Thursday, December 31, 2015

Behind the scenes

Yesterday's christmas-themed scene started while I was editing the February issue of The tiny Times, which is themed 'For the love of miniatures'.

Although the submission deadline isn't until February 10, I know that it's always a bit of a struggle filling the February issue as people are more focused on end-of-year festivities that on writing about what their club and they have been working on recently.

So I figured it might be a good idea to have a couple of scenes ready to fill space, just in case (and besides, it's been two years since any of my miniature work has been published in the magazine!)

At this stage of the editing process I often have a temporary picture for the front cover of the issue: one that would be perfectly adequate if nothing is submitted that would work better, For this issue I decided that my Lucky Dip scene from April would do the job nicely: and if it ended up being the final cover, I could include a DIY project for making the dipped vases.
Front cover of the February 2016 issue of The tiny Times magazine.
I remembered last year's never-completed lounge for Seaside Shack, with its wall of heart art, and made a note to finish it off and photograph it just in case.

But before I got to that I noticed the pile of Lundby dolls' house furniture sets I'd been given, sitting on my spare office chair waiting for me to use them. Including the Småland Red LivingRoom Set (60.2081).
Box for a Lundby dolls' house living room set 60.2081
And it seemed like the perfect time to finally work some of the (3/4" scale) Lundby pieces into my usual (1/12" scale) scenes.
Contents of a Lundby dolls' house living room set 60.2081
From this set I chose the picture (of course) and the books (I always need more books). I want to try using the tables in a future scene as wall display shelves, so I put them aside. The sofa and cushion were also put aside as I'm not sure how I'll use them yet...
Modern dolls' house miniature Lundby love picture, round white rug and two books.
Also in the pile was a Småland White Bed (60.2062), given to me by a friend and set aside until I had a scene to use the heart-shaped cushions in.
Lundby dolls' house bedroom set 60.2062, in original packaging.
Modern dolls' house miniature Lundby love picture, round white rug, two books and two heart-shaped cushions.
I shopped the stash for other items that might work, including a christmas tree that's been loitering for ages and that I have no memory of acquiring, some scrapbooking paper given to me in a swap from my friend Sandra, and a Tiffany & Co bag from a swap with Phillip Nuveen, which picked up the teal in the love picture.
Selection of modern miniature dolls' house accessories in shades of pink, green and white.
By this stage I was feeling quite uncomfortable, partly because it's been almost two months since I've made a scene and partly because the whole feel of what I'm putting together is so not my usual style...

Then, just to add the discomfort, I decided that this would be the perfect scene to finally try and make a bath sofa for. I've only been wanting to make one in miniature for 20 years, since I used to sit in one at our local after-work drinking spot in Wellington.

Luckily, I have a couple of Chrysnbon bathroom kits set aside for just such an occasion.
Chrysnbon dolls' house miniature bathroom furniture kit F-230, with miniature bath held up in front.
Initially, I was trying to work out how to cut a curved line out of the front of it, but after some googling of pictures of bath sofas, I decided that it would be easier all round if I just cut straight across the front.

So, secure in the knowledge that I had a spare if I completely wrecked my first attempt, I attached a length of masking tape where I wanted to make the cut, drew a guide line onto it, help my breath and turned on the scroll saw.

And all was well!
Chrysnbon dolls' house miniature bath, with front cut off to make it into a sofa.
In the end I was a bit over the whole thing. There are a couple of things I should have tweaked, but all in all I'm happy with the results of my experiments: I discovered that Lundby works well in 1/12 scale (there are actually five Lundby items in the final scene), and I now have a miniature bath sofa, which crosses one more thing off my mini wish list!
Modern miniature dolls house scene with a Christmas tree, bathtub sofa and a 'love' picture on the wall and matching heart-shaped cushion on the sofa.

Wednesday, December 09, 2015

Missing: mini mojo

Alas I seem to have peaked too early and my brain has gone into Christmas close-down mode (which is a little odd, as I don't do Christmas.)

The most I've achieved miniature-wise this week is convincing a friend who is in town for work that she doesn't want to take her hotel toiletries home for her Mum, but give them to me to make silver pots out of:
Four hotel toiletry bottles with shiny silver-coloured caps lined up on a desk.
(Perhaps part of the reason for the lack of mini mojo is that I cleared my HBS Creatin' Contest build off the dining table to make room to entertain said friend?)

Friday, December 04, 2015

Where did the week go?

Suddenly it's Friday: which means that I gave my public programme at Goulburn Regional Art Gallery today.

Lorraine from Fairy Meadow Miniatures brought me flowers of the best kind:
Woman in an art gallery holding a gift wrapped in paper printed with flowers.
 printed on paper
Hands holding a gift wrapped in paper printed with flowers.
 and wrapped around a miniature shed!
An unwrapped gift containing a dolls' house miniature shed.
(Which will be perfect between the back windows of my HBS Creating Contest build, to 'mask the noise leakage' between the studios, but really to hide the wiring stuff...)

And I completely fell down in the good-blogger stakes and forgot to take any photos, or ask any of my friends who attended to do so for me. So the only photo I have of the presentation is from the gallery's Facebook page...

Tuesday, December 01, 2015

Goulburn goodies

While I was in Goulburn on Friday, I made sure to visit Dimmey's, my favourite discount store there (I'm not linking to their website because they have an annoying auto-play ad which you can't stop).

I spent some time trawling through this large display of 49-cent placemats
Shelves full of placemats in a discount store.
and came away with a good number that I plan to use as flooring, wall covering and for screens.
Selection of placemants in black and white and gold.
Also new in the stash are these laser-cut beams for my HBS Creatin' Contest build pergola (thanks to JWT Dollshouses and Miniatures for the fabulous and speedy service).
Four laser-cut wooden beams laid out on the invoice.
 Speaking of the HBS Creatin' Contest build, I'm planning the front and staring more closely on the windows in my real house than I ever have, to see how they're made...
Reading glasses, metal ruler, calculator, pen and bowl of pasta on top of a piece of paper with a plan for a wall with windows.
And there's been lots and lots (and lots) of undercoating over the past week.

#HBSCreatinContest2015