Did I Mention the Loft?

I didn't think I did. There will be a loft over the bed in the bedroom. It will be a sewing room. I just found the pieces. Mookie didn't eat all of them after all.

There was supposed to be an attic in this house. I decided to keep it more open. I cut the floor down so that there is only a bit of it over the bathtub area. I think that will be a space to put plants.

The other piece is the end over the bed. There will be a sewing studio there. It is very small. There's just enough room for a Chrysenbon treadle machine and mannequin. I haven't decided how the owner gets up there yet. She may just have to fly. Rope ladder?

I still need to work on the tub area. It needs curtains or a screen for modesty's sake.

Right now the loft is just dry fit into place but I am thinking that I will make it permanent tomorrow.

I made the trunk at the end of the bed from a pattern in one of Helen Ruthburg's books. I covered it with needlepoint canvas and used real leather to do the straps. I still need to put the buckles and other hardware on it.

I am thinking that there will have to be an armoire in the bedroom.....No closet.

I am almost done with the remake of the rug for behind the couch. Yes. I measured it this time. It is going to cover both holes. It should be finished tonight. The poor dog will be able to move about the place and not have to sit in one place to cover the hole any more.

I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

I have the plans all drawn up for the Mac Kenzie-Childs kitchen armoire. I also have it measured onto the wood. Tomorrow I will finish cutting it out and put it together. It may take several days to finish. I am not going to follow the color scheme in the original.

Luckily, Mac Kinzie-Childs gives the measurments for the armoire in their catalog, so I can reproduce it pretty much to scale.

It has a microwave in the top and a fridge in the bottom. I want one of these in real life. They are only about 15,000 dollars.......I know. Dream on.

OK. I am off to dream. Maybe tomorrow I will drag you around with me while I build the armoire.

See you then.

Tabled for Today

I'm back in action! I just replaced the table in the dining alcove of the Mystery House with one that matches the decor.

I went into my stash of crochet thread and found a cardboard core. It was 2 1/2" tall. Most standard real tables are about 2 1/2' tall so it is perfect. ( I buy crochet thread in big bags at thrift shops for a dollar or two. Some of the thread is usable for wicker some isn't. Even the stuff that won't work for anything is still useful. The cores are all usable for various sized and scaled tables in mini.) If the core is taller you can measure and cut it down to 2 1/2". I cut the thread off of the core. It was the non usable kind. Then I traced around the end and cut a piece out of plain old cardboard.

Next I measured the diameter and added twice the height to that. I then cut a circle from the base material with that diameter so that it would fit over the top and just hang to the floor. Use fraycheck on the edge. If it is a tiny bit big you can always trim it after you glue it to the table. You can always take a bit off, but you can't add any!

I laid the fabric face down on the table and put just a touch of glue on the top of the core. I put that in the center of the fabric and brought the edges up so that they touched the bottom of the table evenly all the way around. Once I had it centered I put a thin line of glue up four sides of the core evenly spaced. I made sure that these corresponded with the straight of grain in the fabric. I pulled the four sides up and stuck them to the lines of glue.

Next I found the center of each of the spaces in between the four glue lines and did the same thing again. This time each glue line corresponded with the bias of the fabric. I used hair clips to hold. They work better than clothespins because they don't get in the way when you add more. As an alternative you can use straight pins to hold. I let the eight lines dry a bit. Then I do the same thing a third time,gluing in between each one of the eight lines. When I finish I have 16 pleats around. It is helpful to have a glue syringe or a long nosed bottle to do the third set of lines.

Did you know that if you put a soft cloth on a real round table they will always fall naturally into 16 pleats? They do. I think it has something to do with how the fabric is woven.

You then cut a piece of contrasting fabric for the topper. It can be either round or square. Fraycheck it. Just be sure when you glue it down that the straight of grain on the fabric is the same as the under skirt. It will hang better.

Let the whole mess dry thoroughly then take off the clips and pins. Then trim the edges if needed.

