Something different

As you may be aware, I am a member of the Bribie Woodcrafters' and learning a lot of new skills. I like working with wood, and I like my machines even more. I have acquired quite a collection and the corner in my garage was getting rather crowded. Everything was on trestles and a small Triton workbench, but since last week I am the proud owner of a real workbench:

I have sorted everything out and tidied up and I am hoping that I can keep it quite as tidy as it is now...

Having such, may I say unusually small, machines for woodworking it has attracted quite an interest at the 'Woodies' and I was asked to come around on market days to demonstrate, which I happily did last Sunday, together with my other half.  I took a number of my miniatures around to display and it is amazing when you realise how few people actually know about this hobby.  Frank demonstrated the milling machine and the router(table), I worked on my thicknesser and table saw.  We took a kind of Unimat system with us as well, although we were not working on it, but had it set up for wood turning.  Everyone commented on the size of it: so small!  Anyway, I did some preparation work for workshops, so time wasn't wasted and we had a lovely day overall.  Who knows, we might eventually get some more people interested in miniatures.

Before Sunday I had also made a little cabinet.  Since it's meant for the Florist go and have a look at my other blog if you haven't already done so.

On Monday I had a lucky escape while doing my cabinet making course.  I had been working on almost all the more dangerous machines during the day, but managed to damage my hand on a simple band sander.  I had switched from one sander to the one next to it, not realising that the support for the wood had a bigger opening underneath than the other one.  The piece of wood slipped through and so did my hand.  It got really stuck under the metal frame and I can tell you, it was a huge relief that I could wriggle all my fingers when my hand was finally freed....  I am now badly bruised and have lost a bit of skin on the inside, but I am using all ten fingers to type this, so it's not too bad after all.

Now it's back to the drawing board as I am trying to design another little cabinet.

Bye for now and thanks again for stopping by.

Workshop enamel spoon rack

This is roughly what you need:
metal ruler
fine paint brushes
pencil
shaping tool
mouse mat or other soft surface
scalpel or sharp hobby knife
pair of scissors
wire cutters
pliers
wire (0.6 mm ø)  piece of 65 mm long
hole punch (ordinary household punch with hole of 5.5 mm ø)
cutting mat
piece of card or very thick paper
paint of your choice including black
tacky glue
tweezers

Save the above image onto your computer and from there print it onto card.  The pattern itself should measure approx. 38 mm from top to bottom.  Cut it out around the outside black line.  Cut a strip of paper approx. 30 mm long and 2 mm wide.  Punch out two circles.  Cut a piece of wire approx 65 mm long.

The second black line is not shown on the above cut-out but you should try and shape your wire into the shape of the black line on your card. When done it should look like the wire in the above picture.

With your shaper (I use a glass one, but metal will do as the glass ones are hard to come by) follow and indent the black line carefully.

Place the wire in the indented line and glue in place with tacky glue.  I know this is not the conventional way of making enamel spoon racks, but it shows up nicely at the front and it stays.  Just indenting the card with the shaper is not enough as it would loose its shape.

Turn your work over and follow the contours of your wire on both sides.  Go carefully so that you don't crinkle or split your card.

Get a skewer or something else that is round and not too thick and roll the bottom of your card carefully around towards the front.  Roll a few times till the card keeps its shape.  You can now also glue the strip of card at the top.  Measure the length from the outside of the wire from one side to the other.  Make the two folds approx. 2 mm deep and glue outside the wire.

Next cut the two circles in half, but just above the halfway mark, say at approx. 3 mm. and glue them on the outsides of the curled up bit at the bottom to form a sort of a gutter, like in the picture below.

If you want to you can finish off the edge at the bottom with a length of thread or wire, but I don't find that satisfactory, so I shape a very thin edge with tacky glue and paint over it.

Paint the rack in the colour of your choice and with a bit of black and/or brown paint make the enamel look chipped at the edges here and there.

