Erika Hammerschmidt's Hobbies

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Welcome to my Hobby Page! Art, jewelry, miniatures and Star Trek... what more do I need?   Jewelry-making In my spare time, I love to make jewelry out of wire, beads, and stones I find on beaches. You can see and even buy it at My Jewelry Page. I'm pretty creative in coming up with new jewelry styles, too, as you can see here.     Painting, drawing, photomontage, animation This hobby has its own page, too: go here.     Dollhouse I'm quite a collector of miniatures, and this is a dollhouse I got from my uncle when I was a very small child. It has ten rooms, a brick-stone-stucco-wood exterior and working electric lights. He built it himself, and when I was little, it was one of my greatest treasures. Then, in October 2007, the dollhouse and the whole collection of miniatures disappeared. We were moving into a new townhouse, and before we could move the dollhouse and miniatures out of our old storage unit, the new tenant took it out and left it in the hall, and someone carried it off. We haven't seen it since. I can only hope some child is enjoying it now. In any case, here's what it was like when it was mine: Dollhouse from outside Crane sculpture and children's sled Mailbox Birdbath Dollhouse from inside Attic Dining room table Kitchen Tea nook behind the kitchen Parents' bedroom Kids' bedroom (the fireplace really leads from the chimney) Baby's bedroom (doubles as laundry room) Bathroom (I made all the furnishings myself!)   When my uncle gave me the dollhouse, he gave me a collection of miniatures to keep in it, and I've been adding to that collection ever since. Here are close-ups of some of my favorite items. Shells On top of the big cabinet in the attic, there is a collection of real shells that my grandma gave me. Books Inside the cabinet, there are books. I made them all; the stories are ones I wrote. I reduced them to a tiny font, painstakingly plotted them out into miniature pages, printed them, cut the pages apart and bound them. Dollhouse dollhouse The dollhouse has a dollhouse of its own, and if you look closely, you can even see a dollhouse inside that... it's the thing just to the left of the doll in the blue dress. Granada ceramic When I studied in Spain, I brought home some traditional Granada ceramic, including a miniature punch bowl with cups and ladle. Guadix pots During my Spain semester, I also visited Guadix, where they make very distinctive pottery. I brought home some miniature pots for my dollhouse, too.   There are no stereotypes in my dollhouse. Dad Doll He does the dishes. Mom Doll She reads good books. Cats They eat dog food. Dog He prepares to pounce on a mouse. Kids She plays with the train, he has a tea party. The baby plays with a gender-neutral xylophone. The Armless Ghost in the Attic She's (h)armless. She couldn't come downstairs even if she wanted to-- there aren't any stairs between the attic and the second floor. There isn't even a trapdoor. She just sits and plays chess with the rat that also lives up there. Don't ask me how they move the pieces. Maybe they're telekinetic.     And finally... Star Trek (I love lobster gloves. And look what company mine are made by!) Yes, Star Trek is a huge hobby for me; it could fill several webpages! But here are a few Trek-related things I've done.   I've discovered something a little spooky about the Starfleet Insignia. Check out my Starfleet Car Logo page.   And here's my Vulcan doll. My friend asked me to repair some of her Barbie dolls and make Starfleet uniforms for them, and in return she gave me a MuLan doll to do with as I wished. I took some acrylic paint, some decorative wire for the head and feet, and some clothes made out of scrap fabric, and genetically altered it to be half Vulcan and half Romulan. She has two names: her Romulan name, "Ro" (as in Ro MuLan) and her Vulcan name, "T'Vafkam" (which stands for "The Vulcan Acolyte Formerly Known As MuLan"). From the front From the side From the back   I have a pair of rubber pointed ear tips, but I got sick of sticking them to my ears with special adhesive, so I made them part of a beaded headband. Now they just settle over my ears, and the headband keeps them in place and covers the seam. Someone called me a "70's Vulcan" and other people say I look like a Lord-of-the-Rings elf; I really don't fit on a starship in that headband. But hey, I'll do anything to have pointed ears. Me with pointed ears and headband The pointy ear headbands I invented are now available for sale! Check it out here!   I have also used my Flash animation program to make a virtual pet tribble. (If you don't know what a tribble is, you are seriously Trek-deprived.) Play with my tribble Adopt a tribble of your own     I work at Target, which can be a little like Star Trek sometimes. That is, if you are the kind of person who obsessively thinks about Star Trek all the time and compares everything to it. The kind of person who knows what a "targ" is, and makes puns about it: Seriously, though. The similarities are almost creepy.     And here's a little animation that perfectly captures how I feel sometimes at home.   Thanks for visiting! Send me feedback at humanalien@gmail.com