Teeny tiny treasures

This week I put together the tiny little 'Miss Lydia Pickett' furniture which is roughly 144th scale.

They went together quite easily.  My main fear was that I was going to drop one of the tiny pieces and never see it again.  I worked in a good light over the upturned lid of a shoe box, so that all the pieces stayed inside the lid and didn't get lost.

Although the end result is quite realistic, there are actually remarkably few pieces.

Bed - there are three pieces:  a thick 'mattress' of wood, and two filigree ends.  You glue an end to either side of the mattress and there's your bed.  The kit provides thin batting for the 'poof' of the mattress, and printed fabric for the bedcover and pillows.

Wardrobe - two pieces:  one thick cut body piece, which has been cleverly detailed with partial laser cuts to give the illusion of a door and pull out storage boxes, and a thin top piece.  A tiny piece of artwork is provided for gluing on the 'door'.

Clock - this is a single piece cut from thick wood, with laser detailing on the front including a carved out circle for the clock face.  There is no artwork, the effect of a clock face and front detailing is done with paint.

Day Bed - this was the trickiest to put together but not hard.  There were five pieces:  a back, seat, front, and two side pieces.  Printed fabric is provided for the seat cushion.

Chicken Coop cupboard - three pieces.  The body is thick cut wood, with partial laser cuts hollowing out the centre to give the illusion of 'shelves'.  There is a filigree front, and a top piece.

Painting has to be done carefully with watered down paint, to avoid filling in the detail lines.  Suggestions for colour are included in the instructions.

I'm really pleased with how these turned out, and I couldn't resist snapping some photos of the tiny furniture with its 1/24th counterparts.  Can you spot the tiny piece in each photo?

Mini library

This week I finished the Petite Properties book cupboard for the mezzanine level.

After painting it with Games Workshop Bleached Bone, I added the 'glass' panes by gluing the plastic supplied in the kit to the inside of the doors.  I used Glue and Glaze from Deluxe Materials which is advertised as drying clear and therefore suitable for gluing windows.  I find it does grab the plastic quickly and holds well, but it still shows if you get it on the panes.  The advantage over tacky glue is that it dries crystal clear, so it's ok if just a little shows along the edge of the pane.  But if you get it onto the main part of the pane, it still shows badly.  And in fact I managed to screw up my first attempt at the windows and had to cut new ones from some packaging and try again.  The handles are little gold beads that came with the kit.

I made 'books' for the inside in the same way that I made the shelf of books for the little girl's room, by gluing cutouts onto pieces of wood.  This time I painted the wood white because I felt the black I used for the little girl's room wasn't very realistic.  I drew the lines of the book covers in with pencil for the bottom shelf where the tops of the 'books' show a little.  This cupboard is going in a back corner so it doesn't need to be too perfect.





And here is the cupboard on the mezzanine.  For some reason the photograph has come out very grainy, perhaps not enough light in there.

I'm starting to feel that this house is almost 'done'.  There is loads more that I could do, but the major construction is now all complete.  I was trying to think what is still left to do:

• Arrange the furniture for the little girl's room and add further accessories such as curtains
• Find furniture for the little boy's room
• More accessories for the kitchen - look for these at fairs
• Make cushions for the window seat, garden chairs, and porch chairs
• More accessories throughout all rooms of the house, including possibly fake non-electric light fixtures and putting up the Miss Lydia Pickett framed pictures that came with some of the kits, towels in the bathroom etc..
• Glue on the missing skirting bits in the kitchen

It may be time to move the house downstairs to my collection and out of my bedroom.  Then I would be able to dismantle my construction station and actually get into my quilt cupboard for the first time in months.

But where would that leave all of you?  I would feel like I was letting you all down if I don't post something each week for you to look at.  On the other hand, you will all get bored pretty quickly if all that I am doing is adding the occasional accessory. 

It's almost a question of philosophy:  When is a dollshouse project actually finished?

Mirror image

This week, I finished off the second Day Bed so now it's like seeing double in the living room.  I've placed it across from the first Day Bed, like a mirror image.

