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Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Le Palais


I'm sure Blogger has a secret agenda to drive the world totally crazy.  How else can you possibly explain all it's wacky faults?  It's been many months since I could reply to or leave a comment, Blogger just seems to eat them no matter what I try.  To everyone who is kind enough to leave a comment on my blog, yes I do read them and I would respond to you if only I could.  I'll start this week by addressing a few recent comments:


Vivian Fox : The rugs come from all over the place.  Every time I see a rug (or wallpaper, etc)  I like I save it and have managed to build up a collection.  There are lots of printables sites, a good place to look for rugs is through a link on the Treefeathers site.  Scroll down to the "other resources" section at the bottom and there is a link to an actual rug store that apparently is happy to let you copy their images of the rugs for sale.

Daydreamer : Half canopy is exactly what I had in mind, see below for how it turned out!


De : 48th scale has been a challenge in some ways, but other things I've found to be easier.  I think the best thing about it is that how else would I have room to make a seventeen room house?  I think when I want to make a "big" property in future I'll use this smaller scale so I'll effectively have more space to play with.


Le Palais (I'm dropping the "Petit" part of the name as in no scale does seventeen rooms really qualify as petite!) is now finished.  Normally I would add "people" to a house, but given the fact no one seems to make a 48th scale people mould and my abilities to create people freehand is . . . let's be polite and go with "limited", I don't think any people I could make for this house would be up to the same standard as the house and furniture and thus possibly ruin the overall effect.  So although furnished, the house will remain vacant.


 I say it's finished, but the pink bedroom in the attic could use more personality couldn't it?  All the rooms in Le Palais have less "junk" than I would normally add simply because finding things small enough to work in this scale is so hard.


The desk in the attic hall has been filled with "books" that are made of EVA foam cut into tiny pieces.  I wish the foam came in less fluorescent colours then the books might look more like books.


In the nursery, the crib has moved into the middle of the floor which makes the room look a lot less empty without having to add more furniture.  It's hard to see in this photo but the crib now has pillows piled into it.  These had to be silk to match the canopy, but I found that silk just disintegrated when I tried to sew it in this scale (not surprising as the same thing happens in the comparatively large 24th scale too).  So these are pieces of EVA foam wrapped in silk which is glued in place.


In the green bedroom, I made that canopy for over the bed.  It is a piece of wire bend into a horseshoe shape and the top of the arch then folded over ninety degrees.  This was then covered in in more of the greenish silk used on the bed.  As the fabric has different colours for it's warp and weft, just fraying the edge created the contrasting fringing.


The lilac salon is still a bit of a nothing room really, but that doesn't stop it from looking fabulous.  I cut down the length of the chaise so it could sit against the wall and added some flowers to the room.  the tall plant on the side is made of dried flowers while the arrangement on the central table is green moss topped with bits of flower soft in a gold bead vase.


The hall has similar flowers to the salon but this time the greenery under the flower soft is part of a plastic fish tank plant.  Yes, the moss works better.


The yellow bedroom has had flowers and pillows added.


The furniture has been rearranged in the dressing room for the final time (well, maybe).  The dressing table has been decorated with perfume bottles made of the smallest beads I could find that are still a little too large and another vase of flowers.


The library table has been stained to match the wood look of the sofa.


I needed red flowers for the dining room table centrepiece, but didn't have any red flowersoft.  So these flowers are made from bits of fuzz trimmed off a red pipe cleaner with touches of yellow flowersoft.


In the entrance hall what else but more flowers?


 Not only flowers for the drawing room but also a pair of flowering plants in tall bead pots.  The clock on the mantle is one of two I bought before starting the house at the local doll, bear and miniature fair.


Want to guess what I've added to the music room?  Yep, flowers again.  The paper piano is now black to match the chaise and fireplace.


Finally, a room without flowers!  The scullery has some washing hung up to dry on cotton thread lines.  Yes, the lines are very crooked, but the room is about 4cm wide and it took half an hour to manage to get both ends on the walls at the same time!  As far as I'm concerned in this case crooked is good enough.


The dresser in the kitchen is filled with white plates made of EVA foam using a small hole punch.


On the range are saucepans made of gold beads with gold wire handles.  The handles are there, they just don't show up in photos.  Slivers of orange EVA foam create the effect of carrots and small beads in a purple and white make turnips with bits of fuzz trimmed off a pipe cleaner used as the leafy bits on both.  On the other table are a range of coloured cakes again made with EVA foam and a hole punch.


The sewing room has been loaded up with scraps of fabric and sewing needles cut from fine wire.


And finally the servants bedroom has had pillows added to the beds and a picture hung on the wall.


Next week I'll be returning to the Tower of Magic with a new roombox . . . . . .

4 comments:

  1. Alennka, I love Le Palais. Such ingenuity for furnishing this tiny little palace! Brilliant. Thank you for the 'rug update' I appreciate it very much.
    I think my favourite room.....at a push it has to be the green bedroom. But it all looks marvellous. Your crooked washing line looks more real that way :)
    All the best
    Vivian

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  2. I love all the details! Even without people, it looks like a home. The flowers and books add coziness to the rooms. I am still amazed at your patience working in such a small scale. I had trouble getting my relatively small hands to do what I wanted and I wasn't very coordinated using tweezers or forceps. I will have to try again sometime as I too am out of room for more houses. (Yet, still I start new projects, LOL)

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  3. The Palais is Very Impressive, Alennka! Seventeen rooms in any scale is a large job! You have managed to decorate them all and fill them with wonderful details! I can agree with you that the smaller scale properties are easier to manage when they are for "Grand" houses! Even so, the house must take up a decent amount of space! Great Work!
    Oh, and I meant to say your method of getting a "fringe" on the bed curtains is Brilliant! I will have to try that!

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  4. Hello Allenka, That's brilliant. I haven't even properly started my 48th yet so a bit cheeky offering advice to someone who has created this! but.... blogger issue - I had/have the exact same problem - if I join Google+ there would be no issues - this is Google's way of bullying us towards how they want us to use their stuff - does make me cross. Google+ affects a load of other stuff in ways I don't want so not using it means I get hitches like the one you mention. Indeed I have no idea if this comment will make it.

    If your foam colours are too bright - could you give them a mucky wash of thin dirty colour paint?

    As for figures - I am using 'O' scale railways ones they work fine and you can find loads of people/animals doing all sorts of things.

    Marilyn
    mormson@gmail.com
    http://allmyblogaddresses.blogspot.co.uk/

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