Happy Mother's Day! An Edwardian Roombox

It's been a day and a half of pretty solid work on this, but the roombox is ready to give to Mum!  David and his friend, David, cut and grooved the plywood for the box yesterday and I painted, stained and papered it so we could assemble it this morning.  It's not finished -- it still needs its picture frame front and external finish, but it's finished enough to show her.  It was very odd to work on something that needed wallpaper and baseboards and crown moulding and a picture rail -- it was so civilized!  And using an oak stain instead of walnut ... freaky.  

I have a bit of a thing for Staffordshire dogs (I brought a pair home from England last year, much to my Mum's amusement), so early on in my miniaturizing, I bought a tiny pair of them, in spite of the fact that I really didn't have any place to put them and wasn't planning a Victorian house, ever, really.  It always amazes me when things suddenly turn out to have a home, after all :) 

I think the Reutters porcelein Tiffany lamp is incredibly beautiful. I wasn't sure until I saw it lit up.

The furnishings are temporary.  They're all just pieces that belong somewhere else, but will act as visual placeholders for the pieces I'd like to get for Mum's room.    The stained glass window I'm not really happy with -- it was my first attempt and it's pretty blobby.  I like the effect, though.  I can still pop the window out and have another go :)

I really like the wallpaper.  And the picture on the wall is my inspiration painting :)  I did some miniature knitting which you can't really see in the basket.  As I was knitting on tiny needles, I remembered trying to knit socks a few years ago, and vowing never to knit anything so small and fiddly ever again!

These are some books I made from a kit I bought from Silly Sisters in the Netherlands.  I wanted them as shelf fillers, but there were some of the books I just couldn't pass off as Tudor or Queen Anne :)

We're just going to take it over to Mum -- I hope she likes it :)

And to ALL the mums, moms, mothers and mamas out there, Happy Mother's Day!

Export china pattern cushion, 1:12 scale

Thinking ahead to the time when I have a blue and white room in my William and Mary dolls' house, I went looking for suitable needlepoint cushion patterns.  I couldn't find anything that really grabbed me (although I do love Janet Granger's Willow patterned kits), so I looked at a piece of late 17th century Chinese export ware and pulled a detail from the background.

This motif is pretty typical of the kind of blue and white export ware that was imported by Europeans from 1600 on.

This is my first piece of original needlepoint, and it was so much fun to make it up! If you like it, you're most welcome to download and use the .pdf chart below, as long as it's just for personal use :)  It would look lovely in reds and pinks, too, and it's much easier to stitch than it first looks, because almost everything is straight lines.  You just have to count like the dickens :) The example above was stitched on 26 ct linen, but it would still be in scale up to 22 count. 

Blue and White Export China Cushion Chart - .pdf file will download automatically and should open with Adobe Reader or Preview (on the Mac)

PS:  I'm sorry I haven't posted about the giveaway, yet -- I'm working hard at my Mum's roombox, but I promise I'll post something soon!

Barrels of apples and potatoes for the castle storeroom

Here's what the storeroom is looking like this morning:

A couple of nights ago I made apples and potatoes while watching The Sweeney on dvd :)  Here they are in their barrels (I have to paint the iron rings on one of the barrels, but couldn't wait to post ...)

The potatoes are based on the technique Alex Zohar teaches in this video from Victoria Miniland.  The apples were made using Sue Creaser's instructions in her book Food displays.

Edwardian fireplace, finished

It looks so much better painted black!  Thank you so much to the people who suggested this.  I wired in the fire this morning, just so I could take its photo :) You can see the Art Nouveau decoration on this piece, which was one of the things that attracted me to it.  Perfect for the roombox!

The fire is the same kind I generally purchase from eBay:  I was really happy to find a similar unit at the Toronto dollhouse shop.    Mum loves fireplaces but doesn't have one in her condo, so I know she'll love having a tiny one she can switch on and off :)

Edwardian fireplace

When I bought the black fireplace surround (it's by Town Square, in case you're interested) at the Little Dollhouse Company a couple of days ago, this sort of look was in the back of my mind:

Black, metal insert, tiles.

When I got home I remembered that I had bought two little sheets of printed majolica tiles on my first visit to the dollhouse shop back in October last year.  I had bought them purely because I thought they were beautiful, and now they were perfect for this project!  I love when that happens ... :)

So with the two combined, I now have this:

It's too bad that the angle of the sides of the fireplace opening is so steep (and there's no room to add a more "flat" facing because of the grate).  But the fireplace is going to go on an end wall of the roombox, so will more usually be seen from the side :)

Now I have to decide whether to paint the silver "metal" black, to represent iron, or dirty it up, or leave it as it is.  What do you think?

New project -- Edwardian room box!

I've been thinking about doing a roombox for my Mum for a while now, and last week I decided I was going to do more than just think about it.

My darling Mum is 84 years old, and a real child at heart.  She's been a textile chemist, a broadcaster, an author and an educator through her long life, and she has a particular interest in costume history.  She loves the Edwardian period, best of all.  So I thought I'd make her a little Edwardian roombox.

It's been fun planning it and shopping for it.  (It's a nice change of pace from the Tudor period, that's for sure!)

