A Trio of Sorceresses and a Tonne of Books

Chrysta has been joined by new friends Amethyst and Gemma.  Amethyst (Amy for short) wears a purple gown while Gemma is in black.  Like Chrysta, they're all handmade from the same mould (hence they look like triplets).  While Chrysta was made from Cernit clay, Amy and Gemma are both made from Sculpey.  As you can see, the Cernit definately gives the better result, it has more of a 'glow' and a more translucent finish that make it more realistic.  It is however so much harder to work with than the Sculpey.

 

As you can see with the three ladies standing in the garden, Gemma just gets lost in her black dress, but both she and Amy fit in much better than Chrysta due to their narrower skirts.  Chrysta is still my favourite though and I think either she or Amy will get the job of tending the Crystal Garden permanently.  (I welcome all opinions on who it should be).  The two remaining sorceresses will find homes in later rooms of the ToM.

 The garden itself is practically finished now that water has been added to the fountain.  The pool is made of Solid Water while the fountain is done with Scenic Water trained up thin wires.  The fountain part is a bit messy but somehow looks more like crystal than water - perfect for the Crystal Garden!  Floating in the pool are lily pads (wire and faux leadlighting paint) and flowers (resin beads).

 Hopefully, the garden will be finished by next week and if I'm lucky and actually get to see some sunshine I may even manage to get some decent photos of it.

 Meanwhile, after their modelling job in the garden last week, Saskia and Artie have dropped by the Library on their way back to Castle Starcaster.  After weeks of neglect and being slept in by cats, there is finally some progress for them to see.  I've taken down the arches from the shelf tops and run some coving stained to match the rest of the shelves around the top instead.  I'm not sure about the fancy trim on the top.  I don't have enough to go all the way around, so I was going to just do the ends of the shelves as it is in the photo, but it doesn't look right does it?  And Artie reminded me that it's the same trim used in Castle Starcaster's library and it might look a bit 'samey' if I used it in another library.  So I guess it's time to think up plan B.

 I have installed the mirror in the back corner creating the illusion of continuing shelves.  Everything behind the red curtain is mirror.  I wasn't clever enough to postion the mirror so that it reflected only shelf from every angle so to compensate I hung the curtain to block the side of the mirror where you tend to see things beyond the library.  I'm very pleased with the overall effect, it works really well.  It will be impossible to fill the shelves down this aisle area after the centre shelf is permanently glued in place so I had a marathon book making session and managed to make enough books to fill this area and glued them in place.  Next time I decide to make a room filled with books, someone please hit me.  What I've found to be a good rule of thumb for making books is to make as many as you think you'll need, then make as many again and an extra dozen on top and you may have enough.  By the time I've filled the remaining three quaters of the library I will definately be swearing never to make a book again!

. . . Every Room

It's been a busy week with changes, or at least additions, to every room of Bellerose House.

In the Second Bedroom, the previously empty dressing table has been filled with accessories.  There are a number of pots made from polymer clay last week as well as a few bottles made from crystal beads.  Cut outs from an old dolld house magazine were used to make the magazine and postcards and mail slipped into the mirror frame.

The bathroom is now almost ready to be used by the residents as it has been fully stocked with clean towels, soaps and unguents.

 The shelf unit at the back of the room has been filled with a mix of towels and bottles.  The white towels are made from pieces of felt, cut and folded to size while the green towels are pieces of carpet left over from the bedroom next door.  The bottles are again made from beads.

Over the sink a narrow shelf has been added which holds yet more bead bottles.   Soap made from polymer clay sits in a jewellery finding soap dish.

I've removed the fretwork panel that was over the loo and rearranged the brackets that supported it.  Ths resulting ledge and the top of the loo have been filled with yet more bead bottles.

The reason the tub is missing from the bathroom photos is because I'm working on putting a bather in it.  The bather is a cheap doll who has been glued into position in the tub after being hammered (literally) into pieces in order to fit.  In the tradition of all old time Hollywood movies she will be covered in lots of strategic foamy bubble bath

In the main bedroom, the furniture is still being rearranged . . . and I still haven't gotten it right.

 The dresssing table has been filled with accessories, most of which are again bottles made from beads and polymer clay pieces.

The Rec room furniture is also still moving about with the ghastly arm chairs moving out and the desk and two new side chairs coming in.  Just like the bedroom above it, the furniture is still not quite right in here.

The side chairs were made from a House of Miniatures kit which I bought many years ago at my first dolls house fair.  This was also the last time I've seen HoM kits available locally.  The desk has been accessorized with a range of items including a not-quite-finished gramaphone.