I painted the Day Bed with a few coats of Games Workshop Bleached Bone acrylic paint, which is the same colour used on the first Day Bed, then applied the artwork.  As before, I cut thin strips of the extra artwork and applied these along the side trims, in addition to the provided front trim strip which decorates the front.  There is also artwork for the tops of the arms, the front legs, and the decorative back.

The seat is a piece of stiff card provided in the kit, which is made up by gluing on layers of polyester batting/wadding, and covering with the provided printed fabric cover.

Making the cushions

The four back cushions come as pre-printed panels on fabric, and stuffing is provided in the kit.

Since my kit didn't have the right instruction sheet, it didn't have the instructions for these cushions, but luckily I remembered that I used my own method to make them up last time.

First of all, I folded over the fabric, printed sides together, and carefully lined up the printed squares by holding the fabric up to the light.  I pinned in place, and made pencil marks to show the edges of the printed areas.

Using this method, you will only get one pillow with a dog on it, but I was fine with that.

Then I set my sewing machine for a very short stitch length, and stitched around three sides of each square, just inside the pencil line.  Noticed that on the fourth side, I also stitched around the corner by a small amount, about 1/8".  This makes it easier to sew up the cushion afterwards with a neater result.

Then I carefully cut apart the cushions, leaving about a 3/16" seam allowance, and trimmed the corners at 45 degrees.  Using a blunt object, carefully turn through a cushion, and use a pin to pull out the corners as much as you can without shredding the fabric.

Notice that by sewing the fourth side a little, you have two corners already in place, and will only need to fold in the flaps to hand-sew the fourth side after stuffing.  I sewed it up with one strand of cotton and tiny stitches.

And here are the two Day Beds - the one I've just made is on the right.












Tiny Miss Lydia Pickett furniture

I was thrilled to discover on Judith's website (In Some Small Way) that the new line of Robin Betterley Secret Books included a tiny little Miss Lydia Pickett set of furniture.  These are roughly but not exactly 144th scale.  I couldn't resist ordering a set which I will make up as dollshouse furniture for my little girl's room.  There is a tiny bed and wardrobe, just like the Miss LP furniture, and a clock, day bed and chicken coop cabinet.

I will have to have a think about what kind of room box setting I can put these into, that won't look too big in the little girl's room.

I need to win the lottery...

I need to win the lottery so that I can give up work and have time for all my hobbies.  This week I've spent a lot of time learning to use my new quilt frame, so I haven't done very much dollshousing, but I did put together a couple of kits.

First though, a couple of pictures I forgot to include last week.  I had previously made the Miss Lydia Pickett wallhanging shelf, and the hall table, before starting to build the house, and finally they have a home.  The shelf likely looks a bit odd straddling two different wallpapers but it doesn't fit in anywhere else in the house.  I didn't want to put it in the living room as I like the wallpaper in there so much that it seems a shame to cover any of it up.

I like this view looking in through the bay window.














Miss Lydia Pickett Day Bed kit

I had already made one of these over a year ago, before I started the house build, but I bought another one at Miniatura to be a second seat for the living room.  This is the kit:  laser cut wood with lasered labels next to the parts, instructions, b&w photos of assembly, and a packet of printed fabric and stuffing for making the cushions.

However, the instruction sheet in my 1/2" scale kit was actually the instruction sheet for the 1/4" kit, which doesn't have the same parts.  I don't know if I am just incredibly unlucky, or if there are some quality control issues with these kits.  I know before when I was building the kits (prior to the housebuild), I got a kit with no photo sheet and had to go back to Judith to ask her to post me a replacement.  Then I got the kit of two Flutterby chairs that only had wooden parts for one chair, and now a wrong instruction sheet.  By looking at the pictures, and the Day Bed I had built previously, I was still able to put the kit together, but it was a bit fiddly as it wasn't clear what order to apply the leg pieces with the notches in them.  I started out by gluing in the seat as per the 1/4" instructions, but I think maybe I should have glued on the back leg trims first.  I had to slide them in afterwards, and ended up blocking one set of notches for the side pieces by accident.  Also, the 1/4" instructions don't mention the back trim pieces at all, so I had to puzzle out where two of those went.  Anyway, I got there in the end.

Petite Properties 1/24th Glazed Tall Cupboard

This is another one of the very reasonably priced kits from Petite Properties, laser cut from cardboard.  I'm going to put it up on the mezzanine beside the grand piano.

