Heat wave madness

Last night late ( it was too hot to work during the day ) I was pleased as punch in glueing in place the fireplace wall section. I had strengthened the wall behind with cross bars as the plywood had warped a little. The two top pieces are to compensate the depth when glueing

After glueing in place the section really really well I went and had some tea and biscuits. I then suddenly had a flash of panic. I hadn't electrified the wall for the two light fixtures I had planned to place on each side of the mirror. I drilled in the front and the sides and fiddled with wires trying to meet up on the other side and after an hour of drilling and fiddling and poking it worked. I then pulled through the electric wires.

To the left the wall has been filled with scraps of mdf leaving a channel for the wires. I used a cardboard drinking straw to encapsulate the wires all the way out the back of the house where a system will be found ( much later ) to set up all the lights.

Then another flash of panic when I remembered that I hadn't wired in the fire itself! More drilling and poking and another straw and voila! 

I covered the fire wire in bronze coloured tape and glued the fire in place. 

The tricky thing, the wire for the fire was too short so I had to lengthen the wire with a longer piece and I had never soldered before. The first solder gave way when the join got stuck when pulling through. The second time round the solder was much better and once insulated and wrapped it puleld through no problem. 

This is the right section of the fireplace wall with its hodge podge of scraps of mdf.

I lined the wall with 2mm plywood. I add that if I had to use a lot of this wood I would need to sell a kidney to pay for it! Horrendous = 25 euros a small sheet! 

I wanted to add lamps here and there and all the sockets I have seen in houses seem chunky.  I cut into the base board and set one in for effect. I DID want to put one to the left of the fire but the idea of going through all that pulling and strawing again put me off. 

I found this garage chariot in our charity shop for ten euros. It needed a good clean but it was so Worth it as it's the perfect height and is stable and rolls well. It replaces a mid century Danish one I had previously found in the street but wasn't practical.

The weather here has been getting hotter and hotter and makes life difficult. The dogs were looking for cool spots over the house. The little Jack Russell to the front is called Caramel, he is the son of my little dog Alias who left me over a year ago. He was born when I lived in Brazil and we gave him to my mother in law who has remained a great friend. I am looking after him for three weeks. When he was a baby he sat on my desk like a toy and never moved except to gaze lovingly at me from time to time. Tonight the weather has changed and the temperature has gone down by ten degrees ! 

Hot and bothered

As the whole word probably knows we are having a huge heatwave here in France. I cannot say how ill I feel as in the shade it's above 30 °C !! There is no escaping from it even inside what is usually a cool house. I had plans but until I get my body temp down a bit it's all on hold. 

I wanted to show some recent things and workings meanwhile. 

I found this frame on eBay, it came as is with a crack and not backing. I thought it looked quite baroque and needed some gilding. I haven't really gilded before so it was an experiment.

I fixed the crack with Gorilla Glue then gave it a coat of gesso white then a coat or red bole colour as a background for the gold.

Here a coat of gilding primer, a bit too much, I did take some off, it seemed to froth!

Then down to the gilding. NOT easy. The gold leaf came in tiny sheets from India, you can see on the left the pages. I thought I was getting a great bargain until the sheets arrived so tiny but in the end for minis it's better.

Here I brushed on some lacquer to seal the gold then some dark paint to age it. 

I am really not convinced I made it any better than it was ! I put it all down the the impending heat!

I tend to buy things in groups. First it was Chinese things, then small bronzes and now small mirror frames. I do think that a beautiful mirror makes such a focal point in a room any size.

The one on the left is for the main drawing room. the second one, no idea yet ! I might strip it back and just rub it up with wire wool to a brass shine. The third one came this morning. It's just silvered metal but could look good maybe lacquered off white. The tiny sterling silver one on the far right is so lovely! I put a piece of mirrored acrylic Inside. I will put it on the Chinoiserie bedroom dressing table with other small silver things not yet found, maybe my next obssesion !

I have since brushed it up with fine grade wire wool and it looks much better. It came with it's glass which makes a much better base for silvering than acrylic. 

As I AT LONG LAST managed to glue the stair unit in place ( yes !! ) I could move on to the drawing room and give the stairs a rest and me too. Glueing in the stairs was such a trauma, it had to be glued at the bottom wall plus the stair base, the first floor landing and the upright wall to the back portion all at the same time. I had to do this whilst making sure the electric cable got out it's back hole. I then put three small screws into the back of the landing to pull it against the back wall. Much clamping and pressing and waiting almost a whole day to dry I began to relax. I then glued in place the drawing room floor mdf section. For the hallway I glued the hexagonal floor tiles directly onto the base mdf and then glued this onto the frame base. For the drawing room, because it is going to be parquet, I will first glue the parquet to kraft card which in turn I will glue to the base floor. This way I can make it like a puzzle, much easier to work.

