Karin Corbin Miniatures

Swiss Pear

2012-01-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

When it rains it pours, no not the Seattle weather, pear wood is pouring into my workshop. Today I went to my local supplier of tools and wood and there in the back was something I have never seen in the store before, Swiss Pear. Not just one board but a whole big tree worth of slabs. I wish I had the funds to buy all of it for future use but at $13.00 a board foot that is not possible. You can see by the photo with the ruler just how fine the grain is and how suitable for miniature furniture it will be.

This lumber is somewhat pink toned in color. That coloration develops as a result of the kiln drying process. Some wood suppliers also call it steamed pear. It is not from steam they inject into the kiln, it is steam created by moisture coming out of the wood as it is drying. From time to time they vent the kiln to let that moisture escape.

Now I don't have to wait 6 months for my firewood pear to dry, I can get started on miniature furniture projects. But first I will make myself a little valentines day gift, a new necklace carved from pear wood. I will take it from the end of the plank where the grain is on the wild side and not so suitable for making miniature furniture. That will be a good test piece to see if it really is easy to carve in any direction of the grain.

Pear Tree Without Partridge

2012-01-09T14:05:00.000-08:00

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a pear tree. This was an old tree that was past its prime, no longer useful for bearing fruit. The Pacific Northwest of the USA, the states of Washington and Oregon, is well know for commercial apple, pear and cherry orchards.

Pear wood is highly prized for use in making miniatures. I have not tried working with it before but have heard its praises sung for years by various artisans. It is said it carves like butter and is easy to work in any direction of grain. The growth rings are fine enough for miniatures.

Last fall I found an advertisement from a person selling fruit wood for firewood. Among the items listed was pear wood. Several months later I now finally have some pear wood logs. They were fairly expensive to purchase. I have a long ways to go before this pear wood will exit my workshop as hand crafted, hand carved, miniature furniture.

I have a lot of sawing to do to get it cut into planks that will then need to dry for 6 months. I will have to rely on the help of friends as the green logs are too heavy for me to handle alone. After that it will need more sawing, squaring up and planing to become dimensional lumber.

The fact that there are branched trunks will make cutting it up difficult. However there might be some beautiful figured grain at the base of the crotch where the branches originate so it is a bonus to have that on some of the logs. It does mean I can't easily split those logs,they will have to be sawn.

Let us call this an adventure in making miniatures rather than a common sense approach to creating miniature furniture where you order the lumber ready to work with.

Christmas Card

2011-12-15T10:16:00.001-08:00

Musical tools

2011-12-08T09:49:00.000-08:00

I might have to give this a try to the tune of "Jingle Bells"

It never occurred to me to try making a musical instrument out of my wrenches and use big nails for the percussion sticks. I have a whole drawer full of wrenches and some tubes too. I even have an electronic tuner so I can figure out what key they are.
So easy to make and so sweet sounding.

I guess you just never know what might show up next on this blog in the way of projects to make with tools.

Happy Holiday Season to all of you!

Visit from Santa...

2011-12-07T03:33:00.000-08:00

Some women love getting new jewelry for Christmas, I love getting new tools.

My new stocking stuffer tool I just got for Christmas from my friend Don is a little square that has magnets in the base. It is very nice for squaring up tools with steel tops such as the band saw, scroll saw, drill press table etc. But it is also a wonderful jig for squaring up miniature projects. You know those metal boards you use with magnets for assembling things? Yes, it will work great on those for holding tall pieces in upright positions. How cool is that? The measurements are in inches on one side and metrics on the other.
It is marketed by Fast Cap
http://www.fastcap.com/estore/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=9935

Rockler sells them too.
http://www.rockler.com/product.cfm?page=22118&filter=magnetic%20micro%20square

Glitter Time

2011-11-13T21:21:00.000-08:00

Trying to get some glitter houses done for Christmas but life keeps interrupting. I have been helping a friend with some CAD drafting work now and again. Unfortunately I am having to do this from my reclining bed as my back is recovering from a bad strain. Oh the joys of getting older! I had hopes to open my Etsy store in November but it is looking unlikely to do anything with it this year.

As you may have noticed I have not posted anything on my blog for the last two months. In fact I have hardly set foot in my workshop in those two months as I was been working a full time job out of town. But that job is finished (other than being left with a lot of aches and pains) and I will have more time for miniatures when I am able to be on my feet for longer periods of time.

Pixilated vacation

2011-09-08T21:11:00.000-07:00

In my last posting I said I had a big project to work on before I got back to making miniatures.

Here she is, let me introduce you to "Pixil" short for word pixilated meaning whimsical and touched in the head by pixies (fairies). Pixilated is probably a very apt descriptive adjective for anyone who makes miniatures or wooden boats ;-).

For the last several weeks I have been having a working vacation in a historic turn of the century workshop located on the waterfront in the little town of Port Hadlock. Pixil was built in 1993 by the North West School of Wooden Boat Building. The school was very kind and let me bring her into their building while I did a paint and varnish job on her.

The boat was built to 1950s plans created by the famous designers John and William Atkins. The design is named "Teach". It is a very good design for teaching boat building with lapstrake planking above the waterline and carvel below the waterline.

Now you might think, yuck I would not want to spend my vacation scraping off old varnish and putting on new. But the truth is there are a great many around the world who would be very envious of my chance to work at the school and be around all the various activities with a group that is seriously devoted to preserving the craft of wooden boat building.

Tonight I am sitting in the boat in Port Townsend, Washinton at the Wooden Boat Festival. Port Townsend is just up the road from the boat school. Port Townsend is one of four historic registered Victorian era seaports in the USA. Great place to come for a vacation!

People from all over the world come here to see this Wooden Boat Festival. The guest lecture at the boat school this morning was by a boat builder from New Zealand. I have come to the festival many times over the years but this is my first time to have a boat in the festival. It is now dark but people are still all around me, a band is playing right in front of me, next to me is a man snuggled into the cockpit of his boat reading a book. We are land docked on trailers but there are many boats in the water that are tied up to the docks.

Sleepless in Seattle

2011-07-04T19:30:00.000-07:00

Today we took the bikes along the canal path over to Lake Union and spent the afternoon messing about with boats both big and small. The Center For Wooden Boats always has an open house on July 4th with lots of activities for all ages. There are several houseboat communities along the shores on the way there.

Honestly I was not even thinking about scale models today but there they were despite trying to escape such things for the afternoon. Might as well enjoy them since I was not responsible for making them on a holiday. There has been a pond boat building program at the Center for many years. This year the land just outside the Center got a landscape makeover in which they installed a sail boat pond. How much fun is that? One of the 4th of July activities for kids is building toy boats.

The photos below are of the workshop where the pond sailing program is held. The program is in conjunction with a City of Seattle Alternative, middle school. What a fun way to learn math and science!

Now for something to inspire you to make a marine related miniature scene. The small shed at the Center for Wooden Boats that serves as their boat rental office. I love the oar for a weather vane and the decorative shingle detail.

My favorite boat of the day, a small steam powered launch.

Hole in the middle

2011-06-26T22:30:00.000-07:00

A dollhouse builder needs to make holes in the middle of pieces of plywood. There are a number of ways to create this type of opening.

This time I am using a table saw. The method is to lower the saw blade all the way down, place the panel on the tabletop then raise the blade up through the panel to make the cut. There are two variations on this method. The first I am describing is used when the length of the cut is longer than the diameter of the saw blade. The second is when the diameter of the blade is longer than the cut. The methods are almost identical other than how you mark the fence and material and how far up you raise the saw blade.

If the length of the cut is longer than the diameter of the blade
Step one: mark out your opening. You need to put marks out at the outside edges of the piece that correspond to the sides of the opening.

Step two: record on paper or write on the project panel the distance from the outside edge to the edge of the opening for each of the sides.

Step three: mark the saw's fence so you know where to start and stop the cut. To do this raise the blade as high as it can go. Put a mark on your fence that corresponds to the back edge of the blade at the tabletop and also the front edge of the blade.

Step four: adjust the distance from the fence to the cutting tooth to the distance on one of the sides you recorded in step two.

Step five: with the blade fully lowered place your panel on the saw top against the fence. Line up the mark that will be the far edge of the opening with the mark for the back edge of the saw blade.

Step six: Holding down the panel to the table with a push stick slowly raise the table saw blade to full height. Then push the panel forward until the mark at the front of the blade aligns with the mark for the front edge the opening. Turn off the saw and lower the blade. Repeat step six for all the sides of the opening. The corner of the panel will have a small amount of wood at each corner that was not cut through. That is because of the round blade cutting wider underneath that on top of the panel.

Step seven: use a flush cutting hand saw to finish cutting the wood in the corners of the opening. You can get these small, inexpensive, saws at your local hardware store. They are often used for cutting dowels flush to the surface of furniture projects. I have showed the use of this kind of saw before on this blog. Better photos of it here:
Cutting a dollhouse window opening.

If the diameter of the blade is longer than the length of the cut
Step One: mark the center line as well as the outside corners of your opening and place a pencil mark corresponding to those on the outside edge of your piece of material.

Step two: record on paper or write on the project panel the distance from the outside edge to the edge of the opening for each of the sides.

Step three: mark the saw's fence so you know where to start the cut. Put a mark on your fence that corresponds to the center of the blade at the tabletop.

Step four: adjust the distance from the fence to the cutting tooth to the distance on one of the sides you recorded in step two.

Step five: with the blade fully lowered place your panel on the saw top against the fence. Line up the center mark on the fence with the center mark of your opening.

Step six: Holding down the panel to the table with a push stick slowly raise the table saw blade until it cuts through the panel. Keep raising the blade until there is approximately 1/4" or so left before it cuts the distance to the far edges of the length of your opening. The corner of the panel should have a small amount of wood at each corner that was not cut through. That is because of the round blade cutting wider underneath that on top of the panel. Repeat step six for all the sides of the opening.