On my trip to Toronto this week I picked up a few things for the project from the Little Dollhouse Company:

It's going to be a simple rectangular roombox, with a window in one end and a fireplace in the other.  It will be electrified.  I bought a ready-made window, and a really cool fireplace.  It is not electrified and had a horrible resin "fire" in it, but the grate pried out remarkably easily and the fire came off, and I  bought a good quality set of logs/flames to take its place, so with a little drilling and some messing about, I think it'll look super. I also think I'll tile the inside of it.

I also picked up a Reutters Tiffany lamp, a ceiling rose, some William Morris-y wallpaper and a little fox terrier.  (Mum had a wire-haired terrier named "Skipper" when she was a girl, to whom she recited "The Burial of Moses" and other poems she was learning.

There will be a woman and a little girl in the roombox, along with the dog.  Now, my Mum was a child in the 1930s, not 1915, so the little girl isn't, strictly speaking, supposed to be her, but just a little girl with dark brown hair who happens to have a terrier :)

I want to make up the basic room box as quickly as possible so I can give it to her before we leave for England on May 20th.  That way, I can bring her some presents home with me from our trip!

My Mum is on the internet (in fact she's the web master for the Costume Society of Ontario website), but as far as I know she doesn't check this blog.  If she does see this before the roombox shows up -- surprise, Mum!

Edited to add the following photo, Edwardian Interior, by Harold Gilman

I love this!  All the paintings and photos on the wall, the textiles on the furniture, the flowers.  This is it!

Best giveaway idea ever.

Tallulah-Belle is having a giveaway -- with a difference.  To mark the achievement of reaching 200 followers, she is giving away a choice of a range of beautiful and funny/creepy plants, and to enter you simply give a donation of $2 US to the Children's Safe Drinking Water organization.  It's easy to give -- you go to the linked website and click on "donate" near the bottom right, and you can donate via PayPal.  It takes less than a minute.

There is nothing more important to human life than safe drinking water.  I fear that we in developed countries will come to understand this as thoroughly as most of the people in the world already do -- unsafe drinking water equals disease and death.

Please give to the cause, and then visit Tallulah-Belle's blog and leave her a comment with your donation confirmation number. It's a chance to win one of her beautiful floral pieces and do some good.

Over 100 followers -- welcome!

Wow!  Over 100 followers have joined this blog, and we're so excited!

Welcome to Taenia from Vienna who shares lots of wonderful tips at her blog gleaned from her many years in the miniature hobby.

Ascension shares her lively blog posts at Mis Miniaturas.  She's based in Barcelona, Spain.

Jody's a Dutch miniaturist who blogs about all sorts of lovely projects at Jody's miniwereld.  

Emma's a university lecturer, crafter and mum from Milton, Ontario, Canada.  (Yay, Canada!)  She blogs at Purple Lizard Design. 

Kat the Hat Lady makes the most AMAZING witchy hats, ever!  She's from Northhamptonshire, in the UK.

Dutch miniaturist Josje has a wonderful blog at A Beautiful World. 

Angeles blogs in Spanish about miniatures, crafts and cross stitching at El rincon de Baldu. 

Sandye blogs about all sorts of things at Snail-Paced Stitching. This has to be one of my favourite blog names ever :)

Sabiha is a mystery visitor, as I can't seem to find anything more about her :) If I've got it wrong, Sabiha, please let me know and I'll add your blog link here.

Welcome to you all -- I appreciate your following us so very much!  And I will organize another giveaway to mark this milestone when I get back home tonight or tomorrow :) 

In the minstrels' gallery

It looks like Spring everywhere, now, and about a month earlier than usual in this part of Canada!  I can't tell you how odd it is to see everything in bloom so early. 

To celebrate the lovely weather, I suspect that a couple of the castle minstrels took their instruments and a keg of beer into the gallery for a late-night jam session last evening.  Someone's also been in the kitchen and polished off half a game pie.  I suspect the two events are connected. 

I'm off to Toronto for a couple of days, so probably won't be posting much until I get back.  I'll talk to you soon!

List of historical plants for period gardens

I was idly wondering the other day, as I arranged my hydrangeas in my Tudor kitchen, whether they were, strictly speaking, appropriate for the period*.

Shortly after that question popped into my head, I found this great link to information that anyone planning appropriate plants and flowers for a historical miniature setting should know about:


Lesley's Garden -- Historical Garden Information and Plant Lists 

Lesley is a Canadian botanist, garden designer and miniaturist.  Not only is her site full of tremendously useful information, but you can buy things there, too: she sells, among other things, beautiful looking ready-made miniature flowers and plants as well as kits (kits!  I love kits!) in 1:12, 1:24 and 1:48 scale.

Now, I'm not a stickler for historical accuracy, but I do like to know the actual history I'm dealing with and which anachronisms I've decided to allow.  I suppose I've decided that, for myself,  willful and conscious  inaccuracy in the service of an artistic vision is to be preferred to smiling but blind ignorance :)  Anyway, that's what I tell myself ...

So, if you care, check out whether that pretty pot of Lavandula angustifolia is appropriate for your Tudor farmhouse (you're fine with lavender any time after the 13th century) or whether a stately Lilium lancifolium is really right for your George II garden (the tiger lily wasn't introduced until 1804, so you're out of luck :)

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* (No they're not :)