Workshops at the NZAME Miniatures Convention, October 2014

A tiny tin shop used for a workshop at Convention

At the NZAME Convention in Nelson this year at October's Labour Weekend, there is a wide selection of workshops you can choose to do. Ranging from ones taking 2 days to complete to ones taking 1/2 a day, there's lots to tempt us mini-makers!
  Here's a sampling to get you thinking of what you'd like to do!

• 2 days -         1930s kitchen, and a gourmet shop doorway scene of Provence
• 1 1/2 days -    European Christmas Market stall, and a setting using card, paint and foam to make food and furniture.
• 1 day -           wooden country kitchen table, and tin houses and shops like the one in my photo to be furnished with 70 laser-cut pieces of furniture & accessories (very fiddly!), and a glitter Xmas village, and tea in the conservatory, and a woven oval basket.
• 1/2 day -        hats, and a park bench, and several on polymer clay food, and a garden arch, and an inside/outside kitchen on a turntable, and kumihimo braids, and a street barrow, and using gold leafing, and dressing a bride doll, and making a cabinet with pots, and glass decanters on a revolving stand.

Workshops are allocated on a first come, first-served basis. Find out more on the NZAME website.

A Foodie Theme for This Year's NZ Miniatures Convention

Baking a Lemon Pudding in 1:12 Scale

"Bon Appetit' - that's the theme for the NZAME Convention in New Zealand this October. I wonder what food you would 'cook' for display. Would you do a baking scene, or a vegetarian dish or perhaps a roast lamb? With pavlova for dessert, of course, for the quintessential Kiwi meal!

Preparing vegetables for dinner

A food preparation area, or vignette, could have a duck to pluck, a brace of pheasants hanging or vegetables to be washed & sliced.
 

Tudor food for a feast

Perhaps your food could have an historical theme, like my Tudor feast, complete with boar's head, made for me by a friend, lampreys, jumbles and soft white bread rolls for the'upper crust'.
 

The window display in a cake shop/tearooms

The food theme expands to take in buildings as well - a restaurant, tavern, bar, cafe, corner shop, or tearooms. How about a well-stocked pantry to show off bottles & preserves in jars, sacks of flour and tins of biscuits. Or if you'd rather have your food outdoors, a picnic basket filled with goodies to eat and drink would make a great display.

Of course, your miniatures could take us on a gourmet trip around the world to a sidewalk cafe in Paris, a pizzeria in Rome, an oyster bar in Bluff, a Chinese restaurant in Hong Kong, a burger bar in L.A. or a fish and chip shop in London.

Whatever the food, miniature or real, there will be lots of it in Nelson at Labour Weekend. look on the NZAME website for more information. Bon Appetit!

Miniatures Convention 2014 in New Zealand

It's almost that time again! The biennial convention of the New Zealand Association of Miniature Enthusiasts. All year dolls house and miniatures enthusiasts from around the country have been planning and plotting and making tiny things to exhibit at the convention. It is a chance to look and learn and be inspired by what others have done. It's a visual feast! And a chance to shop, shop, shop at the traders' tables for those special minis.

This year the convention will be in Nelson, hosted by the Nelson Miniatures Club and held at Waimea College, in Richmond.

This will be at Labour Weekend 24 - 27 October, 2014.

There's a full programme of workshops and round-table smaller projects to do.

More details can be found on the NZAME website.

Perhaps we'll see you in Nelson in October!

Another Miniature Knitting Masterpiece from Helen Palenski

Helen Palenski's red hat lady

You never know what IGMA artisan Helen Palenski will surprise us with next! She has added 'Red Hat Ladies' to her range of tiny knitted figures. This one has been made into a brooch - you can see the clasp to the left of the lady.
  With so much detail shown, it's hard to believe that this little figure is only 1 1/2 inches tall.
  Do you know the poem that was the inspiration for this miniature? It's called 'Warning' by Jenny Joseph. The narrator promises to be a difficult old lady! Here is the start of the poem:

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me,
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals and say we've no money for butter.

