Wasting Gold Paper

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!

A Ladylike Accessory

2012-01-18T11:46:00.000-08:00

I have a small collection of vintage handbags which I frequently use. It struck me a while ago that I could try making them in miniature. After a bit of fiddling around, I came up with this:

I used very thin imitation leather for the handbag. I used a brass pin, some fine chain (for the handle), and a scrap of a brass finding for the hardware. I had a terrible time getting the chain to stick.

After the terrible time I had with the chain, I decided to try a clutch type handbag next. The fancy clasp on this one is made from a cheap ring (from the craft store 'wedding' aisle)

And just for a laugh, here was my first attempt at a handbag a few months ago. I used silk-covered card and metallic tape for the clasp. The silk was a horrible choice: it frayed horribly, and got glue spots which I tried to hide with gold beads.
I never showed it because there were so many problems with it, but it's been sitting on my table for months as I worked out better ways to make a handbag. I often like to keep "failed projects" like the green bag below until I've worked out a successful version. I think seeing everything that went wrong in previous versions can help me figure out a new approach. At the very least, it (usually) stops me from making the same mistakes over again!

New painting

2012-01-16T10:37:00.000-08:00

Just popping in for a moment to share this miniature watercolor. Framed, it's about an inch and a half tall.

Sorry to be so quick!

Giveaway winner!

2012-01-14T08:38:00.000-08:00

And the winner is...

Cristina! Please contact me asap with your address so I can send you your box of miniatures. Everyone else, thank you for entering, and I hope you win next time!

A Case for Fans and Giveaway Reminder

2012-01-11T11:50:00.000-08:00

A while back, I posted about the hand-painted silk fans I had just made. Well, the other day I made another, but this time I also made a case for it! I chose a warm brown silk for this fan, in a heavier weight than the silk I used last time. The silk I used last time was meant for lining clothing, and it seemed to get glue spots every time I looked at it!

The case has a pale green interior and gold (brighter than the photo below shows) exterior with a pale green painted detail around the edge. The "aged" glass which I used made the fan a little difficult to photograph.

I made this particular piece with the idea that I might hang it in my parlor, so I kept the colors close to the ones in that room, without trying to match them exactly.

P.S. Don't forget to enter the giveaway before Saturday!

Giveaway!

2012-01-07T12:51:00.000-08:00

EDIT: COMMENTS NOW CLOSED. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER TODAY.

TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY:

1)If you are not already a follower, please join before you enter the giveaway. The button is in the right hand column, near the top of the page.

2) Leave a comment on this post. In the comment, list the three books titles you'd like to receive if you win. I'll choose the winner next Saturday.

The winner will receive:

Six 'old' letters, three postcards, and a telegram with envelope...

A whole bunch of bills and receipts (debt not included)...

a mouse...

a perfume bottle...

a set of paper dolls already cut out (Nanny is about 1" tall)...

and any THREE of the readable books shown below.

Fairy Tales and Nursery Rhymes:

The Arabian Nights

The Buckle My Shoe Picture Book (this book is extra small!)( published 1910)

Classic Stories about Girls:

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett, author of The Secret Garden (published 1905)

An Old Fashioned Girl by Louisa May Alcott, author of Little Women (published 1869)

The Governess by Sarah Fielding, (sorry, I forgot to photograph this, I'll add a photo tomorrow) (published 1749)

Heidi by Johanna Spyri (published 1880)

Stories about knights and adventure:

Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott (published 1820)

King Arthur

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood by Howard Pyle (1883)

Children's Magical Adventure Stories:

Peter Pan by J. M. Barrie (1902)
The Water Babies by Charles Kingsley (1863)

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865)

Gothic Novels:

The Castle of Otranto by Horace Walpole (1764)

The Monk by Mathew Lewis (1796)

Nonfiction:

Letters from the Earl of Chesterfield (letters written to his son, and published in the late 1700s as a sort of early guide to manhood)

Line and Form (an art instruction book by illustrator Walter Crane, published 1900)

GOOD LUCK!

EDIT: COMMENTS NOW CLOSED. WINNER WILL BE ANNOUNCED LATER TODAY.

A New Scrap Screen

2012-01-05T18:19:00.000-08:00

Over Christmas, I received a few wooden dollhouse screens to make more scrap screens. It's been a long time since I last posted about these. You can see the last screens I made here and here. I always cut all of the pictures (the 'scrap') by hand before I start a new screen. It usually takes about a week of intensive cutting to get enough images, but since I had a lot already prepared, I got to go straight to gluing this time.

I still have a bit more to do on the bottom left panels, and then I'll go back in and add the tiniest images to fill any gaps.

The First Miniature I Made, a Painted Shelf, and Crockery

2012-01-01T15:21:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! I thought I'd share one of the very first miniatures I ever made today. This was a tissue box I made when I was about seven. It's made out of flat plastic beads which I glued together with a glue stick, since that was the only type of glue I had.

These are my latest projects. I found the wooden shelf at Eileen Godfrey's, and am in the process of painting it. The crockery bowls are made from rolled paper. They won't be on this shelf permanently, but I had fun arranging them like this while they were all out on my worktable.

This Little Light of Mine

2011-12-28T09:22:00.000-08:00

Mom has a great wood and tin lantern in her dollhouse. The woman who made it said she would only make that one. Since mom loves that lantern, I thought I'd play around with some card stock and see if I could make her something with a similar feel.

I used gold rub 'n buff to highlight the details of the lantern. The candle is a white toothpick in a painted brass finding. The windows look like they contain old glass.

After the lantern was finished, mom was talking about hanging the lantern next to her (dollhouse) front door. I decided that it needed a hook to hang from. I didn't permanently attach the lantern to the hook, because I thought it would be easier to put up in two parts.

Making An Advent Calendar

2011-12-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

My workspace is in the dining room. That means that whenever there's a holiday, I have to do some major tidying, so that my supplies are much out of sight as possible. While I was cleaning up today, I came across this great Christmas card which I'd stashed away last year. I thought it would make great advent calenders. You just need an exacto knife, card stock, glue, and an old Christmas card with a small scene.

I cut my calender out of the bottom left corner of the card. I made it about an inch across, trying not to cut any of the people in half.

I cut the windows next. I cut the windows from the front, so that the windows could follow the shapes of images in the calendar. I also made the windows open from all different sides. I then scored the fold of the window from the back of the card. The back of the exacto blade worked well for this.

Then I used the tip of the knife to gently open all the windows, and smeared the back of the card with glue. I used Tacky since it was nearby, but a glue stick would probobly be better.

Gently press the calendar on to a piece of plain white paper, keeping all the windows open so that they aren't accidentally glued shut. I think it's easier to trim the backing to size after the glue dries. Finally, I ran a gold paint pen around the edge. You could add tiny paintings behind each window now if you want, or just leave it plain the way I did. Whit glitter on the snow, or gold on the lamps looks nice too.

I don't have a photo of the calendar finished, because I had to hurry and wrap it before my mother saw (it's going in her stocking).

Dresses

2011-12-11T15:02:00.000-08:00

I'm posting photos of some old projects tonight, because my semester is almost finished, and I've been too busy tying up loose ends to work on any new miniatures. I made these dresses a few months ago out of very thin silk. They were really just an excuse to play with all my laces and beads.

The hangers are only a temporary measure. I'll probably crumple and drape them over beds or screens eventually, which will make the torso of the flapper dress below look a little more natural. Right now, it looks too much like a cylinder of fabric.

P.S. I just realized that I used the same silks for these two dresses as I used on the fans. The colors in these photos are much closer to the real-life colors of the silks.

A Tiny House Makeover

2011-12-06T15:46:00.000-08:00

I found the (approximately) 1/144th scale house below at a local show. It was in pretty sorry shape. The porches and gables had (painted brass) dark green trim that had been bent out of shape, and the interior had a very strange musty smell. It had also been furnished with a couple clunky pieces of cast metal furniture. I decided that, between the bad furnishing, smell, and broken exterior trim, it was time to give the house a makeover.

I started by ripping out the furnishings, getting rid of dried up old glue blobs, and painting everything a coat of soft white. I'm leaving the roof and front pieces untouched for the moment, because they will be easy to do after the interior is finished. The cleaning and new paint got rid of the smell, so I started papering.

The floors and walls were in slightly rough shape (visible wood grain, and some gouges from removing the glue) so I used a heavy paper that wouldn't wrinkle over the bad spots. Then I started adding baseboard and cornice trim to the rooms. I decided that the time period of the house would be modern day, so I hand painted some trendy Chinoiserie patterns for the walls of the tiny dining room. I have a few more pieces/details planned for this room, but I think I'll probably switch to working on the living room next.

Painted things and Pencils

2011-12-02T14:56:00.000-08:00

I've been having more fun with a few quick repainting projects. This bowl started out white, but I painted the inside and top band shell pink. For some reason, I'm really drawn to pink at the moment. I keep painting things pink, buying myself pink shirts, and I even framed a watercolor with a bright pink mat. You can see that I used quick dots and dashes to paint this, so it didn't take long at all.

This little guy on the other hand, took a bit longer. It would have been easier to paint him in disassembled pieces, but he was already glued together very strongly. I tried to use old colors on him, but looking at the photograph I think I could have done some real aging to him as well.

This was the last bit of work. I've been feeling guilty that I haven't done much with my draw plate (from Micro Mark.) I don't like tools to sit in a drawer for months on end!

So I pulled out the smallest basswood strip I had on hand. In my experience, it's definitely better to use long, soft pieces of wood with this tool. I always break the wood several times in the process of pulling it through the holes, no matter what I do though!

These extra thin dowels are perfect for miniature pencils! I still need to finish detailing them. They need the little metal caps that hold the erasers still, and I want to dip the points in black paint. I went with traditional yellow pencils this time, but it would be easy to make them in any color.

Boxes

2011-11-30T07:52:00.000-08:00

Back in September I posted about the boxes I'd made (here) with the help of my square. The boxes I made then were finished with matte paint. It occured to me that I could make the same type of boxes look much fancier with a shiny lacquer finish.

The first box was painted burgundy and black, and sized to fit a large perfume bottle. I dotted some red paint in the corners of the lid, but found that the colors were too close to show up well, especially in photos!

Since I found that the dark colored backgrounds were difficult to decorate, I switched to lighter colors for the next boxes, and used a combination of hand-cut Victorian images and painting to decorate them.