When you are happy with the shape, trim if you want. You will see that I trimmed the edges of the topper with lace. I find it easier to trim after it is on the table. I can make it more even that way and there is less chance of messing up the lace.

Here's the finished table where it belongs. BTW, did I mention that this little Victorian is in San Francisco? It's a foggy morning. The hot breakfast and coffee will be welcome.

I think I will go eat now. See you tomorrow.

Still Digging

I know that this is getting boring for you. I am still cleaning. I probably will be until the end of time at the rate I am going.

While I was cleaning I found 3 cases with stuff left over from the last show/sale I did a couple of years ago. My daughter and I talked each other into doing it. I told her I would do it if she would help. She is actually pretty good at miniatures when she puts her mind to it.

We were both into fashion big time back then. I have been interested since taking history of fashion classes in college and she as a Librarian at an art college here in town. The college was heavy into teaching fashion. She has gone on to the county library system, but is still interested.

We sold quite a bit, but still had some left over. I plan to make an accessory shop eventually. I am thinking of reviving an old twenties leather hatbox that I had made into a hat shop at one time. I used it as a display at shows. I was selling hats.....Logical? It has gotten beaten up over the years and is way up on a high plant shelf that I call my attic.

Anyway, these are some of the things that I will be putting in it.

First there are the hats. I am going to have to make a decision on what era to go with. Probably Victorian. The mid to late Victorian had the widest selection of different shapes being worn at the same time.

The three top hats you see here are all made of velvet ribbon. It's the kind you see in flower arrangements and such. The roses and bows are all silk and some of the lace is silk.

The yellow one on the bottom left is made of straw braid. The nice thing about that is you can make the brim in different shapes just by pulling a wee thread that runs the length of the side of the braid.

The other two are made of #24 congress cloth. The crowns are wet and stretched over either a bead or a dowel end, wrapped with a rubber band and left to dry into the right shape. The brims are then cut to fit the crown and glued on. These also have silk trim. The yellow one has tiny feathers.

Next we go to the shoe department. Once again I shall have to make a choice of dates. The high button shoes and the mules on top of the lowboy would all fit the Victorian era. They are made from patterns I designed. They are trimmed in silk and lace and have tiny no hole beads down the side for buttons.

The rest of the shoes on the floor are all modern. My daughter made the flip flops and the slippers. I made the blue sandals the alligator heels and the purses.

Somehow I ended up with all of the leftovers, hers as well as mine. Mind you, I am not complaining. I can use them in all kinds of scenes. She knows that she is welcome to come over to what she calls "The Mom Store" whenever she needs anything for crafts or miniatures.

I am thinking that there will have to be two stores tho. One will be Victorian and one modern.

Last we have the bag and purse department. This bunch is mine. They are mostly modern in design. This is another argument for two shops, as I see it.

Some of these were not for sale and will never be repeated. The drawstring bag on top actually opens.

Two of the purses on the floor have kidskin gloves and scarves hanging out of the top.

The black leather satchel also opens and is lined.

The small navy and white one at the bottom is made of a scrap of an antique silk kimono. The handle on that is real gold. That one is one of the ones that you will have to fight me for. I'm keeping it.

The ridiculous thing is, I will have to make more to fill the stores. Here we go again!

Back to the big bad world......See you tomorrow.

Confession Time

Good afternoon from the desk of an incurable pack rat. I am still trying to organize. I decided to show you why I am NOT making a lot of progress. This is extremely brave of me. I never let anyone in my workroom when it looks like this!


Remember the pretty photo of my closet that I showed you a couple of days ago? This is what it looks like right now. The room gets like this when I work on anything and finish without stopping.


It will, no doubt take me as long to straighten it out as it does to finish the project. That is the catch with miniatures. Those tiny things make one BIG mess!


I changed the configuration of the closet thinking that it would work better this way. NOT!!!

I am thinking of taking a month off and doing nothing but straightening.......That, however, wouldn't be very enjoyable for either me or you.