Helen's wee old woman is perfectly suited to the poem - she looks like a formidable lady with 'attitude'!

If you would like to see more of Helen's exquisite miniature knitting, look in the 'Guest Interview' section of this blog where I did a 2-part interview with Helen.

Free On-line Miniatures Magazines to Enjoy

I've discovered two wonderful on-line resources this month, and how I wish I had found them years ago! In fact, I am so excited about the magazines that I just had to share them with you.

Both are magazines that promote excellence in miniatures and connect professional, international artisan mini-makers with others interested in hand-making dolls houses and minis.

AIM stands for Artisans in Miniature and has a monthly, free magazine that you can download or read on-line. Projects, articles, features on artisans, and handy hints along with beautiful photographs make you want to sit, read, enjoy and then make miniatures. There are back issues from 2009 onward on-line too, so there's lots of reading to be done!

CDHM stands for Custom Dolls, Houses and Miniatures and also features wonderful work by artisans in our hobby. Their magazine is called CDHM Miniature Way. As well as the magazine there are tutorials on making lots of miniatures, many of the lessons taken by IGMA miniaturists.

I hope you enjoy these publications as much as I do, and are inspired to try some new things in our mini world.

An Unusual Miniature from USA

An American First Lady miniature 

I was at a charity shop yesterday having a snoop around and came across this cardboard box that looked like a house. It intrigued me, even more so when I opened it.

Inside was this doll depicting Martha Washington, the wife of America's first president. The house portrayed on the box has characteristics of their home, Mount Vernon in Virginia.
  Hallmark Cards in USA produced this little commemorative doll for the Bicentennial celebrations held in 1976, 200 years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. Her body, 6 1/2 inches tall, is made of fabric with printed features and her dress is made of cotton and lace.
 I wonder where 'Martha' has been for the last 37 years! She is in perfect condition. I doubt if she has been played with by children. In fact, I doubt if she has been out of her box!

Hallowe'en in Miniature

Gayle Davey's Haunted House for Hallowe'en

You can really let your imagination run riot at Hallowe'en! Spooky witches, giant spiders, rattling skeletons, crazy cobwebs, black bats and any other creepy thing you can think of!
  Gayle decided to make a haunted house and during October scoured craft shops and dollar stores to find suitably themed items that were small enough to use in this mini project.
  She had a lot of fun and, as you can see, created a house that is certainly spooky!

Kit Sets or Build from Scratch?

A house built from a kit set

Here's a question for you. Do you like to make kit set dolls houses and furniture or do you build from scratch?
  People at our miniatures club were divided fairly evenly on this issue. Some who are proficient in the use of power tools, bandsaws etc like to build from scratch, using patterns they've found in magazines or books, or even designing their own. Some of our members create kit sets for mini furniture for us to make at club day workshops..
  Others, and I'm firmly in this group, would rather buy kit set houses or furniture and make them up. Although we may 'kit bash' them to put our own particular stamp on the project.
  For me, if I can't make an item with a craft knife out of matboard or foamcore, I'm prepared to buy a kit. I value my fingers too much to use saws and sanders!
  So, what do you do?

Involving Children with Miniatures

Jurassic Park in Miniature

Children seem to be fascinated by small things. Some, boys in particular, love detail - look at the popularity of the 'Where's Wally?' and the Richard Scarry books. So our miniatures hobby is ideal for getting kids involved with planning and making mini projects.
   My husband made this Jurassic Park diorama. He rigged up the car so the headlights turned on and he had spotlights along the high wire fences. And what child doesn't like dinosaurs? This mini scene was a hit with primary school age children.
  Children from our local pre-school centre sometimes visit our house to look at my dolls houses and miniatures. Their mums and grandmas come too. Last time they visited I asked the children what they'd liked best. I was expecting them to say the Alice in Wonderland scene or perhaps the mini village.
  And their answer - "The dog."
  That 's our real dog. He's definitely not a mini!