Also have a look at the white one in the picture below, which shows up better than the dark green.

Below are the spoons and other implements that I have made from a Dutch workshop, which you can find here if interested: http://minimarilo.punt.nl/?gr=791430

And this is the result of an afternoon's work:

Have fun and if you have questions, just ask! :-)

Bye for now.

An addition to the kitchen

As I was placing lots of items in the kitchen I discovered that 'lots' was still not enough, so I had a good hard look to see what a complete kitchen would still need.  First I discovered the dishwashing mop, or rather lack thereof.  I remembered the one my mother used in her time so that was the start.  I happened to discover a workshop on it somewhere on a blog, but unfortunately I wiped my history and cannot remember who's blog it was.  If I remember I will mention it here later.

The hardest part was not drilling the tiny little hole, but trying to thread the 'twine' through which is needed to hang the mop on the hook.  Even my thinnest needle wouldn't go through, but I finally got it done.

Next I needed a little enamel rack to hang enamel spoons on.  You know: a ladle and one with little holes to scoop the foam of the surface of a liquid (don't know the name for it) and a kind of sauce ladle.  Anyway, I was quite happy with my first effort although it was a bit short.  When I tried it against the back wall I was disappointed, because it didn't stand out against the white wall.  No problem, I made another one.  This one shows complete with the set of ladles:

I am quite happy with the results, although the ladles were quite a job to make.  I am not good at cutting round shapes.  The rack was made after a picture I saw on Ebay.  The ladles I created after this workshop: http://minimarilo.punt.nl/?gr=791430  Marie Louise, if you ever read this: thank you for your handy workshop.

And after all that, the rack is now hanging, not on the wall, but on the side of the fireplace!  So I could have used the white one after all, but...  I leave it as it is.

Now I am making a few canisters and after that I will make an old fashioned sand-soap-and-soda rack.  I have made one before, but it resides in another kitchen.  I just have to stop borrowing and will have to make things twice or more if I want them.  Such a rack is also enamel and contains three little cups: one for each sand, soap and soda.  In the olden days used for cleaning and scouring in kitchens.

Now it's time again to welcome my new followers.  More every time I look.  I am humbled and very pleased that my blog seems to attract such interest.  Great! Thank you very much for visiting.

My latest followers are:

Judith at Cherry Croft

Dangerous Mezzo at The Tudor Medieval Jacobean Queen Anne Dollhouse Project

Hannelore Strehler-Baur at Meine Miniwelt 

Michelle at Michelle’s Mad World

Els de Kom

Mieke 

Christina

? at Encourage One another

I love your blogs, in particular Meine Miniwelt which deals with my favorites: toys!  However, there are other interesting blogs too.  I have visited all of them.  One I'll leave out, and the person concerned will know why.  I have visited her blog and left her a private message.  Els, welcome to you too.  I know you don't have a blog, but can't remember your website (it was on my pc which crashed).

My next blog will have a workshop on it.  I am preparing it right now and will add it when I have a moment.
Till then.

My dolls house - part 9

I am going to bore you with some more pictures. :-)  Not that I am a great photographer, far from that, neither have I done a lot of work, but I am filling downstairs with the little things that have been lying around in boxes for  ten long years.  After I had taken the pictures of the kitchen I discovered that I wasn't happy with the open parts of the big shelving cabinet, so I found a piece of cardboard, my old tin of (by now very thick) blueberry ash paint and set to work.  It looks a lot better now.  I am happy!  I used the same white glass pins for the knobs on the drawers as I had used for the cabinet I'd made earlier, so this at least is a matching set.  The white strips along the shelves are from peel-off card making stickers.  It's so handy when you have more than one hobby...

Next I'll show you some close-ups of the shelves.