Step seven: use a flush cutting hand saw to finish cutting the wood in the corners of the opening. You can get these small, inexpensive, saws at your local hardware store. They are often used for cutting dowels flush to the surface of furniture projects.

Sunset Hill

2011-06-06T23:16:00.000-07:00

This evening an errand took us up to the top of the bluff in my neighborhood. There is a birdhouse up there that I built in the early 1990s so I stopped by for a quick photo shoot. It is one of the first birdhouses I sold. It has that shabby chic, antique look after spending nearly 20 years out in the rain and wind. I think she looks pretty good. It has sheltered a great many baby birds over the years, there is nest building going on right now for the newest generation.

I am thinking about making a version of this bird house scaled for dollhouses. Would you all like that?

A few blocks away from the birdhouse I came across a perfect glitter house project. I will start making it this summer. It works for both European and American scenes, the Tudor revival era from the 1930s. The house has a lot of interest without being overly fussy. It looks great from all 4 sides, not often I come across a house that does not need a lot of modification. I will make some changes to the picture windows to give them a bit more of an old world feel. Those windows look out to the same view I have from the beach.

I adore the twin gable peaks with the chimney between.

photo break

2011-05-29T16:30:00.000-07:00

I have not gone missing, just busy taking photos and writing instructions this week. I need them so I can open my Etsy store for business.

I needed a table for photo shoots where I would not be battling for space with other activities so I built one. Nothing fancy about my table, just some adjustable legs from Ikea that I screwed to a piece of plywood. I added a small scrap piece of pegboard screwed to the back of the table. The pegboard is to hold up a seamless backdrop paper or cloth. The paper has a gentle and invisible curve in the photos. That way you can't tell where the paper ends or begins, no seams or table edges to show in the photo.

My photo backdrop paper is from the art supply store. I am using large paper sheets made for drawing on with pastels. It comes in a wide variety of colors and for less than $2.00 it is a great bargain. I can change backdrop colors in seconds.

All the overhead fluorescent tubes in my workshop are 5,000K bulbs I bought at Lowe's a big home builders store in the USA. 5,000 is a kelvin rating very close to natural sunlight. The photo lamps are also fitted with 5,000k circular fluorescent bulbs. The bulbs I am using are Longstar FE-US-30W/50K. If I were using regular incandescent photo bulbs the LCD screen on the camera could be ruined from the heat of the bulbs being so close to the camera.

I like fluorescent lights for the energy savings and the long life. There is no flickering or noise with the new electronic ballast. My workshop is a giant light therapy room, always bright and sunny even when the weather outside is rainy gloom or when I am working at night.

Home Port

2011-05-09T19:24:00.000-07:00

Today is photolog day as I had my camera hooked to my belt loop when I was out for lunch. Click on the photos to enlarge them, they look much more colorful that way.

The marina we live in, I took this photo from the end of the public fishing pier. This view is looking to the south, my workshop is a few blocks south of all the boats.

It has been a very cold and rainy spring, the coldest recorded in Seattle. So no pretty sunny photos for you, this is a reality show today. But my neighbors, the turtles and the duck, found some diluted solar radiation on their pond. I suspect this pond was the home of the lost turtle that wandered into the parking lot at my workshop. A turtle could walk that far in a day or two. We are hoping our young friend who was given the turtle will be accepting of returning the turtle to its natural habitat. I think she has found the turtle to be a rather boring pet so I imagine she will be interested in the project knowing that she can still visit her turtle.

I was feeling a little stir crazy at lunch time today so I hopped on the bicycle and road a short distance up the street. For two dollars you can get a hot dog and sit at a counter with a water front view. The Little Coney burger joint is right next to the marina we live in and it is located in a water front city park with a very nice beach, meadows and wooded hillside. Miles of walking trails and it is at the end of a city wide bicycle trail system. The photo below is also from the end of the pier but looking to the north, that is the beach at the park. The beach continues on around the point.

Looking at the these photos you would not think I lived right in the middle of a major metropolitan city. I can see open space, water, beaches, mountains and trees for miles and miles. There is a miles long wooded bluff buffering us from the city. My little bit of heavenly retreat on the planet earth that has all the conveniences and cultural opportunities of modern urban living. Once in a while we even get warm sunny days!

Final Cut

2011-04-20T04:56:00.000-07:00

The last pair of new scissors I purchased this week also have a micro serrated blade that helps capture the fine fiber so it is easier to trim it off. They are very sharp. I purchased them at a store that sells stamps for crafters. Micromark also carries this little scissors. I think I will try and order a curved blade version of these to add to my collection. They are not expensive, under $12.00 a pair. They are a great tool for that final little trim. Now that I have taken a photo I can see that wee bit more of trimming that needs to be done.

I hereby give myself a certificate in micro scale thatching competence! What a relief to get all that stuff sorted out. But the work is only part way done as now I have to photograph and write the tutorials for the thatching kits.

That is a common sewing pin in the photo next to the penny. Scale is such a funny thing, in the photo the pin looks more like a nail.

Thatching tools

2011-04-19T21:03:00.000-07:00

Every time I create another prototype for the Shamrock Cottage I do a little more thatching practice. The other day my thatching frustration resulted in one of those ah ha! moments. I was using the wrong kind of scissors for the job.

What I needed were scissors with micro serrations on one of the blades. The small hairlike fibers will drop into the grooves and stay put instead of skating away across a smooth blade. What a huge difference those scissors made, it is so easy now to get a nice even thatching job.

There are two pairs of micro serrated scissors in the photo above. The ones with the plastic handles came from a beauty supply store, they are made for trimming hair. I chose the inexpensive pair that was less than $15.00. I use those for the basic level and bevel cutting.

The second pair has a small, arrow point curved blade that is only half an inch long. Those are perfect for digging in and feathering out any areas that have too long of strands or areas that look somewhat clumped and ridged. I call them my blending shears. I found those little curved scissors in a store that caters to fishermen who like to tie their own flies. The exact same micro serrated scissors are also available from stores that cater to embroiders. To find a pair like this the keywords to search on are ... micro serrated arrow point curved scissors .

The other essential tool in the photo is a fine toothed wire brush. The fibers must all be combed in the right direction or your roof will look like a recently vacuumed carpet with fibers going in all directions.

Blog Birthday Party!

2011-03-28T03:00:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow is the 2nd anniversary of the birth of this blog! I should have waited to birth my blog until April 1, the fools day. What was I thinking launching a blog on such a mundane day as March 29? After all I am an April Fool. I am not telling anyone my birthday or how old I am not but you can send me expensive presents if you insist on it.

I went searching around my computer for a photo you have not seen before and I found the one above. The photo was taken several years ago at a house I used to own.

The piece on the far left is a Victorian era display case I purchased from an antique store. It needs a bit of restoration that I have never gotten around to doing. Inside it is a horse drawn 1:12 scale fire engine built by a man from Grant's Pass Oregon. I don't recall his name. That fire engine was the first quality collectible miniature I ever purchased. You can enlarge the photo to see it better by clicking on the picture.

The other three structures on the shelf are a series of birdhouses I built for a display at the Van Dusen Garden Show in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The display featured David Austen Roses from England so I made three incredible half timber birdhouses for it. The designs just flew out of my fingers and they were built before I knew it I was so happy and so in the flow of it all. You have seen that dovecote inspire its tiny paper cousin, the other two half timbers birdhouses will also get their own tiny paper cousins too!

You can't exactly call those birdhouses miniatures, but they are 1:12 scale. You can image how strange it is for me to be building the tiny paper buildings after years of working on real houses and large birdhouses and regular sized dollhouses. Strangely enough size does not matter to me, large or small, real buildings or micro miniatures, paper, metal, glass or wood, I enjoy the design process every bit as much as I did years ago as a child. There are hundreds more designs clamoring in my head to get made. There are probably thousands in there because hardly a day goes by that I am not inspired by what I see in my armchair and real life travels around the world or right in my neighborhood.

Ah ha I did say something about a birthday party didn't I? This is your invite, come on over to the blog tomorrow evening and we will party! I am going to give away a present or two or even three! Luck of the draw, get out your lucky charms and make a wish, it might be you who gets one.

the real deal

2011-03-27T01:03:00.000-07:00

I am glad I found this photo. I was so busy trying to make the thatch job on the right when what I really wanted was the well aged thatching on the left.

Click on the photo to go right to the album. It is not my photo, I have never been to Ireland except at the movie theater.

Now I can relax about it, quit obsessing, and get on with other miniature making challenges I want to conquer. It is an uphill climb with some easy places and some really steep grades, the mental excersise is very good for me.

Japanese Influence

2011-03-18T06:05:00.000-07:00

Architecture from all over the world has been a big influence on my artistic life and the lives of those who commission my work. The two structures shown above, one a pagoda style birdhouse, the other a very large light fixture, were commissioned from me by a woman who loves Japanese architecture. She does not live in a Japanese house but she does live on a bluff on an island.

The last time I visited there about 4 years ago there had been weeks of heavy rain storms and the bluff was in danger of collapse, in fact some of it had already sloughed away and the pagoda birdhouse was then in real danger as it very close to the edge. I have no idea if it survived, I am afraid to find out as I would mourn the loss.

I feel the loss of the lives and also the loss of the buildings and cherished gardens in Japan.

More of the Asian influenced birdhouses I have made are below.

The cherry trees are starting to bloom, it is time to build real birdhouses again. This year I will also make 1:12 scale birdhouses including a miniature of the one above with the slate roof on it. The miniature will also have a real slate roof.

Irish Cottage Furnture

2011-03-17T02:22:00.000-07:00

I walked into the Seattle Dollhouse show the other weekend and bless my lucky charms there was one of my favorite dollhouse builders Glenda Cunningham Barnhart. She was selling furniture pieces by an Irishman she discovered while taking people on tours of miniatures in the UK. John Walker is his name and Glenda says he works with the real antique furniture pieces he makes in miniature. John is not a power tool kind of guy he does most of his production work with small hand tools. This hand crafting makes his miniature Irish country pieces feel as authentic as the hand crafted originals they are modeled from.

