place (mostly level - I hope). One of the actual trays seems a little off kilter - but I doubt anyone will notice once it is filled with apothecary goodies. The counter cabinets are made from two more trays. I glued some of the little wooden cubes I got from Dollar Tree on for feet and painted them with burnt umber acrylic. I used a gold acrylic pen to draw on the cupboards, and attached Esmun’s logo onto a spare piece of shelving and glued it on the front.
Here’s the backside of one of the counter cabinets. I put a shelf in either side for more goodies like wrapping paper, spare jars etc. Who know’s what the apothecary will put there.
Here are some little Apothecary accessories. Left to right: The clock and tiny scales were purchased from Etsy. I couldn’t resist them, especially the scales which are made from metal. All the minuscule weights in the base come out and the scales go up and down. It’s 1:12th scale, so normally would be too small for my dioramas (which are 1:6th scale) BUT my apothecary will be measuring out medicines, not potatoes, so it is actually perfect! The tiny gold spoons are straightened out clamshell bead covers from my beading stash. I saw the hack on the internet after I made those sculpey clay spoons on the right which didn’t come out so well. The egg timer is made from buttons and two plastic single use eye drop bottles glued together. It contains paprika and actually works (although I wouldn’t recommend it for timing eggs!) Lastly the pestle and mortar is made from sculpey clay. The counter top is sticky back cork from Dollar Tree on a strip of basswood.
Work continues on my apothecary guy, and also the shoppe front - more on those in my next posting.