The blue box stayed empty, but the pink box got a surprise!

The lining is padded white silk satin. I love to make jewelry using swarovski crystals! I'm honestly not one for jewels or crystals most of the time, but when I'm doing jewelry, they make the pearls and other bits come to life. I seem to use the pale blue and amethyst colors most frequently. The colors are a bit more interesting than plain diamonds, but not as bright as the reds or greens. It took me a long time to buy the swarovski, they always seemed expensive! Instead I used to hunt through bags of sequins to find the tiny punched circles that fell out of the hole in the sequin centers. Or you can get the smallest plastic jewels available (about 1/16th" across), stick them down with double sided tape, and cut them smaller. Both of these are time consuming methods though, and the results aren't nearly as good.

News!

2011-11-23T16:43:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to mention that there is a post about my micro garden sheds on the IGMA blog! They showed both the shed I made in Nell Corkin's class at the Guild School (more about my Guild School experience here,) and the little green shed I built after taking the class. Please go take a look!

Things to Do With an Extra Table

2011-11-22T13:14:00.000-08:00

One of the nice things about Mom and I both liking miniatures is that a lot of things get passed back and forth between the two of us. The white table below was originally supposed to be for one of mom's dolls. I distressed the table, and two matching chairs, for her. When the set was finished, however, the size and shape of the table just didn't quite work. Then mom stumbled across a slightly smaller rectangular table that was perfect for her project, and suddenly the round table was extra!

Looking at the beaten-up finish of the table, I suddenly pictured it in the home of an absent-minded scholar. I'm getting to the end of the semester at college, so I guess piles of books are on my brain! I chopped off half the table foot, and propped it back up with a slim leather book. The brass lamp came from my mom's collection. I feel a little guilty about the lamp. It has the most fantastic patina- just the right amount of tarnish! I swear she gave it to me, I didn't steal it, but I also know she had plans for the lamp. I may end up giving it back. The little white vase has a few daisy-like flowers, most of which are dead! I made everything except the table, lamp, teacup, and vase.

The stacks of books took longer than I was expecting. I added a few with silk covers to give variety. I'm still planning to add more piles when I get the chance.

I already had the bottle of ink made. It looks very strange in the photograph above, it's actually only half full the way that the very first photo shows. I'm not sure if you can see it, but the pen has a tiny brass nib. Lastly, the dirty tea cup has left a few rings on the table! I made the rings a bit darker than I would normally, because the tabletop is so busy (I'm still planning to add more chaos). I wanted to make sure they would be seen. I also realized, looking at the placement of the teacup and the angle of the pen, my imaginary scholar is probably left-handed! I'm left-handed, so I tend to arrange things that way without realizing it. Oh well. At least the ink is on the right side. (P.S. I'm sorry, the pun was unavoidable.)

A Pretty Project

2011-11-20T19:42:00.000-08:00

I've always loved antique fans. For a long time now, I've wanted to try making some in miniature. This last weekend I finally gave it a go. Since I wanted the fan to look very delicate, I chose to make the sticks of the fan very narrow, and spread them quite widely. In many of the examples I looked at, it was hard to see the individual spokes, which were so close together there was no space between. I was relieved to find a few historical examples where the sticks were spaced the way I preferred.

This was my first attempt (above). You can see that the bottom of the fan got a little messed up on this attempt, but I kept going, because I wanted to make sure all the other steps I'd figured out would would work the way I thought they would. I used an old gold silk for the fan leaf and tassel. The colors are a bit brighter in real life.

I had a little trouble with the spokes of this fan, as well, but they came out better overall. I used a pinkish beige silk on this fan, and painted three little portraits connected by garlands of flowers . It still needs a tassel.

This fan had perfect spokes! I painted a landscape this time, with a pair of flower-filled urns flanking the scene.

Did I mention that these are less than an inch tall, and only about an inch and a quarter wide? Unfortunately, even using the thinnest silk I had, they are still a little too thick to function, but I think with a bit more experimenting, I'll be able to make them in various open and closed positions. I'm also excited to try a few variations, like adding guards (which most, but not all of the fans I saw had) and maybe adding some painted flowers or gold designs to the spokes!

Time for Tea

2011-11-06T20:05:00.000-08:00

The break in postings over the last few weeks was unexpected. By accident, I left my camera and memory card full of pictures a few weeks with my mom, and wasn't able to retrieve them until this past weekend.

This teacup was part of a larger vignette for a doll my mom was working on. The cup and teaspoon are only Chrysnbon, but Mom added the resin tea and I added pink flowers to the cup and saucer. I made the tea bag from tissue paper.

Slacking Off

2011-10-12T18:22:00.000-07:00

This another doll Mom made some time ago. She's one of my favorite, because if I were in her shoes, I'd probably sneak off all the time to read while I was supposed to dust too! I'm not sure why her face looks so shiny here, it's plain porcelain in real life. Unfortunately, I'm writing this post on the fly, so I don't have any better pictures.

On an unrelated note, I discovered this box the other day stashed away in my supplies. We finally around to clearing out the alcohol in our house a few months ago. None of us drink, so whenever we got it as a gift, it was usually just stuck in a particular cupboard and forgotten. While we were going through the cupboard, I spotted this great box. It's very shiny silver printed with black, and the various designs are lightly embossed.

I hoped at first that some of the top squares could be painted dark to look like cast iron fire backs, but the embossing is too light to really show up much when the design is painted out. But the silver finish can be dulled down to a pewter look by rubbing (dry brushing) dark grey paint over the top. There are a few designs that would work well for miniature shields, and a large cross that could work in a chapel. I'm thinking about using some of these pieces in an empty room box I've had laying about for a while, so stay tuned!

A Big (Micro) Project

2011-10-07T11:36:00.000-07:00

Back in June I shared this 1/144th scale garden cottage which I made with Nell Corkin at the Guild School. The week was a lot of fun, and I went home really wanting to do more in the scale.

A few weekends ago, I did! I decided to make another shed structure, because I wasn't confident I could build on my own. I also worried that the wood I used was not as sturdy as the stuff we used in class, so I wanted to keep the structure extra small to avoid problems.

I'm still working on the landscaping. The foam that Nell provided for grass and plantings had a nice range of colors, but mine is not as well mixed. It's slow going, because I really have to hunt for the bits with the right color!

The bench out front is actually painted a sunny yellow, and then heavily weathered. I've added a few pots of flowers, but I still need to build up some of the bushes.

I added a flat trellis with yellow roses along the left wall. This was a much quicker build than the freestanding one we made in the class.

I originally thought I might add a second floor crawlspace to the structure. But when it was time, I chickened out .

On the right I added a big dresser. I had a difficult time figuring out what to put over here, since there was a lot of wall space but the piece had to be very narrow. I actually built this hutch as an experiment before I began the house, but it ended up fitting perfectly!

On the right side is a glass bowl filled with yellow roses from outside. The painting above the table is a micro watercolour of sunflowers I painted a few years ago. You can see more of them here.

A Good Man is Hard to Find, and Fake It Till You Make It

2011-10-03T10:51:00.000-07:00

I realized that I haven't shown many of Mom's dolls on here lately. She made this fellow a while ago. Though she knew she wanted to put a frilly apron on him right from the beginning, he spent a long time in just shirt and trousers while she hunted for the perfect apron fabric. She also debated giving him a vacuum instead of dishes, but decided that it made more sense to wear an apron to do the washing up.

I haven't done much lately. I've mostly played with a few other little pieces I picked up at the local dollhouse shop. I've always admired the China Closet's pierced bowls, and am lucky enough to own two small examples. You can see one of those below, on the Davenport desk by Julian Biggers. I'll have to take better photographs sometime soon, because this corner contains some of my favorite pieces.

In any case, I started wondering if there was any way to make something that looked similar but was a little less fragile. I also wanted something that I could use in a shadowy corner without feeling guilty that it was hidden away. I found a shiny silver plastic bell (the type sold in packs in the wedding aisle of craft or party stores) among my stash and decided to see what I could do.

I forgot to take a before and in-progress pictures, but I'll do my best to outline the process. I used my set of files to first file a groove all the way around the rounded top of the bell, and then to take the top completely off. With the top off, I could flip the bell over and add a flat base (where the top used to be). I also used the files to sand off the "made in china" lettering and other imperfections. Since I still wasn't sure that this crazy idea was going to work (it looked pretty rough at this stage), I didn't spend as much time refining the details of the casting as I should have. After that, it was simply a matter of painting the entire thing many, many coats of white until the original silver was completely gone. I used a hairdryer to speed things up a bit, but it still took quite a while. When everything was flat off white, I added a bit of decorative painting inside and out. Last was a glossy acrylic top coat for protection and make the piece look like porcelain. It will never be mistaken for the real thing, but it's not a bad fake for an evening's work and less than $1 in supplies!

Another Painting

2011-09-30T10:52:00.000-07:00

This was another watercolor attempt. I managed to get the scale right this time. I used a doll to double check the painting's head was a little smaller than life size.

Framing her was a little tricky. I usually keep the matting pretty neutral. Dark green or pale blue are generally my wildest choices. But this was a very warm painting, with lots of pink (it's a little washed out in the photo above). None of my regular choices worked. I tried the bubblegum-pink out of desperation, and was shocked that I liked it.

The frame color was a new shade of gold paint I was testing out. My favorite gold paint finally ran out a while ago, and when I replaced it, it seemed like they'd changed the formula to a much cooler (greenish yellow) gold. This one wasn't bad, but it wasn't perfect either. It was a bit too warm/pinkish for most uses (though that worked for this painting!), and it needed quite a few coats. I'll let you know when I find my perfect gold again!

One quick tip: If you plan to do a lot of framing, it's nice to save any matting mistakes (ones where I mismeasured, or the blade slipped, etc.) I use these mistakes to test mat colors before I spend a lot of time custom cutting one in the wrong color. Even a three mats in a dark, medium and light tone can sometimes help narrow things down!

Not Quite Right

2011-09-28T18:12:00.000-07:00

When I haven't painted in miniature for a while, I struggle with the scale. I was quite pleased with this woman- until I held her up next to a few miniature pieces and realized she's about 3x larger than life. Of course, this occasionally happens in regular life too. My first "life size" full-body self portrait ended up over eight feet tall! But miniature paintings tend to look 'wrong' if they are significantly over sized.

