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 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.

The pinball machine finished

Finally, after three years, I have been able to finish my pinball machine.  It still needs to be hooked up to a power source, but otherwise it's done and looking good, even if I say so myself.  I put on the finishing touches last night, so that I could go on with hanging the doors of my dolls house today.  However, a picture first:

The pinball machine
(flipperkast in Dutch)

In all honesty, I didn't build this from scratch.  It was a workshop/kit which I started in the Netherlands, but needed further help to finish it.  It's very tricky with all the electronics inside (for sound and light) and the fiddly little bits at the top.  Now I have to think about fitting surroundings...

Headache and miniatures don't mix

I had more time as usual of late and spent most of it working on my miniatures.  I had a piano to finish, made a piano stool and there was also this kit which I was working on.  Today it all came to a halt, because of a headache.  Hence this update of my blog.  Working on the computer is not so draining as concentrating on your work on the wood lathe.

My piano is finally finished.  I had a bit of a setback, but I can only blame myself.  As I mentioned before, my stain was rather old and I should have bought a new can. I would have done a much better job. Now I had to varnish my piano to make it look more presentable, but in reality it made it look worse.  To top it all of the rain has been pelting down here for three days in a row, so it was not quite the right sort of weather to paint or varnish anything.  Everything stayed sticky for a long time.  However, I am quite happy with the way my turning worked out.  I wanted to add some decorative turnings on either side.  Since my son had come and set up his wood lathe I tried my hand at it. The difficulty I was facing was that I needed two identical half shapes and was not game to put a turned piece through my sawing machine or scroll saw.  Fortunately my husband told me this trick: glue two pieces of wood together with wood glue and a piece of paper in between.  So I did and after a bit of practicing I ended up with these:

Remember the problem I had when my stain was too watery and the glue dissolved?  Well, in this case I used the dissolving glue to my advantage.  I turned the wood first and then threw the turnings in warm water.  This is the result.

A piano on its own doesn't look good, so I added a stool as well.  I need to practice turning a bit more for one of those old fashioned stools with a revolving seat, but a modern one will do for now:

The rounded edge of the seat is the toothpick that I showed you before, sanded back so I ended up with a half-round.  The seat has a cushion of very soft kangaroo leather and can be opened to store sheet music:

So, that's finished and now I will need to store both somewhere till I'll find a home for them.  The pictures were taken inside my flower shop.  They can stay there till I get a move on with the shop.

I've also finished the garden gloves and made a basket for them to be used in a garden.  I have made them suitably dirty, so they can't be sold in the shop. ;-)

I had two goes at the basket, because the first time around I made the strips too wide.  The second one looks better, but I used coloured varnish for a change and I don't know if I am happy with the result.  However, I have plenty of baskets, so it doesn't hurt to try something different for a change.

Well, that's it for the moment.  The school holidays are behind us now and the weeks will be busier from now on with all the classes and clubs that I attend, so I don't know how much I will be able to show you.  I do know that I still like to do more wood turning and I am currently looking at a chair with turned legs.  I'll keep you posted.

I have finally found some time to go and visit all the blogs of my new followers (insofar I could find one) and have enjoyed myself very much.  A warm welcome to all of you:

Ana Anselmo at MiniaturesForever

Deborah at Petit 

Mieke at Petit Victorian Rose 

Audra Pangle 

Karin Corbin at Karin Corbin Miniatures 

Myriam de Bruin at Millie Fleur 

Lea (Auteur du livre Le Grand Livre de la Maison Miniature) at Un jour a la campagne 

Johanna

Patrizia at Le Magie di Patty

Maragverdugo at Pequeneces

Cristina f

Jaz at Jazzi’s Minis

Silver Thistle at SilverThistles 

Sherry Raines 

-P- at Rotting Roof

Back home again

I've been home for a week now and still getting over the jet lag and all the excitement that the three months away overseas have brought me.  I had a fantastic time if not 'the time of my life', because I don't think this will ever occur again: 2 Miniature Fairs, a number of workshops and meeting with so many like minded friends.  As I said before, I still feel very privileged that I have been able to do this.

However, back to everyday life, which means: miniatures (what else?).

I had not yet shown you a number of gifts and I have to make the promise good that I would do that as soon as I would be home.

These are the gifts that I hadn't taken a picture of before.  There are 'new' and 'old' ones.  Let me explain.  The email group has on and off has a yearly get-together and a number of items were given to the few people that live overseas.  So, since I was able to pick them up myself this time I did so with great pleasure.  Other items were given to me while visiting here and there, but I wasn't always able to take a picture.  There might even be more coming, because I had to send on two parcels in the mail, which hopefully will arrive soon.  If there's anything else I should show you I will.  Oh well, there is something else, but I am not telling you..... yet.

Next I have also spent some time on actual miniature making.  Amongst other things I have bought a number of workshop kits to present to people of our club.  I don't always have the time to think of something new, nor am I of the creative type to do so, so I was happy to find this alternative.

I have started on two of them.  Yes, I know there are some more interesting workshops waiting to be finished, but I have started on these so as to have something ready for the next few meetings.  I have to put a kit together before I present the workshop, because I want to know what we're supposed to be doing. ;-)

Here goes.  Number 1 is something I have been wanting to make for quite a while now: a lever arch folder:

This kit was designed and put together by Tine Krijnen of whom I have bought a number of book making kits before.  I love them all and they are among my prized possessions. 

The next one is a more country themed kit: a chicken in a kind of framed shadow box.  I am hoping to start on a country shop when my florist is finished, so this is a good start:

It's a bit difficult to see in the picture, but there is a chicken behind the wire and some straw and a few eggs.  It looks lovely in real life.  This kit was designed and put together by Anneke van der Sande.

And by now it's time for me to have lunch, so I wish you all the best and till next time.