Great Hall Fireplace, day 3

Yesterday I assembled the fireplace, and painted it.  I used a base coat of natural titanium (a buff colour) then added layers of greys, finally stippling the surface with umber and black to resemble stone.  I applied scrapbook stickers to resemble the tiles of my inspiration photo and installed both fireplace and chimney breast.  This morning, this is how it looks:

 

I am really pleased with the way my miniature medieval fireplace turned out!  It looks like stone and has exactly the feel I was hoping for.  I love this photo, taken from the left hand door -- it looks perfect to me, and I have a wonderful sense of accomplishment :)

Great Hall Fireplace, day 2

Having designed the fireplace, it's time to build it.  Here are all the components, cut out -- two uprights made of laminated plywood, a lintel made of balsa wood (6' wide by 1.5 inches deep), two pine corbels cut on our electric fretsaw, and two purchased pressed wood appliques, bought at Lee Valley Tools.

I glued them all together with white carpenter's glue like so:

Now I just wait for them to glue up ...

Painting bricks on the castle walls

Today the girls painted the exterior of the castle.  The girls who did the painting are 12 and 9 years old, respectively.  To simplify things, I had them paint the entire exterior pale grey (I used latex primer with a bit of artist's acrylic black added).  Then they "stamped" blocks on the outside using small pieces of cellulose sponge -- we had four colours:  dark grey, light grey, medium brown, light brown and they just alternated colour randomly.  It worked much better than I thought it would!

We set the block colours out on paper plates:  each colour had its own plate and sponge:

 

 

Furniture from balsa wood

Here are my first table and chair, made of balsa wood.  They're extremely rough, and I shall make better versions soon now that I know what to expect, but they'll do for now.

The table is 10" long and 3" wide. Both pieces are balsa wood, put together with wood glue and, in the case of the table, pegs made from toothpicks.  I scored the top of the table with a blunt pencil before construction, to make it look like boards.  I painted them with my "Tudor wood" blend paint:  one part raw sienna, two parts burnt umber and some water.  Then I varnished them.

Great Hall Fireplace

It's fireplace day!

First of all, this is my "inspiration" photo.  It's a medieval fireplace in the Tower of London:

Our backstory for this castle is that it was built in the 12th century, and has been remodelled by the early Tudor family who is now living in it.  Some rooms will be more Tudor in mood (wood panelling, etc.) but we imagined the Great Hall as having a more medieval feel.  The open fireplace is an important part of that feel.

Here are some of the elements of the fireplace stuck together with Museum Putty (it's like Blu Tac, but stickier) in situ, so I can get an idea of how to compose the piece.

The mantel will be supported by large corbels, and the chimney breast will be angled as in the inspiration photo.  I'll paint blocks on the back wall, making them nice and sooty, and I'll put in very sooty Poly Filla "stones" at the base.  The whole piece will be painted to look like stone, and I'll use some tiny stick on tiles to embellish the mantel.

Here it is, in the same shot with the Minstrel's Gallery, to show scale.  It could be bigger (it's 6" x 6") but I'm practising selective scale here, and don't want it too big.

I got a flickering unit for this fireplace during my shopping spree in Toronto last week, and we'll make a nice fire for it to warm up the room.

Here's the  mocked up fireplace, with the back wall painted, a few sticks from my driveway, and the flickering unit.

Minstrels' Gallery Part One

We've planned a Minstrels' Gallery on the left side of the Great Hall, and I'm starting on it today, using a small piece of 1/4 inch plywood measuring 4" by 12", and the two pieces of ready-assembled railing I bought from the Little Dollhouse Company in Toronto last week.

I cut the railing to length using a fret saw and glued it up. A newel post of some kind at the corner would have been lovely, but I didn't plan for it :)

I have to put the supports in the Great Hall -- side beams and a support beam -- and then I think I'll let the kids paint and install the Gallery on Thursday.

Here's the Gallery in place -- I've glued the side supports on, but it's just balancing up there on the support column :)  It looks like part of an opera set, doesn't it?  "Deh vieni alla finestra ..."

Photos of the castle so far

I meant to  take photos of each step of the castle's construction.  Well, I've missed a few, but we need to start somewhere, don't we?

This is how the first part, the Great Hall, looks now, stripped of the temporary furnishings the children and I were playing with.  To recap, this room, as pictured above, is about 30" wide, 12" deep and 18" tall.  Here's what we've done so far:

1.  We painted the beams dark brown -- a mixture of two parts burnt umber with one part raw sienna, mixed up well with a fair bit of water to make a stain (I use artist's acrylic paints).

2.  We added texture to the walls with Polyfilla scraped on and, partly, off, in an uneven way.   The walls and ceiling were painted white.

3.  We made the stone floor with a thicker layer of polyfilla.  While still pliable, I made the grout lines with a blunt pencil.  Note to self for future:  don't try to do this after dark, your lines won't be quite perpendicular :)  After it had dried I sanded some places to even things out a bit.