 Next door in the Sitting room, Dan has found time to take a load off and read through the newspaper.   He can't put his feet up on the coffee table anymore as that has been filled with a vase of flowers, a silver tea service and a few books left behind by a forgetful reader.

When he finishes reading he can admire the displays of collected sea shells and gemstones on the book shelf or browse for a new book to read.

Or maybe he'll just sit back and admire that emormous sideboard.

Even more details have been added to the kitchen witha new high shelf for trays and platters above the oven.

The hutch/dresser has been filled with a mix of bought canisters and crockery, polymer clay pieces, boxes made from printables and one scenic water jelly.

The housekeepers desk has been covered with papers and the shelf above filled with ledgers and mail.

The Dining room is currently the least finished looking room in the house.  I've cut a piece of fabric to use as a table cloth but after pinning it into position to drape nicely I discovered I was out of spray starch to make it stay in place.  So I haven't been able to finish the table cloth or arrange the table.

 The console table by the entry door has been adorned with an arrangement of flowers.

Beside the table sits an umbrella stand currently filled with a range of walking sticks.

 So that's it for a big week in Bellerose House with something new in every room!

The Final Furniture

This week I focused on getting all the remaining furniture and building decoration work done in both Pennicott's and the Apothecary so that I can now start making accessories like dresses for the mannequins without splashing wood stain on them.  I found a long, low shelf that I pulled out of the pre-renovation Dawncrest Castle to position behind the upstairs counter and built some new shelves from balsa wood to sit atop them and frame the window.  I don't really like the fact that the counter/shelf structure now has three different wood finishes in one area, but my excuse is that when A.L. Pennicott renovated, she started to run short of funds and has to reuse a few items that no longer quite matched the rest of the shop.  Hopefully by the time they're filled with stock you won't notice the mis-match.

The rails have been added around the top of the stairwell.  They're done with pre-bought plastic railing and balsa wood posts.  I can't add the angled railing on the stairs themselves just yet as I am one length of railing short.

 Most of the furniture I made this week was for the apothecary.  The big hole in the back wall has been filled with a simple shelf unit which will hold the apothecary's various ingredients and supplies.  Beside the shelves is a small pine cupboard.  The stairs leading up to the main building are more salvage from Dawncrest Castle.  On the left wall is a small desk and stool while in the middle of the floor are two trestle tables.  I'm having trouble getting the trestle at one end of the longer table to stand up properly so I'll replace it with one of the spares that belong to the third trestle table currently folded up in storage under the stairs.  The row of hotplates on the right wall have been covered by a large metal look hood.  The hood looks decidedly out of place at the moment; it's too new and shiny looking.  I wonder if it would be better if I covered it with more brick effect or perhaps some wooden planking?

Still Switching . . . .

I've managed to make it through a couple of months without Blogger doing anything weird to me, so I guess I was overdue.  Today's mystery error is that the photos aren't loading properly.  Some are here in their entirety, some seem to be only partially present and no matter how often they are reloaded, they still aren't coming up.  I'll leave these faulty photos in the post, maybe you'll be able to see them properly even though I can't.

As you may be able to see, this week's focus was on the bedroom.  The bed itself is the sleigh bed that came out of the house before I started renovating it.  I added an overhead canopy draped with a puce coloured silk and an ivory pre-pleated fabric finished off with a few ribbon roses.  The frame of the canopy is a half circle of cardboard held up on a balsa wood stand.  The bed is covered in more of the silk overlaid with a wide lace.  I still need to make lots of pillows and cushions to finish the bed off.  On the side wall is the dressing table.  Again, this is all cardboard and balsa wood hidden under fabric.

 Next a small writing desk was made from more balsa wood, some prebought legs and the tops of some fancy toothpicks.  The final item made for the room was a "Duchess Brisee" a sort of chair and footstool all in one that was covered in gold silk.  (I still don't have any short legs, so it's currently being held up by my pot of Tacky Wax).  All of this, plus an old chest of drawers make the room look like this:

 But then it could look like this,  or this, or this: 

Okay, so you probably can't see what I mean, but let's just say that like in the Drawing Room last week, there are a number of ways I could move things around and I'm not sure yet which is best.  The decision is made harder by the fact that the desk also works well in the Study.  It fits in the corner by the door or along the "front" wall with the wing chair in the spot the desk isn't.