I don't know how I managed to get this picture done when the shelves aren't in the least bit crooked!!!??
Well, it doesn't matter.  The plates on the top shelf are just paper plates which I decorated with decals.  I learned this from Carolyn from Carolyn's Little Kitchen.  I admire her work so much.  If I could do only half of what she does....  Yeah, keep dreaming Marion!  The same goes for the other three plates.  I should get a better close-up, because the detailed work is fabulous.  They are done by Anja Knoop from the Netherlands.  She is famous for her fimo plates which she paints with ink.  Such fine work.  I am very proud to possess some of her work.  The little box I made of paper.

The next shelf contains a Dutch type of tea cosy, which can actually be opened and you can put a teapot inside, but the teapot is now on the table.  The tea cosy was made by Loes Snoodijk.  She is not only very good with this type of thing, but she also makes beautiful furniture.  I have shown you earlier the chairs I made at one of her workshops last year.  On the left is a fimo tray made and painted by me. (That's why I put the cheese in the centre LOL).  The bread and bread stick are also made of fime, as is the cheese.  The little box is the one that tea bags come in.  The bottle of Grand Marnier and the cake mould are bought items.  The mould I am planning to use to make a jelly pudding sometime in the future.

The bottom shelf contains a jar of liquorice allsorts (given to my by a friend who's name I can't think of right now), a mortar and pestle and fruit made by me of polymer clay and a knife that I bought.  The fruit bowl is an unfinished piece of wood turning.  My hubby wasn't very succesful with his turning work the other day and I asked him to make this into a bowl after he had a mishap.  Will finish if off one day....

It's getting late.  I won't be going into much detail anymore.  Most of the pieces in the kitchen are a mixture of bought items, items given to me by friends or obtained through swaps or made by me.  The table is set for lunch and the lady of the house has just arrived back home from her groceries shopping.

I love the shadow-cat on the door.  No, it's not done with the scroll saw.  I cheated and made it out of a few layers of thin card to look like wood.

Details of the folk art painting on the table, the distressed chair, crocheted cushion and macrame shopping bag.

The shelf above the stove.  The two plates are very dear to me.  The top one (although not completely in the picture) has the inscription MOD, which stands for Marion Ontmoetings Dag.  It refers to meeting a number of people from the Dutch email group I have been a member of for the past 10 years or so.  It says a lot about the group, doesn't it?  The plate with the teddy bear, that I broke and I felt terrible about it, was given to me in 2000 by Anja vd Doel.  She was a good friend and IGMA Artisan.  She used to make the most beautiful settings and was also wellknown for her flowers and bouquets.  Unfortunately she passed away a few years ago.  I am really happy to have this plate and lots of other items of her making, but I save those for my Dutch house that's been in the planning.

 The cats are playing with the curtain until I can find the bowl that belongs to them...  The little shelving thingy above the kitchen bench is partially made of fimo and partially of wood.  It is a copy of a similar little cabinet that I saw in one of the books that came with the Del Prado house.  I have made two.  The other one hangs in  another kitchen.  This is only a bad copy, but still worth hanging on the wall.  The sieve is 'enamel' made of paper.

I changed the doors of the hutch to make it look more like a meat safe.  The knobs I remembered from my auntie's old house and are made of wood.  They do work.

I love the look of this picture.  It's the only way I can go inside my kitchen and look through the windows: take my camera there!  I had to put my hand and camera through two doorways, but it worked! I would love to sit in that kitchen and have lunch or a cuppa while the sun is streaming through the windows...

 The following picture was taken with the light on.

So far the pictures of the kitchen.  My back is sore.  Time to give it a rest.  I'll go and find an easy chair and a glass of red and put my feet up.

See you next time.

