Wasting Gold Paper

And We're Off!

2012-06-02T10:03:00.000-07:00

See you on Monday.

Lots of News from the Big World and the Small

2012-05-30T22:36:00.000-07:00

I know that things have been quiet around here lately. Lots of things have been happening. I graduated from Sarah Lawrence College on May 18th. That's my younger brother and I under the tent. I was also introduced to a classmate's grandmother, only to discover that she is an IGMA Fellow who I had seen at a few miniature events but never talked with! It really is a small world!

Mom and I are also planning to have a table at the Sturbridge Miniature show this weekend! We've been pricing and packing like mad women for the last few days. This is only our third show, and it's much bigger than the ones we've done in the past, so it's all a bit nerve wracking. If you happen to be at Sturbridge as well, please come by and say hello!

In the mean time, here's a sneak preview of a few things we're bringing.

Some rustic painted furniture...

and some that isn't rustic...

a few other things I painted, like this sign...

and watercolour paintings...

lots of things made from paper, like this account book...

and these valentines...

We're bringing things for attics...

and playrooms...

kitchens...

and dressing tables...

and a few things I made just for the fun of it...

I'll try to do another quick post before we leave, but if I don't have time, I'll give you the full scoop on Monday or Tuesday. Hope we see you at Sturbridge!

Changes in Lottie's Bedroom

2012-05-07T18:36:00.000-07:00

Back when I first started this blog, I showed a few photographs of this bedroom. Last weekend, I made a few changes. I cleaned up the room a bit, added a rug, and moved a few things around. I'm not in love yet, but the room is getting better. The carpet was bought for Mom's dollhouse, but she recently replaced it with a few smaller, darker rugs that looked more authentic for her house. The desk chair in there now was stolen from my gallery, but it's only temporary.

Below, you can see the room before. I loved the little fireplace, but it aways looked out of scale, rather than just small. The scrap screen in the corner came out as well.

I moved the tea party to the old fireplace spot. Mom made the tea table from a kit. It still needs a tablecloth. The wooden dishes were passed down from Mom's childhood dollhouse. We think they may have been made by one of her relatives who did a lot of woodcarving, but no one can remember for sure! The paintings are all from Josephine Meyers.

The big doll in the pink and blue knit outfit, and the smaller doll in blue silk were made by Lucy Coles at least seven or eight years ago. You can find her (brand-new!) blog here. The green doll by the cabinet and the white doll in the small bed (from the first photograph) were also made by Lucy Coles. The rest of the dolls came from various dealers over the years, but I've forgotten just which.
Sorry for the blurry photographs! I took them in a hurry while at home, and didn't get a chance to check that they came out all right before I had to return to school.

The Music Room

2012-04-29T14:01:00.001-07:00

After the last post, I thought it would be nice to show something pretty. The Music room is one of my favorite rooms. I'm feeling the need to change things around in the house, so I'm thinking about reupholstering these chairs (there's a pair), possibly in pale blue silk. Like most of the house, this room desperately needs curtains, so I'm hold off making a final decision on the chairs until this room has drapes.

I love this violin! For the longest time, this chair held a PLASTIC violin. It was actually pretty effective, since the scale was good, and the color wasn't too bad. But then I found this one at a show, and I just couldn't resist...

Is it strange it makes me a little uncomfortable to have a miniature instrument just laying out like this? I took violin lessons for nine years, and my real violin was ALWAYS in the case unless I was playing it. This mini violin came with a case, but it seemed terribly out of scale. Maybe I should make a new case for it?

Something Weird...

2012-04-26T12:04:00.001-07:00

Do you ever get the urge to make something really strange in miniature? I've been wanting to make a

a collection glass eyes ever since I read a book in which the villain had a collection.

I used the largest no-hole beads I had on hand. I stuck the beads to tape and gave them a few coats of off-white. Dots of brown,green and blue for the iris came next, followed by a black pupil. When the paint dried, I coated the eyes thickly with gloss medium, and then glued the eyes into the cases. The glass over the cases has an antique look, which makes it particularly hard to photograph.

