Experiments Gone Awry

 

I normally only show projects I'm happy with on this blog. Today I thought I'd share a project that is still in the messy trial stages.

 

It all started with this punch needle kit from Joan Grimord. It was such a quick and easy way to make a rug,  I started thinking about the other rooms that needed carpet. I've planned to put an oriental carpet in the dining room for years, but never found the perfect one. Then, at the Guild School, I saw a gorgeous oriental carpet Joan had made by shaving a piece of punch needle embroidery. Unfortunately, it didn't seem like she'd be making a kit for the shaved carpets anytime soon. So I finally decided to just see what I could do with what I had.

I only worked on a one inch square test piece, and used colors that would work in the parlor. I figured if it looked good, I could use it to fill the empty little footstool frame has been kicking around. The trial piece didn't turn out so well, but I stuck it in the footstool anyways, just for fun.

  So here's what I found out:

1.I really need to measure more carefully- even if this carpet attempt was successful, I made it so small the base fabric shows all around the cushion edge. 

2. The thread colors darken once it's been shaved.

3. The DMC thread I used is no good for the shaved rugs, though it works nicely for the hooked versions. The fibers seem thick and clumpy, and the brown sections frizzed until they looked dusty.

4. Shaving sometimes seems to distort the pattern.The center design was a pretty clear spray of hooked pink flowers, but shaving turned it in to a pink and green mess.

Obviously, I have a lot more experimenting to do before I can start on my dinning room carpet, but I'm excited that I got something vaguely carpet-like on my first try. 

A New 1/144th Scale Project

 

I haven't posted any new projects in a while, because I've been working on a special little project.This roombox started out as a piece of bespaq furniture. I made the wallpaper pattern out of a few clip art designs, which I shrank and repeated. I built two quick little console tables out of little brackets for either side of the fireplace. As it turned out, the one on the right can barely be seen.  I took the crooked andirons out and fixed them right after taking this photo.

 

See? No more crooked andirons! I mostly furnished the box with resin pieces from Nell Corkin. The fireplace,sofa, wing chair, and dresser were all from Nell. 

I added a plastic model railroad cake and teacup to the table.

The flowers in the blue pot were a last minute addition. I used a vintage seed bead, which is closer to the blue of the furniture in real life. I still need to finish up a few little details. I'm debating whether I should add a pair of candles/ginger jars to the mantel, or just leave it plain. I also need to line the drawer below the room with some pretty paper, but other than that, this project is done!

A Cozy Attic Bedroom

As a girl, I always loved the character Pheobe from Lousa May Alcott's novel Eight Cousins. In the book, Pheobe is a maidservant who becomes a successful singer, and ends up marrying one of the sons of the family she use to work for.
So when I found a pretty maid doll for my house, I had to name her Pheobe. I've taken a little liberty with her backstory. My Pheobe's sweetheart is a sailor rather than a son of the household. There are several scrimshaw trinkets (made by BoneArt)  he's sent her scattered about the room.

The brass bed was a two year search. The only ones I could find were the wrong size, badly made, or far too elaborate. I finally stumbled on this one during our trip to England. A local shop (now closed) used to carry the crocheted blankets. I plan to move one of the blankets around eventually, when I finish the crazy quilt I'm slowly embroidering.

 

This little writing cabinet is one of my very favorite miniatures, but I've never found it a true home. It was painted by Rosemarie Torre.

 

 

This ironing board has a matching dummy wearing a half-finished dress. It was a birthday gift from the uncle who built this dollhouse.

The dressmaker's dummy is tucked behind the dresser. Can you see the tiny birds hiding in the wallpaper? This wallpaper is my favorite wallpaper of all time. The problem is, I have no idea who printed it, or if it's still available. I mislaid the manufacturer information about a decade ago, and it's never turned up again. The only thing I remember is that it was patterned after a real historic wallpaper.  If anyone knows where I might find more of this paper, I'd love to know.

I've been gradually filling this work basket with sewing supplies. The knitting done on pins is incredibly tiny.  I just wish I could transfer it on to the sweet little wooden knitting needles. If the hatbox it sits on looks a little tattered, the wear is legitamate. It was made by my mother for her childhood dollhouse! 

 

The Best Projects of Wasting Gold Paper: 200 Posts!

Today is my 200th post. I started Wasting Gold Paper in 2009, the summer between my senior year of highschool and freshman year of college.  It's been a crazy couple of years, and to be honest, I'm starting to forget half the posts I've written. So I thought I'd do something a little different today. I've gone through the blog archives and picked some of my favorite posts and projects to share again.

 



 Hope you enjoy!

 

Way back in 2009 I posted about this decoupaged screen. While it hasn't stayed in my dollhouse, I did make another which is in the parlor right now.

 

I've written more than one post about my micro (1/1728th scale) dollhouses, including the tiniest chateau in the world.

After I made the 1/144th scale garden cottage with Nell Corkin at the Guild School, I built a few of my own micro structures.  I also made this secret 1/144th scale room hidden in a book.

 

I've posted a lot of Mom's dolls over the years. But this one was one of my favorites.

 

These vintage paper toys were lots of fun to make, but the joints on the dancing dolls nearly drove me over the edge!

 I made over 600 tiles for this dairy room box, which is still waiting to be furnished.

This dummy board, painted to look like our dog, was a Christmas gift I made for Mom.

About a year and a half ago, I started painting furniture. More recently, I've started 'dressing' some of my painted furniture with accessories.

