Drawing to a Close

 The people in the shop have been rearranged.  Agatha got bored upstairs and came down to the shop to try on some of the new hats and was quite taken by a witchy green one while Isis and the two younger witches have swapped places. 

 Some new items in the shop are the fantasy birds which sit on perches suspended from the ceiling.  The birds are polymer clay adorned with real feathers.  I think that the shop needs a large rug in the centre of the floor, but other than that, I think this space is pretty much complete now; for one thing there is no where to put anything else.  I was going to make some hanging dried herb bunches to hang from the ceiling, but I think it is busy enough up there already.

Upstairs in the Reading Room, Hector has taken a seat and put a collar and lead on his pet monster (made by Nickycc) who waits miserably under his chair for it to be time to go home.

The last untouched space in the building was the little nook under the external stairs.  After considering and dismissing a range of uses for this space, I eventually settled on one of the simplest solutions.  I used a swinging garden seat that was hanging about, dressed a child witch, found a book for her to read and sat her in the shelter of the stairs.  More wacky wisteria around the frame of the doorway softened the finish and made it look more like a whimsical garden seat than an old seat shoved someplace out of the way.

Although I don't think I remembered to get any photos of them, all the doors now have fake hinges on them.  The hinges are made from leadlighting outliner in the same was as Starcaster's hinges were done.

I set myself the target of this Thursday to have the shop finished.  I think I'll more or less make it.  As you can see in the patch at the bottom left of the below photo, I have some painting to do on the front pavement.  The clay bricks/pavers were a little thick in one spot where the front of the shop opened, so I had to sand them down to stop the paint being scraped off.  I've recovered the sanded area in basic grey, but still need to put a wash or two of lighter grey over to match it back up with the rest of the pavers.  There are a few more little re-touches that need doing, an owl in flight that needs hanging in the garden, but basically, I think the shop is more or less done.

Dexter vs the Dragon

As I said in yesterday's post, Dexter the Digging Dog arrived in the mail that morning.  Since he was so cute, I couldn't wait to get him in position digging up the ground be the stream.  I managed to squeeze in a special stop at the hobby store for some miniature railway gravel to use as dirt and got to work.  Here is the result - Dexter and his pile of dirt!

Dexter is made by the Dollshouse Emporium and I purchsed him from Fairy Meadow Miniatures in Sydney.

Also, I need to welcome yet another new follower to the blog.  Vickyg has her own blog, Vicky's Houses featuring some of her lovely houses.  Welcome Vicky!

Week Four - Drawing Room & D.D. Inn

Yikes!! Even more new followers! At this rate I'm going to need to start giving serious thought to what to do as a 100 follower giveaway . . . . And that is something I never thought I'd have to say! Welcome to the newest followers: Clara of lavidaen miniatura , Marie ofle petit monde merveilleux and cathy_b_1 who doesn't appear to have a blog.

The Piano "Before"

In the Regency Drawing Room I've been arranging and re-arranging the furniture for weeks and reached the conclusion that the Spinet piano was just too big for the space. Having bought it espeically for the room, I didn't want to not use it and add it to the ever growing box of furniture bought but for one reason or another not used. Thus with a great deal of trepidation I began to cut it down to a more suitable size. This involved removing the legs and cutting along the back and side of the piano to reduce both it's width and depth. I was very nervous about doing this as I can't cut straight and was really worried about ruining the piano all together. I credit luck more than skill that the new back and side edges are reasonably straight. After the legs were reattached, the piano was painted gold and decorated with some flower decals. It is now a much better size for the room . . . just as long as you don't look at the back which is just a little rough.



The Piano "after"

Another furniture problem I had with the room was the chaise. The one I was going to place in the room had a partial back on one of the long sides. This meant to look right from the viewer's perspective the chaise had to be in the room with the 'back' at the far side. Yet from the point of view of the person in the room, it should be the other way around. Emboldened by my success with the piano I decided to solve the problem by removing the back piece entirely. This too was painted to match the piano and reupholstered in purple velveteen. I also started painting the cabinet I put together some weeks back out of balsa wood and some ready made legs. The plan is to laquer it and turn it into an oriental style cabinet to add to the chinoserie feel of the room. Now I've seen it in the room in black, it looks too dark for the space. Even when it's been made shiny and had lots of gold added to it, I think it will still look wrong. So, do I try and paint it a different colour? But which colour? I've seen this style of cabinet in black or red, but neither is going to work in the room. I'm not sure it would look right painted say, plum pink to match the fireplace. So maybe I should leave the cabinet out of the room and put the chaise against the wall (in which case it could have kept it's back). I need to give this some more thought.