The Irish cottage was made by Glenda, she is an IGMA Fellow and does fantastic thatched roof cottages in several scales.

This corner cupboard is what I purchased from Glenda, I love it, so perfect for the half timber houses I love to build.

Below are other photos of the pieces Glenda has for sale. I adore the blue bed but alas I don't have the budget for it this year otherwise it would have come home with me.

John Walker, the furniture maker, is also rather shy so that might be why is he rather elusive and of course exclusive. I am not aware of any other dealers who are currently selling his pieces.

If you would like to purchase pieces in the photos contact Glenda Cunningham Barnhart at countrysidetours @ hotmail.com You will need to remove the spaces on each side of the @ symbol if you cut and paste the address. I don't post clickable email links in order to prevent excess spam in my friends mailboxes.

I hope you enjoyed your St. Patrick's day miniature treat and I leave you with an Irish blessing

May you always have walls for the winds,
a roof for the rain, tea beside the fire,
laughter to cheer you, those you love near you,
and all your heart might desire.

With the recent events in Japan this blessing seems very profound indeed as so many are wishing for these very simple things they had only a few days ago.

Tool Time

2011-03-15T21:40:00.000-07:00

The Shamrock Cottage I just posted about has some very small parts on it that have to be bent at a 90 degree angle. At first I thought "impossible" how will anyone ever be able to do this without giving up on the project? Of course I also wondered how I would be able to do the task so I set about finding a solution to the problem.

It turned out to be very easy to do with the right tool. The right tools are pliers with a smooth jaw and straight sides. The photo below shows two types of pliers that will make the impossible become easily achievable. Look in your local bead shop for the flat nosed pliers.

Being a model maker I have a drawer full of pliers I have collected over the years. My friend Don discovered that drawer recently and has been raiding it now and again for his work. I store them under my workbenches in plywoodwood drawers that Ikea used to sell. I sure wish they still made these, I have a number of these drawer sets but would love to have another two dozen.

Shamrock Cottage

2011-03-15T08:27:00.000-07:00

Top O' the mornin to you all!

In the spirit of St. Patrick's day I planned a surprise for the blog this week. I just finished this prototype for a new 1:144 cottage kit. The roof is gold, the treasure that was found at the end of the rainbow that was over my workshop this week.

A closer look at the detailing on the window and doors. The ruler is to help you understand the size of this wee wonder. Click on the photo to enlarge it.

I am linking this post to "White Wednesday" at the Faded Charm Blog. Be sure to visit it is fun too see all the White Wednesday links.
http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/2011/03/white-wednesday-91.html

New kid on the block

2011-03-02T20:52:00.000-08:00

The Chapel had a baby today! Mom is 1:144 scale and baby is 1:228

Baby is a very fine size for putting inside a dollhouse on a tabletop. Even at this scale the windows are still leaded! Yes it is lit up. I put a small hole in the base so the houses can be placed over a cool light source such as an LED, fiber optic, or a low voltage, grain of wheat bulb. These are paper houses with polyester windows, so no hot light sources due to the fire hazard!

1:144 "wood" shakes

2011-02-23T05:22:00.000-08:00

The photos above have been left at high resolution so go ahead and click on them if you like.

I needed to laser cut some 1:144 scale prototype house parts tonight. I decided since I was going to be doing that I would try experimenting with making 1:144 scale shakes from some cardstock I purchased the other day. It is called brown bag kraft paper but it has a harder surface than grocery store paper bags.

Real cedar shakes are thicker than cedar shingles. So this looks just fine in scale, it is believable. When I was playing around with creating miniature log cabin walls I came up with a method that allows for the creation of wood texture and grain on the kraft paper surface of a cardboard box.

The Supplies

Step one was to cut my shingle strips on the laser. Step two was to spray the paper with a coating of Golden Archival UVLS varnish in a satin finish. Step three use a craft knife to score grain lines into the surface of the paper. Cut hard enough to go through the varnish layer but not through the paper. Step four is go over the surface of the paper with a stain marker. On the cut lines the paper will readily absorb the stain leaving a darker line than the varnished surface. Then let it dry and add more detail and aging if you wish.

I want to see if I can get that laser kerf a bit narrower so I will have to fuss with the laser settings. There is always a challenge and problem(s) to solve when trying new things.

It is supposed to be a snowy day and cold weekend. No snow here by the water so far but the weatherman promises that will change by the afternoon. The marine influence of the water which is warmer than the air means in the winter we are five degrees warmer than the folks on the big bluff above us. The summer influence of cooler water than air means we have air conditioning!

Ladder is finished

2011-02-22T00:57:00.000-08:00

Here is the ladder that will be used in the 1:12 scale dollhouse. I made it with a bit of a nautical influence from the style of companionway ladders. The imagined resident took a bit of care with the crafting of this functional object. It is not primitive rough work although it does show some wear from feet and a bit of dirt of course!

I posed it against the outside wall of the structure as it would have been too dark to photograph inside the house. I was not in the mood to setup lights for a proper photoshoot this evening. Don't you just love the duct tape that helps hold the sides of the uncompleted dollhouse together? I am looking forward to the day when the interior is finished to the point where I fix the walls together permanently. But getting there is fun and you get to go along for the journey.

I really enjoyed making this ladder, it was a nice change. But now I have to get back to the paper houses for the rest of the workday.

simple embossing method

2011-02-12T08:25:00.000-08:00

I would like to someday make a few 1:144 scale paper buildings representing stone structures. But I want to do something a bit unique, I want to emboss the paper so it is actually in 3D not just a 2D printed image.

I was drooling over the new Sissix Vagabond motorized embossing machine. I saw it on the internet and I may eventually get one but last night I decided to go for a low tech, low cost experiment to see how much pressure or rather how little pressure would be needed to emboss the cardstock I have been using for my micro buildings.

I had read about and seen a youtube video on using a pasta machine to emboss. As I have a machine in my workshop and I had cardstock and a sheet of silicone rubber I decided to get to work. The silicone rubber sheet I used is sold as a pad to use under hot glue guns. You can purchase that item at most of the bigger craft stores.

For my embossing die I used one of the laser cut cardstock timber sections from the 2 inch tall glitter cottage. I sandwiched my die between the card stock I was going to emboss and another scrap of card stock. The silicone pad goes against the piece that is going to have the raised embossing. The pasta machine is set wide enough to run the parts through but still put pressure on them.

My goodness this was both easy and inexpensive. You can glue little card stock bricks or chip board stones onto a piece of chipboard in the pattern you like and use it as the texture plate to run through your machine. You are limited by the width the rollers will open up to. You won't get wide wall size pieces but you could do small sections. I guess I will be using that laser to make my own brick and stone texture sheets before too long.

My friend Don has a set of wide rollers used for laminating materials together. I can do big sheets of paper on that. I want to make textured wall siding and roof shingles as well as stone.

One thing to remember when designing your embossing texture plate is the size of the elements you wish to emboss will have to be smaller than the final result. You won't get the same quality of raised image if there is a change in pressure settings . Pressure settings on a pasta roller will change if you change the gap width or if you change materials such as the paper, or the soft or hard pressure pads. So take notes, make experiments and run multiple copies to see if you are getting consistent results. Keep a notebook on each project if you wish to repeat it exactly at a later time.

Other news:
My guinea pig crew had a great time on Thursday trying out the new kits. They gave some excellent feedback on the written instructions. It is not too bad of an editing job for me. Listening to them talk about things as they were working has been a big help. About the only techical problem was a few tabs broke off. Don and I had been tweaking the perforation settings the day before to make the projects very easy to bend without needing any scoring. It will be an easy fix to make those tab bends stronger and still leave the other parts at the new settings.

I am happy to report that they thought the kits were very well designed and executed and they bought extras and want more designs.

As it happens while driving through an older neighborhood on errands yesterday I saw a perfect house that I really want to create as one of the micro houses. It will be part of my neighborhood series of classic houses from Seattle. This one is in the Shingle Style, a late Victorian era design that does not have a lot of gingerbread but has fantastic architectural shapes.

Valentines and Doves

2011-02-09T06:52:00.000-08:00

I found some lovely pale peach paper the other day, it looks great with the pearl white. I liked it so much I decided to make a Valentine's Day version of the Dovecote. The Cottage will be done in this color scheme too but it won't be finished until the weekend.

I think the peach will become one of the standard color choices I will be offering.

White Wednesday

2011-01-19T07:29:00.000-08:00

I have done a little resizing on the 1:144 dovecote design to match it's scale to the small cottage. Today they are dressed in winter whites. Christmas might be over but winter is still going strong with lots of new snow on the beautiful mountains that I see when I take my walks. We had two inches here at the workshop the other day.

I have noticed a real trend in blogs that feature all white interiors in homes. I thought it would be fun if I offered these little houses in an alternative color scheme. I think they are very charming this way. My material choices are actually ivory white and a pearly, iridescent golden white along with a bright white for the landscape. The pale turquoise door adds just that little bit of spice to the look.

Yes, these two finished houses are for sale, they are $35.00 each. Just write to me to order them, karincorbin at gmail. The cottage is 2.25" (55mm) tall at the peak of the roof.

When I glanced over at my countertop just now it looked like a tree farm in a snowy field, in miniature of course. I had to bleach some bottle brush trees for the white houses. After bleaching and rinsing I rubbed white paint into them. I use a piece of white styrofoam scrap as my drying rack. I certainly did not intend to create a snow scene. The front edge of the piece looks as if children had been making a whole bunch of snowballs in anticipation of defending a snow fort.

Birdhouse for a birdhouse

2010-12-21T16:57:00.000-08:00

One could think of the new design as a dollhouse for a dollhouse but in this case it is a birdhouse for a birdhouse.

The photo shows the new miniature sitting inside the bottom (feeder) floor of a 1:12 scale half timber structure I made as a functional birdhouse years ago.

