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Saturday, November 12, 2011

One Teeny Tiny Little Problem....

For once, Tessie isn't really the problem.... Well, maybe a little bit. She made me look at the new wicker book. She insisted that the half inch house needed some wicker porch furniture.

Then she went and hunted up some seat bases that I had already drawn and even cut some of them out... A long time ago...

While I am telling the story, I will throw in a few instructions...The seats for my one inch furniture is made from 3/32 cherry or walnut stock. When I go down to smaller sizes I use model airplane plywood. No warping and much sturdier than 1/16" solid wood.

When I get down to half inch scale, the seats are only 1"by 1" square, with two rounded corners. The love seat and the chase bases are 1" by 2". The equivalent of 2' by 2' and 2' by 4' in real life.


When I get down to this scale, the wires become much thinner. I can no longer use cloth covered wire and keep it in scale, so I go down to 26 gage brass or green floral wire.

Therein lies the problem. I cut those bases and never finished the pieces, not because of a loss of interest, but because I no longer had a drill bit small enough for said wire. I broke the two that I had.

It looks like I am going to have to hit some of the train stores in the area and see if they have drill bits that fine and if not, I am going to be forced to try the inter net...In a case like this, I usually like to see what I am getting to make sure that they are the right size. This should be fun...

The second photo shows Tessie with one of her sized chairs. The one in front of that is a half inch scale and the one in her hand is quarter inch. She keeps petting that one and saying, "It's so cute." Then petting it some more. She is going to wear it out.

I took these two pieces out of a gift bag setting to try them on the porch. The size will be perfect, if I can only find a drill bit.

I know that there is one out there somewhere...

I use #20 thread for the one inch wicker. #40 or 50 is my thread of choice for these half inchers.

If you are crazy enough to try the quarter inch size, those are 1/2" square on the seat and I use sewing thread to weave them.

Now that you know my problem, I am going to go and pout until Monday, when I may get a chance to go find a drill bit....Such a smalllllll problem.....

Meanwhile, I am still shingling away and bricking comes next.

See you tomorrow.

13 comments:

Kathi said...

Your wicker is wonderful Casey! I am SO thankful to have one of your beautiful chairs! I do have to agree with Tessie here. That little one is just SO cute! :D

The Old Maid said...

Amazing, Casey! I have no idea how you can do such teeny tiny pretty chairs!

Morena Ciambra Dreamartdolls said...

I LOVE your wicker pieces!!! Thank you for sharing the info with us. I was wondering....if you make your base out of polymer clay, would that make it easier for you to make any size hole??????? Just a thought! Hugs, Morena

P.S. You might need to use super glue to attach the wires.

Caseymini said...

Morena, poly clay is not nearly strong enough for the job. For half inch scale, I put the holes about 1/16" apart and the poly would have to be 1/16" or thinner to be in scale. That's why I use the model ply. It is 1/16" and very strong. With the plys running in both directions, there is less chance of the wood splitting when the holes are drilled. Ther is a lot of pulling and tugging and the wires are moved quite a bit, so no poly clay for this job.

Susan@minicrochetmad said...

I'm with Tessie, I want to stroke that tiny chair too ;) Cute, cute, cute!

Phyllisa said...

Hi Casey. When I saw the three wicker chairs with Tessie I said
"Those are SO CUTE!" Of course the
1/4th scale one is the cutest!
Phyllisa

Lucille said...

I agree with Tessie about that chair being so cute! It's amazing how you can work such a complicated piece of furniture, Casey. in such a small scale! I don't even want to try it. One inch is small enough for me.

Fabiola said...

Fantastic!
Bye Faby

Rietje said...

The wicker pieces are so beautiful!!

Try to find a nail piercingset in a nailart salon Casey!
I found nice very thin drills there!!

Claudia said...

The littlest one boggles my mind!

xo
Claudia

Troy said...

Your wicker projects are beautiful. I love your attention to detail.

Unknown said...

Hi - do you have any tutorials for anyone crazy enough to attmept an half scale wicker set???

Many thanks

Hannah

Caseymini said...

Hi Hannah, it's simple. You just cut down all of the measurements by half. Don't forget to make the holes twice as close together and use thread that is at least twice as thin.