Note the monkey hanging from the chain of the ceiling fan. He jumped up there to stay clear of me running around the room in circles tearing my hair out. He is laughing at me.....I can clearly hear him. It's OK. I'll be fine soon or they will come and take me away in a little white coat with long, long sleeves that tie in the back.......

This is my main desk. I don't work on this one obviously. Everything gets carefully placed on here. See the carefully overturned container of toothpicks and the carefully placed skeleton that is having his broken leg repaired? He usually sits in the chair over by the pencil/brush container at the back. He turns the chair around and stares out the window a lot. He can't stand the mess either. There is a cat bed for Mookie at the left. He can get to it by climbing over the mess. So far I haven't started putting stuff in it........Notice I said "So far".


Last we see my actual work table/space. No. The stack of drawers doesn't belong there. I am in the midst of labeling and filling. The next label to make is Skeletons. Yup. I have a drawer of dead bodies. How many people can say that?

Despite the looks of the place, I can get in to clean. That's my knee at the bottom of the photo. I am making progress! I am actually sitting in the chair at this point. Hooray for me!

OK. Everybody out!!! I need to get back to business. The tour is over! See you tomorrow if I can find my way out and back to the computer. Wish me luck!

Not So Easy Basket

I am still mucking out the workroom. You all get to do a course in underwater basket weaving while I work. Just kidding about the underwater part. That was supposedly the easiest art course for football players to pass when I was in college. I am not sure why.....


Anyway, this is the next step up in basket weaving. It is called twining. You are working with a double thread. I know that sounds complicated, but once you get the hang of it, it is easier than regular weaving.

I have known how to twine for a long time. Yup, that college course in underwater basket weaving was the place I learned.

A friend of mine was weaving baskets from the center bottom out. That was way more work than I wanted to do. I hate weaving bottoms. It seems to me that it is a lot of extra work that is never going to be seen. So I took the infamous Woodsies and used them for bottoms again.

You will need Woodsies for the base, the cheapest poster board that you can find( the finish on it is almost not there), and some waxed linen. I get the waxed linen in the craft dept. of Wal Mart. I get the cheap poster board at Big Lots. The Woodsies are at Michael's or one of the other craft stores. Oh! I forgot.....White glue and scissors. That's basically it.

You cut the poster board in 1/8" strips. It saves a lot of time if you have a strip cutter from Micro Mark. If you don't you can cut them with a paper cutter or even a pair of scissors if you have a steady hand.

As you can see from the photo, you glue as many pieces of poster board to the edge of the Woodsie as you can with a tiny gap in between each to allow for the weavers. You will need an even number of weavers if you do any poster board rounds.

After you finish those, you glue a band around the bottom to stabilize and let it dry.

Cut about 2 yards of the waxed linen and fold it in half. The last sample in the above photo shows the fold pulled down over one of the spokes. I take the weaver farthest to the left and bring it up and over the right one. Then it goes behind the next spoke and back to the front.

In the next photo, you will see that I am working from left to right. The weaver that you are going to use next is always the one on the left. It always wraps in front of the spoke that the last weaver just went behind. Then it goes behind the next spoke and out to the front again. You should always have two weaver showing on the outside of the basket when you finish a step.

You just keep alternating the thread. When you get back around where you started you just continue on. You can do this as many times as you want. It all depends on how high you want the basket.

In the third photo you will see that I added a row of poster board here and there. There are no rules as to how many rows of linen and poster board you can add. Go crazy! Play with it.

The poster board has to be glued and cut at the start and finish of each row. Unlike real reed, it can't be bent to go to the next row up. Tuck the linen weavers to the back, don't cut and simply glue the start of the poster board behind one of the spokes. Weave around cut it off and glue the end inside. Then pick up the linen weavers from the inside of the basket and continue the next row.

When you get the basket as high as you would like it, glue a strip of poster board on the outside and one on the inside as a rim.