Architectural images from Normandy

2010-08-24T21:58:00.000-07:00

I love this old lantern with all the fancy, stamped metal embellishments.
These images have been left in higher resolution so do be sure to click on them for better viewing.

Every once in a while I take a little vacation back to France by going through folders of photos I took 3 years summers ago. The are of real value to me in helping to create a realistic dollhouse. It is not so much that I exactly copy a specific architectural detail. The value is that I know exactly what the textures and colors of the materials I am using should like when I finish the parts for my project.

Looking at this photo of the hinges and shutters I think I did get my miniature versions to look just right.

Making the pintles

2010-08-18T23:28:00.000-07:00

A quick hinge preview for you. I won't install the hinges until after the shutters are painted. I have drilled the nail holes into the straps. The nails will go all the way through the shutter and then be bent over and clinched on the opposite side of the wood.

I have used a patina product called "Instant Rust" from Modern Options on the hinges. It is real rust but just a light surface coating. I have not used this product before, I am pleased with it. I purchased it in my local hardware store, it is part of a line of decorator products.

The pintles I am using to hang the shutters are very simple to make. I have used annealed steel wire. Make a simple 90 degree L shaped bend and then cut to length. Don't forget to dress off the ends of the wire so they are smooth with no sharp edges left from being cut by the pliers.

Dollhouses come in cans?

2010-08-17T22:59:00.000-07:00

I have started fabricating the shutter hinges. They will be strap hinges with a pintle support that comes out of the wall of the house. A very basic type of hinge that is not difficult to make.

Research told me a thickness of 3/16 of an inch was used for some real hinges of this type. That meant I needed metal of approx .01 inches to create a 1:12 scale part. Digging into the drawers of metals I have on hand I found a tinned can that was a good match. As I wanted steel for the hinges that also meant it was a good choice. There was a strip of metal wound around the key used to open the can. That is what I am working with.

The tin and plastic coating on the can must be burned off with a torch. This is a job to do outside as the fumes are not good for you. You can anneal the metal at the same time as you burn off the tin. I have given my metal a hammered finish so I had to again anneal the area I was going to form into the hinge barrel as the hammering work hardened the metal.

I am forming the end of the strap around a piece of music wire that I am holding in a vise. Music wire is very stiff and strong so it makes a good forming rod. Tonight's new discovery was that my pair of nylon tipped pliers I purchased at a bead store make easy work of the forming. I can grab onto the metal and hold it against the music wire without damaging the metals. The nylon is soft enough to gain a grip onto the hinge strap so I can pull the strap around to form that tight circle. The top surface of the vise acts as an alignment guide so I get a barrel that is at the correct straight angle instead of being crooked. Of course my forming pin must be clamped at exactly 90 degrees to the top of the vise for this simple trick to work.

Now that I have the hinge barrel formed tomorrow I can cut the strap to length, drill holes in it and even do some decorative shaping of the strap if I wish to do so.

Progress on shutters

2010-08-17T00:25:00.000-07:00

The wood work on the shutters is coming along nicely.

I need to make the decision to paint them blue or leave them as they are. I think the aging looks very nice. Of course they are meant to be worn by the wind and the rain as well as having a coat of grime and a hint of green slime. I think I will have to leave the decision to paint or not paint until later when I can do a temporary installation. The overall look of the project will tell me what to do. I suspect that I will choose the option of painting but for now I will enjoy them as they are.

I have not made the hinges, latches and shutter hooks yet. That is something I am looking forward to doing although no doubt I will feel plenty of frustration during the fabrication of them.

Building the shutters

2010-08-15T12:58:00.000-07:00

I have started cutting the parts for the window shutters. They are basic plank board shutters but I am adding some extra detail so they have a little more interest than a plain board does. My boards are being artificially weathered for an aged look. The wood I am using is Western Red Cedar and I have selected pieces with tight, vertical grain. They will be painted blue but the first step is to make the board have a gray tone. You can see the natural color in the groove I just cut.

A groove is cut near the edges of the boards. I want the groove to be the same distance on both edges of the boards so I am using a jig to control the position. A small flame shaped jeweler's steel burr is being used to cut the detail. My shaper is a Cameron Deep Throat drill press, this is a specialized drill press that turns very fast and accurately, almost as fast as a router. You can't use router bits or most cutting burrs (exception diamond coated burrs) in most drill presses and get a smooth cut in wood. So generally this work needs to be done with a Dremel or Proxxon motor mounted into a drill press or even a router table. Those machines turn fast enough for routing. Always check that the bit you are using is rated to run at the maximum rpm you plan to use for cutting.

What is important is having complete control over the board you are putting a groove into. I have created a channel which controls the board. The groove will now stay in the exact position along the edge. The only work my hands have to do is push down on the board while pushing it along through the groove.

My jig is not fancy or complicated, it is built from wood scraps. The fence at the rear is permanently fixed to the base of the jig. The fence at the front is not fixed, I clamp it into position as required. It needs to be adjustable as my shutters are of different widths. Remember jigs can be easy to make and inexpensive. The results you get will make you look like a professional.

Bird Barn is built!

2010-07-27T00:27:00.000-07:00

Here is the little bird barn my young friend and I have been building over the last few weeks. It has been a lot of fun for both of us.

The Barn Raising is tomorrow afternoon, you are all invited!

Yes, that is indeed one of my big birdhouses in the background. It lived out in my yard for 10 years but I have now retired it since I no longer have a yard for it.

The lovely original, oil painting in the background of this photo is by Julann Campbell a talented artist from the Pacific Northwest. I love having paintings in the workshop, it is like having a window looking out on a special place that is always sunny and serene.
http://www.julanncampbell.com/

Celtic Sea Monster

2010-07-26T10:13:00.000-07:00

A Celtic Knot Sea Monster carved from jeweler's purple wax, soon to be cast in bronze. It will become a necklace pendant for my son's birthday. I have just about finished carving this character, only a little more fine detailing and polishing left to do. I got the design from a Dover Publishing book of Celtic art.

This summer I am taking a lost wax casting class at a local art college. It is something I have wanted to try for many years.

I must say I have really enjoyed carving this material, so much easier than dealing with wood grain. It is a good portable project too as long as the weather is not so hot your wax melts. You can't leave the piece sitting in a hot car.

Another material I am learning to carve is Plaster of Paris. My friends, "The Guys from Texas" have told me much about it as they carve it for details for their roombox projects then make molds and cast the pieces in resin. This technique of carving in plaster then molding in resins is used by most of the high end dollhouse builders. I am surprised by how easy and pleasant it is to carve. First mix up your plaster into the basic size form you need then let it cure at least a full day before you begin carving. But be sure to complete the carving in a day or two or the plaster becomes more difficult to carve.

Plaster is very inexpensive. Dental tools can be used as well as wax carving tools, wood carving tools and files. I put a sharp, beveled cutting edge on my dental and wax carving tools.

One of these days if all goes well I will have a bronze sea monster to show on the blog.

Back to work

2010-04-24T11:34:00.000-07:00

I am home from the big shows in Chicago and my creativity energy is all recharged. Now it is time to focus on building rather than buying. I have completed the firebrick inside the fireplace box. All that remains in there is to put a little sealer on a couple of bricks I trimmed back. I left it unsealed for the photo so you can see how the sealer really enhances the color of the clay. Look over to the left and you will see a brick at the front edge and one just behind it that look dull and pink rather than a rich terracotta.

I will also be putting "smoke" onto the bricks. It has a very specific type of pattern to the smoke application as the fire keeps some areas clean while others get the smoke and soot. I am assigning that artistic task over to my friend Don as he is very particular in how he thinks it should look. I do trust his judgement and besides that he is an artist so he really should get out the paint brushes now and again. I will explain all about how it is done later when we get to that part of the project.

At the moment I am busy with the very tedious project of refining stucco detailing and adding some weather checking cracks into the timbers. When I got home I took a close look at the stucco and got out the artist trowel and made up some stucco paste to further refine the surface. Having several weeks off made a real difference in what I could see that looked wrong but before had become too familiar for any real objective personal opinion. That task is not photo worthy or blog time worthy so I will fill in the blog showing you items I purchased in Chicago to put in the house such as light fixtures. Or items I will put into the house when I display it at shows such as pottery and a few chairs.

Naturally being me I also bought a few tool items in Chicago so I will post about those as well.

Bench Hook

2010-03-13T12:08:00.000-08:00

Have you ever needed a little portable workbench you can use on the dining room table or counter top? Have you ever tried to saw something too big for a razor saw miter box and had it slide all over the place? If so then make yourself a "bench hook". Bench hooks have been around for eons, they are an ancient, simple and very useful jig. They are called hooks because they have a cleat that hooks over the front edge of a work bench or table or counter top.

There is certainly not much involved in making one of these. You will need a flat board and nice straight wood to make the cleats. One cleat is on top at the rear of the top, the other goes underneath the front edge. Be sure to keep the top cleat shorter than the length of the board you glue it to so the saw can clear the cleat. I have left room on both the left and right side of the cleat. Cleat boards are easy to make from 1" x 2" lumber. I have used a leftover piece of Baltic Birch plywood for my base since it was lying around unused.

I have spray glued some rubber drawer liner to the bottom side of mine. That will protect the table top or counter top I use it on from scratches. It will help the bench hook grip to the surface I am using it on which will make working with it easier.

Look Mom no clamps to screw and unscrew! Need to stop to make and eat dinner and your project is in the way? It is easy to pick up the board with the project still on it and set it aside until you can get back to work.

How they work is simple, if you are using a saw that cuts on the stroke that pushes away from your body or using other tools that you push away from you such as chisels then the force of the tool keeps the bench hook in position. Of course you are not limited to just those tasks, you can use them for cutting boards with knives or for light duty hammering tasks. Make one with a Formica (laminate) covering on the top, wax the Formica and you can glue or paint projects on top of your bench hook.

