Janet Granger's January sale is still on!

I just bought some silk gauze and a kit to make an embroidery on a needlepoint stand from Janet Granger, who has a sale going on.

If you've ever wanted to start doing 1:12 scale needlepoint, this is a great chance to pick up a kit for less. I started with a cushion kit from Janet, and haven't looked back :)  She also has kits on silk gauze for people who want more of a challenge!

And her postal rates are great -- my order is shipping for 1.50 GBP to Canada.

Chimney pots and sandstone quoins from Romney Miniatures

I'm so excited!  My order from Romney Miniatures in the UK has arrived at lightening speed and it's just perfect.

First of all, I ordered six large chimney pots for the main chimneys on the WAMH.

I applied a layer of tacky glue to the tops of the chimneys and then a layer of spackle/crack filler (because it was clear the spackle wasn't going to stick to the wood on its own). I applied glue to the bottom of each chimney pot and stuck them in place into the spackle, and then smoothed things out a bit.

I still have to paint the spackle grey to resemble the bed of mortar it's impersonating, and I need to blacken and soot up the pots themselves, but I'm so pleased!

And my quoin stones also arrived. These are separate sandstone slips, with bevels on three sides, and are sold in packages that will cover roughly 1 m in length.  They're really beautiful and are going to make this house pop!

Now to figure out how to use the sandstone modelling dust I have!

Knole settee for William and Mary house!

The amazing Kris Compass has done it again. She's created the most perfect Knole settee for me, to live in the blue and white room in the William and Mary House, and I can't wait to see it in person!

These photos will give you some idea of her exquisite work:

Thank you, a million times, Kris! You're a true artist and a wonderful person with whom to collaborate.

You can visit Kris's amazing blog, 1 inch Minis, which has tons of tutorials by the artist herself. You can also check out her page at CDHM Miniatures, where she posts items that are ready to be sold and takes commissions.

Front of roof coming along

I'm so pleased with how the roof is progressing. I work at the slating a bit every night!

I'll be away from home for the next five days, so I hope to get caught up on some of my neglected posts :)

Much to catch up on!

Happy New Year! I've been doing lots of mini things and taking photos but they just haven't made it as far as blog posts :). I'll catch up soon!

I wanted to get the ball rolling just by telling you that what I hope will be the last lot of slates from Richard Stacey has arrived. I spent a couple of hours this afternoon cutting a batch of matching slates from emery paper, and I think I've now got enough to finish.

Camp Mini Ha Ha featured on CBC radio

During Camp Mini Ha Ha this year, Jackie Torrens shared two days of our work and celebrations, and her piece on miniatures and miniaturists is being broadcast on CBC tomorrow.  

But you can hear it via the CBC website any time you like :)

Every Fall, for more than 10 years miniaturists from Canada, the US and the UK have gathered in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.
They spend 5 days building miniature replicas of real-life objects.... at a place they call Camp Mini Ha Ha.
It's the brainchild of three people, Debbie Parrot and Sheryl Hartland from Nova Scotia - and Marcy Cumberland from the US.
About 30 campers go every year, and while men are welcome, so far most of them have been women.
Writer, actor and regular CBC contributor Jackie Torrens, has a thing for people whose interests are off the beaten path.
We sent her to Mini Camp for two days....and there she found that big revelations can be had, even in a world so small....

I think it's a great piece -- Jackie was an amazing explorer of our mini world got us all discussing and talking about things. 

Camp Mini Ha Ha is an annual camp for miniaturists in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Lavender tutorial over at Miniature Enthusiasts of the South Shore!

We had a lavender-making spree today at the October meeting of the Miniature Enthusiasts of the South Shore!  In the course of it, I realized that once this window box for the Camp Mini Ha Ha cottage project was full of lavender ....

... that I should plant the front of the cottage with lavender, too!  And have lavender drying in bunches from the beam above the fireplace!  And call it ...

Lavender Cottage!

We had a lot of fun, and if you'd like to see my rough tutorial for making 1:12 scale lavender, you can check out the MESS Blog!

Getting ready to raise the roof on the WAHM

Last night I finished applying bricks to the main chimneys.