Finding Minis in Unexpected Places

Very cute!

I was visiting Pompei recently and saw this miniature scene in one of the shops that are clustered round the entrance to the ruins. I had wandered through the store, looking at the cameos and red coral jewellery, the carved statuettes and the art works when suddenly I spotted this unusual display. Of course I had to take a photo to share with you!

Germany is a Miniaturist's Paradise

A miniature scene in a picture frame

I arrived home last week after two months in Europe. Much of my time was spent in Bavaria, Germany, where my daughter lives. I went over there to meet a real life mini - my brand new granddaughter! But of course, as well as gazing adoringly at the baby, I was also on the hunt for miniatures.
   Germany, or at least Bavaria, is a treasure trove of miniatures. You can find them in all sorts of places. At souvenir shops you will see a range of Reuter Porzellen items, either singly or in little scenes such as kitchen tables with cakes on them or study sets with an ink well, quill pen, spectacles and folded newspaper, just ready to be popped straight into your dolls house.
   Souvenir shops also sell fridge magnets which can be used in 1:12 scale houses. I particularly admired the
cuckoo clock magnets and the ones like miniature houses where a man came out of one door if it was going to rain and a lady came out of the other door if it was going to be sunny. We had a real one of those when I was a child and it always fascinated me.
  Some areas of the country had miniatures specific to them such as handmade and hand-painted tin minis I wrote about elsewhere on this blog.

A variety of miniature scenes from Germany

  I was very interested to see these miniature scenes in picture frames. They sloped inwards towards the back to give a longer perspective view. Domestic interiors, workshops, stables and shops all featured in them. I thought they would be relatively easy to make and especially could be good for a club project.
   Germany is famous for wooden toys and in some specialty toy or souvenir shops you can see a range of wooden miniatures, and especially Christmas trees, ornaments, and nativity scenes in several scales. I bought the tiniest nativity scene in a walnut shell.
  And in some towns there are Christmas shops with a very varied range of ornaments which could be used for dolls house miniatures.
  If you are travelling to Bavaria or further afield in Germany, keep your eyes open for minis. I'm sure you'll be delighted with what you find.

Visiting Munich's Museum of Childhood

Munich's Museum of Childhood

At one end of the Marianplatz in central Munich, Germany, there is a building that looks like a tower straight out of a fairytale. As you climb the narrow, stone spiral staircase, you feel as if you might meet Rapunzel! In this tower is the Museum of Childhood and Toys.
  I went there to see some antique playthings and dolls houses. Part of the charm of older miniatures is that they rarely were made to a specific scale. This was well illustrated in the museum displays of 19th century miniatures.
  

Dolls house miniatures from 1875

There was a two-room house, a drawing room and bedroom, from 1875 that featured tin furniture and elaborate gold window pelmets. The furniture and furnishings were a mixture of scales, as were the dolls.
  Another display showed a haberdashery shop with bolts of material on the simple shelves and a little sewing machine nearby.
  The Nuremberg Kitchen caught my attention. There was so much to look at in this display that would have been used as a teaching aid for young girls, readying them for the time they grew up and had their own households to run.

A Nuremberg Kitchen

  The kitchen was bursting with rows of jelly moulds, pewter plates, woven baskets, porcelain canisters, scales, scoops and sieves. In the middle stood a doll wearing a red skirt and checked apron, a little kitten at her feet.
  I spent a happy hour browsing the other displays in the museum that ranged from Donald Duck and Barbie, to clockwork windup toys, singing mechanical birds and dancing bears.

Wind up tin toys

Miniatures in Munich

A Bavarian miniature made of tin

I had a fascinating afternoon yesterday, on the hunt for minis. I was especially wanting to find some German ones, typical of Bavaria. I wasn't disappointed.
  I'm in Munich and at Maxburgstrasse 4, in the centre of the city, I discovered a veritable treasure trove of dolls house furniture, miniature accessories and things I hadn't seen before.
 The shop is called Munchen Puppenstuben and this family-run business has been going for over 30 years.