The few other touches added to the room include some braid around the ceiling to act as a cornice or coving (depending on what part of the world you're in), more braid for the skirting board and a hearth and a back for the fireplace made from air dry clay and the same impress mould I used on the Dancing Dragon's brickwork. Now technically, the fireplace should be deeper than just the surround, but to do that now would require cutting a hole in the back of the box and having the fire place permanently jutting out the back. I decided that the better solution was to place a firescreen infront of the fireplace and hope no one notices that it isn't as deep as it should be.

Not too much happened to the Dancing Dragon this week. I've added a railing along the stairs up to the next level. This is made from staircase spindles carefully split at the top so a split ring could be inserted. Through the rings a length of string was threaded to create a handrail. I've also built the bridge over the stream at the front. This is all balsa wood and consists of two curved supports over which planks have been laid. The posts along the front edge will eventually be joined by a handrail of some sort. Finally, I've started adding some plants to the 'wilderness' section around the stream. Dexter the Digging Dog, who I mentioned in the last post, arrived in the mail just this morning (and he is as gorgeous in real life as he was as a photo on the internet!) and as soon as I get into town to buy some 'dirt' I'll place him by the stream with a pile of dirt he's dug up. Eventually, I'll also add his young owner fishing off the bridge.

The good news is that I think I've finished all the jobs that require access from above, so I'm ready to start work on the next level. The problem is that I need to make a final decision on the layout of the second floor. Most of it will be occupied by the tavern of the Dancing Dragon. What I haven't decided is whether the rest of the floor should be the kitchen, a private 'back room' or just an extension of the tavern.

This Weeks' Progress - Sunset Garden and Blue Room

This week I snatched some time to make a few flowers for the garden. I made some roses in shades of pink, some small "mystery" flowers in a lilac colour and some big yellow starshaped flowers, al from polymer clay. The mystery flowers are so called because they weren't made to be a particular type of flower, they are just a generic flower and could be almost anything. For the yellow star shaped flowers I started out trying to make dahlias but didn't come close enough to succeeding to be able to call them dahlias. After they were baked they were added to some pieces of plastic pondweed (intended for use in fishtanks) and 'planted' in the garden. This is where the layer of oasis foam over the bottom comes in handy. To plant the flowers, I had pushed a hole in the foam with a toothpick, dipped the bottom of the plant in glue and pressed it into the hole.

The bridge made last week has been painted just about every colour you can imagine, but none of them looked quite right, so form now at least, I've settled on a plain soft brown. I've also painted and added a feature at the end of the path. The pillar part is an old cotton reel while atop it is a glass marble coated with Gallery Glass Hologram Glitter. Again, I'm not sure exactly what this construction is supposed to be, but it looks good.

Some packages have been turning up in my mail box lately. Yesterday my order from Earth and Tree miniatures arrived. I placed this order online in early July and it contains bits I thought I'd need at the time for my Inn, the Regency Room and the Sunset Garden. Now I have no excuse not to start the Inn and the Regency roombox as soon as I have the time. For the Sunset Garden I ordered some fish for the pond and some "flower color" which is very similar to what they call "flower soft" and to the model railway foliage I used for the bushes last week. From this I should be able to make some wisteria like flowers for a vine and some more ground based flowers. I have also ordered some ready made polymer clay flowers which are still yet to arrive.

Once I have these added to the garden it will be all but finished with one exception. Above the gate in the back corner of the garden is currently a small red dragon. I plan to replace him with a sleeping dragon that has his tail and a few legs hanging over the wall. (Yes, I must have been watching cats sleep when I thought of that). This dragon will be made either from air dry or polymer clay.