In the photo above I have placed a board I am going to cut against the rear cleat lining up the cut mark with the end of the cleat. Next I clamped a piece of plywood in place that lines up with the edge of the rear cleat. That clamped wood will do two things for me, first it keeps the wood I am cutting from shifting around so much, second it gives me a square edge to guide my razor saw against. I did not care that my scrap plywood had a hole in it or that it looks ugly, what matters is that there is an accurate 90 edge to guide my saw against.

See the bucket in the photo below? Just think of all the potential jigs for making miniatures that are hiding in there! With a few buckets of leftover wood, some glue, brads and a few screws you can create so much for so little money. There was that scrap of plywood with a hole in it sitting right on top.

Holding my breath

2010-03-09T04:13:00.000-08:00

Have you ever been really nervous about making a part because if you messed it up there would not have been enough material to redo it? That is the case with the band that is just under the top piece of the mantel. I call it a smoke apron, usually I know the correct architectural name for such elements but this time I don't. It functions to direct the smoke up the chimney. I have not fully assembled the fireplace yet, things are just loose stacked together. I can see I need to mix up a little stone filler for some small voids between the apron piece and the mantel top. To make the filler I take stone dust and mix it with PVA glue into a thick paste. Simple to do and it is a perfect color match when it dries.

In photos of old cottages you sometimes see that the owner has put a little fabric curtain (skirting) below the mantel in the effort to keep the smoke out of their eyes and out of the room.

Now I only have two small pieces of stone left to make and if I don't get it right the first try I still have enough stone to make them over. A little touch up here and there on the carving too. Then I have to finish the brick work inside the fireplace. There are still the chimney pieces to create but that does not worry me, it is child's play compared to cutting and carving the stone.

I feel like the pressure is finally off on this project. Not that there is not still a lot of hard work left but that there is nothing left to do on my project that I can't make 10 times over if I don't get it right the first time. That is one real advantage to building with basic materials rather than purchasing items such as doors and windows or fancy lumber moldings. Mess it up and it is no big deal other than loosing some time.

What comes next after the current project? I think I know, about 6 years ago I designed a very special and unusual dollhouse and started to work on it. I quit working on it because I did not have all the skills to solve all the things I needed to do. To be honest I still don't have all the skills and answers but I will grow the last of them as I work on it. It would be a sad project if it did not require me to gain in ability.

Curtains and copper

2010-03-05T12:30:00.000-08:00

I spotted a fabric in my local quilting store I thought my do for the curtains in the box bed area. Of course I had to buy a 1/4 yard of it. For some reason the print and colors reminded me of the Provencal prints although it is not one. I think the fabrics terracotta color is going to be just right in the room. It will play off the terracotta of the fireplace bricks and highlight the copper pots and pans.

There will only be a little bit of curtain showing once I get the front made for the box bed. I want to get the curtains and mattress made before I put on the front face. I have not finalized my design for that piece of woodwork. I am still trying to decide if I will carve in a bit of a wave motif, or repeat a celtic knotwork motif to tie in with the baby bed or maybe a bit of both. I hope to make up my mind in the next few days. I am feeling the need to get the walls fixed into position and get to the roofing.

The slate shingles I made seem to have provided the stimulus to drive me to move on to the roofing stage of the project. I really want to glue them on but I can't just yet as the edges will be prone to damage and I don't want to risk that. I did get the roof boards glued onto the bed shed ready for the slates to be installed.

I don't have a big collection of miniature items but I try to have on hand enough things to create a bit of a display inside of houses for shows and photos. One thing I do love is copper pots and pans. I used to own them for my real house but I downsized and let go of most of my antiques and decorative items. However it takes little room to have them in miniature size so that is where I indulge my love of such things. It was fun to open the boxes I store them in and play dollhouse trying out this and that item in the room to see how it will all look one of these days.

Tomorrow is the Seattle Dollhouse show. I am going to take my camera along to share a bit of the fun with all of you.

Miniature real slate roof tiles

2010-02-27T00:29:00.000-08:00

The photo above shows a real, full sized, slate shingle next to my newly made miniature slate shingles. A full size tile was cut up and split thin to make the miniatures. It is amazing that real slate stone scales into making a miniature version very nicely. But it is not an easy task to do. I have tried making thin miniature slate roof tiles for a dollhouse before and failed at the task so I have been putting it off. But today I was able to make them so I am very pleased with myself.

These slate shingles will be used on the shed roof over the box bed. It is a small roof so I don't mind making the small amount that is needed.

I will make a jig tomorrow to hold my splitting blade more safely; it is very sharp and I don't want to loose any fingers. I don't think it is wise of me to do a tutorial , it is a dangerous task to do. I would feel bad if anyone got hurt doing it. In addition cutting up the stone into small rectangles requires expensive tools. I already owned the tools because I have for many years done my own tile work on houses I lived in including installing slate flooring.

Brickology Part 5

2010-02-24T17:30:00.000-08:00

This photo is a closeup of the herringbone pattern laid brick inside my soapstone fireplace. I am pleased with the realism of it. These are the very same miniature bricks I have shown you how to make earlier in my blog. Brickology Part 5 is on how to mortar the bricks you have made.

After your bricks have been made and glued into position they need mortar between the joints. For a dollhouse you use a method similar to putting grout between tiles. For tiles most dollhouse builders use a lightweight spackle product (Polyfilla). But in real life bricks have mortar and mortar has a different texture than grout, it is much more coarse and has a lot of sand in it. I will repeat yet again how very important texture is to creating realistic miniatures. My handmade miniature bricks have the realistic texture of real life handmade bricks so my mortar must also have the realistic texture.

There are several choices of materials to use for this miniature mortar. Sanded grout for real tiles works nicely for this application if you are using real ceramic dollhouse bricks. But I felt it would scratch up the surface of the miniature bricks I made from Activa Plus Clay. So I have used another material, Elmer's ProBond stainable wood filler. It contains tiny bits of wood fibers. Those wood fibers give me a nice, sand like texture that does not scratch the surface of my home made bricks. The wood filler is not the correct color for the mortar, I wanted it to be more grey in tone. Therefore I have added a few drops of black, acrylic paint to the wood filler.

I do not spread the mortar all over the surface and then wipe off the excess. That would make a mess of the project. The residual paint and wood filler would change the color of my bricks and I don't want to get water on my bricks to wash off the excess wood filler. My application tools are shown in the photo above. I use the knife blade to pick up a small amount of my mortar material and hold it over the joint I am filling. Then I use the toothpick to press the material into the space. Yes it takes a while but there is very little cleanup needed. A toothpick can be used to finish smoothing the joint. Blunt the sharp point of a tooth pick so that it approximately fits the width of the joint between the bricks, it should be just a little wider so it does not slip down into the gap. for the final smoothing of the mortar line. Brick masons have special tools to dress the joints.

I did not want perfectly smooth joints. The mortar joints on my fireplace would have been subjected to the heat of the fire and the bricks would have shifted with time, the fire will have caused damage as well resulting in some cracking and loss of mortar.

A teaser of what comes next. As this brick is used inside a fireplace the last step for this particular brick project will be to create the smoke and soot patterns found in a real fireplace.

Miniature reward time

2010-02-22T23:01:00.000-08:00

I have been working on the fireplace and needed a bit of instant gratification. You all know how that works, you just have to try fitting the parts together before it is ready to be glued together so you can see how it is going to turn out.

OK now it is back to being a stack of parts, my incremental reward break is over for the moment. My reward also served to give me a little something to post on the blog today. I hope you enjoyed it too.

Surfacing the soapstone

2010-02-21T00:47:00.000-08:00

I thought you might like to see a photo of the method I am using to smooth the band saw marks off the surface of a thin piece of soapstone. The tool in the drill press chuck is a 1/8" diameter shank, diamond coated bit. I do use a dust collector when surfacing the stone but I removed that so it was easy to see the stone and the bit. I only remove around a 1/16" of the surface in a pass, sometimes less when I get close to the final dimension. Too aggressive of a cut risks breaking the stone.

You can do this task on a regular drill press, even on a Dremel Drill Press if you have a speed control on your motor. Diamond coated bits are not rated for high speeds. Don't exceed the recommended speed stated for the bit you use. Only do this for soapstone, hard stones need to be water cooled while surfacing and you will ruin a regular drill press or Dremel if you get water in it.

The drill press I am using in the photo is a Cameron, high speed, precision, deep throat. This drill press does not look like much, in fact it looks rather old fashioned and well let me be honest...ugly. But it was one of those very lucky finds of a lifetime that one hears about. There it was sitting all dusty and somewhat rusty, on a low shelf in a local consignment store selling used tools. It was the former property of a Boeing engineer who had it in his home workshop where he probably tinkered with making prototypes of his own inventions and made his own circuit boards. Once in very great while they show up used on Ebay. The Cameron drill presses run fast enough that one can use them as a miniature overarm router and the spindle is so precise in the bearings, with very minimal run-out, that you can use the smallest of drill bits without breakage. These are actually a three speed drills press and a speed controller can be added to take the lowest speed even slower. It certainly deserves a place on the wish list for a dream workshop for making miniatures. You can still buy new Cameron drill presses but they are very expensive and probably not in most miniature workshop budgets. Used is a viable option as the Cameron company has very good customer service should you need repairs or parts.

Cutting soapstone tiles

2010-02-19T19:28:00.000-08:00

I am back to working on the fireplace. It has a lot of soapstone elements to it. For the apron of the fireplace I needed a few tiles that will be inset into the flooring. Like any fireplace hot wood cinders can come flying out and one needs a fireproof apron in front of the fireplace.

Making the stone tiles involved a number of steps. First I had to thickness the stone. I had previously cut some stone slabs on the band saw. I then made a smooth surface on the slabs with a drill press into which I mounted a diamond coated burr with a flat bottom. That milled off all the bandsaw marks on both sides and gave me a flat piece of stone to work with. Then I made the side edges square, the first long side was sanded smooth, the second side ripped square on the table saw and then it was rotated and I used the tablesaw on that first sanded side. I did not care that the narrow ends of my slab were irregular although I could have used the crosscut miter to square them off. I am stingy with my stone and keep the leftover pieces as large as possible for future use.