This was definitely one of my crazier projects! I have no idea what to do with them now that I've made them, since they are too macabre for my pink house. I guess they'll go into a stash drawer for the moment: I'll find a use for them eventually!

Miniatures in the Real World

2012-04-23T18:46:00.001-07:00

I just had to post a photo of this. The other morning while I was in the kitchen, I noticed that a few patches of violets had migrated to our back door. Last summer, I found a bunch of tiny perfume bottles in one of my favorite vintage/antique shops. One of the bottles made a perfect vase for the violets! The whole arrangement is about 2" high, so it's definitely too large for 1/12th scale, but it would be perfect for a doll's tea party.

More of My Mother's House

2012-04-20T14:31:00.002-07:00

This cupboard bed is in the larger of the two upstairs rooms. Mom made the bed out of miniature shutters.The quilt came from an eBay seller who no longer makes them. The bedside table was made by Ed Norton.

This painting is across the room, above the fireplace. The flowers were made by Mom from kits.

Here's the little sewing table next to the fireplace. The two small paintings (one mostly hidden behind the chair) are by Josephine Meyers. The sampler is one of about eight around the house.

Revisiting an Old Project

2012-04-17T07:08:00.002-07:00

You may remember this project, since I've shown it (half finished) before. But I'm really pleased with the way that these paint boxes came together at the end it's only thanks to Mom that these are done.

The photo below was how the paint box looked the last time I showed it. I actually made several of these at once, since I had the supplies to make these boxes out already. I built the paint box to fit around an eyeshadow tray. The box was looking good, but the tray needed a brush.

Since I'm terrible at finishing projects, the paint box sat like that in a drawer for months waiting for paintbrushes. Finally Mom spotted them while we were going through my supplies looking for something else. She couldn't believe that I'd left them unfinished for so long. She lined the trays and made the brushes for me that night. I love the paintbrushes she made!

Two Projects

2012-04-13T09:33:00.000-07:00

I don't have much to show at the moment. I usually photograph my miniatures at home, and write these posts at school, so I haven't had a chance to finish and photograph the bookshelf I posted last time yet. I have another reupholstering project in progress as well, but the photos for that didn't turn out well, so I'll have to put it off until I go home in another a week or so. In the mean time, here are some fun little groupings I put together.

I made everything on the makeup tray, with the exception of the tray itself. The little blush brush was a bit of a pain, but I love the way it looks on the tray.

Everything in this account book scene was made from scratch. I'm slowly building up a good collection of beads for perfume and ink bottles, but I can't believe how expensive a short string of beads can be! Fortunately, I only need to use them one at a time. I've also found some inexpensive beads in the dollar store. One $2 'crystal' bracelet makes a whole lot of perfume bottles!

A Bargain Bookcase Transformation

2012-04-10T15:58:00.001-07:00

I have a small addiction to bargain hunting. I love flea markets, thrift shops, and most of all, the "sale" box at one of the local dollhouse shops. This box contains an assortment of problem furniture that the shop just wants to get rid of for one reason or another. Sometimes the furniture is missing drawers. Sometimes the furniture is a bit broken. The last time I was there, I found a Town Square Miniature kitchen cabinet that was missing the rest of the kitchen set. I figured that with a bit of work, I could make the cabinet into a very different looking piece.

I never remember to take proper before pictures, so here it is the first photo I thought to take, after I'd already done most of the painting. The legs are just square posts, with some laser cut brackets added. I also changed out the cabinet's rather chunky original knobs for smaller walnut pulls. I may replace those though with something a little more elegant. I've stuffed most of my readable books in the there for the moment, and have it in the music room for the moment, though it won't stay there. I think it will go somewhere in the attic (Phoebe's room, Lottie's room, or the playroom), but I'll have to do some rearranging first.

I'm also undecided about the glass in the doors. Right now, the original Plexiglass is propped in there, and I'm hating it. I'm thinking about replacing the plexi "antique" glass, but that would make it much more difficult to see inside the cabinet. Another option would be to take the glass out entirely, making the contents much more visible, but I think that not having any sort of glass would bother me more than the plexi. I'm stumped. What would you do to the doors?

