1:48 breads

It's such a pleasure when you order miniatures, and something arrives that is absolutely perfect.
These quarter scale loaves and buns are delightful! So tiny, and beautifully presented!! The largest buns are only 2mm (1/16") across.
They come from the friendly Ruth at Stewart Dollhouse Creations, where there's a fabulous range of handmade minis offered. It's well worth a visit if you like mini cakes, cross stitch, artwork, wallpaper, laser-cut doilies, and lots more. Lots of 1:24 and 1:48 scale minis, too.
Check out the butterflies, and the Mona Lisa cross stitch kit :)

This bread is happily going into my medieval kitchen. It's not that easy finding medieval food in this scale, as most quarter scale seems to be aimed at modern settings. I'm very grateful to find such a good website - I'm amazed by this tiny food. There'd be some some very bad language if I tried to make it! :)

Glenda

Walls and pears

Behold, I've been purchasing fruit :) Vicky Guile's quarter scale pears - they are absolutely amazing!! I can't believe how Vicky has made these tinies so exquisitely perfect!!
They are in a beautiful little bowl by The Helmers - the bowl measures 3/16" across the top, to give you an idea of the size.

I have to ask myself why I'm now trying to work in an even smaller scale - 1:48 - as my eyesight gets worse. No, no, it's not old age; I've found out that I have a rare condition - I'm analog, and the world is digital! :)

My little medieval weaver's cottage is progressing , but mainly in my imagination - there's so much to sort out before the kit is put together; the interior walls and floors have to be finished before gluing, and before that I have to decide where the fireplaces, staircase, internal doors, kitchen stove, etc are all going to be.
I can shut my eyes and happily wander around the house, re-arranging things and trying to avoid those 'oh damn' (or worse) moments later in the build. Otherwise known as daydreaming :D
One moment in the midle of the night was 'Aaagh! Did they have spinning wheels in the middle ages??' My house has now moved to Late Medieval . . . :)

Now, dear Reader, the story of the walls so far.

I love paperclay, it takes dilute colour washes so well, and the texture is great for old fashioned 'whitewashed' walls. In quarter scale though it's much too thick. I tried watering it down to make a paintable slurry, but that didn't work well enough.
So now - gesso, which has a little more texture than plain flat paint. To combat the over-bright white colour, and to get a better surface to apply colourwash, I added some finely grated chalk. At first I mixed the chalk into the paint - this was too textured and difficult to manage (but I'm saving that for 1:12 projects later).
So the final method is here - steps 1-8 are from left to right in the pic:
1. Paint gesso on to the board. (These boards were sealed first with diluted PVA - this might not be necessary as gesso is in itself a sealer. If you are going to make the gesso really thin, add some acrylic paint to the PVA/water sealer as a coloured undercoat)
2. Stipple/dab the surface of the wet gesso very lightly with a screwed-up paper napkin. The lighter you dab, the tinier the stippling. This removes brush marks, which, believe me, you do not want in this scale!
3. Grate a very fine light layer of chalk evenly over the whole surface while the gesso is wet. I used a tool I found in the manicure section of the supermarket - it looks like a nutmeg grater.
4. Hold the board vertically by the sides and tap the edge gently to release any loose chalk.
5. With a clean screwed-up paper napkin, lightly dab the chalk into the gesso, flattening the stipples, until it looks even.
6. Repeat step 4 when the gesso is half dry, if you want it flatter. (You can also do this with your finger, but dip it in chalk first to avoid fingerprints.)
7. Let it dry.
8. Brush very gently or rub with fine sandpaper to get the texture/finish you want.
9. Apply colour washes.
10. Seal with a mix of 1 part water to 1 part PVA glue. Dab this on rather than brushing or wiping, as the colour may migrate. Clean the brush often.


I'm enjoying quarter scale :D Some of the thoughts I've jotted down are:
It seems quite different from twelfth scale - there is more imagery than detail in the initial impression - illusion rather than perfect miniaturisation.
Shapes have to be unmistakable to avoid cluttering the scene.
Colour seems to have more importance; heavy saturation of colours or brightness can highlight some items and unbalance the whole setting. Shiny things need caution, too.  Choose what you want to show up, and where.

If anyone can add to my meanderings about 1:48, I'd appreciate it! The fewer the mistakes I make, the happier I'll be :)

Glenda

Quarter scale

I'd like to welcome all my new followers! I don't deserve you all, as I haven't made any miniatures for many months now!! But thankyou so much for taking an interest in my blog :D
I'll have a little giveaway soon to brighten things up :)

Now that I've successfully moved house, my mini mojo has returned!! Yay!! It was hiding in a teensy corner, and pointing to quarter scale. Yikes, I said, what's going on?? That's not what I expected!
'Start tiny' it said, 'and after that it can only get easier!' Hmmm, I don't know whether to believe this.