I decided to frame her anyway. She may end up somewhere in our 'real' house. I have a small collection of these larger-scaled but still tiny paintings, and I've been toying with the idea of grouping them on a small section of wall. I'll post another painting with better scale on Friday.

Miniature Boxes

2011-09-26T18:06:00.000-07:00

One of the tools we used a lot at the Guild School was a small square. It was a tool I owned before, but I reach for it a lot more frequently after the class! It made the construction of these boxes much quicker. I didn't even have to pull out my ruler!

This blue box was my first attempt. It's about 1" across.

Next came a green box covered in antique "scrap" images. It's difficult to see, but I painted the edges of the lid the same blue as the box above.

The insides of these first two boxes are painted the same color as the exteriors.

Next came a rusty red box...

with compartments to store some of my hand cut dollhouse paper dolls. I still want to design a label for this.

Last of all was a painting set.

The tray is stored snugly inside the box...

but comes out when it's time to paint! I'd like to make a couple paint brushes to round out the set, but my attempts so far are very fragile and look a little awkward. I really wanted to have real bristles, but I'm thinking now that it may be better just to carve the end instead.

One Man's Trash...

2011-09-25T08:57:00.000-07:00

I found this little plastic baby doll carriage in a bin at my local dollhouse store. It was marked 25 cents, so I bought it. I knew it would be an easy project.

Here it is repainted. I added a bit more distressing than I usually would, so that the toy would look well loved.

I used to hate painting eyes on dolls. They are so tiny, but if they look wrong, it wrecks the toy for me! I used to redo them countless times. Then I figured out a very simple method which looks surprisingly realistic. Use artist quality acrylic paints, because they less transparent than craft paints. Water down white paint until it is quite runny, but only a bit translucent. Paint the white of one eye with this. While the paint is still wet, dot the pupil in using slightly less watered down black or dark brown. The white and black/brown will mix around the edges of the pupil, creating a fairly realistic blue-grey or brown iris. Just repeat for the second eye, then add eyebrows, lashes, and any other details you want.

Dabbling in Intrigue

2011-08-26T13:20:00.000-07:00

Awhile back, I saw a photograph of a secret poison cabinet hidden inside of an old book. The idea stuck, and I decided to try a miniature version. The drawer pulls are made from brass pins (the pulls had to be low-profile so that the book would close.) The bottle and jar were miniatures I had stashed in a drawer.

I used textured wallpaper for the outside- I would have loved to have used leather, but didn't have any thin pieces large enough for the whole thing. I used model ship rope on the spine. On the whole, this piece is a little large to be a 1/12th scale book, but I really wanted to have enough space inside for the poison supplies.

I think I've mentioned before that I don't take notes on most of my miniature projects. Well, below is the proof that I don't plan well either. This is the post-it where I drew the drawer and cubbyhole layout, and started to figure out all those important measurements- until I decided I'd just figure measurements out as I went along. Thank goodness for very precise rulers!

I still need to fill the drawers, add some leather straps to the cubbies to keep the bottles in place, and add a clasp to the outside of the book to hold it firmly closed.

Miniature Bibliophilia

2011-08-15T18:26:00.000-07:00

Awhile back, I posted (here, here, here and here) about my goal to fill a library with readable books like the ones below. Well, I haven't quite gotten there yet. The bookcases I'm trying to fill are quite large, and I haven't managed to fill much more than two of the shelves in the past few months. I was getting a bit discouraged at the length of time the project would take, when I made a fun discovery...

A few months ago, I impulsively bought a little bookcase at a local show, thinking I might be able to squeeze it into Lottie's room (I'll have to post a better look at her room soon!). It didn't fit where I'd planned, so it's been hanging out in my workspace waiting for a home. I put all the books I'd made so far in the little bookcase today- and they filled the shelves PERFECTLY. Now I have extra incentive to find a spot for the bookcase, and an excuse to put the library project on hiatus until I'm in the mood to make books again.

One book won't be going in the bookcase though. I found this book, "The Quadrille" at Eileen Godfrey's shop just after deciding to put the library project on hold.

It's beautifully made, with lots of illustrations. The title is stamped in gold on the spine as well as on the cover. I'm going to have to find a very special spot for this book. I'm not sure who made it, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

A "Brass" Table and a Dishtowel

2011-08-04T14:56:00.000-07:00

Mom worked on a new doll today. While she had her supplies out, I borrowed her Styrofoam block, fabric stiffener and extra-thin pins to make a dishrag for my cupboard.

A few weeks ago, I ordered some shrink plastic (or Shrinky-Dinks). This stuff comes as a plastic film which can be easily cut with scissors, and colored with markers. Then you heat it in the oven or with a heat gun, and it shrinks to about 1/2 the original size, and becomes about 1/6th" thick. I had the idea that it would make great glass for miniature table tops.

Well, that idea was a failure. I just couldn't get the plastic to shrink perfectly evenly, and any fingerprints I got on the film became permanent smudges on the finished plastic.One or two pieces just curled up like the piece on the left. After a half-dozen tries, I gave up the idea.

While I was working on the glass however, I'd built a little table out of styrene. To make it look like brass, I spray painted it gold, then added highlights of gold Rub'n'buff.

I rather like the table with the Zebra chair I re-covered a while ago. They are both outrageous.

Since I hadn't managed the glass top I'd originally pictured, I painted some marble for the top and popped it in.

My Workspace

2011-07-30T11:28:00.000-07:00

This cupboard started off as a slightly clunky but well made commercial piece. I tore off the thick upper doors, added trim to the shelves, and painted the cupboard. The decorative painting is mostly done with dots and dashes. It's a good piece to put in a shadowy corner: from a distance, the cupboard looks much nicer than it actually is. I'm still working on filling up the shelves, and then I'll give the whole thing a last bit of aging.

I also reorganized my workspace. I haven't really posted about this space, because it's usually a complete mess, but it's been staying slightly neater lately. My workspace is a little alcove in the dining room. It has a lot of windows, but gets the most light in late afternoon. The small drawers on this table hold tools and miscellaneous supplies. The two gold room boxes protect finished projects until I find a spot for them (the large box is actually the Gallery I posted about a while ago.)All my miniature magazines are sorted into wooden holders underneath the table. The white shelf on the left holds spray paint and various solvents.

Behind my chair are larger drawers holding larger supplies like paint, leather, fabric, and landscaping foam.

Back from the Guild School

2011-06-30T21:27:00.000-07:00

Actually, I've been home for nearly two weeks, but I've had a lot of bad news lately and I haven't felt much like blogging. Things have been looking up in the last few days, so I'm going to try to start updating fairly regularly again.
I loved making this tiny 1/144th scale garden cottage in Nell Corkin's class. Nell brought the cottage walls already cut (we had to cut the windows!) and the weather vane already assembled. Everything else was made in the class.

Constructing the trellis was fun, but I didn't like adding the climbing roses nearly as much!

I may add some taller laser-cut flowers along this side now that I'm home.

There was even time to make furnishings! The chairs were difficult- the first time I tried to put them together, I glued them all wrong, and then I painted them with a half-dozen coats of the wrong color by accident. But in the end, it all worked out.

It was so fun to see all the finished projects at the end!

Watercolors

2011-05-29T14:21:00.000-07:00

Last night I dug out my watercolors for the first time in months. I love to paint in the summer- there's such great light! I realized when Mom and I were setting up for the show last weekend that the paintings were looking a little picked over. I didn't have many cottage paintings left, so I'm going to try to work on more over the next few weeks.

I've only worked on this one so far. It still needs a lot of work. The frame is only laid on top as encouragement, and to check that the darkest colors are dark enough to show up.

While I had the camera out, I snapped a shot of this painting as well. I painted it for Mom a few months ago, but don't think I ever posted photos of it here. We both love Jane Austen, and while Persuasion is my favorite of her novels, we watch the 1995 addaptation of Pride and Prejudice quite often.

You can see that the paint bled horribly around the edges, which is why the painting is still unframed. I usually tape the edges of my watercolors to keep them neat. My favorite tape is extra-narrow masking tape from the model train shop which gives a nice clean line, but it's a bit difficult to find. I used a different brand of masking tape on this painting, thinking it would be the same, but as you can see it was terrible!

Some Projects, News, and Advice Needed Please!

2011-05-24T14:20:00.000-07:00

Mom and I had a great time at the show on Sunday, but we came back home exhausted. Yesterday was a bit crazy as well, since we had a new stove and dishwasher installed in our (real) kitchen! I only have a few quick photos of my recent projects.

I got a really good deal on this chair from Eileen Godfrey. It was an old Bespaq piece in overall good condition, but the white upholstery was no longer pristine. I pulled the chair apart and reupholstered it in silk from an outrageous zebra tie I found at the thrift store a few weeks ago.

I've never tried an upholstery project more complex than a simple seat cushion, but this chair was surprisingly quick. While I had the chair apart, I also painted the frame black with gold accents. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet, but if I don't find a spot for it, Mom may use it for a doll.

I've also wanted to try Paperclay for years, but never got around to it. So when I saw it for sale at Michael's, I snagged a package. I had a witch's workroom in a book shaped box which had been hanging around for a long time half finished. The witch room had been done in a hurry with horrible quality, so I stripped everything out and started over with paperclay. After the basic walls were dry, I wanted to add some details that would look like crumbling cast plaster. I glued in some crocheted lace around the top of the room, then mixed paperclay and water to a pudding consistency, and covered the lace until it blended with the wall. I'll include more about this box as I get further along in the project.

Lastly, I have a really exciting time ahead. I'm going to the Guild School in a few weeks to make this. I've admired Nell Corkin's work for years, and am over the moon that I got in to the class. I've never been to the Guild School before, so I'm a bit nervous along with all the excitement. If any of you have advice about things to pack, things to do, or the best ways to bring supplies along (I'm flying there), I'd really appreciate it!

Another Miniature Show!

2011-05-18T15:16:00.000-07:00

It was a last-minute decision, but Mom and I are going to split another table at the show in Norwalk, Ct this weekend! The show is Sunday, May 22 at the Doubletree Hotel.

Mom's bringing some of her dolls. . .

and I've been framing watercolors and digging out the various miniatures we stashed away over the winter. The weather's been gloomy and gray all week. I'm hoping it clears up soon, so I can take better photographs of everything before the show.

