Ruth's Cottage

On Thursday, at Knitwits, 14 year old Ruth worked on her 1/12 scale cottage.  We had cut the base (1/2 inch plywood) to size and she had cut out the three walls from 1" thick foam late last year.  On Thursday she cut windows in the foam, scored the wooden base for floorboards, stained the base and painted the downstairs walls.  Then she glued the walls to the base and to each other.  Here's how it looks:

This foam and plywood construction is excellent -- I'm using it for my William and Mary era house, but it's just perfect for younger miniaturists, because they can do so much of the cutting (under supervision) with Olfa cutters/craft knives. It's also very inexpensive -- one large sheet of foam costs less than $20, and you can get many little cottages out of it!

The cottage will have ground floor and an attic.  Ruth is looking forward to making miniature rag rugs for it!

More lights

 Ever notice how sometimes you're just in the mood for one part of working on miniatures but not another?  I'm in lighting mood, clearly :)  I added the sconces (above and below) to the Withdrawing Room yesterday evening.  With foam walls it's certainly easy -- I just jabbed a hole with a bamboo skewer and we were just about done!

 I'm going to make silver sconces for the Chinese Blue and White Room (below), to match the most adorable silver 6 armed chandelier I bought in England last year.  But I wanted this room to have some kind of light, so I installed a fire.  Again, I just had to make a hole with a skewer :)

 And as I was reviewing the contents of the rooms, I realize that this desk/bookcase that I had japanned would work perfectly in the new Library!  It really pops, doesn't it?  I'm going to make tons of really, really small books tonight so I can fill up the very narrow shelves, but I think this is where it's going to live.  I'm going to get Ray Storey to make me a little black chandelier for this room, because I long to own something by him!

Lighting, front and back :)

 I know I've mentioned before how much I love miniature lights.  For me, they're one of the best parts of building a dolls house.  Here's how the WAMH looks this grey, overcast morning!

Do you notice how rarely we show each other the "bad" side of our projects?  The side with all the working gubbins?  I would LOVE to see the backsides of people's dolls houses -- how do you hide the electrics?  What do you do with all the wires?

Until about 10 minutes ago, this is what my power strip looked like :)  Yes, it's balanced on a paint can!

Because I'm not going to finish the backside of this house (it will never be seen, as it's a front opening one), I don't HAVE to hide wires (except from the windows), so I glued on my power strip and taped the wires more neatly to the house, mostly to keep my cats from playing with them.  (They've learned they can get quite a reaction from me by even making a gesture towards them!)

Seriously, I'd love to see your electrical stuff!

Library almost done

 

This is now the Library (even though it's only got one bookshelf at the moment :)) This may be my new favourite room!  I glued everything together, yesterday, all the components of the staircase.  It was a little fiddly getting the bookcase and the bits of wood around it aligned, but it all worked out in the end.  Then I framed it in, stained it all, and let it dry. 

The floor is made from a sheet of premade wooden flooring, which I cut to fit the room.  It was DEAD easy!  I'm glad I left the left-hand wall unglued -- it's much easier to measure and cut the sheet of wood if you've got one wall that's moveable.   I didn't bother backing the wood (beyond the backing it came on, which is a bit like heavy waxed paper), and I didn't glue it down, in case I have to get to the light fixture for the hallway below.   It took the stain brilliantly.  Easy peasy, lemon squeezy.

 I grabbed a handful of books from the Castle library to try them out here -- even though some are quite fine and others are just my bodged up leather covered ones, the overall effect is really pleasing.  Ever wish you could curl up in one of your miniature rooms?  I had that feeling yesterday night :)

Mind you, someone needs to dust that chair :)

I just need to finish the panelling and cut and frame a window, and the Library is DONE!

First floor staircase zooming along ...

I was so busy building the staircase yesterday that I didn't have time to post :)  Here's what it looks like this afternoon:

Here's what I got done:

I built the first flight of stairs and the landing.  I made some basic mistakes, but it's all come out okay :)

 Then I built the second flight, the longer one.  Fortunately I have access to all kinds of gash lumber down in my husband's workshop, so I had lots of triangular section dimensional wood.

Then there were many steps I don't show :)  this time I am building the staircase in, before I've done the floor.  We'll see how it goes.  I added the side pieces to the stair units, and glued the upper stairs in place along the wall.  I made the little bookcase this morning, as a replacement for a truly awful bookcase I made in haste yesterday!  It was a little too tall and a little too wide and the pitch of the shelves was rather small.  This is better!  It will be framed into the wall, so it's recessed into the stairwell behind it.  I think it'll look lovely!

 

I still haven't decided what to do with the hallway floor. I could do a wood floor, or I'd love to get some more Mar-like floor tiles and do another tiled floor here, but in warmer colours than the iconic black and white.  I love this octagonal pattern which is also typical of the period, and I like colour M6.

What do you think?

Finished bust of Sir Isaac Newton, and last bedroom wall

Here's the finished bust of Sir Isaac Newton, which will go in David's study.

And I did the last wall of the bedroom -- I left a bit of paper at the back end which I will trim and glue in place when I glue in this wall -- it will cover the join, I hope!  :)  I do love this wallpaper, by Itsy Bitsy Minis!

I have to buy or make quite a bit of baseboard now ...

On to the upstairs hallway!

Panelled wall

Yesterday was Knitwits, and Ruth (called "Evangelista" on this blog before) did some very neat panelling in the Blue and White Room's last wall.

Her work is so careful and precise!  I will add some panels on the back wall, and then turn my attention to the hallway, next door.

And I've been making good progress on the big carpet:  the part I thought would be hardest, the slanting design in the centre, is actually the bit that goes fastest!

William and Mary House, first floor being glued

Here's the first floor of the WAHM with the rear and side walls glued into place.  I want to make a big push on this house and get tons done over the next two months, so this was the first step!  It's been sitting in pieces for just over a year, so I'm really glad to get going ...

I have the interior walls cut to size -- I need to cut out the doorways and finish them appropriately for each room.  Then I have to construct another staircase unit, and do the removable floors.

More, soon!

A few simple little books

Last night I made a few simple miniature books as shelf filler for Daydreamer's new reading nook.

These are easy, non-opening books, suitable for a background role in a mini scene. Some of them have covers of thin leather, and others have covers made from heavy paper samples.  I either cut a scrap of balsa, or glue a few layers of card together to make the insides of the books, colour three edges with a gold pen and then wrap and glue the covers on.  A few details with a gold pen, and they're ready to go.

Bust of Sir Isaac Newton

I'm making a few little gifts for my husband, David, for his birthday which is in two weeks.  I'm planning a study/laboratory in the attic of the WAMH, which will be full of scientific instruments and so forth circa 1700.

One of the things I want in there is a bust of Sir Isaac Newton, which I picked up in England in May.  It's a 35 mm tall, solid, heavy white metal piece, sold unfinished, by Phoenix Miniatures:

I want to finish it to look like warm marble, like this 1710 bas relief of the great mathematician:

This is with two thin coats of off white artist's acrylic paint -- thin because I don't want to destroy all the detail in this piece.  This photograph of the statue has turned out too yellow because I took it at night, but the colour is actually pretty close to my reference photo.

I'll have a look at it again in the morning light, add another coat, if necessary, maybe do a gentle wash of a darker colour into the detail, and add a tiny amount of subtle veining on the base and back, where there are larger areas of "uncarved marble".