My dolls house - part 8

It's been a few weeks again, but I have been working on the house in the meantime, albeit with problems where I least expected them.  I am just not having a very good time, but hey, we'll persevere...  So what was the latest I did?  Ah yes, the curtains in the living room.  The kitchen was the next place that needed window dressing, so I set out to do something different there as well.  Not liking the pelmet one bit, especially in a kitchen, I thought of something else.  Shorter curtains and two window sills.  A narrow one for the top windows on which I hope to place some potted herbs in the future, and a wider one for the bottom windows with something I have always liked: geraniums and hyacinths!  So there you are:

I am not yet happy with the bottom one, because it's leaning forward. They were very difficult to attach to the wall as there is not much to hang on to.  I will have to think of something.  Looking at the picture I might add small strips of wood underneath, so it will look a bit better and then you won't see the window frames either (as if you would if you don't look at a photograph :-)....)  I like the look from the outside as well.  I will just have to hang the curtains straight:

Next step was to attach the 'corner stones' to the front walls.  They are just as crappy as the roof tiles, but I don't really care much as you'll know by now.  At least they give the plain walls a bit of a lift:

After the wet weather the walls have straightened again considerably. Unreal.  I may have to buy a humidifier to keep to house in order. LOL That wouldn't be enough anyway, because it's already starting to fall apart.  The narrow part with the front door has come off the hinges since I took this picture.  I should have realised that glueing the nails and the hinges first would have been a better option, because the door is too heavy with the stairs attached.

In the meantime I have decided to finish downstairs first and so I have put back the furniture that I have started with a long time ago:

All the furniture in the kitchen was painted white originally, but I didn't like the look, so started off with a few blue items to go with the walls.  As I don't like perfect matches all through the house I have put in a hutch with a different finish: Baltic pine (if I remember well) and added a light tan table top.  The sides of the table I have painted with folk art designs.  I have allowed some white in the kitchen, otherwise it would be too dark.  If you take a close look you'll see a few stains on the walls and the fireplace, but they will be covered up again.  They are from the blue tack with which I initially attached some items to the walls.  I will now either glue them or use wax.  I haven't made up my mind yet.  Glue might be too permanent.  And while you're having a close look you'll see all the dust on the surface of the furniture.  Yak, this dirty kitchen needs a good clean up first.

Although the house is mainly done in the Victorian style, I am not strictly sticking to it.  It's my fun and practice house, so I don't care if the styles are a miss-match here and there.

As you can see, the living room is more Victorian with its dark furniture, curtains and wall paper.  It will end up rather gloomy, but that is quite the essence of the Victorian period.  I have used the original fabric for the chairs and sofa and I must admit I rather like it.  The fabric is a bit too much like cotton, but the stripes go well with the other colours and brighten the room just that little bit.  I do need a rug on the floor though, because it looks quite austere the way it is now. I might also get some stuff to get rid of silverfish.  The nasty bug(ger)s have started eating the wallpaper in the living room.  They really are a nuisance in this damp climate.

This is the hallway.  Not much to tell about it as I have already visited this part of the house earlier on.  Next pictures show the living room and kitchen with their respective curtained walls:

And it's time again to welcome a few more followers.  I was surprised to notice that we have past the round number of 200 already.  I am really humbled to see that so many people seem to take an interest in what I am doing in my 'miniature life'.  I must be honest with you though, and tell you that I no longer offer give-aways.  I think it's a nice tradition for people who like it, just like the rewards, but I am no longer interested in either.  I just like to play with my minis when I have time (and that's not much) and tell you all about it, but I am afraid that's where it ends.  Of course I am not entering nor advertising give-aways either.  I hope you will understand and respect my view.  Then here's a list of new followers.  If I couldn't find a blog or a website I just show your name:

Kaya at Kaya – my doll’s world

Silke at Silke’s Miniatures

Allis.Kirkegaard at Allis Glade blog

Lidi Stroud at Intominis (Hi Lidi, I'm still in awe of your beautiful baskets!)

Tyla at Obscure Creations 

Minisonja

Amary at El Mini Rincon de Amary

I wish you all a warm welcome, thank you for following my blog and hope you will enjoy it, as I enjoyed visiting your blogs and/or websites.

Bye for now.