Soooo . . . having sorted some more of my family history lately, I've become interested in the ancestors who had a woollen weaving mill in Yorkshire in the 19th century. I have no illusions that it was at all romantic or nice (a certain member of the family was shot by an employee for his harsh treatment of the workers . . .!!), but it started me thinking on the story of my new project. You need a story, don't you, to have a mini come alive? And I love weaving - I'm not very competent, but it's oh so satisfying.
And to continue with one of my favourite time periods - medieval. I just can't stay away :)
I've now got this fabulous little 1:48 kit from Bea Broadwood at Petite Properties which is to become the home and workshop of my medieval weaver (a good man, not an owner of a dark satanic mill). I've chosen this kit because it's an intermediate skill level - if I enjoy 1:48 scale, I'll try something more challenging next time :)
For the same reason, I'm going to use laser-cut kits for the furniture. I did buy one of Bea's excellent books on how to make 1:48 furniture from card and paper, and I'm looking forward to trying this, but some of the kits out there are too tempting!

Glenda
And a personal update -
Our kitten Toby who went missing - he was killed on the road :( We still have our two older cats who we love dearly.
I'd also like to apologise for my extended absence from blogging - my life got a bit serious for a while. Blogland is a happy place, and I didn't want to inflict my problems on the world :)
G

Mica Tiles

I've been trying to find a way of simulating old items made of horn (medieval windows, lanterns - 'lant-horns' - , viking drinking horns for quaffing ale, hunting horns, spoons, bowls, etc). In medieval times the outside sheath of cow horn was used just like we use plastic today - it could be cut, heated and shaped, and was waterproof and semi-transparent.

My attempts to make this with polymer clay failed absolutely. No surprise there :)

In my search I've found an interesting product. This is mica, which can now be bought in nicely packaged pieces. Mica is a natural product which can be split into thinner and thinner layers, depending on what you want to do with it. The colour is darker when it is left thick. The thickest piece in this pack is almost 1mm thick, and it splits/delaminates into at least 10-12 tissue-thin layers.
It has interesting natural patterns in it, which make me think it is a reasonably good old fashioned window glass. On an angle it is quite wibbly like old glass. It can look a little like brittle plastic, but it's still nicer than perfect acrylic or perspex.

This Mica Sheet pictured can be bought online in some scrapbooking websites, also on eBay.
Evidently it can be cut with scissors, diecut, punched, stamped, inked, embossed, heated, gilded, painted, etched and stained to resemble coloured glass - I'll have to try this last bit . . .

Anyway, to the point - the company which makes this, USArtQuest, also makes a product called Micacraft Sheet which is reconstituted mica - and this is an orangey 'horn' colour, and it is also able to be heated and bent (you can't bend the ordinary mica sheet). So when I get around to buying some I'll let you know if it works :)

Glenda

Make your own leadlights

There's a mini hobbit dwelling somewhere on my 5-year plan. Well, the second five year plan, since it's five years since I first thought of it . . .
This means round windows. And interesting leadlights to fit them.
Most of the commercial round windows available don't look right, or don't open, or are the wrong size.
I've been reminded how satisfying DIY is when I saw the quirky fab doors that the clever ladies Janice, Wendie and Michelle make.
So I thought I'd share with you my hobbit windows so far. This is a quick tutorial on making simple leadlights to suit whatever style or size window you want.
You'll need some smooth black cotton thread. Polyester thread won't work. (Very dark grey thread would look a lot better, but that involves dyeing which I haven't done yet.)
Anyway, black thread - some suitable threads are: DMC coton a broder #16 or #25, - DMC fils a dentelles #70, - DMC perle cotton #5, #8 or #12, - knitting cotton, - fine crochet cotton, - DMC Cordonnet Special #20, #30 or #40, - old fashioned thick sewing cotton.
(DMC 6-strand embroidery cotton might work, but tends to flatten when stiffened.)