They go together incredibly easily.  The pieces are very accurately cut, and the card grabs the tacky glue for an almost instant join.  It was just a case of gluing in the five shelves, folding up the sides and gluing them to the sides of the shelves, and then gluing on the top and bottom.

Accessorising

This week I have been making some accessories for the girl's room, and painting some garden furniture including a table kit that I put together.

Metal accessorires

I had some metal miniatures that I think I bought from Tee-Pee Crafts:  a gothic frame, a figurine of a girl holding a hat, a baby crib and high chair, a four poster bed and a pair of shoes.  The furniture is the over-size so-called 144th scale, but I thought it would make good toys in 1/24th scale. The casting is quite crude, so after I gave them a scrub in some warm water with a drop of dish detergent to remove any grease or mold release agent, I scraped away some of the flash and mold lines with files and a sharp knife.

Then I undercoated them with some Citadel Foundation paint in a beige colour.  The undercoat gives a good base for the subsequent colour paint coats.

For the picture frame, I gave it two more coats of Games Workshop Bleached Bone, which is the colour I have used on a lot of the furniture in the house.  Then I washed over it with Games Workshop Brown Ink, which gave it a 'wood'-like appearance.

I added some mirror card, and hung it in the hallway where the homeowner can check their appearance before heading out the front door.

I painted the crib and highchair in pink and white, painted the fourposter bed with brown posts, and blue covers with a white ruffle, painted the crude figurine to make it look as human as possible (not easy) and gave it a coat of nail varnish to make it shiny, and painted the shoes white with pink trim and grey laces.

I decided to bite the bullet and fill some of the shelves in the little girl's room.  I needed some 'books' for the bookcase, and found this clipart from a Christmas card catalogue.

I found a piece of wood that was about the same height as the books (originally I thought I was making two shelves but later decided to go with just one) and painted the wood black.

Then I carefully cut out around one row of books, and glued it to the black piece of wood, and glued the whole thing onto the shelf.

I had also bought some nursery-themed packaging at Miniatura back in the autumn, and used that to help fill up some shelves.

Still haven't decided how I want to arrange this room, which made it hard to decide in which direction to angle the packaging.








Garden Furniture

I had another of the very reasonably priced kits from Model Village Miniatures, this one for a table.  I already had two bare wood garden chairs, so decided to make up the table to create a garden set.

As you can see, you get a colour picture, clear instructions, and well labelled pieces which are cleanly and accurately cut to size.  Not bad for £2.50!

First I glued together two end constructions, using a glue jig to keep them square.

The two side pieces go together with the stretchers to create the table's under-structure.

Then I glued on the table top.  So here is my garden set.

I decided that I wanted a weathered appearance, not quite shabby chic but looking like they had been around for a while.  So I started by painting them all grey.

Then I dry-brushed, fairly heavily, with white.  In this picture, I have dry-brushed the lefthand chair but the table and right hand chair are still grey.












And here is the finished set.  Perhaps I should make some cushions to make the chairs more comfortable.

Kitchen stools (but I've been cheating)

This week I finished off the dining set and converted the plant stands into stools. But I have to confess I've been cheating on the house build as I've been spending a lot of time converting a machine quilting frame, and I've just started quilting my first quilt on it.

I finished the other three chairs and then dressed the dining table with some of my purchases from Kensington Dollshouse Festival.  I used one of the placemats that came with the kit, as a centre mat, and added the pot plant I bought (after dry brushing white onto the pot to tone it better into the colour scheme) and the brass candlesticks.  I've put the other purchases into the china cabinet for now.

I had also purchased two plant stands at the fair, to turn into stools for the breakfast bar.  As you can see, they were too tall for the breakfast bar to start with, but about the right size otherwise to be stools.

I carefully pried off the top of the plant stand with a sharp scalpel and cut down the sides, then glued back the braces and the top.  I cut a piece of thin card to be slightly smaller  than the seat, and glued some polyester wadding onto it.  One stool came out quite well, the other came out a bit crooked so I will put it at the back where it isn't so obvious! I painted the stools to match the cupboards.

Then I covered the card/wadding with fabric, and glued them onto the stools.  I finished around the edge with a twist of embroidery thread the same as the dining chairs.