From left to right.....White basket totally twined linen with a twisted linen handle. Brown basket behind it is totally twined with a double layer of poster board glued inside for the handle. The one laying on its side is to show you that you can use an oval Woodsie to get a different shape. That one has two pieces of linen twisted as edging. The white one is the one in the photo above. The next brown one is a combination of twining and poster board. The last one is on a rectangular base and just pulled into the oval shape while weaving.

The color that you see in these baskets is the result of dipping them in Minwax stain after the weaving is complete. The darker ones were dipped in "Dark Walnut" The lighter one is "Early American". You don't have to go out and buy different colors of waxed linen to make the different colors of baskets.

I imagine that you could also paint them if you wanted something like an Easter basket.

Now I am going back to sorting. Happy underwater basket weaving to you all!

See you tomorrow!

Wandering Aimlessly......

Do you ever get that feeling after you finish a project and have yet to start another one? That's what I am doing today.

I am getting a lot done, but just not what I want to do. This is the area that I am working on. This is not what it looks like! The closet in my workroom looked like this when I first stocked it. You don't want to see what it looks like now. I am determined to get it back to this state. I know. I know. I have said this before. I am realllllllly trying.

The painters are done with the outside of the house. That just makes me want to have the inside looking as good. I am emptying out all of the drawers and tossing things that I have had for more than a decade and didn't use. Let me tell you it is piling up fast!

While I am doing this I am pondering what mini to work on next. I should be back to working on the Mystery House, but I am at a standstill until I get a shipment from Miniatures.com. I think that is a very good excuse and I am using it!

Meanwhile, here's a couple of photos to get your mind off of what I am really doing.

This is an afghan that I made from silk sewing thread on a #14 crochet hook. I started with the standard granny afghan pattern and simply worked out from the center. It took me forever to do. Silk is more slippery than the mercerized cotton that I usually use.

This is inside the sewing gift bag that I showed you before. I don't think that I had it in there when I took the other photo.

BTW, the sewing machine in here was pilfered from a Chrysenbon treadle kit. Now I have to figure out what to use the rest for. Don't say table. Everybody uses the legs for tables in real life and I feel sad when I see one. I still have my grandmother's wedding present from 1903. It was a Minnesota brand treadle machine. I learned to sew on it and it still works.

Here's another one that is done in mercerized cotton sewing thread. I buy it by the bag at garage sales. It seems like everyone is into polyester nowadays. Polyester just doesn't look as good if you try to crochet with it. It is too stiff.

It takes a spool to a spool and a half do one. I use baby afghan patterns that I find on the net. They seem to turn out perfectly for miniatures.

Here you see Tabby again. This was her home before she moved into the Colonial Kitchen. I think that she likes the food better there. Here, all she got was cookies.

The Parson's Table was made from a kit that a friend brought back from NAME National one year. It was made of mat board and mosaic tile patterned paper. Very simple to do but very effective when finished. A black permanent marker finished the edges.

The rug on the floor is one that I have done in three different colorways from an old Dover book. There is another one in Spike's crypt in red and blue. The answer to your next question.....Yes, I really like this pattern. Actually I have made it four times. Once I made it for a mini friend for Christmas.

Are you distracted enough now so that I can slip away unnoticed? I need to wander some more. Maybe I will accidentally stumble over something miniature that suits my fancy.

See you tomorrow.

Colonial Move In

The Colonial Kitchen is finished. There may be a few additions as I see fit, but for the most part it's done.

Here's the left side. It is mid day and the lady of the house has found time to make an apple pie. It doesn't matter that I haven't put a dutch oven in yet. By the time she finishes the pie I will have finished the dutch oven.......

The baby is down for a nap. All is pretty quiet. She is very happy with the new kitchen. She has the latest in Jim Ison fireplace tools.

I made her a worktable. The same man that made the settee made the writer's chair in the corner.

When she turns around she is going to be sorry that she left the sausage and cheese on the cupboard after fixing herself some lunch. The cat is at it again!