Now comes ripping it into thin strips. Relatively thin, too thin and the stone breaks apart. I will rout out some of the wood flooring to inset these stones and hide some of that extra thickness in the final installation.

I wanted to rip the thin strips on the outside of the saw blade. If I had tried to rip them between the blade and the fence they would have shattered from the stress. To get all the strips the same thickness I created a quick and easy to make gauge.

My jig is just a piece of scrap plywood and a piece of scrap lumber that is double back taped to the bottom side of my purpose made jig. To use it you index it to the side of the table saw top, push your wood or in this case stone against it, then move the fence over to your material and lock the fence in place. Then remove the jig, rip the strip and repeat the indexing sequence for the next strip. You will see that underneath indexing position in a photo lower on the page.

It takes next to no time or any special skill to make one of these jigs. I simply set the material I was cutting into the correct position for the strip width, locked the fence down. Then I butted the plywood against the material and reached underneath and stuck the taped wood under the plywood overhang making sure I had the strip right against the edge of the saw's table top. No measuring needed to make this jig other than making sure you have the right width for your strip. You can make this jig for any of the miniature saws. On the Proxxon or Microlux tilting arbor saws be sure to move over the plastic table top extension so you can index to the metal table top. The miniature saw in my photos is from Byrnes Model Machines. Soapstone turns to talcum powder during cutting, it won't hurt the table saw or the blade.

Once I had my long strips made I cut them into the right length using my miter box. Use a stop block so all your tiles turn out the same size. I dressed any ragged edges on the stones with a small file before cutting the next tile from the strip. If I had a projection of ragged stone or any saw dust against my stop block then my tiles would not have been the same size. One of my tiles cracked right after I cut it, that was lovely since old stone tiles do get cracked. Perhaps someone dropped a pot on it or a chunk of firewood.

Dust covers

2010-02-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

When you build an open back dollhouse it is wise to think out a scheme for installing a see through piece of plastic or glass to act as a dust cover. If you can somehow integrate it into the structure so that it is not visually intrusive that is best.

I just finished making the most complex timber I had to cut. It is a beam that goes against the floor beams of the attic. On the bottom is a rabbet to receive the upper edge of the dust cover from the first floor opening. On the top there is a channel to accept the bottom of the upper story dust cover. The timbers at the sides of the opening also have a rabbet for the dust cover to recess into. This way the cover won't project from the back of the dollhouse and all the edges of the plastic or glass are protected. I will make a small turn button to fix it into place but still allow it to be easy to remove.

This one piece timber plays a trick, on the top side it integrates into the flooring of the attic with a smooth surface that will match the floor stain color. But on the other three sides it is one of the structural timbers of the house. The timber is notched to allow the walls to slide into it. A lot of tricky cuts, the table saw did the rabbet and channel, the bandsaw made the receiving notches for the walls. I textured the surfaces that act as a framing piece.

Lots of timbering to do today on the inside walls of the dollhouse. The pieces around the opening are part of that job.

I will start gluing some of the walls in place today. The front wall will be the last to install as it is easy to see and reach from the back opening.

cutting plastic

2010-01-30T18:54:00.000-08:00

There was a question asked in a comment to my last posting. Kathi wanted to know how to cut an opening in a plastic conservatory she is going to attach to her dollhouse.

It is good to know how to work with plastics and it is often needed when building dollhouses. I will be making a see through dust shield on the back of my present project. But some folks like to use plastic for windows or make a case to hold their project. I will be using a table saw to cut my pieces.

Kathi I suspect you will want to use the jigsaw method shown in the video below. This video covers a lot of different ways of cutting plastic sheet goods.

The other side

2010-01-30T01:04:00.000-08:00

I thought you would enjoy a glimpse of the other side of the house. Remember the walls are only temporarily assembled, the stucco on the wall joins is missing and I am in the process of applying foundation stones. The upper area of the roof timbering is unfinished as beams that will be upstairs are going to come poking through that gable wall.

You can see some of the chunks of limestone I have been breaking down into smaller pieces for the dollhouse.

In this photo you can see the dynamic patterning relationship of the timbers leading the eye around the structure. Repetition and variation of pattern is what it is called in the architecture design world. The shorter diagonals near the foundations were chosen as I saw in various books quite a few cottages in the Normandy and Brittany area that use that particular pattern of bracing. It is not something I have seen commonly used as a timber pattern in other countries or other areas of France.

Foundation work

2010-01-29T16:07:00.000-08:00

I am starting to lay some of the foundation stones. I have created a separate foundation riser structure that the house wall and the floor sit on top of. Makes life a little easier for me being able to work on smaller segments of house and I am less likely to cause damage to work I have already done.. The walls are not yet attached to each other or to the foundation, good old duct tape is holding the corners of the upper structure in place.

Before I lay the stone work I first put on a skim coat of grout over the substrate. That way if I miss getting a good grout fill between the stones it won't be very noticeable as there is a color match. A little missing mortar here and there will look as if the mortar between the stones fell out from the land settling, the timbers sagging or weather related events such as freeze thaw cycles.

My substrate is a tile backer board so putting a skim coat of mortar on it works fine. I like that I can use push pins to hold the stones in place until the Quick Grip brand of glue dries. This glue does grip fast and dries fairly fast. Another advantage is that it dries waterproof which is important when I apply the wet grout between my stone work. I like working with this glue where the object I am adhering has an uneven surface that needs gap filling. These natural stones do not have a truly flat surface on the back side. I can use a coarse carborundum file to flatten areas if needed. You can find those files in the tiling supply stores.

Now I am running out of split stone, that means I will have to open my mini quarry box of stones up and start breaking up the bigger chunks into smaller chunks. You can see why I liked this color of stone for the project it is a nice complement to the timbers. The stone has shades of gray and browns to it as well as subtle blues and green, a little purple too. It might look like a miss match of stone between the area with the sink drain and the foundation but it is not. What you are seeing is that the sink area has had grout on it and it has been scrubbed to remove excess grout. That has removed some of the brown surface oxidation caused by the stones sitting out in the weather for many years. There is iron around in the soils and in the stone, also some algea green and brown and that gets scrubbed off too. But I will later use washes of acrylic paint to put some of those colors back on.

A sand dune landscape will be coming up against the foundation area. I don't have a straight line on the bottom edge of the stone work as I will be creating a loose, windblown, hilly look with sea grass type plants here and there rather than a manicured lawn.

Sink Drain

2010-01-27T22:57:00.000-08:00

I started filling in the wall area on the outside of the cottage that is behind the stone sink. There is a stone drain trough that comes through the wall. It projects from the wall so that water from the sink does not get the house wet. This is a traditional detail used with the old sinks. I decided to infill between the timbers with stones rather than stucco. This helps to create a focal point for the big gable wall. More stone work to be done to create a small foundation under the house.

The drain block is made from soapstone but the rest of the stones are limestone that I collected from an old quarry near Lime Kiln Park on San Juan Island, WA.

I never showed you a photo of the outside of the window. At the lower edge of the window frame is a molding that helps direct rain water away. It overhangs the window frame opening and has an undercut so the water drips off instead of running back onto the frame and into the cottage. This is also a traditional detail on old wood windows.

I need to start making exterior window shutters and the hinges for them this next week. They will be fairly basic in design, I don't want to spend the time to make louvered shutters. Guess I am feeling much too lazy to create the jigs for that task.

stucco layers

2010-01-25T22:03:00.000-08:00

Will I ever be finished with the stucco job? Not for a couple of days more of work. It is very labor intensive to create the layers of texture, the cracks, the color washes and to pick off all the bits and blogs that get on the timbers. It is at least 40 hours, probably more like 60 to create this kind of look for stucco for a small cottage. No one part of the job is difficult but it is tedious work.

I had to invent a custom stucco putty mixture for the top layer of plaster. I needed something that was water resistant so it would not melt away the crisp edges of the broken plaster look when I applied washes. Spackle will lose its hard edges. It needed to be a smooth plaster with little grit in it. I could not have any shine to this layer and I had to be able to carve it. It needed to be basically white in color but able to absorb the acrylic color washes without melting or bringing up a shine. Hooray I managed to accomplish that which I set out to do. Now that is a good day in the workshop.

I put the sink in this photo, when I took it's portrait the other day the camera made the color too deep a brown. It is much more of a light grey with some browns. The sink fits right in with the monochromatic color scheme of the structure. The stone of the sink relates very well to the timbers and to the stucco. The natural edge on the sink front also works with those elements.

Back to work, another day of stucco tomorrow but I will break it up with a few other tasks on the dollhouse to relieve the boredom. What many people don't realize is that a great deal of the hours of work on dollhouses is not very exciting. I find the best fun is the research, the dreaming, the planning and the inventing of new materials and methods of construction.

Natural Stone Sink

2010-01-23T22:39:00.000-08:00

Today I made the sink for my cottage. It is made of soapstone. Real sinks are also made from soapstone. I believe the French word for this type of sink is "evier" My design is generic, the size based on the area I want to put the sink combined with the piece of stone I had. It was already this thickness and was long and wide enough to do the job. I left the natural edge on the front. I like the fact that the sink tapers at one end, it says "I am made for the purpose from salvage materials". That is what my fisherman families would have done often when they needed a home improvement project over the centuries.

These types of stone sinks are typically shallow in depth. I created a small drainboard area. The sink and drainboard areas were milled out using diamond coated burrs. I mounted the burrs in a drill press. They don't have to run at high speeds when shaping soapstone. Soapstone is soft and turns into talcum powder.

If you have always wanted a stone sink for your dollhouse you will find it simple enough to make from real soapstone, you don't need to fake it. A fence and a stop block or two helps keep the edges of the recessed areas nice and straight. You do need a depth stop on your drill press to control how deep you cut.

The sink will drain out through the rectangular recess at the bottom into a channel that goes through the wall. You will see that detail in a few weeks.

