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Sunday, June 12, 2011

"The Quarter Inch Stuff Is MINE!!!"

That was Tessie this morning. She was under the assumption that I was going to do stuff for her today....

It started out bad. I grabbed these little wall hung boxes that I bought at the Dollar Tree last week. I thought that they would make handy little trays for mini carrying if I fixed them up a bit. The one that is behind Tessie is the first type I bought. It has a silly black line drawing in the bottom. I guess that kids were supposed to color them and hang them on the wall.

They are really well built. Mitered corners and brass hangers on the back. I saved those for something else....Maybe hanging a quarter scale cigar box house or something similar.

Anyway, I put a coat of stain on the one that Tessie is standing in. I lined the bottom with a piece of scrapbook paper and put some brass corners on it. They were left over from an old Chinese box that I had....It fell apart, but the fittings didn't.

The two that you see behind her, I bought a few days later. They are just plain boxes and will be easier to convert to another use.


After I finished that project, I sanded and stained the edge of the Victorian table that I am fixing in real life size. I a very pleased with it. I mixed stain that exactly matches the original wood on the table and color wise, you can't tell the difference. I will let it dry another 24 hours and then sand more and put the final finish on it.

Back to minis. I had an idea for a Tudor table for the quarter scale wall house. Four fancy toothpicks, a piece of 1/32"double bead molding, some 1/16 by 1/32" strip wood and a small piece of 1/32" thick bass wood and I had a table.

This is when the trouble started. I put together the base of the table. I set it down to dry and Tessie plopped down on the edge of the box. She took one look at the table base and announced, "Ha! I knew that the Quarter Inch Collection was mine!. You promised to work on my stuff today. Thus, this is MINE!".

I measured the legs(toothpicks) to 5/8" and cut them. The end pieces were 1/2" and the side pieces were 1 1/4". I glued them together and let them dry. Meanwhile I cut a piece of 1/32" stock to 3/4" by 1 1/2". Three by six feet seems like a good size for this kind of table.

I glued the top to the base, let it dry and stained it with Minwax Early American stain.

After it is thoroughly dry, I will spray it with Deft Satin spray.

Tessie is delighted with her new acquisitions. She keeps gushing about how little and cute the table is. I am not going to tell her that it is just on loan until she loses interest...Which she will, shortly.

If my attention span is that of a six year old, hers is approximately that of a two year old.

Back to furniture making. See you tomorrow.

3 comments:

Lucille said...

Adorable little table! But, Casey, what do you mean when you write "Three by six feet seems like a good size for this kind of table?" I just don't get this.

Caseymini said...

Lucille, 3/4" by 1 1/2" equals 3' by 6' in quarter inch. It is 5/8" high, which equals 2 1/2'(standard table height). Actually Tudor tables in this style could be way longer, but I chose to make it smaller. I hope this helps.

Kathi said...

Lovely little table. :D