This side is essentially the same as it was yesterday except for Tabby. Did everyone name their cats that until the 20th century?

Here's the whole room. I am very happy to have used most of the Colonial minis that I have saved in a drawer and here and there in boxes over the years.

I do still want to hang some herbs on the fireplace shelf or the pegs on the red shelf. I was going to dry some thyme from the back yard however, I am confined to the house today and tomorrow. The mad painters are at work on the outside of the house. One of my cats is sticking close to me at all times and the other one is cringing under the bed.

Now all I have to do is clean up after myself once again.....How does such a small room make such a big mess?

What's next on the list? Can you wait while I dig around and find the list? No? OK I will see you tomorrow. Maybe by then I will have decided.

Beam Me Up Scottie.

Oh OK. I can hear you groaning from here. Cut that out! Sorry about the title. Couldn't resist.

I am getting there slowly but surely. Reality bites! We are getting the outside of the big house painted tomorrow and Friday. I had to prep the back patio. That meant moving lots and lots of plants.

I did get the beams in and started fooling around with the furniture a little. Sneak preview.

The left side of the kitchen has a couple of shelves so far. The red shelf with the pegs at the bottom is one that I designed for the NAME Millennium House party handbook. If you want to make one the directions are in there. I did several pieces for that. It was called a "Millennium Corner Box". There are directions for this shelf, a chair, a rug and the corner box itself in the book.

The shelf over the fireplace is a simple 4 board shelf. I made it this morning in about 20 minutes, staining and all. Very easy.

Next is the right side. On this side, there is a child's chair by Warren Dick. The bench has initials on the bottom but I don't remember the person's name. I do wish that people would sign things with their whole name and date them too.

The little hutch is one that I designed and made from a real piece. I need to paint the handle on the drawer. It needs to be wrought iron instead of brass.

The rug is done on 40 mesh silk gauze. It is from Frank M. Cooper's book "Oriental Carpets in Miniature. Would you believe that that little tiny carpet has 14,415 stitches in it? It really does! His carpet designs are amazing.

I have a prep table that still has to be finished. I guess I am going to have to get the poly clay out and do food. Kitchens have to have food....Darn!

I love to make mini food. I just don't like having to drag the pasta machine out and keeping the cats out of the Premo. It's such a lot of stuff just to make a tiny amount of food.

Here's a view of the whole room so far. There's proof that I did the beams.

I should be able to finish tomorrow. I will ignore the painters outside and get to work.

Beam me back down Scottie. Back to reality for today.

See you tomorrow.

To Beam or Not to Beam?

I finished the brick today. I learned a couple of things about working with the cork. You can bend it around corners. You can't depend on the adhesive on the back if you do. It doesn't always stick. I solved the problem with Super Glue.

You can see the bent cork at the bottom front of the floor of the fireplace.

I installed the fireplace and tried out some of the furnishings that I want to use.

Then I stained and installed the window and door. I wasn't satisfied with the mullions on the window. They were white silk screened. I covered them with wood to match the rest of the window.

I found a wonderful Colonial door latch in my stash. If you do minis you know how much fun those little teeny tiny nails are that come with this kind of thing. Actually, I did well. I only lost one. The secret to installing them is to hold them with a pair of tweezers and press them in. Don't pound. You will lose them all!

After that I did all of the baseboards and ceiling trim. I used just plain 1/4" stock. I stained it on both sides to prevent warping with Minwax cherry stain.

Here's a handy hint if you don't already know it. When you install these long, narrow pieces just put dots of glue about 3/4 to 1" apart all along the back side and put in place. That will prevent warping. The board, not being wet the whole length, gets fooled into staying straight. As you can see, I used blue tape on the top ones to hold and some pins in the baseboard. The reason I did this was to prevent floor damage with the tape. I don't think that the blue tape would hurt it, but I didn't want to take the chance.

Here's what the room looks like at present. I will be adding a shelf above the fireplace.

The title of this post was"To Beam or Not to Beam?" That is the question. Stop groaning!!!