Some Things Are Only Fun in Miniature

2012-04-06T15:04:00.002-07:00

This is just a quick post to share today's project. Mom and I spent the day working on a few of these pillows. Mom made the pillows, I made the mice and holes! After this photo was taken, I went back and added more holes (without mice).

The Dining Room

2012-04-03T15:35:00.001-07:00

The dining room is difficult to photograph. It's a small room behind the front hall. I've put it off photographing it because there are a lot of unfinished projects in this room. The chair seats are covered with bright green and cream fabric that clashes terribly with the wallpaper. The sideboard is an unfinished bespaq piece. The room desperately needs a carpet and the single window a curtain (actually, ALL the windows in my house need curtains!)

Despite all that, I decided to give you a peak at the room. The wallpaper in this room was a huge headache. I spent one summer looking through stacks and drawers full of wallpaper at three different shops. The dining room was one of the very last. There was only one problem. The shop where I found this wallpaper only had one sheet, and that wouldn't be nearly enough! A very helpful manager at another of the shops tracked down and ordered the paper. But when it came, we found out that I'd picked a half-scale version of the paper: the design that came was much, much bigger. The smaller size was much more difficult to find. I started to worry that I'd have to find another paper. Luckily, the manager was able to miraculously track down two sheets of the smaller print just in time!

The theorem (stenciled painting on velvet) was done by my grandmother for my mother's childhood dollhouse. The white and pink porcelain vase was made by Lucy Coles, who used to make the most gorgeous porcelain dolls dressed in knit outfits. The blue and white plant holder in the corner of the room (behind the sideboard) came from my mother's childhood dollhouse. The silver is from various miniature silversmiths, including Acquisto and Don Henry.

I also had to point out the this tiny tea caddy. It has the tiniest flowers. I think it was made by Carrol Lodder, but don't quote me on that!

P.S. I'm sorry about the photo quality!

My Mother's Dollhouse Part 2: The Kitchen

2012-03-29T13:00:00.000-07:00

Last time I showed the exterior of my mother's cottage. Today I'll show you the kitchen.

Mom seriously loves kitchen things! Before she got her own dollhouse (this one), she was always sneaking extra things into the kitchen of my dollhouse. In fact, when she first got this house we agreed she could shop from my kitchen!

There was one thing she wasn't allowed to take though. Years and years ago, I fell in love with an Amanda Skinner mouse. I wouldn't give mine up, so mom had to get her own. She ended up buying eight! Now there are mice hidden throughout the house for people to try to find.

The center table is set up for making butter. The doll came from England. Mom and I had wanted to take a trip there for years, to see Jane Austen's house, Queen Mary's dollhouse, and shop for miniatures. About six years ago, we finally got the chance to go, and it was an amazing trip. We ended up going all through the Cotswolds and stumbling across several dollhouse shops. We each found some real treasures. I brought back several plates for my kitchen plate rack, and the brass bed for Phoebes room (ending a two-year search!). Mom brought back this doll and a miniature watercolor which is upstairs.

Mom made the kitchen stool as well as the sink. The slate sink is made of wood, covered with putty to give it the right texture. I just finished a "lead" cistern to hang above and hold the water supply (not shown.)

More photos of the cottage exterior can be seen here.

Not My Dollhouse...

2012-03-26T09:14:00.001-07:00

...it's my mother's! It was built by Frodingham Dolls Houses (no longer in business) several years ago. It's a front opening house, but there are no hinges. The front walls and roofs fit together using slots and inside beams to hold everything in place.

The garden to the right is still in progress. Eventually, they will all be "planted" in one flowerbed, so that they can be easily removed to access the house.

Here's a closer view of the front door. The lantern on the left is the one I made.

This photo shows the kitchen door and larder. The larder was originally supposed to be a privy, but mom loves miniature kitchen items, so the larder seemed like a better use of space. The basket holds tiny carved clothespins!

I'll show the inside in a few days!

Painted Table

2012-03-23T11:15:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been really enjoying working on furniture. I've posted about the sofa and chair I reupholstered, and the knobs I changed on Pheobe's dresser. This table was just a fun project.

This kit was a Christmas gift which has been sitting in my kit drawer for the last few months. It was much easier to paint the base colors while the table was unassembled. The apron got a few coats of blue , and the table top and legs were painted off white.