Prepare the thread by stiffening it. Soak it in a mix of 1 part PVA glue to 1 part water, then squeeze dry by pulling it through an old lint-free cloth (an old hanky is good), and lay it flat and straight to dry.
In this project I used DMC coton a broder #25, with the heavier DMC perle #5 for the frame.
Draw your leadlight design (in red in the photo) to fit your window. This one has a frame, which is optional.
BTW, elongated diamonds (rather than square diamonds) seem to add height to a room.
Draw a line about 1cm out beyond the frame or edge of the design. Now extend all of the red leadlight lines to meet this (the blue lines in this photo).
Lay the pattern on a pinboard (mine is polystyrene), then lay a piece of stiff plastic on top of that.
Now stretch the stiffened cotton thread along all the parallel lines in one direction, as in the photo. Put pins wherever they are needed to hold the thread in place.
Change direction, and work the parallel lines going the other way. This time, use a crochet hook to weave them under and over alternately - this strengthens the structure.
The weaving completed.
Gluing the threads at all the intersections. I used Aleene's Tacky glue for this. Insert a strip of waste paper under the threads as in the photo, and using a toothpick dab glue into each intersection. Blot the excess glue with a lint-free cloth (a paper towel will leave white fluff) then pull the strip of paper out. Using the paper makes sure that you don't get glassy residue. Use a fresh strip of paper each time.
After each row, readjust the threads to sit accurately on the pattern and let them dry. Then glue the next row. Work until all the intersections are glued and dry.
Stretch the frame threads into place in the same way. I found that just simply turning the corner made the threads bow out, so I extended them outwards. It's starting to look like a rat's nest :)
In the photo all the frame is there and all the strips of waste paper are in place ready to glue the frame.
(If you do the paper one bit at a time you run the risk of shifting the previous threads out of place while you do the next, and the glue drying wrongly.)
Glue quickly, blot it, pull out the waste paper and re-arrange the threads into their correct place.
Make sure that all threads are accurate on the pattern before the glue dries.
When it's dry, pull the pins out carefully (one at a time, holding the threads down with your finger). Gently ease the structure off the plastic so it doesn't pull out of shape.
With very sharp scissors, trim the edge close to the frame, and here's your leadlight!!
Now it has to be attached to your window. I cheerfully admit that I haven't done this yet, but it would need a glue which works on both plastic (window acrylic) and cotton.
Glues that don't work are - PVA, Crafter's Pick, UHU.
I've tried a sample, and found that Judikins Diamond Glaze works well, and Grrrip glue works, but not quite so well. No doubt the amazing glue-anything, viciously stinky, carcinogenic stuff like E6000 would work a treat but I refuse to try them as they make me very ill!
I think that just gluing it at the very edge would be enough, or even only in the corners if your window is small.
If you have made your own window frame, maybe a very thin edge strip of wood or stiffened thread would hold the leadlight in place. If anyone works it out I'd love to hear from you :)
Different shapes and sizes. This technique only works with simple grids - if you want circles and tricky Tudor designs, I think the best way to get them is to bribe a lacemaker to make it for you.
This is a page from an old book I found.

Making the actual windows, which should have come first, now I think of it - frame, hinges, glass, etc, is on the two year plan . . . :D

Glenda

In print again, twice!

Instructions for how to make my mini floor runners are in Doll's House and Miniatures Scene magazine #199, January 2011 :)))
This post is late as my copy of the magazine arrived very late - I think Planet Earth postal systems are routed via the moon sometimes :D
And my Finnish Lakehouse appeared in the Finnish Miniatures magazine Nukkekoti - I feel a bit odd (but flattered) about showing this in Finland - what's that saying "taking coals to Newcastle"?

I still haven't got my mini-mojo back, it's probably in the post, haha!! :D

Glenda

The enchanter's tower

Greetings, and welcome to the tower! The resident enchanter (he's shy about his name) is here to show you - his respected visitors - through his modest dwelling.
He hasn't yet noticed the book which he was searching for earlier - it was left out in the rain after his twilight walk last night searching for herbs!! He's not going to be happy about that . . .
He asks your patience while he completes a small task at his desk.
Here is the lower level - this is his workroom. He has his pet owl inside today, as mice have been seen inside.
Another view, with the ladder to the top floor.
Upstairs is where he sleeps and reads, and sometimes plays the lute when he is in the mood.
Details of the workroom.
And another view.

He hopes that you have enjoyed your little tour - and he would like to thank the following people for their beautiful works which have made his home so very comfortable to live in -

Ericka Van Horn - books, scrolls, printies, potions
Lorraine - dribbly candles, skull, curly wand, witch accessories
Kiva and Carol Cook - food
Norma - printies, open books, wall hanging, wooden chest downstairs
Nikki - dribbly candles, unicorn horn
Honey and Bee - specimen jars, glass inkwell
Annie - horn on mantelpiece
Teresa/Northern Lites Miniatures - owl
Kiva Ford - tall clear bottle
Patricia Paul - bird skulls
Merry Gourmet Miniatures - leather wineskin

Glenda