That's what I will be thinking about for the rest of the afternoon while I clean up the kitchen(the real one) and cook dinner. Do I want ceiling beams?

Surprise! I do have a real life! The kitchen awaits.

Gotta run. See you tomorrow.

It's a Corker!!

I am patting myself on the back today. I had an idea in the middle of the night and it worked! Some of my best ideas come around 2:30 in the morning. I was trying to think of an easy way to do the brick inside the fireplace in the colonial kitchen.


There was a discussion on one of the forums about making bricks with foam core. It seemed to me that it would be rather fragile. I kept rolling the idea around in the back of my head. Then I had one of those "Aha!" moments. I needed something that had texture and something that was tough enough to stand up to the rough treatment that I give bricks with washes and dry brushing. CORK!!!


I went straight to my workroom this morning and dug out a roll of adhesive backed cork shelf liner and got to work.

First I washed the inside of the fireplace with Ceramcoat Hippo Gray. This is my weapon of choice for most mortar. I like it dark.

The back of the shelf liner is the usual Contact paper 1/2" grid. That's a great time saver in the scheme of things. I cut the brick 1/4" by 3/4". That's not the exact size of modern bricks but it is close enough for Colonials. I marked the back of the paper and started cutting. I free handed the cutting. That made them a little more irregular.


When I had enough cut to line the fireplace I started peeling the backing off and sticking the bricks down one at a time. This was the most tedious part.


By the way, if you need to get the back off of this stuff a straight pin helps a lot. You can dig into the backing with the point, flick it and it will lift right off.


I was surprised to see that the cork did actually have the texture of rough brick even without the paint.

After I finished that, I dry brushed on a coat of Ceramcoat Red Tile paint. Then I gave it another wash of the Hippo Gray, following quickly with a wet paper towel to take most of it back off.



This is what it looks like so far. I fitted it into the room.


The kitchens that I am using as a jumping off spot have the fireplace built right on the slate floor like this. I can't decide whether or not to add a brick base......Decisions, decisions, decisions.


I am going to stand back and look at it for the rest of the afternoon. I also plan to start gathering the furniture and accessories that I will use in here.


I also need to stain the door and window frame today.

Anyway, I am pretty happy with the results of the mad scientist experiment.

See you tomorrow.

Just a Little.

I am taking a break from the Colonial Kitchen today. I spent the morning reading my friend Gina's blog. This is the link. http://moreminis.blogspot.com/ I went back to the start and worked my way forward. I am nowhere near being finished.

Gina's blog is great if you are just starting to work on minis or if you have a lot of years under your belt. She starts with a house kit and ends up with a beautiful house. She has a great deal of valuable information on her blog and also on her Newbies blog that you can get to from that same site.

I think I got up to June of 2007 this morning. It is great fun watching her houses grow. It will take a while to get through it all. Therefore I don't have much time for minis today......Good excuse?

So I am going to show you what you can do if you only have a little time to do minis. These are shadowbox vignettes that I have scattered around my house.

This one and the next one are both key cupboards that I got on sale at Wal Mart for 2.00 each. All I did to them was take out the four cup hooks that were at the back to hang your keys on. I painted the inside and stuck some things that I already had inside.

The quilt in this one was a cross stitch pattern in the old Mc Call's craft magazine years ago. The tulips were some that I made and just had hanging around without a home other than the greenhouse.

The second one has a cross stitch rug that I designed and made hanging on the back.

I kind of wish that they had had more of these. The front opens with a magnetic catch and they are about 2" deep. It doesn't take long to fill them. I had these sitting on a table to take the photo. They normally hang on the wall.

The cat is one that I got at Pic 'n Save years ago. He is another one that moves around. I think he finally found a home here.

The third one is a shadow box that I also got at Wal Mart. I think that these were about 4.00 a piece. I got several. They weren't meant for miniatures, but they are about 8" square and 2" deep so they are ideal.

