Lights

I was not happy with the commercial 12v lights that I initially installed. They get hot, burn out, malfunction. They also are not very interesting. When installed with adapters to plug directly into copper tape, they look especially ugly and are really likely to malfunction. 

Side note: Since so many people use copper tape systems, why don't the light fixture manufacturers make them available with prongs, ready to install?

So I've been making my own fixtures using tiny 3v LEDs from Evan Designs. After trolling around local bead stores and etsy, I've accumulated enough findings to make enough fixtures to light an entire apartment building. The hardest part is deciding which to use.

I replaced the commercial sconces and chandelier in the dining room with more turn-of the-century, Golden Age era-appropriate fixtures.

For the master bedroom, I copied antique French style fixtures with opaline drops like this one:

I used thin-walled copper tubing because it would be easier to bend and because I planned to thread the wires through the tubing. However, it also crushed easily and I knew the insulation on the wires would never survive getting pulled through such tight turns. Fortunately, this doesn't really impact the finished result. If I were to make another one, I might try using a finer gauge solid brass rod.

I used a jig to bend the tubing.

I strung the tiny LEDs through white glass beads for the candles and used Zap-a-Gap to attach them to the blue glass cup-shaped beads (bought on ebay) and hung them to dry.

I attached the candles to each arm of the chandelier with glue, then wrapped the hair-fine wire around the arm to bring it to the top of the fixture. I painted the wires with gold paint so they would blend in.

I used very fine brass wire to wind around the top and bottom and a brass bead cap for the bottom. I cut a piece of wider diameter tubing for the center support and threaded all the LED wires into it.

Very tiny rosary chain and glass drops were "sewn" on with very fine brass wire, which was much easier than using o rings.

Then I made 4 sconces to match.

Here they are, installed. 

Learning Curve: 

The great thing about LEDs is that they are so long-lasting and the wire is so fine that they can be installed an covered by the wallpaper then fed out the back of the house through a tiny hole. The bad thing about LEDs is that the insulation on the wires is easily nicked, leading to shorting out if they come into contact with metal or each other. Keep checking each LED with a battery at every stage of construction. It is incredibly frustrating to get the piece finished and find that it is shorting out.  If you do nick the insulation, you can repair it with nail polish.  If you are threading them through tubing, apply a bit of liquid soap to help them slide through with less fricton.

Custom Shelves

I've been thinking about why so many dollhouse rooms are overstuffed with furniture or oddly laid out. With the 4th wall missing, there is 25% less wall space to line furniture up on. Since most real rooms would not have a wall devoid of furniture, I decided to do the unthinkable. In most the bedrooms, the beds are on the missing wall opposite the fireplace, where they belong. 

In the little girl's room, which has little usable wall space, I needed a large shelf unit to display accessories. So I decided to make one without a back to stand along the front edge. 

I bought 2 1" scale dollhouse spindle grill work spandresl from ebay.

Tiny Turnings, which unfortunately have been discontinued.

Cut 1/8th-inch thick basswood to size for shelves. I mixed latex paint to match the other furniture in the room and painted all components.  Using a gold pen, I drew in the details. 

                       

Using a gluing jig, I assembled the parts. 

 Here's the finished piece:

I've got a (herring) bone to pick

I've been trying to replicate as many of the original features of my own house as possible. The third floor has light wood herringbone floors. While I've seen beautiful examples of miniature herringbone floors, cut and installed piece by piece, I know that I don't have the patience for such a project. So I sprung for Dollhouse Miniature Herringbone Wood Floor Trim by Alessio Miniatures.  

Given the incredible detail possible with laser cut miniatures, I was very disappointed with how poorly these fit together. The end pieces are so badly cut that they force the main pieces apart. I tried everything to get them to fit, filing, sanding and filling, but no matter what I did, there are very prominent gaps. 

Buyer beware.

Shudder: Shutters

I have not posted for months because I have been stalled out by obsessing over shutters. This type of brownstone ALWAYS has double sets of folding shutters hidden in the molding of the front windows. 

                      

   

Even though they will be virtually invisible when closed, I couldn't let go of the idea of installing them. 