I assembled the table before I'd figured out what I wanted to do on the top. Measuring those wedges and filling them in with the blue would have been easier while the table was still in pieces, but I managed! The decorative painting is really fun to do- it's like doodling with paint. I actually used a lot of gold on this table, but it didn't photograph well. Those brownish spots along the table edge, for exmple, are really gold!

Another Before and After

2012-03-18T15:02:00.000-07:00

In the last post, I showed a sofa and a chair I'd reupholtered. Today I wanted to share the small change I made to the bureau in Pheboe's bedroom. I found this dresser on Ebay several years ago. It's a little chunky, but it doesn't read that way in the room. I also really liked the finish. The only bad thing about it was that it had huge wooden knobs on the larger drawers.

I replaced the knobs with smaller glass beads. I think it makes the piece look much better!

Two Before and After Projects

2012-03-13T13:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post! I got my laptop back a few days ago, and have been slowly catching up with everything I've missed over the last few weeks.
I thought I'd share two upholtery projects I did recently. The first is the desk chair in the parlor. It's a bespaq chair that was upholstered in a thick green and cream woven fabric. I actually quite liked the fabric of the chair, but it always seemed a bit pale for the room. You can see that fabric and chair below.

Last summer, a local decorating store gave me several old fabric sample books. I found a brown silk in one of them which I used for the chair. There was barely enough fabric to cover it, but I managed!

The second piece was this sofa from the master bedroom. I bought it years ago thinking I'd recover it. I had several problems with the original upholstery: I wasn't fond of the contrast between the dark wood and the light fabric, the white was a bit shopworn, and there was actually a jacquard pattern woven into the fabric which was subtle but very out of scale. It was in the parlor (which is directly below), but it always seemed a bit big in there. As soon as I moved it upstairs, I knew the fabric I wanted to use.

This is one of my favorite fabrics. Though the fabric looks like a pink and cream stripe from a distance, there are also narrow dark brown and pale orange stripes beside the pink stripes which make things a bit more interesting.

By the way, this one isn't quite finished. Only two of the outer side panels are glued in. I still need to cover the one for the back. It will also need to be trimmed with fine cording to hide the bottom edge of the seat cushion. Have you noticed my big mistake yet? I got the orientation of the fabric mixed up at one point. On the seat and right side, the brown stripe is to the right of the pink stripe. On the other two, the brown is to the left! It's been driving me crazy ever since I first noticed!

Salt Cellar

2012-02-25T19:00:00.001-08:00

I'm having trouble loading photographs on the temporary computer I am using, so tonight's intended post has been postponed... instead, I'll show this little salt cellar I made out of painted card. This was the third or fourth one I made, after a couple experiments painting them to look like blue and white delft and a rustic cream and brown which I thought might be appropriate for Mom's dollhouse. She ended up liking the delft box best though!

I'm trying to decide what to do with this red one. I'm quite pleased with it, but it doesn't really go in my kitchen. I also have an unfinished country larder in a roombox, which would be the perfect spot for it, except that the roombox has very little wallspace.
I'll try to get more photos up soon!

Checking In

2012-02-24T18:57:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry for the unexpected break. I've been having computer trouble for a while, and I finally brought my laptop in for repairs last week. I'll update as I can, but it may be sporadic for a while. In the mean time, I've finished tidying my dollhouse, and changed quite a few things around. One thing that didn't change was the dollhouse in the playroom. It is absolutely enormous, and reminds me a little of the Tate Baby House from the V&A.

A Whole Lot of Pink

2012-02-04T22:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted anything about my actual dollhouse in ages. That's because it has been an absolute mess! This past weekend, I began tidying it up, though I skimped on the dusting. I've been interested in miniatures since I was five, but really got involved around age eleven. That's when I chose all the wallpapers which are in my dollhouse now. For the most part, I'm still pretty happy with the papers. The master bedroom however has been bothering me for several years. It is very, very pink.

