Finishing a few (workshop) kits

 I haven't updated my blog for a long time, but I am slowly getting back into the swing of things.  My "old" dolls house is now as good as finished. 

I have also started on a new one, but will dedicate a separate blog to that house, as I have done with my Florist and Witch's Cottage.

In the meantime I have finished a few smaller projects that were lying around in the form of kits, bought or saved up from club workshops, and a bigger project that is to be framed.

Since I haven't been doing miniatures for a while I have gotten out of the habit of photographing details, so the frame was nearly finished when I remembered to take pictures.

Luckily I have 2 or 3 stages:

It's all done with card and Styrofoam with some railway greenery added and items that I had lying around.

The bird house, the pot in the left bottom corner, and bird bath were all items that waited to be used.

The bird bath with the doves on it I have painted, as it was a plain white item.  The ivy on the wall hanger was a kit; the watering can is made of paper and treated with some rust-from-a-bottle. ;-) The name plate is printed in black on acetate with some gold added for effect and fixed to the wall with real little nails.

I am quite happy with the result and would love to make more of those kind of frames, but.... time

is always in short supply for me, so I don't think that'll happen... ;-)

Of the kits I had in my stash I have made and/or finished the following:

A water lily in a tiny pond

A Poinsettia

A toolbox kit that I have bought in 2015, but needed help with because the instructions were missing.  Finally got this help recently (2024) and was successful putting it together. 

Work not done by me,
but I would like it to look like this in
the future, complete with the tools

Made the T-shirt only yesterday.  A very 'old' kit that once was given to me by the group of friends-in-miniatures in the Netherlands.  This was initially a Yahoo group that graduated to real meetings. I missed out on most of them, of course, living in Australia, but was often given a kit or item that they had shared during those (workshop)meetings.  Many beautiful memories!  

"Minivrienden" T-shirt, and a similar
 one in the drawer from Katikati, NZ.

A cookbook

Sewing box kit - original and painted (2015)

The box in my sewing room

Sawhorse - a possible future workshop at the club

Next a few items that needed a coat of paint and some repairs.  Furniture for a mining cottage that I never built, but will use the items that I made somewhere else in the future.

Cot with sliding front and dresser with
tiltable mirror and opening drawers

And that is it for the time being.  I am trying to start my Dutch dollshouse.  I will start a blog on that soon and will post the link at the top.

My Dollshouse - part 17

I believe that my last post happened in 2021.  Since then I have worked on the house, but only intermittently and mostly I forgot to take pictures.  After the little sewing room I started on the attic.  It has a room for the 'traveller' in the family (on the right), a little hobby/storage area with a workbench (in the centre), and a nursery (on the left).

The rooms are partially filled with the Del Prado house furniture to which I have added gifts, bought items, home made items, and finished workshop kits. Some items I have had for over 20 years! Others are fairly new, but all of them are treasured.

The nursery

Centre section with workbench

Office in the attic

My Dollshouse - Part 16

Because of the festivities I am only working on my dollshouse intermittently and therefore I forget to take regular pictures.  In the meantime I have added a sewing room.  Originally it was to be the upstairs hallway with stairs going to the attic, but I didn't feel like having stairs taking up all of the room.  We'll just have to imagine that the stairs are somewhere at the back of the house....

I created the wallpaper myself and printed it all out on A4 paper.  The floor was done with some 1.5mm thick mahogany that I had laying around.  I cut the strips and glued them on paper, after which I glued the whole floor down. Waxed with bees wax of course. ;-)

The lamp came with the dollshouse, as usual.

The little sewing machine I already had, as well as the dressmaker's dummy and the white cabinet in the back.  The folding sewing reck was a workshop from the past and the little sewing cabinet on the floor as well.  The teddybear I have had for years.  Just a little addition to the room.  As with all the other rooms, the walls are still bare, but I will look into paintings and other decorations in the future.

  

My Dollshouse - part 15

 Besides working on the bathroom I have finally finished the outside of the house as well. I have attached the supports for the roof on both sides and the white trimming for the front.  In the future I will do something about the base, but don't have a plan worked out yet.

I am still not very impressed with the quality of the house as a whole, but.... I can make mistakes, I can try things out, I can use different period styles, in short I can do what I want! ;-)  It still boils down to the fact that if I hadn't started this I would never have gotten into minitures!

I have also finished most of the bathroom.  The venetian blinds have finally been added and I have frosted the glass of the upper windows in the bathroom.  I will need to make a few small items still and after that I will move on to the 'landing' in the centre, which will have no stairs either (like the groundfloor), but will most likely become a sewing room.

working on the blinds

blinds attached, complete with pelmets

some window dressing added

frosted upper windows 

windows dressed and a better view of the frosted windows

And that's all for now...

My Dollshouse - part 14 (and Xmas vignettes)

I am now more determined than ever to finish off this house so I can move on to other projects-in-waiting. However, as always I do get distracted a bit, and I am also putting together my old Christmas vignettes.  They have suffered a lot of wear and tear over the years, so cleaning and repairing was my first job. 

My Christmas kitchen is without a stove.  I am therefore putting a Phoenix kit together that I have had for years.  I have not yet done a kit in metal, only plastic or wood, so this is a different challenge.  

So far I have cleaned and painted a few parts, but ran into problems, because I have to of the same parts for the sides and this missing a hole for the oven door handle.  I am going to look into that and let you know how I went.

all the pieces

waiting to be painted

painted in matt black

As for the dollshouse, I am still working on the bathroom.  I have decided I want venetian blinds for the bottom windows.  The top ones I may give a 'frosted' look, but need to look into that later.  I thought blinds only might look a bit boring, so I have added window sills, similar to the ones in the kitchen.  I may have one blind down and one half-way.  Will need to see how it looks first.

window sills added

prototype in paper

the real deal done with photographic paper

Since 'real' venetian blinds are not possible, because if the fine knotting work I would have to do, I have separated the slats with beads.  The idea I saw on the internet, but a while ago and cannot remember where. I have opted for photographic paper again as it is shiny and makes the slats look more realistic.

In the meantime I am still working on the various parts of furniture and decoration in the batheroom.  I have now finished the privacy screen.  Next, painted and drying while I am writing this is the shelving unit. There is also the light to be finished off and a towel rack.

privacy screen in parts

privacy screen finished

I have worked hard over the past few days and the bathroom is nearly finished.  I have added a shelving unit and a towel rack. I wasn't happy with the way the shelving unit looked side-on so I covered the ugly slots with veneer and painted it in the colour of the unit.  So much better.  I decorated the unit with strips and other parts of card-making stickers. The same for the towel rack. I am pleased with the look. 

Shelving unit with white decorations

The side with the ugly slots

The sides covered with veneer

The towel rack finished

I have dug out items that I have had for years and that were made with this bathroom in mind.  The toilet came with the dolls house.  The toilet roll holder, the scales and the laundry bag were a few of the first items I ever made back in 1998 when I had just started.  The toilet roll holder is a working one. The kerosine heater was a workshop of the dollshouse club and was made with the use of findings and other little items after which it was painted in grey gloss. 

Net a few pictures of the (near) finished bathroom.  The light has come out a bit darker than planned, but it's passable....

Besides the blinds for the windows I can see I could probably add a few more things, in particular on the wall, but I will leave that for later.  I have temporarily run out of ideas.