As well as having a good look at everything you could ever need for dolls houses, I was particularly drawn to  their out-of-the-ordinary minis.
 The Bavarian scenes and figurines are all hand made of tin and hand painted, still by the family that first made them many years ago. Some of the minis are themed to the four seasons such as iceskating for winter and different wreaths of flowers for different times of the year; or to local events such as the horses pulling the wagons of barrels of beer for the Oktoberfest; or to Christmas and Easter as well as scenes from everyday life.
  Each is so detailed and coloured so beautifully that you expect the little figures to come to life!

Hand made and painted miniatures for Easter in Germany

If you are in Munich and want to spend time looking at, talking about and buying minis, the Munchen Puppenstuben is the place to go! You can also check out their website here.
  I bought my souvenir of Munich there - a traditional miniature maypole. See what I mean by all the detail! It's only 2 3/4 inches tall!

Dolls Houses and Murder Mysteries!

Dolls houses feature in a murder mystery story

Just for fun, I thought I would tell you about a book I have been reading that features dolls houses. It's a novel called The Case of the Imaginary Detective by Karen Fowler. In the book, a murder mystery writer, for each of her stories, makes a miniature scene that shows how and where the victim was murdered, 'right down to its tiny clues and tiny gore'. 
  The book opens with a description of a woman sitting at a kitchen table, her purse fallen on the floor with its contents spilled out. Turn the page and it is then the reader finds that 'The purse was the size of an aspirin, the lipstick slightly larger than a grain of rice, the kitchen floor about as big as a sheet of typing paper. Poor murdered Miss Time was only three inches tall.'
  All the time I was reading this book, a thought kept nagging at the back of my mind. Hadn't I read somewhere that in real life a woman made dioramas of murders that helped the police find the killers?
  I did some research and yes, there was an American woman called Frances Lee who, in the 1920s and 30s, became fascinated with crime scene and forensic analysis. She began making miniature dioramas of death scenes for police training in observation and analysis, and called them the 'Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death'.
  The actual structures and furniture were made by a craftsman and his son, but Frances Lee made all the 'murdered' dolls and dressed them, as well as the tiny accessories in the rooms. 
  If you'd like to read more about these macabre minis you can check out this website. It's a fascinating story!
   

Flooring for Dolls Houses

Examples of commercially produced flooring papers for dolls houses 

There are so many different ways to make flooring for your dolls house. What you choose may depend on the style and era of the house, the materials you have on hand and your level of skill in making minis. Here are some ideas for this important part of miniature interior decorating.

• floor papers: as you can see from the photograph these come in several patterns and shades. You might choose light or dark floorboards, parquet flooring in various patterns, or flagstone or brick effects.
• tiles: miniature supplies shops sell a variety of black and white tiled flooring paper in different patterns and a slightly thicker, plasticised tile sheet. Or you can make your own by cutting out squares of black and white paper and sticking them to a cardboard floor template.

Black and white tiled flooring in a dolls house bathroom 

• flagstones: use Formica samples in a limestone or slate look from a kitchen design shop. Cut them into squares of about 2 inches. Glue to a cardboard template of the room's floor. When dry, rub over with Polyfilla so it gets into the cracks as grout. Wipe the excess off with a damp cloth. Fit the floor into the dolls house room.

Flagstone floors suit a Tudor dolls house

• another way to make a stone floor is using cardboard, cut into tiles and glued down. Then you can paint them grey and mottle lighter and darker greys randomly over the floor to simulate stone.
• terracotta tiles: this is where terracotta-coloured Das, an air drying modelling clay, is perfect. Roll out to a size slightly larger than the dimensions of the floor. This will allow for the clay shrinking as it dries. When partially dry, incise with lines in a tile pattern. Cut to fit the room when completely dry.
• wooden floorboards: there are several ways of making these:

1. You need a steady hand for this, an ability to rule straight lines (a talent I am sadly lacking!) a steel ruler and a very sharp craft knife. It is also easier to do this before the dolls house is constructed. Rule lines to correspond with floorboards directly onto the dolls house floors. Use the ruler and knife to groove them. Stain or paint. When dry, you can make 'nail holes' with a sharp pencil at the junctions of the floorboards.
2. Glue wooden ice block sticks or tongue depressors side by side onto a cardboard template of the floor. Sand really well. Stain or paint. Cover with baking paper and weigh down with tins e.g. baked beans! to make sure the floor dries flat and doesn't buckle. Varnish or rub with beeswax for a shiny look.
3. Cut thin wood into planks and lay on a template of the floor. Finish as for #2. For my Tudor house I used balsa wood strips stained with shoe polish. (Note: floorboards in the 16th century were wider than today).

Wooden floorboards in a Tudor dolls house

The final touches will be when you lay down rugs or carpet squares to give the rooms a 'lived in' look. I hope this post has given you some ideas for your own dolls house or room box.

Paints and Wallpaper for Decorating a Dolls House

'Real' size wallpaper in a small print

So you're building a dolls house or you have a kit set one to make up. In your mind you've chosen the colour scheme and decided where the furniture will go in each room. Now you need to make those thoughts a reality. What supplies will you get for the painting and wallpapering?






  That's the part I love about this hobby. I don't like the construction side of it, but I love the interior decorating!
Paints:  Test pots of ordinary acrylic house paints from painting and decorating stores are just fine. You can get a great colour range -  look at the paint charts for ideas and shades that complement each other. It pays to choose lighter tones rather than darker ones. The small spaces of dolls house rooms mean the paint does not reflect light as much as a full size room and the colour can appear deeper than expected.
  If you want to experiment a little, cut a piece of cardboard the size of the back wall of the dolls house room, paint it and, when dry, place it in the dolls house. That will give you an exact idea of how the colour will look.

Fabric on the Walls

Wallpapers: I have used all sorts of paper to wallpaper my dolls houses' rooms. Embossed paper for ceilings to give an ornate, 'plastered' look; scrapbooking papers; 'real size' wallpaper in tiny prints and pale patterns; gift wrapping paper and specialty wallpapers made for dolls houses. I've even used fabric on the walls of some rooms.
  

Scrapbooking paper on walls

Just remember to prepare the wooden walls first, either with a coat of white or cream paint or use wallpaper size. And to glue the papers to the walls I use regular wallpaper glue, the kind that is a powder you mix with water and leave to swell and thicken.
   An old credit card is a handy tool for smoothing the paper down and getting rid of air bubbles.
  If you have a kit set dolls house, it's so much easier to wallpaper the walls before you fix them into place.
  Have fun with your interior decorating on a mini scale!

Miniature Villa on Television!

Laurie and Gayle Davey's Villa in 1:12 Scale

Well, exciting news for Laurie and Gayle Davey, the couple I introduced you to in my last Guest Interview. They have been approached by a reporter from Fair Go, a consumer rights television programme, for the loan of their magnificent 1:12 scale villa.
   Fair Go is filming a piece about going flatting and thought a novel way of adding visual interest to the programme was to use a dolls house. The reporter was put in contact with the Daveys who told her I had been at their place taking photos of the villa the week before. So she rang me & I emailed several photos to her.
  And her comment - "WOW! It's exquisite - this is just what we're after."
  So keep an eye on Fair Go over the next few weeks to see this villa featuring in the programme.

Dolls House Scale Measurements - What do They Mean?

Chairs in 1:12 scale (the largest), 1:24 scale and 1:48 scale

What is 1:48 scale? What is half scale? The measurements used in the dolls house and miniatures hobby can be confusing to beginners. I have often been asked about the scale of a dolls house so I thought I would write this detailed account so you can determine what scale your dolls house is.
  Universally, even in countries which use the metric system of measurement, dolls house scales are always shown in inches. In the ratios given for the different scales, the larger the number, the smaller the dolls house will be.
   Imagine you are sitting in a real room that is 12 feet wide. I'll use this imaginary room to show you the difference in the dolls house scales.
  