A Magical Cabinet, and a New Tool

2011-04-17T22:47:00.000-07:00

I didn't manage to get as many miniatures done as I'd hoped. However, Mom and I took a trip to a local dollhouse store together, and I found this little cabinet. I painted it black and lined the back and floor with bright red. Then I gathered up some "magical" items I've made. There's an aged book, a crystal ball with a mysterious dark figure inside, a few bottles (the one in front is actually red, but photographed orange for some reason) and various spooky papers.

I'm planning to add a lot more to the cabinet interior and top. These are some other things I'm considering for the top of the cabinet. The wand was my first attempt at barley twist. I'll have to make a better one for the cabinet, but I have a soft spot for this one. The illuminated book has touches of gold.
I also played with a fairly new tool. This is a draw plate from Micro Mark. It has a series of successively smaller holes. You pull a dowel through the holes, and they are shaved down until they extremely thin.

Below, you can see the square piece I began with (about 1/16th" square) and the thin dowel I ended with. I discovered that this process does take a while, and I ended up losing a few inches of dowel as I broke the end trying to force it through the next hole. Still, I now have enough wood to make many miniature pencils. Someone with more skill than I have could probably use this tool to make a beautiful birdcage like one I have in Phoebe's room.

A Diversion

2011-04-06T11:08:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while because I've been working on a non-miniature project, but figured I'd share it anyways today. I fell in love with the lace masks from the Valentino Fall/Winter 09 show, and have been scheming to make something similar ever since. You can see how far I've gotten below. The entire thing is made with stiffened black lace, reinforced with hand-sewn wire, and embellished with tons of beading and more stiffened lace. It ties with black velvet ribbon. I'm still working on the beading, but it's starting to really look the way I intended.

Believe it or not, I'm making this for next Halloween. I know, I'm a bit early, but I wasn't sure how long it would take! This was a much quicker project than I expected, so I should have more miniatures to share by next weekend.
P.S. If anyone is interested in making your own mask, let me know and I can add more specifics about the construction.

A Before and After

2011-03-20T11:12:00.000-07:00

This wooden birdhouse came from Matlock Miniatures. When it came, it was a little chunkier looking than I was expecting, so it sat in a drawer for a year. I pulled it out the other night, and hacked off the clunky perches. I cut up a wooden fan for gingerbread, and painted the whole thing white. The roof had some unfortunate glue spots that would have resisted stain, so I ended up using acrylic paint for that. While the roof was still wet, I added touches of moss and mold colors, and encouraged them to bleed across the wood. It doesn't show up well in photographs, but it's a nice base for any further aging I do.

I still need to add the birds, more weathering, and a few other details to make the dovecote a little more realistic. I also need to fix the center bottom piece of filigree, which is looking very crooked!

Just for Fun

2011-03-17T11:13:00.000-07:00

Mom and I had a bit of a "Girl's Day Out" yesterday. I did a lot of shopping- for miniatures! Our first stop was the local dollhouse store, where they had a bunch of chairs on sale for $5 each. I liked the shape of the chair below, but not the bright red cherry finish. I never remember to take before photos!

I got metal leafing supplies for Christmas, but hadn't touched them yet. Last night I decided to try them out on the chair. I also changed the seat cover from bright white to a muted green silk (I know it looks gray in the photos, the actual color is a little brighter.) I'm not sure what I'll do with this little chair yet. I may swap it with the one in the Gallery, or I have a few couple of vingette ideas I want to try out.

Bits and Bobs

2011-03-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

I often paint glass ornaments for my family as little Christmas gifts. I keep a box of ornaments in my workspace year round, so that I can work on them as I'm in the mood. Sometimes the ornaments break, and I always save the little brass cap. Last night I realized I had a lot of those caps saved up.

They remind me of little crowns, so I started playing with some scraps of velvet and beads.This is what I came up with:

On an unrelated note, I'm trying out a new color scheme for the blog. Things still need to be tweaked, but please let me know if colors are hard to read on your screen!

Little Projects in Paper

2011-02-20T07:22:00.000-08:00

I've been working on some more little paper models lately. This little Patisserie is very tiny- it's only half an inch tall, and an inch wide across the front.

This party is a little larger- the front of the box is about an inch and a half wide.

This courtyard scenes is about the same size as the party above...

but the base of this cottage is only an inch wide. I really had fun with the landscape embellishments on this one. I also added a textured roof, and a few other 3D elements to enhance the building..

Lions, and Tigers, and Bears! Oh, my!

2011-02-08T08:33:00.000-08:00

This bear started off as a commercially made toy. Unfortunately, I always forget to take before pictures! He was actually really cute right out of the package, just a little too new. I wanted him to look a bit worn, and a little less modern, so I figured out a way to "clump" his fur. I first gave him a bit of a trim, just to get the bulk the fur down in places he'd be particularly worn. Be careful- you only want to cut the fuzz, not the fabric!

Then, I spread a tiny bit of tacky glue over patches of the fur. You really want to use almost no glue! Then, I used a wire brush from the hardware store to brush the glue-covered fur before it dried. Brush in several directions, until the fur looks tousled but not unruly. The trick to making this look right is to work in small sections, and think about wear patterns.

I noticed that he had some pretty visible seams on the bottom of his feet, so I gave him leather pads for his paws. Last was the new silk bow. Overall, I kept this bear in pretty good condition- no stuffing showing or eyes/limbs missing, just a little wear to show that he is well loved by the dollhouse children!

A Tea Party

2011-02-06T07:56:00.000-08:00

I've been working on something a little different lately. This half scale table and chairs were bought for another project, but they ended up not working out. I decided to make a doll's tea party with the furniture instead. I added some decorative painting and distressing to the table and chairs. Adding seat cushions also really make a difference. I used my new favorite striped fabric on those. The teacups, teapot, and vase were all things I had tucked away in drawers.

I'm still working on the party attendants. The bear was an inexpensive, commercially made bear which I tried to make look a little older and better loved. The doll to the right of him is a molded polymer clay doll I made last week. Continuing clockwise, the next two are dolls borrowed from mom's collection. They aren't going to stay in the scene, but I wanted to see what it would look like with all the chairs full. The last baby doll to the right is another polymer clay doll I worked on yesterday. You can see she's almost slipping out of her chair. I'm thinking about gluing her to the chair, but I'm always a little nervous about making scenes so permanent.

I'll post more about how I made everything later this week.

Painting Again

2011-01-11T19:15:00.000-08:00

I meant to do more watercolors over the last few months, but what with one thing and another, didn't get around to it. So today, I finally took them out again, and tried a quick mini picture of my brother.

It doesn't really look much like him, but the picture below is a little less than 1 1/4" by 1 1/2, meaning his face is about a half inch tall. I'll do some more work on it tomorrow, hopefully, when the light is better. Somehow I always seem to start watercolors in the late afternoon, though the kitchen gets the best light in the morning!

We're buried in snow, and set to get lots more soon. This was the view out our kitchen window a few days ago. The snowplow couldn't find the driveway!

A New Doll

2011-01-06T16:00:00.000-08:00

This is one of Mom's latest dolls, a maid who's been interrupted by a feline visitor! Mom made her just before Christmas.

Mom and I work in different ways. Mom has a hard time starting a project unless she knows she has enough time to finish it, but once she starts, she will work on it until it is done. I, on the other hand, usually have at least a half dozen smaller projects going at once, and have been known to let half-finished projects languish for months.

How do you make miniatures? Do you find it hard to get into the right mind frame unless you have plenty of time, like my mom, or do you prefer to squeeze tiny projects in whenever possible? Do you work on one project until it's completed, or work on whatever you feel like?

Another Mini Update

2011-01-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

I promise to do a proper update soon, with an exciting new doll that Mom made recently. I was planning to take photos this morning, but got caught up in refurbishing an old t-shirt, and lost track of time. So, it'll have to be tomorrow or the next day. In the mean time, here's a little vintage paper scene that I put together the other evening.

Books and Perfume

2010-12-22T15:01:00.000-08:00

I've been busy with end-of-semester madness, but that's all over for the moment, so here are a few little things I made recently. I make my books in batches, so sometimes I do many at once, and other times I go months without making any. These are my two newest, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and The Dead, by James Joyce. I've now made 30 different readable books for my library. Only 45 more to go to finish the largest bookcase!

I've also been trying my hand at different types of perfume bottles. I love the way this one looks filled. I need to remake the box with heavier card though.

Butterfly

2010-11-11T08:14:00.000-08:00

Every year, my mom does a study of monarch butterflies with her class. They watch them grow from eggs, to caterpillar, to chrysalis, to butterfly. I couldn't resist making one in miniature.

The top of the jar is covered with a bit of shear white stocking. If you pull it apart a little, this stuff also makes very realistic cobwebs.

One of my favorite dolls

2010-11-07T19:16:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I showed Mom's maid sleeping on the laundry. This is another of the dolls she sold at the show that I had a hard time letting go of.

After a long hard day of work, she's finally getting to relax and soak her poor feet. We displayed her on an "old" scrub brush, but didn't permanently attach her, so that she could also be used in a dollhouse. The scrub brush started out as new, raw wood, and we had a time dirtying it up one night. Even my brother lent a hand with some of the nicks and gouges!

Another little project...

2010-11-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

I only found four of these little metal findings in my stash of old jewelry parts, but they seemed like perfect little decorative matchbox covers. This was the prototype, just made from whatever I had on hand, and I'm not yet happy with the matches. Hopefully I can get the next batch looking more realistic.

The matches are glued in the box, but the box itself can be opened and shut just like a real matchbox.

May I Have This Dance?

2010-10-17T21:52:00.000-07:00

This little dance card is only 1/4th of an inch across. It has a tiny pencil on a tasseled string, and the front reads "Netherfield Dance", along with a date.

Inside, there are many spaces for handsome gentlemen to claim their dance!

You wouldn't believe the number of times I had to tie this string! Even with the reference photos right in front of me, I couldn't get the hang of it, lol. When I figured it out, I actually took the time to scribble out directons for myself. I'm usually a VERY lazy note taker, since I'm almost always able to muddle out the way I made something just by looking at it again. But in this case, I REALLY don't want to fuss with those threads any more than I have to, if I end up wanting to make more dance cards down the line.