The back wall has as you can see an opening in the middle. This portion will have the windows and will be hinged to allow access from the back. On each floor the depth of the build allows for back rooms which will be bathroom and in order to see them access is needed from the back. I haven't as yet determined the width of this opening. I slipped in place the fireplace protroding wall. This right wall has two doors and the fireplace to not much room for decor. The left wall will have a window across from the double doorway so you can see through from one side of the house to the other.

   The left wall will be lower than the right wall and will be added to as I go and all held in place with an outer skin. 

Making these walls lower allows me easy access to the rooms as I go.

The back openings do not reflect the size of the windows, this part of the build is still Under consideration.

A better view of this side. I put in a dining table to keep in mind the scale of the room and calculate room for dining chairs. The rooms are smaller than I had imagined but still bigger than many dollhouse rooms. 

I realised that I hadn't stocked up on cornicing molding for the ceilings of th drawing room. I am usually very good at anticipating my needs. As we were at the local charity shop I thought that perhaps some picture frame molding would be a good solution. Luckilly I found three identical frames with terrible cheap prints and horrible backing. 1.5 euros the three so economical.

This gave this much molding. A good purchase for this room. Always good to give to charity.

Here I mocked up the ceiling molding from odds and ends. It will be quite deep as the ceiling is very high at 30 cms = 3m 60. A deep ceiling border lowers the room visually.

Scraps and bits of frame, mdf and blind wood gives this. 

The lower molding was purchased some time ago. This mock up allows me to calculate the height of panelling.

As soon as the weather evens out I will begin panelling the room.

A friend dropped off her little Jack Russel for almost three weeks and for now he is crying for his mum. He is the son of my dear Alias who left me over a year ago. I brought him into the world and for weeks he sat on my work bench, occasionally looking up at me as you would the sun!

Tableware

 As most if not all miniaturists have discovered to their dismay is that scale is not always what it is supposed to be and we are often dissapointed. I hesitate to tell people that I make minis in case they give me some horrendous out of scale or cheapie piece that I will have to smile at.

When ordering, especially in China and Asia in general you see all kinds of things sold as 1:12 scale. Some turns out to be just too small to be serious or are in fact 1:6 th scale, Barbie/Blythe scale.

I wanted to paint some vases and plates for Ramsay house and at first thought that I would make them with airclay. I saw these vases and plates on EBay at 'fullrich-2009' for 5.29 euros for ten plates and 6.63 euros for six vases. The vases are the correct scale and quite good quality, the bases need light sanding to sit well. I think that painted blue and white they can look good.  

The plates are not great but ok for testing painting on porcelain.

Now I have bought a few times some 'silver flatware' to find it's either plastic or is sold as 'charms' with integrated jump rings so when I saw these I wasn't that impressed. At a little over one euro for a Twelve piece set I ordered 3 and waited as you do from China. They came from 'onlineselection' a Chinese store via EBay. They are in fact rather good for what they are. All metal.

OK we all dream of Mike Sparrow and his incredible solid silver flatware but it's not the same league. As an accessory for a house or decor these pieces are good enough. You have to pass a pin between the fork tines to clean up the excess plating. 

The knives are particulary good I think. Personally I like plain flatware not fancy.

They come in three colours.

The vases awaiting really bad weather so I can begin to try painting.

To finish I couldn't resist some Mike Sparrow from the UK. You can order just one set and build up as you go. For what they are the prices are not out of this world. 

His incredible tea sets ! Wow !! 

https://mikesparrowsilver.co.uk/

Building regulations and a trug

Yestarday was going to be GLUE A WALL IN PLACE day. I really hesitated as I knew that once in place access was limited and I'm really not as supple as I used to be. 

I began by choosing the internal hallway door colour. I used the wall colour darkened with some black and then lightened because I went overboard with the black! I patinated and rubbed them down and mat varnished them as usual. I had to do this step as the door on the left has to be fixed to the frame before it's set into the doorway as long as I have clear access. Putting in hinges is already not a great job but in a confined space is a no starter. I did the kitchen door at the same time as they face each other and have to have the same look.

I glued the stair unit to the left wall after painting the wall its final blue grey colour. This made me crazy nervous but I overcame the stress and did it, leaving it for ages to set. I then had to fill/spackle the join between the stair base board and the panelling where there were slight gaps. I now have to paint, patinate and varnish the filler to match the rest of the paint. Sorry bad photo.

Now as I was feeling confident and pleased with myself I decided to set in the right wall to check if all was ok BEFORE glueing the left wall and stair unit into the house frame.