1:12 Scale: Also known as 1 inch to 1 foot scale, this is the most common dolls house size. The majority of miniature furniture and accessories as well as dolls houses that are available to buy are in this scale. The 1:12 ratio shows that 1 inch in a model equates to 12 inches in real size.
   This means our imaginary 12 feet wide room would make a miniature room 12 inches wide.
In this scale the door of a dolls house is just over 6 inches tall, ceilings are 8 inches high, and a female doll is about 5 1/2 inches tall.
  
 1:24 Scale: The 1:24 ratio is also called 'half scale'. This means that 1 inch in a model would equal 24 inches in real size. Our imaginary room would be scaled down to just 6 inches wide.
   Half scale is gaining in popularity. Dolls house enthusiasts who are getting short of space are increasingly turning to 1:24 scale as it takes up so much less room.

  1:48 Scale: This 1:48 ratio known as the 'quarter scale' is even smaller with 1 inch on a model equalling 48 inches in real size. Now the imaginary 12 feet wide room is only 3 inches wide in miniature.
   Dolls houses in quarter scale are often built of thin basswood, foam core or matboard. They take up very little room and are a good size to sit on a shelf or counter top.
   
Now if your brain can compute even smaller measurements for a miniature building, think about 1:144 scale! Dolls houses this size can fit in the palm of your hand. The scale is sometimes called 'dolls house for a dolls house' because it is just the right size to be used as a dolls house in a 1:12 scale nursery.
  
And what about Barbie size? This is 1:6 scale as the size is large enough to fit dolls the height of a Barbie doll into a house. Dolls houses in this size are suitable for young children to play with as they can move furniture and dolls around easily in the spacious rooms.
   I think choosing which is the dolls house scale for you depends on your personal preference and the space you have available in your home to work in and display your miniatures.

Merry Christmas to You

A Miniature Father Christmas

Here's a tiny Santa Claus I made from a kit set one Miniatures Club Day. He's a 'shelf sitter' and very cute!
   Thank you so much for following my blog this year and for the encouraging comments and emails I've had. It has been a pleasure writing about our wonderful, creative miniatures and dolls house hobby.

  I wish you all
      
            a very Merry Christmas 

and I sincerely hope that 2013 will be a great year for you! See you in the New Year!

Photos From the Miniatures Open Day

A traditional N.Z. villa in 1:24 scale by Laurie and Gayle Davey

Yesterday we had a very successful Open Day at our Hibiscus Miniatures Club. We were amazed at how many people turned up to see our displays and our club members working on their projects. Everyone seemed very interested in our tiny things, asking lots of questions and spending a long time looking at the exhibits. It was great!
 I thought I'd post some photos to show you what you missed if you didn't make it to Orewa.

The Gingerbread House by Flo Schubert was very popular with the children.

Smithy by Laurie Davey. The blacksmith pulls a lever to pump the bellows, the fire lights up and smoke puffs out the chimney

A tiny three-storey house, complete with furniture, made from a Pringles potato chips tin by Joan Murray.

Bruce Davey combined his interests in hot rod cars and miniatures to make this display.

A scale model of a sawmill at Henderson by Des Bellette

What every gardener needs - a potting shed like this miniature by Chris Davey

A spooky Hallowe'en house by Gayle Davey

Steve Naish worked on his model of the 'Titanic'.

A very small log cabin in 1:144 scale by Wendy Craig

These photos show only a small sampling of the miniatures we had on display. Pamela showed her N scale scene in a bookcase that I have written about on this blog. I took along my N scale village and the retro caravan too. Nancy had a very detailed Kiwiana souvenir shop there as one of her exhibits but unfortunately it didn't photograph well - too many reflections bouncing off the perspex frontage. Louise kept working away at her French-styled doll shop and Heather was making some modern miniatures.
  All in all it was a busy, interesting happy day - all our visitors left with smiles on their faces!