4. We painted floor and walls.  The key to realistic faux finishing is to do everything in layers and to use both warm and cool versions of your colours.  I started with a base wash of natural titanium (this is a very warm off white).  Then I built up the colour of individual stones using a variety of washes:  yellow ochre, a neutral grey (white and black), raw sienna, burnt umber, and white.  Finally, I put on two washes of raw umber over the whole floor to tone the entire thing down and get a darker colour in the grout lines.  Then I varnished it with a matte varnish.

The walls just got a loose wash of grey then a wash of burnt umber, I think.  Very watery and relaxed -- not trying to cover everything.  Just enough to make the place look used.

I did the first coats on the floor, and then let the children loose on both floor and walls.  They did a fabulous job and enjoyed watching the room come to life!

Making a medieval/Tudor door

Okay, I admit it. I am not a great craftsman.  Although I am in awe of the amazing artisans who can make perfect tiny items, my own approach to miniatures is, of necessity,  less about scale model perfection and more about, "how can I construct this so it looks half way convincing using the tools and materials I'm capable of managing safely." I view it as akin to theatrical set design rather than fine furniture building, and I really enjoy set design :)

With that in mind, here's my first door.  It's made of balsa wood, which is mercifully easy to cut.  I cut out the basic shape using the template I used for the castle door openings.  I scored it with a ruler and pen to imitate boards, and added the Z frame on the back side.  I painted it with a thin wash of 2 parts burnt umber and 1 part raw sienna.

I'm making the hinges out of cotton medical tape.  Here's  picture of the door pinned in place to check fit.  I had to pare the door down on all sides (and on the z bracing) to make it fit and move in the door opening.

As I've said before,  I find that black polymer clay is really good for imitating wrought iron.  I rolled out the clay quite thin and cut out some very simple strap hinges. You could make these quite ornate, if you wanted to.  I added small balls of black clay to represent the nails or bolt heads, and baked them.

I then glued the bandage strips onto the door and glued the faux iron hinge on top.  The glue I'm using is Alene's Tacky Glue, but any good quality white or wood glue would do.

I made a handle out of the clay, too -- shaping the end and then bending the whole thing over my metal craft knife and flattening the ends, adding small balls of clay for nails again.  The resulting handle is good -- a little too bowed, but still quite convincing.  I glued the handle to the door.

Then I glued the fabric hinges to the wall and covered them with the clay hinges, and the door is done! (the upper hinge looks VERY crooked in the photo below, but it looks fine in person :)

 

Lighting your dolls house

I'll admit it, lighting the dolls castle is one of the most appealing aspects of the project for me, so I want to learn as much as possible about it.

Here's a link to my own articles on the subject:  Electrical fixtures and wiring

Here are some useful links I'm collecting on the subject:

Dollhouse Electrical -- a wonderful article from the Greenleaf site which covers just about everything one needs to know about wiring a dolls house.  There are other great articles on lighting in this issue, too.  Highly recommended.

Dolls House Parade -- Hints and Tips on Lighting -- another great article.  Lots of other tips at this site, too.


Lighting Dolls Houses -- a great article at the Laura Anne Dolls House site.


Doll House Lighting Made Easy -- at the Doll House Miniature club.

I've been to heaven, and it's called the Little Dollhouse Company ...

Having found myself in Toronto for a few days, I simply had to check out Canada's largest dollhouse and miniatures store (isn't that an oxymoron?)  The Little Dollhouse Company is at 612 Mount Pleasant Road in mid-town Toronto.  I had visited their website many times, but this was to be my first visit in person, and it exceeded my expectations.

First of all, it's big.  Really big -- 3000 square feet.  And because its wares are, by and large (there I go again) quite tiny, there's room for a LOT of stuff :) 

Second of all, there are far more things in the store than could possibly be listed on the website.  The range of items covers all price points, styles and several scales, although 1" scale is the norm here.  There are 85 dolls houses on display, so that a potential house buyer can check each model out in detail before buying.

There's something about walking into a store full of tiny things and teeny houses that totally connected me with my inner child.  I walked around, dazed, for a little bit, getting my bearings and with a big, goofy smile plastered to my face.

Once I recovered a bit of poise, I hit the lighting display, since that's my new obsession.  I want a beautifully-lit castle, and TLDC was the right place to learn more about lighting.  I chose their round wiring kit, and can't wait to get back home and start plugging things in.  Co-owner John, who builds and wires all the houses, gave me some great advice on making my own light fixtures, a subject I've not been able to find much information on.  I picked up a few ready-made fixtures, too, as well as some lighting accessories for my first fireplaces.

I then stocked up on building supplies:  windows and stairs, some railings,  a fireplace mantel and few accessories I simply couldn't resist (a tiny trumpet for the minstrels' gallery, for example).
In the course of my shopping, I had the pleasure of meeting John's wife, TLDC owner Marie and her staff, all of whom were very helpful.
The trip was great, and I have a big bag of small things to take home and play with :)  I recommend this great store to anyone who's going to be in Toronto, and I recommend their website to everyone else!  Marie told me to be sure, when I'm shopping on the site, to ask if I don't see something -- they're always happy to check their huge inventory and give whatever help they can.