In the Blue Room, the furniture has all been painted white. Decals adorn the back of the chair and the top of the wardrobe. The chair cushions have been recovered in a blue fabric and the same fabric has been used to make a valance or skirt around the bottom of the bed. The valance was pleated by hand using a great many pins, spray starch, an iron and a hairdryer. I really need to buy or make a proper pleater for these kinds of jobs, it would surely be easier and faster than pining each individual pleat in place. Among the other items to have arrived in the mail the past couple of days are half a dozen picture frames (miniature ones naturally) which will be used to make decorative panels in the panelling I will be adding around the bottom of the walls. Once I have the panelling in place I can decide on the height of the windows (which are salvaged from the house that became Highcroft Castle) and make the curtains (more pleating!). I've also re-arranged the furniture since last week, but am not sure it should stay this way either.

Sunset Garden - Week Four and the "Blue Room"

Despite not spending a lot of time working on miniatures this week, the appearance of the garden has changed quite dramatically.  First, the path of air-dry clay I put in last week has been taken out and replaced with gravel.  This is because I decided I didn't like the path as it was . . . too bad I don't really like it now either, it looks too much like the stream bed.  The path is made of fish tank gravel with some smaller model railway gravel mixed in.  The stream bed is just the smaller railway gravel.  In retrospect I should have tried to get some of the railway gravel in a different colour.  For both the path and the stream, the loose gravel was spread in position and then soaked with watered down PVA glue to glue it in place.  A small bridge made of balsa wood crossed the stream and connects the two sections of path.  The other advancement for the week was the addition of some plants and figurines.  The autumnal vine growing up the left hand wall is the vine I bought at the Hobart miniatures fair last month, the small tree is a fake bonsai like the larger autumn toned tree in the back right corner.  The "bushes" scattered about the garden are model railway foliage while the bits of green wedged between rocks and growing along the edges of the stream are lichen moss.  The remainder of the exposed ground will largely be covered with flowering plants which are yet to be made.  Finally, a winged unicorn, a mermaid and a scattering of faeries have taken up residence in the garden.

Also this week I have finally made a start on what for now is being called the "Blue Room".  This is going to be my princess' bedchamber which I may have talked about before on this blog.  Although it looks like it's going to have a strong Georgian influence to it, it is intended to be pure fantasy.  The wallpaper is actually scrapbooking paper I found in the local craft store months ago and just couldn't leave behind.  It has a lovely pearly sheen and by coincidence matches perfectly some faux silk dupion fabric I have which I will either use as an extravagant ceiling cover or to dress the bed or make curtains for the (currently non-existant) windows.  If I can find any fabric the right colour, I hope to use a powder pink as the other main colour in the room.  I will add some panelling around the bottom of the walls in white or cream.  The skeletal bed in the room is made from balsa wood and cardboard and will hopefully look better painted and dressed.  The dressing table and chair are out of my box of unused furniture and the wardrobe is the one I picked up at the miniatures fair last month.  All three will be painted to match the bed.

Sunset Garden - Week Two

Sunset Garden - Week Two

The garden is starting to look a little more like a garden now that the walls have been painted and a tree has even made it's way into the garden. Painting the walls was a long process . . . A word to the wise, don't try painting things in Tasmania in the middle of July. Why? Because it's cold and wet and it takes forever for each coat of paint to dry.

I started by sealing the dried clay with PVA glue mixed with water. The walls were then coated with successive layers of paint in shades of grey and brown. Some layers were applied as a wash (the paint watered down), some were sponged on and some were drybrushed on. I kept adding various paints in different ways until I had a wall that looked fairly convincing as stone. When I was happy with the walls (or was it when I was just simply sick of fiddling with them and decided they'd do?) they were given a coat of clear Matt sealer. Next, I started work on the ground. I wanted to raise the ground of the garden up off the MDF base so I could create a pond. Obviously, the pond needs to be lower than the ground or the water wouldn't sit in the pond, it would spread through the garden. The ground was raised by cutting a block of oasis foam into slices about a centimetre thick which were then laid over the base of the garden. I cut a channel for a stream and pond with a craft knife and added some contour to the ground by pressing gently on the foam. The foam was then drenched with a mix of water and PVA glue to help toughen it up and hold it in place. Over this I poured some watered down pollyfilla to smooth out some dips I didn't want in the ground and again to toughen the foam up. As oasis foam is designed to absorb and hold water (and as it is still cold, though slightly less wet) this is still drying out.