All's I need to do now is to glue down the kitchen island to the floor, and the kitchen is basically finished apart from adding any further accessories.

I was thinking about what I should do next.  I have that second Miss Lydia Pickett sofa kit for the living room, so I think I will build that.  There really isn't a lot left to do on the house, apart from I still haven't found furniture that I like for the boy's room.  Really I need to be making loads of accessories but I can already feel my procrastination growing.  I'm not very good at 'finishing' my houses, although I suppose you can say that dollshouses are never really finished as you can always add things.  But it's the house build that I really enjoy.

London Kensington Dollshouse Festival, and insurance question

This week I have been working on the other three dining chairs, and have two of them done except for the twisted thread trim, and the third one underway.

But today, instead of working on the dollshouse, I went shopping instead!  I went up to London to the Kensington Dollshouse Festival, always a great show.  Apparently it has been running since 1985.  I think I first went in 1988, and I've been most years since either to the summer show or, more recently, the new Christmas show.

I was looking primarily for 1/24th accessories for the Fairfield.  This is a scale which is growing in popularity in the UK, but there still isn't a huge amount.  Typically a maker's stand will be 95% 1/12th scale, with perhaps one little display of 1/24th scale goods for sale.

So what did I get?

• Cranberry glass bowl
• glass candy dish
• pair brass candlesticks
• pair brass vases
• bowl of fruit
• three turned bowls of yew wood
• two baskets
• plate of four scones for a cream tea (DH and I love cream teas!)
• two unpainted plant stands, which I am going to turn into kitchen stools
• potted plant from Georgie at The Miniature Garden Centre (Hi Georgie!)
• a 1/12th teapot shaped like a castle, for my teapot collection
• a 1/12th chess set, chess board and booklet, from Reina Mab Miniaturas, all the way from Beunos Aires in Argentina!

This year, for the first time, they were screening films about miniatures using a laptop and projector, in one of the venue's meeting rooms.  I had my knitting with me, and was happily knitting as I watched some of these.  '1:12' was a 25 minute film about seven of the craftsmen who exhibit at the Festival, including very interesting shots of them at work in their garden sheds or workshops.  There were two absolutely charming short films about the dollshouse of Frances Winch, called Scrivelsby Folly.  She narrates the events of Christmas 1922 and Boxing Day 1928, like a childrens' story, in a quintessentially English voice as clever animation makes it seem like the occupants have just walked out of the room before the cameras got there.

As usual, there were loads of lovely things at the show to look at.  I wish I had won the £107 million Euromillions and then I would have bought a lot more! 

Insurance question

Thursday the insurance assessor came to evaluate what was stolen in our burglary and to start the claiming process.  He was surprisingly nice, and as he was admiring my houses, I took the opportunity to ask him for his advice about insuring them.

I have never tried to insure my miniatures collection because a) most of it is handmade and therefore unique and in many cases irreplaceable; b) I have been collecting for over 25 years so a lot of the earlier purchases are no longer available, the maker may even be dead, etc.; c) I have virtually no receipts as you don't normally get these when you buy at shows; d) I've built most of my houses and room boxes myself, so it wouldn't be possible to just buy a replacement.

However, the insurance man pointed out that if I lost everything due to, for example, fire; or smoke damage from a fire; or vandalism if we had a more violent burglar in future; I wouldn't just give up on miniatures.  I would want to buy new houses, and new contents to put in them.  It wouldn't be the same, but I would want to continue my hobby even if I had to start over again, because I love doing it.

His suggestion was to photograph every item (!) and every house, and make an itemised list to accompany the photographs, with an estimated value next to each item.  Even without receipts, these would a) prove to the insurance company that I possessed the items and b) help them to estimate a value for the claim. He also recommended talking to the insurance company as they may view the items as a 'collection' and want to specify it on the policy.

This seems like an unbelievably enormous job, as I have several houses, all full of stuff - much of which is stuck down in place - plus loads of room boxes and small scale vignettes.  Not to mention all the stash of furniture and accessories waiting for a home.

So my question is - have you insured your miniatures?  How have you gone about it?  Have you always kept detailed records, or did you have to do it afterwards like me?  Any advice gratefully received.

Thanks!