The first dilemma was making the shutters themselves. I tried using 1/12 shutter stock, 1/24 clapboard siding and premade 1/24 shutters.

I ruled out the clapboard, as it didn't look enough like shutter stock. 

I bought the shutter stock and shutter frame from Northeastern Scale Lumber. Unfortunately, the shutter frame made the folded shutters too thick to fit in the window frames.

CLC5

$8.31

SHUTTER STOCK 3-1/2" X 24"

SFC6

$1.85

3/16"  SHUTTER FRAME  - 1026

So I ordered their 3/32 CHANNEL 11" - 10/PKG. Product Code: 332CHAP $5.20 

This is VERY fragile and hard to cut without crushing. Once cut to size, it was very hard to fit the shutter stock into it. This type of shutter has a panel across the middle. If I glued on even the thinnest wood strip, it would keep the shutters from folding flat. I had some glossy paper "wood" flooring the right color, so I cut the strips from that. I used colored chalk to mask the white cut edges. I made 12 of these for the inner part of the shutters. Then I had to make 12 of the solid outer parts. I used a very thin, flat molding, cut to length, fitted into the 3/32 channel molding and added the paper cross piece. And for some idiotic reason, I made them too short for the window frame.

                                                   

The next dilemma was how to hinge them together. Even the tiniest hinges (which are also blindingly expensive as I would need 96 of them) could not be nailed onto the 3/32 frame. Decided to use tyvek which is durable and flexible. I painted a tyvek envelope gold, cut it into tiny bits and glued them on. Unfortunately, I had painted both sides of the tyvek. The glue stuck to the paint instead of the tyvek and the hinges promptly fell off.

I painted more tyvek, one side only this time, and it worked well.

 

This whole project took ridiculously long and was incredibly frustrating. I've spared you many of the false starts and mistakes. So when it came time to make the shutters for the next floor, I decided to take the easy way out and ordered 1/24 premade shutters (Houseworks item #H5025). Of course it had been so long since I had made the first set that I made the same error and painted both sides of the tyvek for the hinges, with the same failing result. Sigh. If only I had blogged this sooner I would have seen my own notes and avoided repeating the same mistake.

Now the REALLY frustrating part: The holes had already been cut to hold the windows, but they were both too wide and too tall for the shutters. So I would have to line the inside of the window openings with stripwood to fill the gaps. I had planned ahead and made the front walls out of 3/4 plywood so that the openings would be deep enough for the folded shutters to fit inside. But I somehow managed to miscalculate how wide the strips should be. TWICE.

I ordered what I thought was the right size stripwood. I waited for it to arrive. I sanded, stained and sealed. Cut to length and realized that they were not wide enough. So I recalculated, reordered wider strips. Waited for them to arrive. I sanded, stained and sealed. Cut to length and realized that they were too wide and the windows no longer set into the openings.

TRIGGER WARNING: BLOOD & GORE AHEAD



OK. so I'm pretty competent with power tools and rather than begin this whole process over again, figured I could just run the little strips that were too wide through my table saw to cut them down. I was blithely running them through, carefully using the proper push tool, as I'm not foolish enough to put my hands anywhere near the blade when cutting tiny pieces. However, one of the strips got jammed in back. With the saw running, I reached around to flick it out with my finger. The piece unjammed, slammed into my hand and drove my left index finger into the vicously sharp teeth of the anti-kickback guard. Tore off the tip of my finger and all of my fingernail and fractured the tip of the bone.

I somehow had the presence of mind to turn off the saw, pick up the chunk of finger. Wrap my hand in a dish towel, collect my phone and wallet and run to the nearby urgent care. When I got there and the staff saw what I had done, THEY turned green, said it was beyond their skills and would call an ambulance. Still totally calm, I reminded them that I was in a lot of pain and could they please shoot my hand up with lidocaine while we waited for the ambulance. Duh.

When the ambulance arrived, the very nice EMT gave me the following advice: Next time you lose a body part, don't bother going to urgent care. Go straight to the ER. Lesson learned.