I noticed while I was going through my old posts how many oil and watercolor paintings I used to post. I guess it's time to dig out my art books and work on some more!

My Beaded hand bag tutorial has been one of my most popular posts. In addition to the original tutorial, I also posted some 'Tips and Tricks' .

Parlor Details

I got sidetracked the other day, and didn't get to take miniature photos the way I'd planned. But as I was going through my camera card, I found these shots of details from the parlor which I'd never shared.

This little table has some of my favorite miniatures. The tea caddy was painted by Carol Lodder. The tea pot and moustach cup came from Eileen Godfey's, so I'm not sure who made them. The teapot has the tiniest cloisenne flowers. A year after I bought the teapot, I found another little cloisenne vase at the shop. I'm so glad I bought them both, because I've haven't seen anything like them since then. The tea strainer was made by Mike Sparrow. The table is made of resin(?) painted to look like wood. As you can see in the photo, the top is slightly warped. I can usuallypostition it so that the warping doesn't show.

Over the mantle I have a collection of figurines. The ones on the mantle are made of painted bronze, which were too heavy for the shelf.

I've rearranged quite a bit of furniture, leaving a few empty spots in the house. I think some sort of sofa will go in this corner eventually. For now, I've just stuck one of my decoupaged screens, and the bamboo chair Mom made over here. The painting was done by Paul Saltarelli, after one of my favorite Renoir paintings.

The Top 10 Tools In My Workbox

I thought I'd share a list of my favorite tools. This isn't a comprehensive list of my tools by any means, but if I lost all my miniature supplies tomorrow, these would be some of the first I'd replace. I know some of these tools are probably pretty obvious, and some of the others may be a little quirky for a standard tool kit, but these are the tools that I'd have a hard time living without!

1. Pointy Tweezers- These are a fairly recent addition to my work box, but I'm not sure how I got along without them before. These are great for working on anything tiny!

2. Flat tweezers- These are the tweezers I've used for years. I shamelessly stole them out of the medicine cabinet, and just never gave them back. I prefer these tweezers whenever I work with paper, since they grip the paper more firmly than the pointy tweezers.

 

3. Needle Nose Pliers- Another tool I stole out of household supplies and never gave back! Besides bending wire with them, they are great for breaking wood in a controlled manner.

4. Gluing Jig-This is the smallest gluing jig from Smaller Than Life. I love that this size easily fits into my storage drawers, and it's almost always large enough for my needs. I used to use plastic boxes for gluing right angles (and the late Frances Armstrong sugested Lego toys) but I love how  magnetic jig holds the pieces in place, meaning that I can easily put it aside for the glue to dry, without worrying that something will be knocked ajar.

 

5. Small Scissors- These scissors were one of the first miniature-making tools I owned. I bought them with my allowance when I was about twelve years old.I had just started making miniature paper toys, and was using children's fiskars scissors to cut out 1/2" tall paper dolls. I remember that these scissors cost $13, which took a significant bite out of my savings at the time! After a decade of heavy use, they've more than earned their price. 

 

6. Photo-Etch Scissor. This is meant for trimming photo-etched brass pieces, and that's really all I use it for.  This is one of those tools that is only good for one job, but it does that one job exceptionally well.  It looks like the design of this tool may have been changed slightly since I bought mine.The one I linked too looks like it has slightly longer blades.

 

 

7. Plastic Toothpicks- These are great for applying tiny dots of glue, because dry glue just peels right off the tip! For smaller dots of glue, the tip of the toothpicks can be carved to a shaper point.You can read more about my love affair with them here.

 

8. Old paintbrush- This is my go-to brush. The new version of this brush is great as well, but I don't reach for it nearly as often. I put this brush through all sorts of abuse. Belive it or not, the brush on top is a new(ish) version of the same brush. I use it to mix paint, paint rough undercoats on furniture, drybrush, and stipple.

 

 

9. A Really Good Ruler- This one is from MicroMark, and it's the one that Nell Corkin instructed us to get when I took her 1/144th garden cottage class. I have the 6" version, which is long enough for most of my projects, but they also sell a 12" version.

 

10. Mini Flower Press- This isn't a tool I pull out all the time, but when I need it, it gets the job done. Any time wood or paper I'm painting/gluing starts to warp, I flatten it out and let it dry in this press. I also use it as a book press. I actually have 5 of these, so that I can keep working as projects dry. I could get away with one larger press, but I like being able to flatten pieces immediately. The only thing to remember is to use as little glue as possible, or else the excess will ooze out and cause a real mess!

A Small Scene

This gold room box is started out as another commercially produced room boxes, like the one I turned into a dairy. Mom made two of these room boxes a number of years ago. She sold one, and I kept the other.

All the wood in this box was aged using watered down acrylic paints. The plaster walls are just white paint, thickened with a little baby powder.

The stone floor and steps was made from tan polymer clay, since we couldn't find paper clay. The clay was textured with wadded up tin-foil.

I keep this room box above my workspace. I've never decided on a permanent display. For a long time, it just held a random assortment of miniatures that I didn't want to get dusty. That seems to be a common theme of my room boxes, unfortunately! Now that I've cleared it off all the junk, I'd like to add a few details to finish out the scene. It won't take many accessories, but finding just the right ones may be a challenge!

I'm on the fence about the gold frame. I don't hate the gold, but I think painting it black (the way I did with the dairy) may make the whole thing that much better. Would you paint the frame or leave it gold?