This one contains a George Becker harpsichord. He was a pretty famous miniaturist back in the 80s and someone talked him into doing some of his furniture in limited editions. It even has strings inside. This one is #173. I'm not sure how many were made. I am thinking that it was 200.

I got it at a mini garage sale for 25.00! That is a fraction of the original price. I was lucky. The painting on the wall is a watercolor that a friend did.

The only bad thing about these shadowboxes is that they open from the back. The insides slide out that way and sometimes it is a nuisance when something falls over to take them apart. I have a few more of these that I will show you later. They are great if you have a collection of something that you want to show off without a whole room.

Now go over to Gina's and read for a while. You will learn a lot about dollhouse building!

See you tomorrow.

Oh!!! The Excitement!!!!!

What excitement you ask? I'm watching paint(gesso) dry of course. I am doing the lacework in the plaster of the Colonial Kitchen. I thought you might like to take a look.



The bottom half of the photo is the first coat of gesso. It's not a pretty sight. The rest is the lacework. I don't know if you know that is what plasterers call the texture that they put in the finish.

I am doing it with the gesso and a 3/4" stencil brush... You know. The kind that looks kind of like a makeup brush. Round and flat at the end. Only it's very stiff instead of soft. I am pouncing the gesso on the board with it. That makes it rough.



Here's the fireplace standing where it will go when finished.





I am pretty pleased with the plaster so far. I need to wait until I get the brick lining in the fireplace before I install it permanently.




What else can you say about plaster? If I wanted it colored I would either mix paint with it or paint it after with a glaze. I am thinking that this one is going to be plain white tho. Most colonial kitchens were simply whitewashed. Real paint was made by the people. They didn't have a corner Sherwin-Williams to pop into.



Anyway, that's as far as I have gotten today.



Here's a bit of eye candy for you. These are a couple of corsets I made. One is for when the Victorian lady is being very, very good and the other is for when she is very, very bad.




Well, at least they are better than watching paint dry!



Enough of this foolishness!




Back to work!




See you tomorrow.

Progress.....I think.

This morning the real world crept in. I spent the morning in the front yard with my husband trimming the big mesquite tree and raking up needles. Not nearly as much fun as minis, but then what is?

I did make a little progress on the Colonial Kitchen box. Here's proof.

I built the hearth out of foam core. I won't bother you with photos of the first coat of gesso that I put on the walls and both sides of this. It would be literally like watching paint dry. Just take my word for it.

I will show you, instead, a couple of costumes that I have made. They are a part of a series that I am doing on historic dress. That was one of my fields of interest when I was in college.

This first one is a walking dress from 1895. It was copied from an illustration from Harper's Bazaar that year.

I made each dress with accessories from the same illustration.

I added a hand drawn sketch of how the clothes would have been worn to the back of the box.

The hat is straw with silk roses.

The parasol is silk.

The second one is from the 1840s. It's a Promenade Dress(fancy name for another walking dress) from 1840.

The interesting thing about this one is that the collar of the dress is actually made of a scrap of fabric, I believe from a nightgown, from 1840! I bought a box of antique lace and fabric. I was lucky enough to get parts of what was probably a wedding nightgown. It was hand made(before the invention of the sewing machine in 1849) and hand embroidered with the lady's initials and the date. You can see a scan of the embroidery at the bottom, in front of the dress.

This is one of my favorite pieces just because of that scrap of fabric. Someone must have really loved that nightgown to save the pieces for over 150 years.

OK, I have stalled you long enough for today. I am going to go collapse now.

See you tomorrow.

Sidetracked Once Again......

OK who was in charge of pulling on the string to get me out of that room? Whomever it was didn't do the job early enough.

I love sidetracking. Look what I found! It was just the box and the floor.

It's one of those room box kits that Miniatures.com sells. I bought two of them years ago. I am sure that I had plans for both of them.....This is as far as I got. The other one is still in the box.

I wanted to make a Colonial kitchen in one. I got the floor done. I guess I got bored, as usual.