Many hours and many stitches later they sent me home. Couldn't reattach the tip but sewed a piece of tinfoil where my nail had been in hopes of keeping the nailbed open enough that some kind of nail may eventually grow back.

It's now many weeks later and it has healed as much as I expect it will. Doesn't look TOO bad. The (very distorted) nail is starting to regrow. I do have some nerve damage. The fingertip is numb and clumsy, but it could have been so much worse. Now if I could only get my brother to stop calling me Stumpy.



Sorry for that long digression. Back to the shutters.

While I was healing I re-recalculated the proper size for the wood strips (remember the wood strips?) ordered the correct size, waited for them to arrive,  sanded, stained and sealed, cut them to length and Hallelujah they fit!

Now I'm waiting for the parts to arrive to make the tiny glass pulls. Once they are on, I just have to attach the shutters to the window frames with more tyvek hinges (only painted on one side) and install the interior molding around the windows. After all this, they better be spectacular.

Once they are installed, I'll post pictures.

Fire!

Fire!

To make the gas fire for the stove I drilled a hole where the burner would be and threaded a tiny blue "nano" LED through the hole and out the bottom of the stove. I then glued 5 silver-lined clear glass bugle beads to the burner surface to lift up the tea kettle and disperse the light.

For the oven, I threaded a red "nano" LED into the back of the oven and placed a loaf of bread in front of it.

Fireplaces in brownstones were designed for coal, not wood. First I tried a 12v fire kit but it was bulky and generated too much heat.

Next I tried an LED fire kit:

But even though the bulbs flicker at different rates, the effect was more like the flashing of an emergency vehicle than the flickering of coal embers.

So I added one steady red nano and one steady red chip. That helped. So did sandpapering down the heads of the LEDs to diffuse the light spread. I crumpled the iridescent cellophane that came with the fire kit and gave it a random wash with diluted black paint. Still not loving the finished effect. Any suggestions?

Swap Meet

Swap Meet

If there are folks in the NYC area who would like to set up an in-person swap meet, please let me know.

I have been WAY too enthusiastic in my collecting of miniatures and materials but have no interest in Ebaying them all. So I'm setting up this swap meet page for other miniaturists and hobbyists to use. 

I'll be listing my extra items and the things I'm looking for. You are welcome to do the same and hopefully all our stuff will find a new home. 

This is NOT a sales site and I do not take any responsibility for other people's exchanges. The conditions you work out are between you.

Please list your name (or screen name) and contact info and whether you are offering or seeking an item. If there is something you want to swap for, include that info. If you want to give something away, say that too. If you want to sell something, tell folks to contact you directly.

I reserve the right to remove inappropriate material or excessive or commercial postings.

 I'll eventually get around to posting pictures of the things I have to swap. In the mean time if something sounds appealing, let me know and I'll send pictures.

Offering; Plant and garden materials: I have boxes of the stuff. Let me know if you are looking for something specific.

Seeking: I'd happily swap for well made miniature plants and flowers or just send you stuff for the cost of postage. Amy amysminihouse@gmail.com

Offering: Metal findings for making light fixtures. I have lots of bead caps the right size to hold candles on chandeliers or sconces, Lots of filigree pieces in a wide variety of shapes, some for chandeliers and some for the backplates os elaborate sconces. Many, many beads, small and large. Lots more, since much that I purchased was only available by the dozen and I only needed a few. Most are gold plated, gold colored or raw brass. A few are copper or "antique gold."

Seeking: I'll gladly swap for unusual, vintage or artisan-made lights, sconces, floor or table lamps, lamp shades etc. I'm also looking for elaborate edwardian lampshades and small figures like these to use to make lamps:  Amy amysminihouse@gmail.com

Offering: Lots of 1/12 scale bathroom fixtures. I somehow ended up with way too many.

Offering: Handmade "cast iron" spiral staircase. I made this one spiraling in the wrong direction for my project. Sigh.

Keep checking back for more.

"Cast Iron" Spiral Stairs

"Cast Iron" Spiral Stairs

There is a balcony off the parlor which needed a spiral staircase to give access to the garden.