So, do I use the desk in the bedroom and make another the same size for the Study, or I not have a desk in the bedroom and just use this one in the Study?  Where will it go?  The wing chair (again, currently leggless) is another creation in balsa wood with a little foam padding for cushions and upholstered in a tapestry fabric. 

Hmmmm . . . . . . The styles and fashions of the Georgian era were really quite effeminate by modern standards, but the study was supposed to be the one room in the house that ws a little more "butch", instead it has a desk made for the "girly" bedroom and a chair covered in flowers!   Opps!

 I made a small sofa for the Drawing room to either replace the chaise or just add to the existing furniture, so I'm still rearranging things in here and trying some of the furniture out in other rooms too.

 The photos above and below here should be of the Hall.  I doubt you can see them though.  I did tell you I was going to add something else in the Hall and these photos should show you the start of it.  (If you can't see it here try clicking here to see it in my Flickr). It's a sedan chair and eventually, there will be a lady climbing out of it having just arrived for the dinner party being prepared in the Dining room.  It is huge and takes up a lot of the Hall, but as you can see from Dan's modelling, it really couldn't be any smaller than it is.

This week it's time to tackle the last completely unfurnished room in the house, the Nursery.  Then all I need to do is figure out which furniture is going in which room and whereabouts in that room it will be.

Dining In Style

In my personal philosophy of dollshouse creation, there are five stages to the process.  First is Construction, second is Decoration, then comes Furnishing followed by Ornamentation and finally there's Population.  I'm very pleased to be able to say that stage two of this house is now, at long last,  finished and I can now move on to the next stage; Furnishing.

 But before we move on to stage three, I'd like to share some photos of the lights.  The main house is now positioned on top of the basment, so for the first time you can see the whole house with all the lights working.  There are concealed bulbs in the hallway behind the study over the staircase and another over the basement stairs.  The kitchen has a chandelier hanging from the ceiling and the dining room has two candlearbra adapted from identical chandeliers.  The rest of the lights were all hand made, that's why its such a shock they all work!

And now for stage three!

 The above photo is how the dining room looked last week.  Lovely wallpaper, grand fireplace, but otherwise just a table and chairs whacked in the middle of the floor.  All the remaining empty space has now been filled in.

Either side of the fireplace is a pedestal, each displaying an ornamental vase.  These came out of the pre-renovation house.  On the back wall behind the table is a low buffet/chest of drawers.  I know a higher display cabinet showing off the best china might be more appropriate, but that would block off a section of the wallpaper and, I think, ruin it's effect.  I kept all the furniture as low as possible to leave the scenic vista in full view.

 In the back left corner of the room is a small chaise made to fit the space.  The shaped legs were pre-bought, but the rest of this piece is entirely from scratch.  I think I should have curved it out more to be wider at the back, but I still love it.  It's upholsetered in a light blue silk dupion and the seats of the dining chairs have been recovered in the same silk to match.

 In the front left corner is a three tiered dessert stand.  Yes, I know the upper tiers are crooked and I will fix them.  Each tier is made of a plaster ceiling rose.  This gives the underside of each level a wonderful decorative feature.  The flat tops of each will eventually be covered in a myriad of delectable desserts.

I still need to add a rug to the floor, something in a soft blue I think, and lots of food, cultery, glasses, etc, but would you care to dine in this room?

Next door in the Hall, not much has changed, except that the pieces of, well, junk that had been hanging around has been cleared out.  The two tables and chair are all the furniture there will be in this room although I will be adding a feature in the middle of the floor that I'll build as part of the "furnishing" phase . . . . .

Working on furniture for the study has been a much harder task.  There are about three essential items to fit in this room; a desk, a wing chair for reading and a free standing circular bookshelf.  Using a sample chair, a round table and an assortment of desks and desk sided objects I have tried arranging and rearranging these items in the room and have come to the conclusion that they just won't fit.  The problem is the desk.  Once you add a desk, regardless of size, shape or position the room instantly looks awkward.  Can you have a study/library without a desk?  I'm thinking at the moment that I may have to!

One final piece of furniture for the week is this chest of drawers.  I bought the kit from the very first doll, bear and miniature fair I ever attended.  It was the only fair that I ever saw a good range of DIY items and the only time I have seen House of Miniatures kits available in Australia.  If I knew how rare these things were, I'd have bought more way back then.  As it is, this kit has been siting largely forgotten at the back of the cupboard since then.  I found it while rummaging around in search of furniture for this house and thought it would be perfect for either the bedroom or the nursery (probably the latter).