A mixture of Richard Stacey's brick slips and bricks made from sandpaper.

Today I took the next step to finishing the WAMH, and got the roof ready to be attached.

I taped together the roof and then David and I measured angles and made the interior walls out of 1/2" builders' foam. I was originally just going to make a template out of the foam and cut the actual wall out of 3/8" plywood, but after seeing how nice the foam walls look, I decided to just go with the foam.

I used the template on the interior door package to cut the door openings in the foam.

I've painted everything now and, as soon as I've resized the stair opening, I will glue everything together!

Knitwits working hard on their houses!

We had such a lovely Knitwits today!

This is Ruth's cottage. Last week she installed the shutters she had scratch-built -- I think they look marvellous.

She's chosen to model the fireplace after one in Port Royal.  Here's her reference photo:

 She got a lot of work done today choosing the palette of brick colours, cutting out bricks, base coating the high density foam that will become the chimney piece and so forth.

 Esther forged ahead with her Tudor merchant's house.  Here it is, definitely under construction!

The chimney breast is ready for her mantlepiece design, she finished building her basic stairs today and stained all the linings for the doors and windows. There's going to be a bookcase under the stairs, which will be partly enclosed in panelling, and there will be an inglenook next to the fireplace, with a bench perfect for curling up on and doing needlework.  Or so says Esther :)

The stairs are triangular lengths of balsa wood glued onto a backing of meranti board.  So easy to do, even for a young person!

And me?  I was pretty low energy when we started, but my young friends always make me feel better, no matter what mood I'm in :) I did a lot of work on my brick chimneys.  And, best of all, the WAMH is now in the living room -- it's getting too cold upstairs to work on it, and I really want to make a push this winter to get it done, so David kindly allowed me to bring it down and work on it here!  I packed everything up, we carried it downstairs and I've given it a good cleaning :)

The roof is just balanced on, but this is a HUGE house!

Glue bottle holder tutorial and second hip slated

At the Mini day out on Saturday I admired our instructor's glue bottle holder, and noticed that a number of women had various versions of the design.  Because I'm feeling sick and not up to much, but also bored and restless, I decided to make a version for myself!

Prototype glue bottle holder!

Materials list (for the wood I'm using actual measurements, not nominal). NB: these are just a guideline, of course, as I was grabbing scraps down in the workshop. I designed this for a 4 oz. (118 ml) round bottle -- if you travel with a 2 oz bottle and want a small portable holder, or want a holder for carpenter's glue in a square bottle with a thicker nozzle, adjust accordingly. 

BASE: 1 piece of pine: 75" x 2.5", 5" long  (2 cm x 6.5 cm x 12 cm long)

ANGLED SUPPORT: 1 piece of pine: 5/16" x 2.5" x 5.5" long) (1.25 cm x 6.5 cm x 14 cm long)

I cut one end of each piece at a 25º angle on the circular saw.  (If you don't want to bother with the angles or don't have the equipment you can make one with right angles, like this example from Cascade Miniatures: 

Showing the 25º angles a little better.

I marked out a curve on the non-angled end of the support (you can see from the photos that I did decide to angle the top end of the support later, for aesthetic reasons :)) This forms the niche in which the glue bottle will sit. I made this cut with a coping saw. I made it too shallow at first, which didn't hold the bottle as securely as I wanted.  I also found that it worked best if I coped the curve at a roughly 25º angle, too. 

I held the two pieces together and propped the glue bottle in place to mark where I wanted to drill my hole.  This hole will receive the tip of the bottle and keep the bottle in place.

I used a drill press and drilled a .5" hole -- it would have been better if it had been shallower (I was too lazy to adjust the press and drilled right through the base :)  I backed the hole with a scrap of wood and moved on with my life ...

Once everything was okay, I used wood glue and screws to attach the support to the base.  I should have drilled pilot holes, so my first screw split the wood, so don't do that :)  Nails would be fine, too. That's it!  It's practical, if not pretty, and I don't have to shake the darned glue bottle while I'm working.

I had received another order of slates from Richard Stacey, so I finished slating the second hip of my roof. I can now put it together if I'm feeling well enough tomorrow!