To make the cast iron spiral stairs I followed the tutorial http://pequeneces-maragverdugo.blogspot.de/

I found that the fragile bits of fan often split when I tried to drill the hole in the treads for the center pole, so I doubled up the treads and glued them together before drilling.

Instead of using wire for the raining balusters I used Tiny Turnings cut in half. The little points on the bottom fit into the holes in the center of the circle on outside edge of the stair treads and which was really helpful in spacing them evenly and holding them in place while the glue dried.

Before attaching the balusters I used a tiny round file to file a grove into the top of each one to hold the banister. I struggled with the wire for the banister. I couldn't get it to follow the spiral of the tops of the balusters and the circumference of the staircase and  the angle of the rise of the stairs. So I switched tactics and used a piece of round leather lacing which was much more flexible and easier to glue in place.  I glued one end into a curl for the bottom of the banister. I then attached the leather lacing to a few balusters at a time, starting at the bottom and waiting for the glue to dry before doing the next few.  I left a long tail at the top end so I could fit it in place later.

I spray painted the whole thing with flat black paint and voila!

Only one problem... When I went to put it in place I realized that it spirals the wrong direction and would dead end into a wall. Sigh.

So I made another one going the other direction and now have an extra one if someone out there wants it.

Making Flowers

Making Flowers

At the 2016 Philadelphia Miniaturia Show I took a flower-making class which taught me to have great respect for the way artisans price their work. After 8 hours hunched over I came away with one stalk of hollyhocks and a few daisies.

Since then I have been doing lots of research online  Some of my favorites are:

Tutorials:

Hostas

http://weloveminiatures.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Hosta-Great-Expectations.pdf

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BX4ZlSI2LRI&feature=youtu.be

I made these and added flowers made from disassembled polymer foxgloves:

Nasturtium 

http://miniaturowyblog.blogspot.ca/2013/06/nasturcja.html

I cheated on these. I had a bunch of tiny vintage leaves and used them instead of making my own. 

Clematis 

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/dollhouse_news/JUL2009/miniature-clematis-vine.html

https://www.scribd.com/document/32363428/AIM-Mag-Issue-24-June-July-2010  (Page 95)

Wisteria

http://cositasdecarmen.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/ESCENA%20GLICINIA

Morning Glory

https://www.thespruce.com/make-realistic-miniature-morning-glory-vines-2365681

Lavender

https://www.scribd.com/document/105737480/AIM-Issue-43-Sept-2012 (Page 22)

Japanese Maple

http://debbiestinytreasures.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2014-11-12T16:50:00Z&max-results=7&start=16&by-date=false (Scroll to bottom)

Hens and Chicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SOIFLFl74mU

Garden Ideas and How To's

http://studioeminiatures.blogspot.com/2014/10/more-color.html

I bought a bunch of polymer clay flowers on ebay:

Some I left intact but added more realistic leaves (like the foxgloves and day lilies) 

and some I disassembled and used to make my own flowers (like the delphinium). 

Garden: First Attempts

Garden: First Attempts

I am an avid gardener and so, apparently are the occupants of my minihouse. I have designed the garden so that it is constructed in two wooden trays that can be swapped out for the different seasons.

I have gone completely overboard collecting plant material; everything from model train landscaping materials, artificial plants from Michael's, tiny polymer flowers made in Asia and paper punches to make my own. Talk about a learning curve! Each time I complete something that I;m satisfied with, I look online at other folks fabulous creations and start over.

Last winter's garden was a temporary, thrown together affair which I'll redo this winter.

Last Spring was somewhat better:

By Summer things had improved considerably:

Fall is messy! I used a combination of dried mosses, purchased shrubs and plants and bits of artificial plants.

While binge watching TV I punched out thousands of Fall leaves, mostly from brown paper bags. For the oak tree, I bought a pair of bare tree armatures and cut one's branches off and added them to the other. Then I thinly spread glue over the branches a few at a time and rolled them in a pile of leaves. 

I was so busy this winter that I never got around to setting up the winter garden and now it is nearly Spring again. I'll be setting that one up soon.