Do you take notes on your projects?

Our First Miniature Show!

2010-10-11T20:10:00.000-07:00

Mom and I spent Sunday on the other side of the sales table at the Stamford Plaza hotel in Stamford, Ct! We were so nervous, we spent all of Saturday fussing with last-minute details. We practiced so many mock table set ups, I think it only took ten minutes on the actual day! Mom brought dolls, and I brought a few paintings and paper things (books, dancing dolls, and a couple other bits and pieces) to split a six foot table.
Mom was so convinced she wasn't going to sell any of her dolls, she almost brought only a couple large gift boxes to the show to wrap dolls up. Luckily, I threw in a bunch more, because she only had four dolls left at the end of the show! The maid up above was a little hard to let go- we did a lot of the work together. Mom dressed her, of course (I can't make any garment more complex than a toga :) but while she was doing that I painted/distressed the table and matching stool, and we worked on the folded linens together at the kitchen table. She went to a good home though, as did all the others!

P.S. Our favorite porcelain doll parts all come from Ellen's World.

Dancing Dolls

2010-08-29T12:48:00.000-07:00

I didn't realize how long it had been since my last post. As it turns out, my laptop was fried, so I had to wait a few weeks to get a new one, and then other things came up, so minis have taken a back seat recently.

These dancing dolls are about all I've had time to make. They are all jointed with thin wire, so that they can be posed in different positions.

The joints are hard to see in the photos, but there are at least four per doll. They were quite a challenge, but I'm pleased with the results.

The next post may take a while, since I'm in the midst of packing to go back to school, but I'm hoping to get back to a regular schedule soon.

Broken Laptop and and Mini Watercolors

2010-07-14T15:35:00.000-07:00

My laptop is broken. It turns on, lights up, but the screen stays dark. Right now, it's in the shop getting properly diagnosed. The bad news is, there's a good chance that I'll need a new one. The good news is, retrieving my files should be easy, so I won't lose any of my work.
In the mean time, I've been framing miniature watercolours I painted awhile ago. I hate to make the frames, so I splurged on a bunch of frames from Smaller Than Life.

Framed, this painting is 2" wide and 1 1/2" tall.

This is the smallest painting- the watercolor area is less than 3/4" square.

This painting is 1 1/2" wide by 2" tall. The colors in this photograph are a bit washed out- it looks much more cheerful in real life.

Bigger Projects

2010-07-07T09:51:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted for a while because I've been caught up in non-dollhouse projects. I thought I'd share a few of my favorites.

I inherited my iPod from my brother a few years ago, and never worried about it since it was already a bit scratched up. Finally, I decided it was time to make it a case the other day. It's basically made like a book cover, with cardboard panels covered in green silk. Making this cover was the closest I get to "tech savvy", and there are still a couple of design flaws.

I found a tutorial somewhere (wish I could remember where) on making flowers out of pine cones. The "enamel" is done with nail polish. I'm going to attach these to bobby pins.

Last but not least, here is the kitchen wall, stripped of nasty vinyl wallpaper from the previous owners. This has been a project that's needed to happen for a long time, so just looking at the unpainted walls is a thrill. And just in case you don't believe how badly this needed to be done, I've included the 'before' picture below...

Scary isn't it?

Good Intentions Didn't Get Me Very Far

2010-06-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

...in cleaning up my workspace. I kept coming up with project ideas, until I finally took a break from sorting/labeling/tossing and had a little fun. A few months ago, I bought a few packs of quarter scale brown plastic furniture. Looking through old issues of Little Enough News, I found a page which showed various ways to cut the furniture apart and reassemble it to make other pieces. One of the things I got from the Sturbridge Show was a quarter scale Art Deco house kit. The seller didn't have it at the show, so I haven't started building it yet, but I'm already thinking about how I will furnish it. I decided to see if I could make anything even vaguely Art Deco from the brown plastic furniture.

The desk on the left is the piece I started with. Eventually, the modified piece on the right will be a vanity, with a tall mirror in the center. It obviously needs a paint job to improve the look of the ugly brown plastic, and hide the white plastic I used to modify the shape. I'm hoping that I'll be able to do a realistic looking faux wood.

For this table, I cut off the legs and discarded the pedestal. Then I flipped the legs upside down, glued them to the underside of the table, and added a couple thick blocks of plastic to form a new base.

The chair in the center is the stock brown chair. The little table on the left was made from two of the laddered chair-backs, glued to a scrap square of plastic. The chair on the right is made from two stock chairs. I first removed the back from one of the chairs. Then, I trimmed the legs from the second chair, flipped it over, and glued it to the top of the first chair. With a little more trimming, and a single ladder from the chair back, the second set of legs became the chair's back and arms.

I'm not thrilled with these pieces, but they were a fun diversion. I'm going to continue experimenting with the rest of my stash, and hopefully a bit of paintwork will reduce the plastic look. But first- I have to finish cleaning up!

Not Much to Show

2010-06-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

We didn't end up finding much at Sturbridge. There were lots of great miniatures to see, but very little that would work in any of our houses, so we came away with mostly supplies. Mom ended up getting two darling things, but she hasn't yet figured out where she will put them, so I will hold off posting about them until they have a home. In the mean time, I've been having fun making Valentines from frilly bits and pieces.
Lots of gold paper, glitter, and lace. My favorite glitter is actually an additive meant for model car paint. It comes in a range of colors, but I mostly use the gold.

The weather's been dismal lately, so I've been reorganizing my workspace as well. I finally decided that it was time to replace the hand-written labels on all my drawers so the label-maker has been going full blast. I've also been spray-painting cardboard boxes between rain showers. I needed a neat way to store small items that didn't have a home. I collected a variety of sturdy food and toiletry boxes, which did the job admirably, but didn't look very neat. A couple coats of spray paint and printed labels made all the difference. I'll post photos when the re-organization is done: right now I'm sorting the last few drawers and boxes, so it still looks like a mess.

More Little Books

2010-06-03T21:17:00.000-07:00

I decided to work on more miniature books today. Below you can see a finished book in the press. This little flower press is the best tool for bookmaking. It's only a few inches wide, but it easily presses two or three books shut at once. It's extra small because it was originally sold as an American Girl Doll flower press. Despite the fact that it's technically a toy, it's held up really well to (lots!) of real use.

Here are the last three books I made: Pride and Prejudice, The Arabian Nights, and The Castle of Otranto. Eventually, I hope to make an entire readable library for my other dollhouse, but so far I've only done a shelf and a half. There are five shelves in the largest bookcase I plan to fill, and each shelf needs about 16 books. Right now, I have 23 books completely finished, and that's taken me over six months (working very intermittently). At the very least, I need to make about 60 more books. I really didn't realize what a big project this would be when I started! Those ready-made books are seeming awfully reasonable right now... Fortunately (?) there's even more to do on the dollhouse, before it is anywhere near ready for a full library, so there's no rush to get the books done.

P.S. Mom and I are going to the miniature show in Sturbridge. It's usually my favorite show of the year. It's a big enough show to be more exciting than our local shows, but it generally has a friendly atmosphere that some of the big shows lack. Is anyone else going?

A Good Book

2010-05-27T13:57:00.000-07:00

I've been re-organizing bookshelves around the house. I've finally rounded up most of the books about miniatures, and have given them their own shelf. I was a bit surprised to see how many books I had collected over the years, mostly from local book fairs. I'll be sharing a few of my favorites from time to time.

The thick orange book in the photo above is one my favorites. The Collector's History of Doll's Houses, Doll's House Dolls, and Miniatures by Constance Eileen King is the most comprehensive book for antique and vintage dollhouses I have found. It covers sixteenth century cabinet houses, right through the commercial houses of the 1980s, and is loosely organized by both country and century. There are surprisingly detailed descriptions of the construction, contents, and owners of the antique houses, which makes for entertaining reading. The only real drawback to the book is that most of the photos are black and white, with only a few color plates.. I cannot recommend this book enough to anyone who has the slightest interest in antique dollhouses.

(Please excuse the glare, my book is a library cast-off, and the dust jacket has a protective plastic cover that makes the book difficult to photograph)

Bottle Cap Footstools

2010-05-20T09:46:00.000-07:00

I always save bottle caps. I started collecting them to send micro swap items safely, but it's been a while since the last swap, and my collection is getting a bit large. The other night, I remembered using bottle caps to make footstools as a kid. I had to give it another try.

The bottle caps I had were large, about an inch across, and 1/2 inch deep, so I cut it down to about 1/4 inch high using old scissors, then sanded the cut edge. An adult should definitely do the cutting! Stuff the cap with cotton balls, until they make a nice puffy seat. Cut a large circle of fabric (printed cottons hide glue spots pretty well), and cut rays from the outer edge inwards towards the center. Put glue around the plastic sides of the bottle cap, and then cover the cap with your fabric circle. Don't worry if glue shows around the sides, you will cover that with trim. Secure the fabric with an elastic band, and let it dry. When it is dry, trim away excess fabric, remove the rubber band, and add trim. I'm fond of embroidered ribbon or crocheted lace for this part, but any heavier weight wide trim will work.

Flip the stool over, and glue feet to the bottom (which is the old top of the bottle cap). I used wood turnings, but small beads will work as well. The finished effect is always "cute" rather than "elegant", but they are a fun rainy day project.

A Little Mischief

2010-05-18T09:20:00.000-07:00

I'd like to introduce you to my mother's latest doll. She's a very sweet girl...
who has gotten into a bit of trouble! There are muddy paw prints all over her clean white dress, and her hat may be ruined-what will Mother say?

Mom dressed and wigged the doll, and I 'helped' with the pawprints. My mother is a brave woman, letting me get near all her hard work with paint!

I'm Back, and a Sneak Preveiw!

2010-05-16T08:47:00.000-07:00

Here's a glimpse at my contribution to my mom's latest project.
The fleshy pink blob is the home-made stamp I made this morning. I first made the paw print in reverse, using a bobby pin and micro beads to indent a scrap of clay. Then I used a second piece of clay to get a positive relief from the clay. You have to rock the stamp a bit to get a good print, but it's much faster than painting each by hand.

And here's the real culprit! Hopefully the full project will be done soon,and I'll be able to post more pictures of everything.

Toodeloo for a Short Time!