Incidentally, this is another way of doing a slate floor. It is done with pieces of textured paper that was called "leather paper" when I bought it at an art supply store here in town. That was about 15 years ago. It came in the brown that you see here, an actual slate color and terracotta. I have horded this paper. I can't find it anywhere. It's heavier than cardstock.

I cut a piece of mat board that was the shape of the floor. I painted it slate gray. I took a piece of the paper and cut a piece out of one corner. I stuck this to the mat board with white glue. I kept cutting pieces of the paper in irregular rectangles and oblongs. Each piece was glued down with a "crack" between. By doing it this way, it assured me that they were all going to fit together. Once in a while I had to trim some edges to make up for the cracks. After I got it all glued down, I used some Prismacolor pencils to shade some of the pieces. Then I ran a stylus down all of the cracks to smooth the edges of the paper and round it. I am hoping that someday someone will point me in the right direction to find more of this paper. I have looked all over the net. No luck. The store went out of business right after I bought it. Just my luck!

Inspiration comes from many places. The inspiration for this kitchen comes from a set of cookbooks that I bought around the bicentennial. The illustrations are like a history of American kitchens from the beginning. These two photos are what I am using for ideas. The kitchen will be much smaller but I want to have the same feeling.

I have gotten as far as taking measurements in the box and deciding how big I want the fireplace.

I then went to my stash of foam core and started cutting. I am ready to start putting together the fireplace wall.

I just discovered that I am out of gesso. There will be a slight pause while I untie the string on my big toe, put on my shoes and go to town to buy some.

Hopefully I can stay on this track for a couple of days and finish what I started a long time ago. I have pretty much all of the things to finish the kitchen. All I need is gesso.

I managed to get untangled from the string. See you tomorrow.

Still Stalling........

Second day of cleaning my workroom......Yup. I'm still in there. I have a string tied around my big toe on one end and the other end is tied to the doorknob. I'm not going to chance getting lost in this mess.

Actually I am making progress. I can now see the whole floor. Notice I didn't say that the floor was clean. I just said I could see it, spots, debris and all. Therefore I will show you a few pretty pictures again.

I found this tin on a high shelf while cleaning. It's one of those "Get her a present and she plays with the box" kind of things. I don't remember what came in it but after it was empty, I filled it again.

I think that this was the very first thing I did in quarter inch scale.

I loved the little English cottage and decided that it's insides should match it's outsides.

Here's the side that you view if you go in the green door.

I remember that I was working at a mini shop at the time and they got in the little room full of 1/4" furniture in plastic "cards". There was a living room, bedroom, kitchen, bathroom and study as I remember. I couldn't leave well enough alone. I figured out that you could carve on them with an exacto knife. I made the legs of the chairs and table thinner. I painted them and then padded the seats of the chairs to match the drapes.

I didn't like the fireplace that came with the plastic so I built my own.

If you turn around and face the door, this is what you see.

The "wicker furniture is made out of #18 needlepoint canvas. I figured out patterns and then padded the seats and added pillows.

For a while I was making a lot in this scale. It was so cute. I couldn't resist.

Later I came to my senses and went back to 1".

Every once in a while I slip and go back. This is a house I built in a shadow box a couple of years ago. It is about the size of a cigar box over all.

I have a lot of the plastic furniture left. I am frugal by nature and want to use every last scrap. Unfortunately that leads to collecting more miscellaneous stuff to "help" use it.

The food in this one is some that a friend in England made a several years ago. It really does look good enough to eat.

Most of the rugs in this house were printed on muslin on the computer. They really add to the reality.

The furniture in the garden room is handwoven wicker and I also carved the walnut table close to the front of the room.

The wicker was made with # 32 wire and sewing thread.

If I lapse again, and I will, I am going to use the rest of that furniture if it kills me!

For making 1/4" rooms and houses it sure takes a lot of space to store the supplies.

Maybe I should go down to 1/8"..........

Someone pull the string now! I can't find the door!

I hope I will see you tomorrow.................