Now I need to make the riser blocks that hold up the sink. No taps for this sink, my rustic old cottage does not have running water.

Looking Up

2010-01-22T01:34:00.000-08:00

It was a peaceful evening here in the workshop. I have finished installing the majority of the timbers on the outside of the cottage. I will be busy with stucco for a while longer and that means not much to post on the blog in the way of progress photos.

What is really on my mind at this point though is the detailing I am going to use to create the roof beams, rafters and purlins. Still thinking on it even though I have a pretty good idea how I will handle it.

I am reminding everyone that when you go out to take photos of buildings don't forget to take photographs of the undersides of roof detailing. It is rare to ever see that area of a building in photos. But it is important information if you want to create a dollhouse of a building or a particular type of building.

It can be dark under there so learn the settings for low light photography for your camera. Even with that I often have to use special filters in Adobe Photoshop to bring the details up out of the shadows. All these photos are ones I took in Normandy.

That driftwood look

2010-01-18T14:02:00.000-08:00

In the two photos above I have set the side wall of the house right next to the front wall of the house. You can see the before and after effects of aging the timbers. The floors of the house are also in the photo, they were not bleached as the wood was already light in tone but they did have a vinegar and iron solution brushed over the raw wood as the first step in aging.

I have mentioned before that the coastal cottage project is intended to have a grey cast to it invoking the feel of driftwood on a beach. The old timbers on these old houses will always weather to grey if left unfinished but they may still have some brown undertones to them. That is the look I want. This is a small cottage and the timber framing is very busy, the overall monochromatic color scheme of the dolls house has a calming effect on the viewer that lets one focus better on details.

I told you about a two step process to recreate mother natures reality aging in my workshop laboratory. Mad scientist at work! So first step is the two part wood beach, it is a peroxide based oxygen bleach. I stop the bleaching action by brush water onto the timbers. As I am using a water proof substrate and also waterproof glue no warping or other damage is done to the dollhouse from this process.

The second step is the application of a dilution of iron minerals in vinegar. This solution is easy to make, soak rusty objects in vinegar then strain it and store it in a plastic or glass bottle. Never store it in a metal container. Or you can shred steel wool pads into vinegar, let sit for a day or two and then strain that solution. Usually though I purchase the famous Thomas "Bug Juice". I know the strength of the solution is consistent and my purchase helps support the two people in the miniature business who have taught me more than any other individuals, Noel and Pat Thomas. They used to write a series of articles for Nut Shell News, Dollhouse Miniatures and later Miniature Collector I have all those articles saved into a big notebook. It is a fountain of wisdom, artistic attitude and examples of building fine miniatures from scratch.

Stucco Test

2010-01-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

I started testing stucco last night. The store has changed brands on me. The stucco material I used to buy is no longer there. Last night I did a test patch of the new product they are carrying. I like it better in many ways, it is lighter in weight, the size of the bits of sand is smaller, it does spread nicely, it is not as sticky.

Some things I don't like better, it is too white, it is not as sticky, there are areas on the structure where I want to have larger grit showing. Ah you see there is no pleasing me, I want it sticky but not sticky and big grit as well as small grit. In order to get the right look for an old stucco wall that has cracking and failing plaster I have to use multiple products applied in layers. That is because that is how the real houses are created. I can also modify a product with bigger grit and a change of color and then layer on those variations. That may be what I will do this time around.

My goal will be to create a stucco that is showing age, has cracks and loss of plaster but is not completely decrepit. I am not building a haunted house, I am building a normal house that is in need of some attention. The photo below is a good reference for how that looks on a real structure. I will be having a few areas where the plaster is coming off in larger sections, that is not shown in the photo.

The real life stucco process on a timber framed house starts with a very course mix of clay, straw, sand and other inclusions. That thick stuff is pushed into the underlying structure of wattle. Wattle is basically little sticks sprung or woven in the openings. Then what modern plaster masters would call the scratch coat is applied, that layer also has grit or other inclusions in it but it is not a course. After that comes a coat of smooth plaster. The last coating is a lime wash. The lime wash is to plaster walls what paint is to wood walls. It provides a protective coating that helps resist water.

Timber frame houses are an interesting architectural structure in terms of engineering. They move and they breathe. Moisture from inside the house can pass out through the plaster walls, that helps prevent issues such as toxic mold and rotting wood. The frames stay in good condition because of the plaster. When the plaster fails you dig it out and fill it back in again. There is a constant cycle of stress on the plaster, wind rain and movement due to changes in humidity. Only a newly plastered house would have the completely smooth texture from using a product such as Creative Paperclay or lightweight spackling compound or plaster. Only a newly plastered house would be free of cracks, stains and dirt. I don't build newly plastered houses so to achieve realism I use a combination of products of different textures and colors applied in layers.

Because I will also be applying paints, glaze and washes to the surface I need to have my stucco materials be water resistant. A wash of dirty looking water will melt and smooth away sharp edges of broken plaster if I make it from lightweight hole filling product unless I choose to use an exterior product that dries to a water resistant surface. There is also the issue of the color of materials. The course daub (torchis) is not the same color as the white lime wash or colored lime wash. In some geographic areas of the world the earth the minerals used to make the layers of materials that make up the infill will be off white, other areas have a golden tint or it could be grey and even reddish brown. Different layers such as the filler will be a color that does not match the final lime wash. What the local land provided is what you got. They did not run to the local giant warehouse home improvement store as I can. They will very likely have mixed their own stucco products for the various layers from basic materials using the locally favored formula passed around by word of mouth.

Set a time and a location for your project and then support your decisions with research. Remember to use materials the characters who inhabited your story house would used. They had to shop locally if they lived in the previous centuries unless they were very wealthy.

Quick and easy methods for dollhouse building are great but only if they make a believable finished product. Not all dollhouses have to be believable but sometimes that is the goal. Other times they are much like a stage or movie set, the designer edits out details and emphasizes others to create an artistic impression on the viewer. Either way take the time to think it all out decided on a direction and then be consistent and faithful to that course.

The photos below are some that I took on my tour of Normandy. Some show failing stucco and one shows newly restored stucco.

Art from the heart

2010-01-09T20:08:00.000-08:00

No matter where you move somewhere behind the doors in the neighborhood there will be that special breed of humans, the creative ones. They delight you, they make you smile, they make you laugh, they welcome you in and they put you in awe of the things they think of and what comes out of their thoughts and into reality by means of the use of their fingertips.

I would like you all to meet my neighbors Bonnie and George Brenglemann who as a team create some of the best quilts I have seen. They live next door, we share the small beach you often see photos of in this blog. We share a love of old European architecture and we express that love in our art. Our media is different but composition, color, texture, history and the patterns and rhythm of roofs, doors and windows is what we find compelling.

Beyond their art quits they also create quilts to warm the bodies and souls and relieve some of the stress in the lives of others who are in need of comforting. What a lovely way to say they care. Please come into their home and lives for a visit and don't forget to go to page two, that is where the story is told.
http://www.seanet.com/~brengelm/FCIndex.html

Light check = OK to go

2009-12-21T22:21:00.000-08:00

My lighting for the box bed seems to be good enough that I can go ahead and put a roof on it. I can see into the box bed from a dark dollhouse interior; it won't be overly bright once there are lights in the rest of the dollhouse and there are still shadows inside the box bed.

There is enough light to see the carved baby bed looking into the little window in the box bed.

I can also see the carved baby bed from the outside the dollhouse looking through big window on the front of the dollhouse.

There are some white light bright spots on the walls up at the top of the room from the spot light but that won't be possible to see once the roof goes on.

For my test I took one wire from each of the lights, twisted the bare ends of wires to form a pair of wires. That made two pairs, you could call one a positive pair and the other negative if that terminology makes more sense to you. I then put one of the pairs under the screw on a small terminal block and then the other pair went on the strip next to it. The other side of the terminal strip has a wire under it that comes from a 12 volt transformer. If you look closely at the terminal block you will see that there is a divider in the middle that prevents the negative and positive pairs from coming into contact with each other. If they contacted it would create a short circuit and blow the fuse in the transformer. As long as you keep your pairings from getting mixed up you will find that dollhouse wiring is very straight forward and very easy to do. One wire from a light bulb goes to one bundle, the other wire from the light goes into a different bundle. You can color code those wires coming off the light bulb, just make one of them black with a felt tip marker if you like. If you enlarge the photo you will see where I have used a black marker on the ends of one of the pairs.

So wherever you make joins all the wires in one bundle would be black, all the wires in the other bundle would be white. They must never make bare wire contact between white bundle and black bundle. Color coding will make visible and simple to understand what is happening and very easy to avoid mistakes. Just remember you never want both wires coming from a light bulb ending up in the same bundle on its way to the transformer. If you can keep that very simple rule straight in your head then you can successfully wire a dollhouse and get everything to light up. White to white, black to black, never mix them up in the same bundle.

Little by little

2009-12-19T11:11:00.000-08:00

The box bed room is now glued to the side of the main house wall. I have finally made a commitment that says no more major changes can be done to the inside of the box bed.

Still fighting that chest cold and it is really limiting how much energy I have for working on the dollhouse. But I am making some progress if only 10% of what I would hope to be doing. I hesitate to bludgeon my art work with a cold's huge deficit of patience and lack of the required imagination that drives the creative process. I don't have the whole project planned out in every detail, I let the house "speak to me" as I go. I know the general direction I am heading but make thousands of decisions along the way.

I was complaining to Don about how long it was taking me to create this bed shed. He replied, no longer than building the real thing which is what you are doing. That is a valid point as there are just as many pieces of paneling, just as many window trims and such. Also you have to consider I need to create my own paneling, it is not something I run to the lumber store and buy needing only to be cut to length. I have worked on projects like this in real life houses and Don is right, it takes about the same amount of time but the illogical part of me says it should only take 1/12 the time.

