In which I admit defeat and put on a magnifier

About 20 years ago I stitched a petit point cushion for one of my 1/12th dollshouses, using 1 strand of embroidery cotton on silk gauze.  I was able to do this without much problem, although it was easier in the bright light coming in a window.

Nowadays I look at that cushion and can barely see the stitches with my naked eye.  For a long time it was just things in the distance that were a bit blurry, but now it is getting harder to precisely focus on close up things as well.  Middle age sucks some times.

This week I tackled the 1/24th scale printable pitchers and I had to admit defeat when I couldn't see the outline of the pale yellow jug sufficiently well to cut around it.  Luckily DH (who admitted defeat some time ago) has a nifty magnifying visor, a bit like a welders helmet made of plastic, which I borrowed to give me hands-free magnification. It made the task of dealing with the quite small bits of paper much easier, although still fiddly.

The picture showes the 1/12th version, a completed 'twin' next to it in 1/24th scale, and the smallest pitchers under construction.

Do you see the pencil in the picture above, and its tapered black plastic point.  I found the tapered point to be a really useful gluing jig for the smallest pieces.  After curling the paper to shape, I applied a thin line of glue down one edge, inserted the pencil, overlapped the paper edges and pressed down against the pencil taper until the glue dried.  The jugs are tapered as well, so the pencil point was just the right shape.

Another good tip which I forgot to mention last week:  before cutting the 'teeth' at the bottom of the main body of the pitcher, lightly score a fold line along the bottom of the pitcher.  I did this by placing a round plastic cap firmly down onto the paper to give me a curved edge against which I could draw the back of a knife along the line.  This gives a much smoother line when you fold the teeth inwards prior to gluing on the base.

The end results aren't perfect, but I think they are good enough.  I stole a bit of Lady's Mantle flower out of the garden to put in this jug for the picture.

And here is a picture of the two sizes of 1/24th jug, large and small, up against a large 1/12th jug.



The other thing I did this week was to have a trawl through various printable sites looking for printies that I could use for the boy's room as accessories.  I printed off several possibilities so it looks like there is more origami in my future.