PS
Sonja has just given me her blog: Minisonja and of course I had a quick look.  Will need to go back though.  What a wonderful blog Sonja.  Your tutorials are great and I admire your Baby Shabby Chic Boutique very much.

My dolls house - part 7

Well, my pondering worked, as well as my corresponding with like minded mini-friends.  I received a few tips about making curtains so I set out to work. As you know, I didn't want to use a pretty pleater and the first tip was to use skewers.  I wanted to try it, but discovered soon enough that I didn't have enough skewers and, impatient as I was, I didn't want to wait till I could go out and do my shopping.  The second tip was to use a polystyrene board and spray starch.  I had both, so I could start straightaway.  Here's a picture of the pelmet and the curtains drying:

I haven't tried my hand yet at making miniature tassels, so I made the same tie-backs as I have made for my own 1:1 bedroom in one of our former houses.  I quite like the look.  Lace curtains were missing, however, so I went through my stash of fabric and found a particular nice piece.  The patterns on it were a wee bit big, but I didn't care, since the lace fabric itself was so beautiful and fitting for this window.

The tie-backs I have fitted with tiny rings to be able to attach them to a small brass nail at the side of the windows.  I had to pull back the curtains a bit, because as this house is just riddled with problems, the pelmets were really too narrow for the windows.  They are exactly the width of the windows, but there is no accounting for the width of the wood, thus one ends up with curtains narrower than the width of the windows.  In such small scale 3 mm on each end would be nearly 4 cm in real life.  Far too much!

It's very noticeable when you open the door and look at the curtains from the side on:

There is nothing much I can do about it now, so I try not to let it worry me too much.  (Please ignore the camera inside the house.  It's one of those minis that I haven't found a place for yet and it's too fragile to put away in a box with all the other furniture.)  And this is what it looks like from the outside:

Not bad I reckon, although eventually I want to see some greenery.  At the moment it all looks a bit sterile.  But hey, Rome wasn't built in a day, was it? :-)

Considering what the curtains should have looked like if I had literally followed the instructions from the book (and used the original material) I am pretty pleased with myself:

Alas, the lounge and chairs I had made in the very beginning and back then I used the fabric that originally came with the kit.  It's not too bad, but with more experience behind me I would now have chosen a different fabric for the other furnishings.

My next step might be getting the furniture in place downstairs and do some work on the decorating perhaps. The doors will have to wait till I can find magnetic strips.  I am in no hurry.  At least I can keep the dust out for the moment.

See you around next time and have a great day, wherever you are...

My dolls house - part 6

A short update this time with but a few photos.

I have attached the windows and glazing.  Not a very exciting job, nor a very quality job either.  The 'glazing' is only the see-through kind used for overhead projectors and the windows, like the door, are plastic moulded windows.  It had to be done though and in some way the house is coming a bit more to life.

The 'doors' are all very warped and the magnets that are supposed to keep the doors closed tight are not working at all.  For a week or so it looked good, because we had a very wet period with loads and loads of rain, so the humidity was close to 100%, which made that doors sit nice and straight.  Now it's drying out again, the warping is back. :-(  I think I might look around for magnetic strips instead and see if they would do a better job.

Next is attaching the pelmets and curtains for all rooms.  The pelmets have been glued, and the one for the living room I have covered with the fabric I am going to use for the curtains:

The picture isn't very clear, but you get the drift....  (I am in a bit of a hurry, going out soon).  You can also see the poor quality of the windows on the inside.  Luckily it's not something that will always be in full view.

I now have the curtains ready to pleat, but I am a bit at a loss of what I will do.  I don't really want to use a pretty pleater, because I don't quite like the unnatural straight look.  On the other hand, gathering the curtains at the top only will also produce an unnatural look if the next picture is anything to go by:

I like the fabric very much and it's soft and silky, but in reality not as shiny as in the picture.  The seams were easy to glue with the special fabric glue I have, but......... I am a bit stuck right now.  So, I am going out and give myself some time to ponder the problem in hand.

See you around.