2010-04-27T20:34:00.000-07:00

You might have noticed a bit of dust around here lately. I'm going through the busiest time of my year, so I won't be around for at least two or three more weeks. However, I have a backlog of photos to share, so expect lots of updates soon after!

See you in a few weeks!

In Amongst the Hydrangas

2010-04-03T19:03:00.001-07:00

Happy Easter!
This little fellow was a quick project the other night, made from bits of plastic and wood, four snaps, and a plastic bunny. I sprayed the whole thing gold (the only color I had on hand, truth be told), then used red/pink, green and blue acrylics to accent the toy. Finally, it all got a heavy antique brown wash and a thread pull . He's about 1 inch tall in all.

New Painting

2010-03-16T13:38:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since my last post! I have been working on various miniatures for the past few weeks, but this painting is one of my favorite. It's oil on wood, about 2" tall. It's a copy of Van Gogh's Still Life with Open Bible.

This is going to be difficult to frame. It was sort of an impulsive painting, so I forgot to allow room around the edge for the frame to hide. There's plenty of room on the sides, and enough on the bottom edge, but I'm worried about the top. Please notice the warning along the left side. My mom jokes that "wet paint" is my signature.

Don't sneeze!

2010-02-22T14:27:00.000-08:00

I posted this micro chateau I put together out of paper a while ago, and a few projects more recently but looking through some old photos, I found a few other tiny projects. These projects were not necessarily as challenging as the chateau, but they remain some of my smallest attempts!
This doll and toy soldier in a box were fun! The doll was made according to instructions on Frances Armstrong's site. Both these projects found homes in micro scenes later on.

These baskets are made of thread. They are slightly large for true 1/144th scale, but are quite effective in some settings where scale is not such an issue. As you can see, I got a bit carried away making these - I made about 30 in a few days at one point!

This was just thrown together, using miniatures that needed a home. The chair is an N scale (1:160) brass piece. The music stand is also painted brass.

On the chair is a 1/144th scale violin! It is made of styrene (plastic), paper, and various other materials. It took lots of experimenting to figure this one out! Though they cannot be seen in the pictures, there are even tiny black tuning pegs on the neck, as well as a black tail piece. The violin is about 1/8th of an inch long.

Little Details

2010-02-17T12:34:00.000-08:00

My uncle built the original shell of my dollhouse. When it was refurbished about ten years ago, I realized for the first time how unusual my house was. It's similar to the Katherine, but was built from plans rather than a kit. So my floor plan is slightly different, and I have many more windows. There were several problems with using the opening windows which I wanted all over the house, but we were able to use one for the kitchen. I think all kitchens need an open window for little boys to steal the baking, don't you?
The fuzzy African Violet was made by my mom from a kit. The muffins were a joint effort.

Snowy Day Projects

2010-02-16T10:44:00.001-08:00

I woke up this morning to find that it had snowed again, on top of all the snow that we got last week. This is taken from the window over my bed. It's a very pretty snow, but I'm getting a bit of cabin fever!

To pass the time, I've been cutting scraps for more miniature scrap screens like this one. I'm thinking that I might make a scapbook or two as well. Unfortunately, I've run out of the unfinished screens that I used to use. Does anyone know a source for plain wooden (or even painted) screens?

Empty, clean tic-tac containers are great for storing scrap, especially since I have a tendancy to knock containers over! Most scraps fit through the small top opening, but the entire white top can be removed if necessary. There are enough pieces here for one screen, with a quite a few left over.

More Books, and Help Please!

2010-02-04T13:45:00.000-08:00

I've been trying to put together more books over the last few days. Here they all are. I need to press them all shut still, in my doll-sized flower press, so that they will actually fit in a bookcase without popping out.

Top row: Lover's Vows, Alice in Wonderland, Heidi,The Monk, Lady Windermere's Fan, A Simple Story

Bottom row: Buckle My Shoe, An Old Fashioned Girl, Ivanhoe, King Arthur, Line and Form (an art book), Robin Hood, and A Little Princess.

I need help thinking of more titles. I'm trying to concentrate on older titles, since I doubt that I'll ever do a modern dollhouse, but I confess that I know far more recent fantasy/scifi books than anything else. Since the books I've made so far will only fill a few inches of shelving, and my eventual goal is a readable miniature library, I'm going to need lots of titles. What are your favorite books?

Shoe Makeover

2010-01-29T18:06:00.000-08:00

I try to mostly show my miniatures on here, but I'm going to post a different type of project just this once.
I have a hard time finding shoes, so when I found these shoes on eBay quite a while ago I was quite excited. I bought them knowing that I'd change them around a bit. That floral pattern wouldn't work with anything I own.
I didn't think to take photos of the process, but this is what I did with those shoes:

It's just a quick re-cover, with fabrics and trims that I had on hand. I didn't cover the entire shoe, since the blue satin accents seemed like they would be too difficult to change. I worked around the blue details, and ended up gluing seven separate panels of the grey fabric. I used old remnants of grey linen, which appears quite blue in these pictures. The black trim is bunka, and all the other details are beaded and sequined elements cut from some netting a friend of the family gave me. It took me two evenings to cover the shoes, but I rushed a bit.

I really like shoes with detailed backs, I've decided. The beaded designs are quite symmetrical in real life, despite how it appears here!

Since making them, I've worn them out and about a few times. They seem to be holding up fairly well, though some of the beading I glued on the sides of the heel has been damaged.

Books, Books, Books!

2010-01-25T17:36:00.000-08:00

Despite the fact that I don't have a library in my dollhouse, I've always had a fascination with readable miniature books. I've been playing around with various methods for a while now, and here are a few of the results. From left to right: Heidi by Johanna Spry, Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde, The Monk by Mathew Lewis, Lover's Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald, Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, A Simple Story by Elizabeth Inchbald, and Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott.
Over the past year, I've made 21 different titles, all with readable excerpts. These seven are the most recent batch. The covers and end pages are antique graphics which I repurposed.

I made a mistake on this book- I just noticed that the "W" in Mathew shifted around at some point. You would not believe the number of silly mistakes I've made on these books! I try to catch them all before printing/assembling, but occasionally I miss something really embarrassing!

The books have size 2 or 3 fonts, and are printed on normal computer paper. Since these books are just for my own enjoyment, I haven't worried about archival paper or inks.

Here's the list of characters and a bit of the opening act in Lover's Vows by Elizabeth Inchbald. It's the only miniature book I've made but haven't read. I'll read it (in a BIG book) someday, but in the mean time I couldn't resist reproducing the play that caused so much trouble in Mansfield Park.

Click the photographs to enlarge!

Two Micro Projects

2010-01-21T14:29:00.000-08:00

I made this pocket watch for my brother's girlfriend. She needed a secret lab!

This fairy couple is an old project made from HO railroad figures, so it's a little bigger than my normal 1/144th scale. I gave the girl a new pink skirt made of paper flower petals, and a curly thread wig. They both have brass wings (with pink and blue accents). I still need to add lots of details to the landscape. I'm thinking a snail or two, and lots of 1/12th scale flowers.

2010-01-15T13:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas is over, the new year is well underway, and I'm still back somewhere in November mentally. I usually decorate the dollhouse for the holidays, but this year, I didn't even think of it until three days after Christmas. Luckily, the children living in my dollhouse have more than enough toys already.

The rocking horse was one of the first handmade miniatures that I fell in love with. I spent a good portion of the summer cleaning the attic to earn it. On the day that my mom took me to the shop, I was so nervous. I kept imaginging that it was already sold, or even worse, that I'd walk into the shop just as someone else bought it! My uncle brought the clogs back from Amsterdam.

These little dolls are sweet! The two round wooden dolls came from a local shop that closed a few years ago, but I'm not sure about the large doll.

The fireplace is halfscale. I replaced the original painted grey brick with an antique tile pattern that worked well in the room. The screen was a quick project a few years ago. The brass tools on the right came from my mother's childhood dollhouse!

This is one of my favorite bears. Sitting like this, he's only half an inch tall!

There are all sorts of things tucked away in the corners of the playroom! Many of the toys were gifts from various relatives.

Gallery II: Paintings

2010-01-04T08:50:00.000-08:00

I posted a few photos last night of this room box I've been working on. I needed a space to store and display all my paintings without a home. The photograph below was taken while I was in the midst of swapping paintings around, and experimenting with the best spots for new paintings. Here are some of the paintings that will be displayed (at least temporarily).

This was the second miniature painting I ever tried, way back in high school. The original, by Virgee Le Brun, is "Julie LeBrun as Flora".

This girl was another early-ish attempt, though I did go back in and work on the eyes later.

I haven't made a frame for this painting yet, but it will go into the box just as soon as I do. I never did figure out the marble columns of the original Alma-Tadema, so eventually I just left them alone.

This was a recent painting. The original, by Edward Robert Hughes, is incredibly detailed. The different greens of the plants were fun to figure out.

I love Vermeer, but have been really nervous about trying any of his paintings. A few new paintbrushes gave me the courage to get my feet wet recently.

This painting was only in in the box for a short while. I gave it to mom for Christmas, so it's going to have a new home. Unfortunately, I got the scale a bit off, so the head looks enormous in a dollhouse, and isn't appropriate for mom's Georgian cottage in any case, so it will probably go somewhere in our real, "big" house.

And just for fun, here is the first miniature oil painting that I ever finished. It was certainly not the first attempt, but the only one that I didn't throw away in frustration. This one won't be going in the box, but it was mixed in with the other paintings, so I thought I'd show it anyways.

Hopefully I'll have more photos soon of the box put together a bit more.

The Gallery

2010-01-03T12:47:00.000-08:00

I rarely think about where my miniature paintings are going to go. As a result, I've had several painting laying about, waiting for a home. Finally, I decided to make a temporary home for these paintings. We've had this generic gold room box in storage, since mom's original plan for it didn't work out. It's an odd shape, too shallow for much furniture, and either too tall or too short (depending on the way that it's turned) for a regular room. It was perfect for my needs though!

I really didn't want to buy anything for this room if I could help it, so I tried to re-purpose things that have been kicking around without a home.

I have no patience for making miniature flowers. I've never understood why, since I can work on mini scrap screens for hours one end, but one little rose aggravates me beyond all belief. Needless to say, I was very pleased to find these loose flowers at Eileen Godfrey's.

