Trying To Remember...

I have been 'miniaturing'... and I've done a fair bit - its the trying to remember how blogger works, and also trying to remember to update lol.  The cricut has been invaluable so far - furniture making is so much more easier :)

I am helping to run a small facebook group now - https://www.facebook.com/groups/WhereDoIBegin/

It's for both the newcomers to the miniature world, as well as the more seasoned mini crafters too - after all, there's no point in just having people who want to learn if there's nobody there to teach them :) If you're interested, come along and join us. We don't bite... well, not often anyways ;)

So... I will sort out the photos and post what I have been up to - though it may take a little while as I am in the middle of a 'craft-room crisis' at the moment. Too many hobbies and not enough space lol

My craft room is overflowing, stuffed to the ceiling, and I can barely see my floor :)

Of course, there's not actually much floor space to be seen anyway as I have so many storge towers and drawer units here too! 

BUT.., I will get it done. Really. Honest ;)

Look Who's Back!?!? And She Has A Cricut...

It has been many years since I posted here - age and illness robbed me of deft fingers and good eyesight. I am in my 50's now, with ailing health... and have noticed that I seem to be not the only miniaturists who has deserted the blogosphere and disappeared with barely a trace.

Is miniature-making not a popular hobby any longer?

Are people falling out of love with dolls houses?

Or are many of them, like me, just getting too old and infirm?

Oh, I hope not!

I never really gave up miniature making - though I certainly couldn't turn my hand to 1:24th scale now - and not much possibility of me making clay figures either. I have had a dolls house since posting last - but it ended up being unfinished, unloved... and then broken and dumped.

I still have the gypsy caravan model my husband bought me - still not put together, still in bits...

and now I have another dolls house - a child's one that I picked up for just £19.

This new- found interest in miniature has happened for two reasons...

Firstly, I play a Hidden Object Game (HOG) based upon Agatha Christie's book "The 4.50 From Paddington". I LOVE Agatha Christie books, plays, television series, films... whether its Miss Marple, Poirot,Tommy and Tuppence, Harley Quin or any other character and tale she's magically woven. Anyway... in this HOG there is Miss Marple's living room... and I wanted to recreate it as a room box. I have no idea why this idea planted itself into my head and refused to go away... but it took root and grew and grew. I haven't the room box - but have much of what I need to fill it now. Mostly hand-crafted from scratch, or up-cycled from broken or damaged 1:12th miniatures, I have about 90% of the items I need.

Here's the room I want to recreate:

It won't be exact - but my interpretation of it.

And the second reason? Hubby bought me a Cricut Maker... and although I don't really have a clue how to use it properly, it is allowing me to be able to cut shapes and be accurate - which helps a lot in miniature making :)

Here's a quick snap-shot of some of the items I've made:

Not the grandfather clock - that's an up-cycled project. But the stole, chairs, globes, table, jug, water canteen, basket and contents, hatbox (opening), suitcase (opening), lemon tree and pot, fan, umbrella, radio.... they are all my own creations - from scratch.
Now, I'm not promising regular updates, or a finished dolls house any time soon... but what I can say is that I will be making a few things and trying my best to upload my efforts.

What A Klutz!

Today I decided it was about time to get my figures ready for putting together... I made them all shoulders, made sure they all had a matching pair of hands and feet with footwear (I hate sculpting shoes - feet are easy, but shoes are a pain! lol), and drilled holes ready for the armature...

And that's where it started to go wrong!

My drill is too tiny, so I borrowed hubby's Dremel to drill the holes I needed as it's bigger than mine. 

Firstly, I misjudged how powerful it was, and when drilling, the little arm flew out of my hand, and with the power of the Dremel behind it, shot across the room somewhere. Half an hour of searching, and I finally retrieved the appendage and started again - holding on a lot more tightly this time.

Next mishap... I was holding tightly to "Come Give Grandma A Kiss", when I felt a terrible burning sensation in my fingers... because I had drilled through the side of the arm, and the drill bit was whirring away, burning my hand! 

Darn - what a Klutz I was being today!

I got out some more clay, and added a bit to Grandma's arms... and was so heavy handed as I was trying to mold the clay, I broke off Grandma's thumb, little finger and ring finger! Out with the Liquid Sculpey, and on to trying to fix poor Grammy's hand. I had to do the two fingers first, and whilst that was in the over re-baking, I decided to clear up a little... and 'cleared up' her thumb. An HOUR later, I managed to relocate the missing thumb under my desk, and reattach it with Liquid Sculpey and baking again. The thumb moved. Somewhere between me placing the limb gently in the oven, and getting it out 10 minutes later, the thumb had turned... so now Grammy has severe arthritis in her left hand with her disjointed thumb.

What a palaver!

On the plus side... Grammy has a lovely little pair of lower legs with pink slippers...

Lets hope I can put her together without doing any more damage!

I have to add this... Hopefully Ms Lizzie will put a photograph of her Fred onto her blog soon.

She came for a visit on Sunday, sat down with a lump of clay, and made 'Fred' - her first figurine sculpture, and he is amazing! She's a natural :)

For myself... well, I have had such a lot of fun making Grammy, that I shall probably make a few more to sell - all different and unique - because I don't use molds :)

Slowly Does It...

I have been taking my time - re-learning how to make dolls house dolls using polymer clay. I kind of have my own way of making them - a mixture of a LOT of watching how other people sculpt, and then trying out different techniques until I was happy with what I could do.