After rearranging some of the furniture, I've made a decision. First of all, the billowing pink silk curtains (made by Mom many years ago) are going to be replaced. Secondly, the very lacy, pink and white bed which was my seven-year-old Christmas present is going to come out. I'm going to replace it with something in an appropriately Victorian dark wood, with minimal bedding. Hopefully, this will make the room look a little less fussy and a little more realistic.

This washstand was one of the pieces I moved around. Before, it was tucked in a dark corner, but now it's closer to the front of the house and much easier to see. I also added a chaise to the window area. It's been hanging out in the parlor downstairs, but I always thought it looked too crowded there. I'd always planned to reupholster it in green silk, but kept putting it off because I didn't love it in the parlor. I'm much happier with it in this room, but now I'm not sure what fabric I should use! I'm leaning towards a much darker shade, but I'm really not sure...

The books are readable ones which I purchased shortly before I began to make my own. The darker one is a book of remedies, and the other is about household management. The pillow is from a scrap of antique petite point.

Two New Watercolors

2012-01-31T17:40:00.000-08:00

... or rather, one new watercolor, and an old one which I just got around to framing.

This city street is the newer painting. I tried something new for the frame, first painting it white and then brushing it with gold Rub'n'buff. Unless the frame is in sunlight, the metallic is very difficult to see. Otherwise, it really looks more like an aged, grey-brown finish. I liked the effect for this painting, but don't think I'll use this finish very often.

This portrait is one that I did about a year ago. Unfortunately, I used the wrong type of tape around the edges, and the background bled terribly. I stuck it in a box with a few other problematic paintings, and promptly forgot about it! When I I found it again, I really liked the dark frame, but the bleeding showed, and there was no space for a mat which might have covered it up. I had to use a bit of paint to salvage that white border, but I'm very happy with the way it finally turned out!

Miniature Laquered Boxes

2012-01-29T12:18:00.000-08:00

I've always liked Russian lacquered boxes. I thought I'd try to make some in miniature. A circular box about 1 cm in diameter seemed a good size to start with. The box on the right was my first attempt. I had lots of trouble with this one. You can see that the finish isn't quite even, and I thought that it was a bit too tall. I tried to copy a Russian box which my mother owns for the picture on top. The painting on the first one also came out a bit dark. The traditional way to paint these is to gild the silhouette of the scene/figure first, and then paint over the top in thin layers. Since I was only trying to make these boxes look like their larger pieces, I just used a base coat of white paint to brighten the figure on the second box.

I like the boxes best open. I'm going to have to try a few more of these. The basic box was easy enough to make from card stock, but I'm not happy with the simplicity of my paintings. I may try decoupage for the next set!

A Tiny Secret

2012-01-27T19:42:00.000-08:00

By now you probably know that I like to make miniature books. This one is the latest. But it has a secret...

This little reading nook is inside! Looking at it again, I think I want to put a cushion on the chair, and a book on the table. Maybe a pair of sconces on the wall?

A Before and After

2012-01-24T17:42:00.000-08:00

I spotted this chair at my local dollhouse shop the other day. It was a bit chunky, but I liked the front legs, and the price was low, so I bought it.

This is the way it looks now:

You might have noticed I did a little surgery on the chair. The braces on the bottom were too chunky, so I broke them off and sanded that area smooth. I also used an X-acto knife to hack off portions of the back legs and bevel the slatted backs.

It might not look it from these photos, but the back legs of the finished chair have only about half the wood they started with!

Carving down the chunky bits of commerical furniture is an easy way to make these pieces look a little less mass produced!

Dolls for Dolls!

2012-01-20T05:54:00.000-08:00

I am a bit addicted to miniature toys. Dolls, bears, and toy theaters are my biggest vices, but I'm drawn to almost any tiny toy! It's gotten to the point where I have far too many toys to display in my dollhouse. So it really made no sense for me to make even more...

These little wooden dolls are less than an inch tall. I stole fabric and lace from Mom's supplies. The basket that the doll above is carrying was made with thread (there used to be a tutorial on the Yahoo MicroMini group, but I'm not sure if it's still there.) She still needs a big straw picture hat, which I think I can make with more coiled thread. The doll bed below was an experiment using pieces of a sandlewood fan. The bed is a bit fragile, so I don't recomend using fan fretwork in this way!