The table is plastic, believe it or not! I love the barley twist on the legs. The purplish vase began as a red and gold porcelain jar. It was very pretty, but I was never going to use those colors. I used my collection of truly horrible shimmer nail polishes to give it a new glaze. It reminds me of carnival glass.

I used shirt cardboard for the floor, with a couple heavy coats of varnish over the top. The statue pedestals also got a bit of black acrylic marbleizing, though I'm happier with the floor.
The chair had an awful glossy red stain when I found it in Eileen's bargain bin. I got rid of the finish, then did a bit of reshaping with sandpaper.
More about the paintings tomorrow!

Nearly Finished!

2009-12-28T16:33:00.000-08:00

I posted about this rug kit from Joan Grimord I was working on about a month ago. Right after I posted, I lost my last threader, and lost some steam. I finally remembered the other day that I had some hair-thin wire tucked away. With a homemade threader, I was able to finish the design today!

All that's left is to finish the back. I've volunteered mom for that task. I quickly stuck it into Pheobe's room with the extra fabric tucked under to get an idea of how it will look in the room when everything's done. I'm not sure that I should have used quite so much orange and I definitely made a lot of mistakes, but overall I'm happy with it.

White Christmas

2009-12-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

Woke up this morning, and this is what I saw:I love the view from our kitchen after a good snow fall! Hope everyone has a good holiday. We've certainly started celebrating around here!

Cheers!

P.S. Mom made the maid a few months ago. She's one of my favorites.

Another Micro Roombox

2009-12-18T20:41:00.000-08:00

Here's a tiny room box that I whipped out a few weekends ago, when I had a bit of time. Most of the pieces were already made, so it came together much quicker than it would have normally.

The room box is about 1" wide, and 3/4" deep.

I've been playing with different ways to make small-scale plaster. In this box, I tried a putty that I had lying around. I like the effect, but it was a bit difficult to work with.

I tried to do a bit of aging on the tapestry and carpet. The book on the table has a real leather cover, though it can't be seen now that the book is glued down. I make a whole bunch at once, and then use them as needed. I'm unhappy with the tapestry rod. I'll probably replace it with something a bit thinner and older looking.

The Tiniest Chateau in the World?

2009-12-13T20:21:00.000-08:00

Those little paper dollhouses I posted a while ago made me remember the most challenging project I've ever done in paper. I found this paper chateau online last year and couldn't resist trying my hand! However the graphics were a bit blocky so I decided to scale it down a little, so that everything would look better. Somehow, the palm sized model I was going to make shrank quite a bit...
The picture above shows the chateau in progress, before I'd started the dormers or chimneys.

Here it is with all but the right-most chimney. See how crooked the chimneys are? Next time I try something like this, I'll just use scraps of wood or styrene. The chimneys were the hardest part, far harder than the dormers. I had to print out many copies, because I kept squashing the chimneys and yes, dropping dormer parts.

I normally prefer to design my own really tiny paper houses, because I can make allowances for the thickness of the paper. However, considering that this was intended to be built much larger, it had surprisingly few problem areas. There were only four really tricky folds in the wall construction, and then those dratted chimneys!

It's been sitting on my crafting table for the last year, high up where I can see it, but it can't come to harm. Lately I've been thinking about doing something else with it, either adding it to a mini scene, or using it to make a Christmas ornament, but I can't decide. Does anyone else have an idea?

Quick and Easy Miniature Hooked Rugs!

2009-11-25T19:17:00.000-08:00

Anyone who knows me, knows that I have no patience for needlework. I love the finished products, but I can only ever manage to get about three stitches done before giving up! I've tried the french knot method of making hooked rugs, and just couldn't get through them. However, I when I found these punch needle kits they looked so quick and easy that I just couldn't resist.
There are no fancy stitches, and you don't even have to knot the threads. You just push the special needle through the fabric, and it creates a hooked effect on the other side! I'm working on the Antique Rug kit for Phoebe's room. I changed the colors around to look a bit better in the room without trying to match the wallpaper exactly.
Here is the carpet after about a week of intermittent work. I started off packing the stitches far too tightly, so the design is a bit distorted in places, but I'm not worrying about that too much.

Here's the back side of the fabric. You can see the design a bit more clearly from this side. When I decided to change the colors around, I copied the printed fabric a few times, and colored the copies with colored pencils to get a sense of how I wanted the colors to work.

My Micro Dollhouse Collection

2009-11-18T13:31:00.000-08:00

I started experimenting with making 1/1728th scale houses (dollhouses for 1/144th scale, or dollhouses for dollhouses for dollhouses) a while ago. These are some of the houses and roomboxes I made out of paper, perched on a penny.

This house was supposed to look like my big dollhouse, though I had to simplify by removing the upper porch. The house shown in the picture below is actually a bit too big, I've since shrunk the graphics down a bit.

I could only fit four rooms inside, and I decided to make it open backed, rather than front opening like my real house.

This was an attempt to copy an antique German roombox. I can't just scale down the real graphics, because they would just turn to shapeless blobs. Instead, I recreate the main features, simplifying as much as possible.

This was one of the first houses I tried to make, so the construction is fairly simple. It's still one of my favorite houses though, perfect for the corner of a micro nursery!Here's the inside. I used bits of laser cut paper on the roof, but I'm still looking for something a bit more delicate looking.

There are free tutorials for some of these houses here, if anyone is interested!

Micro Roombox

2009-11-13T18:05:00.000-08:00

And it's been another month since my last post! Time flies! I was looking through photo files the other day, and I came across these old pictures of a 1/144th scale roombox I made acouple years ago.

Unfortunately, I don't have any other photos, as I sold this box on Ebay shortly after finishing it, and the better photos have since disapeared. Lots of little handmade details, including a canterbury full of sheet music (front right) and a blue and white firescreen (back left by the fireplace). The walls were covered with fine gold silk, and the carpet was fuzzy. The box was a butchered bespaq piece. The only things not made from scratch were the (heavily modified) roombox and the oval metal frame.

Paintings

2009-10-13T10:35:00.000-07:00

I love to be surrounded by art. I bought a whole stack of musty old art books at the local book sale this summer, and cut them up to paper my dorm. It is the same way in my dollhouse.I can't seem to resist paintings in miniature. This copy of Renoir's In the Meadow is probably my favorite painting. Josephine Meyers does amazing work, and the painting has a lot of sentimental value as well.

I found this painting of ships at the IGMA show a few years ago, and couldn't resist it. The paint has a lovely dimension in real life, which is hard to find in miniature. Most of the paintings I see seem to be thinned down oils, applied with near-invisible brushstrokes. The strokes in this painting are so lively in contrast.

This painting is by an eBay seller named Sylvia Rose, who sells mainly dollhouse curtains, tapestries, and re-upholstered furniture. She only lists a few of her oil paintings on vellum each year. Many of her paintings are copies of Vigee Le Brun, one of my favorite artists, so I'm always tempted to bid, even though I'm quickly running out of wall space in my dollhouse!

Bamboo Chair

2009-10-06T10:55:00.000-07:00

This was one of the very first miniatures my mom made for my dollhouse. I desperately wanted a bamboo chair for the parlor, but couldn't find anything that looked right. Nothing was quite as delicate, and the "bamboo" all looked unnatural. So mom made the bamboo by wrapping wire around thin dowels, then built the chair. The rush seat is made from stained string. I painted the chair.

P.S. Sorry about the picture quality. I found my camera, but the charger was not in the case for some odd reason. Two steps forward, one step back.

The upstairs hall

2009-09-10T10:49:00.000-07:00

This is a rather quick post, since I've misplaced my camera and have to use old pictures for the moment.

I'm afraid that the hall is in a bit of a mess in the photo. The petite point rug came from a beautiful but badly damaged vintage purse. My grandmother used the frame of the purse to make a new bag which she carried during my aunt's wedding! I haven't yet had the rug backed, so it's normally in storage.

There are lots of people in the hall,mostly named after favorite book characters. The little boy in the back, leaning against the banister is from The Wren's Nest. His name is Ned (Edward), after one of the characters in Louisa May Alcott's book An Old Fashioned Girl.
The little fellow in blue is named Ellis, called Eli for short.
The nursemaid is Martha (the maid in The Secret Garden), but the baby is still unnamed.
The dog, a Bedlington Terrier, is named Marmalade after a dog that I knew as a child. Marmalade's mother, Crumpet, is sitting in the dog bed in Lottie's bedroom.
I hope to post more pictures of the house and other projects this weekend.

Little Leather Boxes

2009-09-08T17:16:00.000-07:00

I've been working on more tiny houses, but don't have my camera at the moment (it's at home and I'm at school), so I dug up this photo of an old project instead.
My family loves these gold-tooled leather boxes from Florence, Italy. So of course I had to try making them in miniature a few years ago. They were actually a very quick project. I designed various shaped box patterns on the computer, printed and cut them out. Then I stained masking tape (a stain pen helps quite a lot) and stuck the paper patterns to the sticky side of the tape. Then I cut every thing out again, and assembled the boxes. Since I didn't want the boxes to open, I didn't bother finishing the insides, but a bit of velvet paper on the inside would probably do the trick. The "tooling" is just a bit of gold paint.

Tiny Paper Houses

2009-09-04T11:52:00.000-07:00

I've been working on a few tiny paper houses. I design them on the computer, often looking at antique dollhouses for inspiration.

This house was one of the first I created. It was loosely based on photographs of a Tri-ang dollhouse. The doors open to reveal four rooms.
This house was my attempt to make a miniature of my own dollhouse. I couldn't figure out how to make the upper porch though, so it's not quite accurate.

This is the interior of the copy of my house.

This is another tiny dollhouse based on an antique dollhouse. The interior has four rooms. The roof of this house is very difficult to put together.

I did not design this paper model, but I re-sized it quite a bit. I found the model at this website, and printed it out at about 5% the original size. It took me a few days to put together, since I had to take frequent breaks, and I lost at least half the dormers before they were safely glued!

Two more scrap screens

2009-08-04T17:48:00.000-07:00

Well, I never expected to be away from this blog for so long! It's been a crazy few weeks, but now that I'm back at school things should settle down. I have worked on a few miniatures in the interim , though I haven't done much more with the miniature school besides a bit of very dull shingling.

I dug out the extra unfinished screens I ordered for this scrap screen project,to make two more scrap screens.