I am no expert. I have a habit of starting out with a bit of clay, deciding what I want to do... and then abandoning all thoughts of what I want as the clay seems to have a mind of it's own, and I just end up with whatever happens to be made in front of me lol

I make my own eyes for the dolls - once again, a technique that's been a LOT of trial and error (mostly error!). I don't gloss the eyes until the last of the baking has been done - I use oven-dry clay usually - so they may look a bit dull until they're finished. A quick peek at the heads so far...

Jacob Marley (the ghost), and a figurine that I call "Come give Grandma a kiss"...

 I make the front of the heads first, as I find this much easier - mainly because I am quite heavy handed and tend to squash things out of shape if I have to hold them AND sculpt them :)

A 'head in progress' is my next 'doll'... he's going to be a man smoking a cigarette...

 The cigarette is remove-able at the moment - I'll glue it into place when he is otherwise completely finished, as I need to shorten is slightly at the filter end, and also to make sure it doesn't break :)

 I am also making a little cat from leftover clay - an experiment. He is sculpted now... but only got fur on his legs at the moment. I decided that to make the faces, I really needed to clear away ALL bits of mohair. The hair gets EVERYWHERE! I even find I am sneezing it out several days after using it!

I have had a bit of a break from crafting... I had quite a stunning allergic reaction to some medication I had been prescribed - it started with my lip, and then my whole face swelled - it was so funny! Of course, in the last two pictures, you will have to excuse my awful nails that need redoing... and my awful 'selfie' with no make-up and not even my hair done! Had to show the photo though - I am rocking those Jagger-lips :)

Amazing Etsy Shop

Well, I was having a poke around Etsy earlier, when I came across the most wonderful little shop.

World In Miniature By Diane

 The items Diane sells are mostly handmade, - some beautiful pieces of made-to-order furniture.. and the best part? Her prices are so inexpensive, you can go on a serious mini-shopping spree without breaking the bank :)

I just had to share this... please, if you're a miniature collector, go see Diane's shop - you won't regret it :)

Here's s few of her amazing items:

Shop Here

Shop Here

Shop Here

Shop Here

Shop Here

Update

Well, I have tried my hand, once again, at making a 1:12 scale dolls house doll. It's been several years since I made my last one, and since that time, I have aged somewhat. My eyesight has dimmed and my fingers are a lot less nimble... the result is far from fetching, I am afraid. I am trying (trying being the operative word here) to create a figure for the 'Woman In Black' Study room... the proportions are off - I think the head is too big. BUT that's not the only problem... The figure has been made with a mix of nightglow, white, and pale skin tone Fimo clay. For a ghost, the pallor of her skin is perfect... but the way she has been sculpted (I used the term VERY loosely here) and then painted, makes her look as though she's an alien who has gone mad in a Goth's wardrobe...

I can only hope that she looks better when dressed and hidden under a black veil. This sculpting malarkey is so much more difficult than I recall.

When she's finished, I will post a photo - nomatter how bad it is... along with Miss Havisham - who has been waiting YEARS to be dressed - Oh, The Shame! lol

At least I can say I have tried.

Copper Boiler

I decided to make a copper-boiler for the scullery - this was basically a pot (not often copper, because it was too expensive - but wrought iron instead) set into a concrete top set on a brick surround, with a fire underneath to heat the water. The water was usually ladled in - and when not needed, ladled out again. This copper boiler was used, obviously, for hot water - but also to cook in (boil and steam), and clean items in (including laundry). There was an 'air space' under the fire grate to allow the heat to circulate, and it was covered with a barrel-top (a circle of wood slats).

In a dairy larder/scullery, the copper boiler was used to heat the milk in when making cheese. Just a little bit of useless information there :)

I started of my boiler with 3 pieces of cardboard and a cut-up egg carton...

I smooched a bit of Liquid Sculpey over the basic carcass when it was built and then cut out some rectangles from Fimo clay. I actually made these rectangles - the 'bricks' - too large, and if I did another, I'd make these bricks a lot smaller. The Liquid Sculpey allowed the bricks to stick to the cardboard. I rolled out a thinner piece to sit over the top and shaped it into the rim of the bowl.

I took a risk making a cardboard carcass, but thought that as Fimo baked at such a low temperature, the cardboard wouldn't have time to burn. The wood glue I used in some of the carcass-making did brown - the paper glue (Scotch Quick Dry) didn't discolour at all.

After baking, I let it cool and then painted it with acrylic paints. After talking to Ms Lizzie, it was decided that whitewashed bricks would be more suitable than red brick.

I daubed the paint on because I'd rather have this effect than try and make everything look absolutely smooth and perfect - because it never does look perfect! The 'insides' of the boiler look a total mess - but nobody will see those when the boiler is installed into the scullery.

I was going to use black paint for the bowl, but changed my mind and used copper - well, it's brass coloured actually, because I didn't have any copper paint.

A small door knob and a hook-and-eye simple latch, and it's all ready - except the copper paint is so thick it will probably take a week to dry lol I have made the wooden top also - but I think it needs... 'tweaking' - so I'll photograph that later.

 I am pleased with how it has turned out - it looks just as good as the bought ones that cost at least £40 - and mine was made up with stuff I already had - and some Fimo oven dry clay that possibly cost less than £3.50.

I will probably do a little more painting, and I have a battery operated red glow light (£3) that I can hide inside the fire grate :)

Okay, so it took me a day to build and make - but still not a bad addition to my dolls house scullery, I think :)