BINGO! 

To the right you can see the problem. A gap you could drive a car through. The problem comes from the hallway floor that I glued to the house base at night and when placing piles of magaines on top to weight it down , it moved and it wasn't until next day that I noticed. The panel was out almost 5 mm which is huge in scale. I knew that there would be conséquences at one point but this shocked me. 

At this point the bookcase/window seat is not fixed in place.

A front view. Puting in the two walls made me realise just what you see and makes my worries seem silly over some matters as only I know what goes down. Once the other landings are in place the view will be obscured even more. 

Another view, rubbing it in! The wall under the stair doesn't fit into the floor slot as well as it should so filler/paint and varnish will have to be used again.

As the wood floor has been made around what was going to be the footprint of the second stair and bookcase it has now large gaps. The gap in the landing is actually 5 mm and will need to be filled and the decorative trim at the font adjusted and filled and painted to hide it. As the walls are not yet glued in place I can work on this problem with little hindrance.There will be wall panelling all the way up the stairwell so that will compensate a bit for the gap. I decided to paint the window wall the same colour as the woodwork as otherwise it would look 'bitty'. 

I am annoyed with myself but at the same time so glad that I discovered the problem now when I can intervene but it has slowed down this part of the build. I keep telling myself that this is a learning curve.

So to end on a more amusing note, when I said that the hallway needed a garden trug I decided to make a quick one for the fun of it. I few scraps of wood and some tools made from a soda tin and voila! I will make a nicer one, one day with better tools but it was just a piece of fun.

Sharing adresses

Just a quick share. I came across this English company who supply ironwork, railings, balconies and drawer pulls. Their products look amazing and are not only available in the size you want but are also very reasonably priced given the impact good detailing have on a finished house.

Below is the only photo from their site, a custom stair rail. 

http://www.ironworks-miniatures.co.uk/ 

The next adress is one you maybe all know because she is present at the SIMP. I have not yet visited a miniature fair but I do live in hope. Her name is Dominique Levy and you can spend hours scrolling through her web page with all the styles she makes. Her site does not have prices but given the quality of her wares I am sure that they are worth it. Dominique makes plates and table china but also statues and figurines. 

http://dominiquelevy.com/

Below is a 'Marriage Fountain' in French Quimper ceramics.

Not a door but a tree

As I was walking down the hallway of Ramsay House in my mind I realised that I needed somewhere to sit and take off my garden boots and hang my coat. I love what some call 'Hall Trees' if they are somewhat substantiel and not flimsy. I had seen this one on Pinterest and it looked not so hard to do in miniature. 

I did some small sketches to work out the scale and finished size, not too big and not too small. This was going to be an important element in the hallway.

I missed some stages in the build, it looks fairly straight forward but oh the cuts and recuts and bits added here and there to make assembly logical. I wanted to include some turned elements, shop bought, to make it look more professional! hihihi !! I lined the coffer with part of an old map as painting in such a confined space was going to be difficult. Believe me when I say that maneuvering paper with glue in one piece into a confined space without tearing or leaving to make tea with cake is really hard!

A close up before I added the panel inserts and the back trims.

The top panel inserts are Simply pieces of obeche and the lower panels are bits of blind wood sanded to look mitered.

I used blind wood to make the coffer lid/seat which was not a great idea as it doesn't take stain very well. I completely forgot that I had the dark wood blind. Several attemps led me to use some dark oak varnish that made such a mess and had to be sanded down as it looked like glass when dry and not old wood.

The open coffer with the map lining and wood supports for the top piece. 

I added two of those sticky beads that are used in scrapbooking.

First coat of gesso paint, hides a lot of problem areas.

At this point I didn't know what colour to use but given the colour of the hall walls it had to be in the yellow range and also not clash with the floor. I really dislike things that match.

I bought the hooks from Julies bits and pieces via her website and after sanding the backs to flatten the 'seam', I painted them with some metal patina used in jewellery.

I looked out my hinges and as I am a mean Scot, I decided to cheat and save my hinges for when they are actually working or seen and made a fabric hinge instead. I cut the coton on the biais, glued it and trimmed when dry.

Voila, one cheap hinge.

It looks more yellow than in reality, it's more of an ochre colour. I tried photographing in different lights but only this one turned out ok.

I rubbed down the paint, patinated with burnt umber then varnished with matt acrylic. I sanded the nasty gloss off the seat and waxed it with my usual antique wax.

Some decor for the fun of it. I still have to muddy my wellingtons and flower pots and one day when I feel brave, make a couple of raincoats, Burberry and Barbour of course.

And some straw hats and a trug full of garden tools for the imagined garden.