For this screen, I used the dividing pieces which were included loose with the unfinished screen (from Matlock Miniatures) which I had left out on the first screen. I also added a narrow gold trim at the last minute, just before the varnish went on.

I'm really pleased with the way that the gold breaks up the black and helps define all the different panels..

After finishing the black screen, I wanted to try another screen with a dark background. I used a deep blue (though it is lighter than it appears in the photos below) for my third scrap screen. I left the dividing pieces out, and just left the screen with single panels. I went online and found 9 period illustrations (of Greek myths) which I glued in first. Then I surrounded the illustrations with the scrap. This was actually the most labor intensive screen of the three, since I had to use very tiny pieces of scrap in most areas or risk covering the large central images.

As with the first screen, all the individual pictures were hand cut. None of the images are repeated more than once on a screen, though I had to reuse some pictures on all three screens.

Nothing new

2009-07-18T17:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry to have abandoned the blog for the last few days. I haven't done much miniature work lately, other than a bit of shingling on the finishing school. I've had a slew of errands and appointments this last week, and I've been preoccupied with finding things for my dorm. I had my wisdom teeth out this morning, so I expect to be out of things for a while longer, but I promise to resume proper posts soon.

New House!

2009-07-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

I always thought I'd be a one dollhouse person. But the summer before last, I found the Greenleaf WillowCrest and fell in love. The house was dusty and falling apart, and had been painted with vivid oranges and turquoise. It's been in the attic, gathering more dust since then, but now I've finally brought it down. I eventually plan to make it a girl's school in an alternate world where magic is quite ordinary....

I've repainted the orange exterior with creams and grey-browns. I was originally going to paint tromp l'oeil stonework all over, but decided that would be too busy.

The interior needed to be entirely repainted, but the stairs were a complete pain. I ended up having to paint some parts blindly, then peek through the windows to make sure I hadn't missed a spot.

This is the lantern for the entrance hall. The ceiling rose is an embossed medallion from a Christmas card. We've gotten some amazing embossed and laser cut cards over the years!

Painting Update

2009-07-06T22:54:00.000-07:00

Real life interrupted part way through painting, so I didn't get as far as I'd hoped. I did manage to work on the very top part of the painting, which I'd been avoiding since it was all very complex architecture. I've got a much better idea of where all the different elements are supposed to go now, though all I really did was lay out the basic shapes of the largest architectural features. I did have to fudge a bit, but I think (hope!) the space will make more sense as I go along. Right now, I'm noticing all the wonky angles and the poor, painted-over columns... I'm not sure how much time I'll have over the next few days, but I hope to snatch bit more time. We also just got two more sets of storage drawers for supplies, so all those wandering materials will finally have a home!

Painting!

2009-07-05T18:54:00.000-07:00

I got the chance to take an introductory oil painting class after school last year. I've always hated acrylics, because they dry so quickly, especially when I'm only mixing a little for miniature paintings. The other day I was rooting around in my box of miscellaneous pieces, and I came across some miniature oil paintings I hadn't finished.

I have quite a few brushes as you can see, but most of them are in relatively poor condition, since I received them secondhand or used them so much that they are just worn out. The largest fluffy ones are actually makeup brushes that I use to dust my dollhouse.

I found these brushes at the Sturbridge show and really got a chance to use them today. They were amazingly helpful!

Here is one of the paintings I found. I had really only gotten a chance to block this one in, before I abandoned it. I decided I'd try to salvage it, and make it something I could actually hang.Below is the painting after the work I did yesterday.

I'm excited that I may be able to finish this painting. Of course I still see lots of things that need to be fixed, and large parts of the painting are still untouched, but it's going a bit faster than I expected.

This was the second painting I found. I painted this on a crooked piece of wood, at a funny angle, which caused some chaos when I tried to paint the features.I went back in and straightened out the mouth a bit, and lowered the eyes a little (still a bit cross-eyed and eyebrow-less). The hands could use lots of work as well. I'm concentrating on the first painting for the time being though, and letting her wait a little longer.

I'll put another picture or two of my progress up sometime tonight.

Christmas in July

2009-07-01T19:35:00.001-07:00

I've been busy with another micro project in addition to the cottage.

It never fails. Each summer, I get an incredible urge to make a winter/Christmas themed miniature. For some reason I just can't seem to make miniatures with the season!

The Christmas tree in the corner is made from a glue covered toothpick dipped in model ship's ballast and then painted green. There are a few red and green wrapped packages, and some unwrapped toys. I carved the wooden doll (in front of the tree) from a toothpick, adapted from instructions on Frances Armstrong's site.

The 1/1728th scale dollhouse is made of paper. I patterned the house after a photograph of an antique dollhouse, but took some liberties with the design. Tutorials I did for similar dollhouses are available through the MicroMini group on Yahoo. Membership is free, and the group is tons of fun!

The painting above the fireplace is another of the watercolors I did a few weeks ago.The fireplace has brass andirons and a fender. I still want to add a dog in front of the fireplace, but besides that and perhaps a few more details the room is done.

I've also been working on a few 1/12th scale things. I'll try to get pictures up soon!

Micro Cottage Project and Other Things

2009-06-23T18:34:00.000-07:00

Oh boy, it's been a while since I last updated! Everything started happening at once. My brother Peter just graduated high school! On top of celebrating that, and my cousin's middle school graduation, my mom's school year ended so we had to get her kindergarten classroom packed down ASAP (for the record, my dorm room didn't take nearly as long to pack up as it took to get her classroom safely stowed away). Then we had a family reunion, complete with six hour drive. Finally, the family computer kicked the bucket, so my laptop has been the only access to the Internet for the past few week or so... and of course Mom and Peter have needed to use my laptop to price shop for classroom supplies and college things respectively. I've been climbing the walls waiting for them to give my laptop back in "fifteen more minutes".

So I went back to work finishing up the interior of this micro cottage.

I added a basket made of thread and an open book to the bench outside, and I'm considering adding a small tree or birdbath still. I also touched up the roof.

Most of the work was done on the inside. There is a tiny easel in the corner with one of my micro watercolors, and another is framed on the wall. I still want to add a dog in the center, and maybe a few other little touches.

Gold Paper Project and the Kitchen

2009-06-15T14:37:00.000-07:00

I've been working on more micro watercolors and some other projects for the last few days, but nothing with much direction. I played around with an old corner cupboard and some gold embossed paper yesterday, trying to make it look like it had carvings. I'm in the process of painting out all the gold right now, and trying to figure out if I have a spot for it somewhere.

Here's a quick shot of my dollhouse kitchen. My mom loves miniature kitchens so she had a lot to say about everything that went in this room. The walls are covered in bead board below the plate rail. For some reason, family members who are not at all interested in miniatures like the plates, so many were gifts. A few of the molds came from my mother or grandmother's childhood dollhouse. I got to go through everything a couple of years ago, and it was really fun to see everything and hear the stories.

The orange thing on the back wall (between the window and hutch) is silly. I fell in love with a hand painted Natasha salt box at one of the local shops, when I was seven or eight. It was far too expensive for me, but I played around and made a (out of scale) mock-up out of index card and printed paper a few years later. I've thought about taking it out, or even replacing it with a better version, but I doubt I ever will.

Little Projects and New Supplies

2009-06-11T13:53:00.000-07:00

I stopped by the Christmas Tree Shop yesterday looking for inexpensive nail polish. I have a collection of all the wildest colors that I can find, which I use for a variety of miniature projects. In the past I've found sets of really wild nail polish for only a few dollars. I didn't find any nail polish, but there was a whole bin of stain pens for only $3 per set.

I forgot to mention that I got two tiny brushes at the Sturbridge show. They were sold by Phyllis Hawkes. I decided to test them out by trying some micro watercolors. The lines of the index card helped me to keep a sense of scale.

Each painting is less than 1/4th inch square. I tried to paint a dog, but wasn't quite happy with him. The shape was fine, but I couldn't add any shading at this scale!

I was much happier with this bowl of fruit.
This vase of flowers was one of the last I tried. I'd love to try portraits, but I don't think that I'll be able to get enough detail to make them look right. I'd also love to try micro oil paintings, but am worried that the paint will be too clumsy in this tiny scale. Does anyone have any tips or tricks for small scale oil painting?

Adapting Inexpensive Minis project

2009-06-09T20:37:00.000-07:00

So I just showed the monkey that I adapted from a resin chimpanzee in my last post, but he is part of a larger project which I started over the winter. I really enjoyed the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, as you can (hopefully) tell from this post! I wanted to make a miniature or two that was related, without spending alot of money. I just kept getting new ideas, and it kept expanding. The way it was going for a while, I might have made the entire Royal Navy chasing Jack!
I started out just trying to make a doll that looked like Jack Sparrow. I'm not fond of dressing dolls, so I took far too many shortcuts with him. I used an inexpensive Town Square doll ($10). I stripped the doll down (using nail polish remover to remove the painted features), and then went to work.

I repainted his features with acrylics, re-dressed him, and wigged him. His beard and moustache were a bit of a challenge,but I'm quite happy. His clothing on the other hand was a rushed job, so I'll continue to fiddle with it. Jack was holding a rum bottle, which helped disguise his clumsy hands, but he seems to have dropped it!

I found the boat at my local dollhouse shop for $12, and knew that it would be perfect for Jack. I did a lot of sanding, painting, and even burning to age it, but I'm just glad I didn't have to build the boat! I even managed to add barnacles to the boat bottom, made from painted dollhouse gravel.

I also added props from the three movies to the boat. The original map was seemingly backed with thin wood. I used a heavily textured fabric instead. The pistol is a metal miniature that I adapted slightly and painted. I made the open compass (the black dot sitting on the map) from layers of card. There is also a piece of cursed "Aztec gold" on the map.

I had to make Jack's weather beaten leather hat as well. I'd never made a pirate hat, or a hat from leather before, so I didn't really know what I was doing. I just kept fiddling until it looked right, and bugging my brother (who loves vintage hats) for information. I set the boat on a (aged and distressed) frame from the thrift store to make a display base. Oddly enough, the resin for the "ocean" was the single most expensive part of the whole project, at $20 for the bottle. Altogether, I think I spent about $50 on this project. I've still got a few more touches to add (the sail is still a bit too new, and I'm dissatisfied with Jack's clothing) but I'll wait until I'm really in the mood to fix those things.