I had a funny little shed room like this on a real life house I lived in a few years ago. It was part of a bedroom but I never thought to turn it into a box bed. It did not have a sloped ceiling as it was built under a deck for the room above. It did have a salvaged window in it. That was also the house where I setup my first workshop for making miniatures buildings. It was an interesting home, there was even a widow's walk up on the roof for viewing ships passing by out on Puget Sound.

Back to work, the photos above have shown me some things I need to touch up.

Christmas Village Lighting

2009-12-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

My client who commissioned the Santa's Workshop specifically wanted a place to display a 1:12 scale ceramic Christmas village that was created by "Sylvia Mobley". They really are special little houses and there are openings in the windows that allow the light to shine through. It is difficult to see that in this photo but this really is a lighted village.

Creating a mantel piece over the fireplace was straight forward but how to do the lighting to shine out the windows? I did not want wires strung along the top of mantel, that would have been clunky looking and the houses would not have sat flat and secure. So I came up with a different idea. First I decided on a location along the mantel for the various pieces my client had purchased. Then at those locations I drilled a hole through the wood of the mantel that was the same diameter as a "Cir-Kit Concepts candle socket". I also cut grooves in the underside of the mantel to those holes to handle the wiring for the lights. The candle sockets were mounted so that the top of the socket was flush with the mantel in case anyone should ever decide not to have a Christmas Village up there. The bulbs are replaceable which is another nice feature.

Ready to install

2009-12-14T11:26:00.000-08:00

The Celtic knot carved panel is complete and ready to install as soon as the finish is dry. Now I had better get all the support pieces that hold it in place glued into the box bed and painted.

This is a sneak preview of the type of details I will be putting on my line of furniture for dollhouses that I will start selling in 2010. It can be used in cabins, bungalows, cottages, fairy houses, witches cottages, Santa's workshops, castles and houses of many other eras including Arts and Crafts and today's homes. Timeless is a good description for it.

Quick start carving

2009-12-13T09:19:00.000-08:00

I have started work on the front panel of the box bed cradle. Continuing the theme of sailors and ropes I selected a Celtic knot design from a Dover publisher's pattern book that came with the images on a CD. I resized the image to fit my cradle.

The photo above shows the carving work as it is progressing. Some areas just have the pattern incised, others have the background removed and a few have the "ropes" just about finished up.

I am very fortunate to have access to a friends laser cutter and I used it to transfer the image I chose to my piece of wood. Now most people stop there and use the laser carving as the finished carving. While pyrography, a word meaning writing with fire, has been around since the days of the cave man that was not the look I wanted for the cradle. I wanted a hand carved panel with deeper detailing.

I could have used a piece of carbon paper to transfer the design to wood and then used a hot knife to cut in along the edges of the pattern. I have used that method on carvings before and it works nicely to help prevent broken carving details.

So here are the steps, transfer the detail and cut along the edges straight down into the wood with a knife or laser. Next remove the deeper background areas with a small knife and chisel. Jeweler's gravers are terrific micro chisels that fit into small spaces. Remember those diamond burrs I showed you a couple of postings ago? I am using those as hand held sanding sticks and also using needle files as the abrasives to help round over the roping details and also to smooth the background.

I hope you all find time for a bit of creative fun today.

Kribje

2009-12-07T10:13:00.000-08:00

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, click HERE to go to the website.

The photo above is from Wiki, it is an old box bed from a windmill, the Langerak de Westermolen in the Netherlands. I was sent to this web site by one of my followers, Evelien, her blog is to be found at http://ejacreates.blogspot.com/ thank you Evelien for taking the time to share this with me. The photo above does have that quality that makes one think it might be a picture from a dolls house but it is a real building.

I think the crib very inspirational and I am going to put one in my own bedstede (Dutch for box bed). That is what I am working on today along with hopelessly trying to catch up on other neglected work.

Work and the blog have been slow this last week as I have caught a cold. I know why they call it catching a cold as I can't seem to get warm. It does not help that the weather will be lucky to get above freezing today and for several more days to come. Little work gets done when all you really want to do is go back to bed and snuggle up with the cats to comfort you. Oh well only another week of this misery to go before I get back to normal. At least it is not a severe cold, I dosed it with zinc right away and that seems to have made a difference. Anyway enough about my little bit of misery it will soon be over.

I added that tiny extra window I showed you how to cut out just so there would be a glimpse of the little baby's crib in the box bed. That window is the only way to view into the far corner of the little shed addition. You can reach your hand in there to tuck in some blankets and arrange the bed linens but you can't see it other than through the window. I have thought about making the roof removable but I don't like the potential that would create for damage to the roof section and it will make it hard to create realistic lead flashing details.

I hope to make real slate shingles for that little bit of a shed roof. However it remains a mystery to me if that will happen or not. We shall see sometime soon if that will happen or if I will make imitation slate. I have purchased thatching material for the main roof. But this shed was a later addition to the building and I think a change of materials is interesting. Also it will work color wise as the slate is grey with slight brown, blue and green undertones and that ties in with the timbers, the trim colors and landscaping.

Perhaps it seems a somber color scheme to you but I think it will evoke the mood of the coastal shoreline with weathered drift wood, water, mist, rocks and sand. There is not a lot of brilliant color along the shores other than the blue of the sea and sky and the occasional wild flowers or brightly painted boat and brilliant sunrise or sunset.

The inside of the house will have some sparks of color. The box bed walls are a nice golden yellow, a small ray of sunshine peeking out of a dark corner under the ladder to the upstairs. For the bed coverings I hope to find a tiny French Provencal print in a happy blend of colors, perhaps a hint of red or orange in the pattern. There is a fabric shop for quilters just up the road a short distance. I have yet to set foot inside the store but now I have a good excuse to go and see it.

I need a cup of hot coffee! Time to go and make one and give the cats a pet and perhaps crawl back under the covers for medicinal purposes. I will take along a reference book and finish planning out the roofing details.

Diamonds really are a girl's best friend

2009-12-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

Diamonds, diamonds and more diamonds. I have lots of them and almost all of them are industrial grade and are not all that expensive.

From a large diamond coated blade in my wet cutting tile saw down to tiny diamond burrs I love them all for what they can do in the workshop. I use them to cut and shape, sand or carve and sometimes even drill stone, ceramics, glass, wood, metal and foams.

The items above are diamond coated files. I love these for sanding small details. Much easier than trying to use an emery board or a grit coated sanding twig and also good value as they last a very long time. Good at shaping metal although I tend to prefer the standard metal, swiss pattern needle files for that particular material use. You can purchase them in different grit sizes and a wide variety of shapes, flat, round, triangular and more.

The items above are diamond coated cut-off disk that I use in a Dremel Motor. They are not run at high speeds. You saw me cutting a window slot with one. I also cut small glass tubes with them and smooth the edges of cut glass with these. You can use the broad side front or back to sand items as well. They come in a wide variety of grits.

The items above are diamond coated burrs. I use them in a Dremel Motor and sometimes even a drill press to shape, sand, carve and sometimes drill.

The photo above shows a tapered diamond coated burr in an overarm router type of setup. I just used this to create the small bevel on the edge of the wood panels that line the box bed. I tried doing this task with the router but it wanted to splinter the wood so I turned to sanding the bevel instead. I made several passes and ended up with a nice smoothly sanded, beveled edge. There is often more than one way to get a job done!

The photo above shows using a diamond burr held in a pin vise for a handle. Now they be used as a sanding file for rounded shapes in tiny areas such as moldings on furniture.

Almost all of the items in this posting can be ordered online from Widget Supply, many can be found at your local hardware (iron monger) stores or hobby shops.

Cutting a dollhouse window opening

2009-12-04T23:03:00.000-08:00

I was part way through building the shed roofed addition to house the box bed when I decided to add another window in it.

No way did I want to start over again. No way did I want to loose all the hours I spent in making thicknessing, sanding, routing, painting and gluing on the wood paneling that covers the walls.

This situation is very familiar to anyone who has ever modified a dollhouse kit or purchased an old dollhouse and made changes to it after the walls are up.

So here is what I did. I marked out the lines for the window opening. I used one of my very well loved diamond coated cut off disk in a Dremel Motor to cut down through those lines from inside the dollhouse. It is easier to work from outside a dollhouse but I wanted to exactly follow those panel grooves for this window.

Because the disk is an arc it won't cut all the way through the wood into the corners. In fact I only got a cut through right in the centers of the lines as I am putting in a very small window. But the cut through opening made with the disk was just long enough to feed through a small, razor sharp flush trimming saw.

Oh how I love these little saws, the blade is thin enough and strong enough to flex a bit without a permanent kink it you don't force it too hard. That allowed me to sneak it inside the walls of this small space and follow the kerf of the cut off disk. Now I have very nice square corners in my window opening. Job done, ready for me to build a window to fit in there.

Hope this method helps you get in a jamb* some day when you want to add another window or door where there was not one before.

Widget Supply is a good place to purchase these diamond coated cut-off disk. Just do a search for diamond disk, be sure you get one with a mandrel so you can mount it in your motor tool. Just like sandpaper they come in different grits.

My saw came from Hardwicks Hardware in Seattle, Washington, USA. You might find something similar in your area and sometimes people call them Bonsai saws as they are used in that hobby for trimming branches flush against the trunks. You can get a keyhole version of this saw too as well as folding handles. The blades are very thin and extremely sharp, they cut quickly with little effort.

*Pun intended, jambs are the wood liners that go against the house framing to trim out a window or door opening.

Falling in love again

2009-11-29T09:06:00.000-08:00

When I went into my files today looking for a photo I fell in love all over again with one of my own pieces. It is funny how that can happen. Often when I look at various photos I have taken I think "oh I wish I had done that differently or better" but now and again I feel "oh I got that just right". Well I got almost all of it just right, there is one small detail that bothers me a bit and I want to make that part over again but I can't so I have to accept it the way it is. This is the curse of being an artist.

The photo above is of the bay window on my Acorn Cottage house. The leading on the window is made from the adhesive back lead that is used for weighting putting irons for the sport of golf. It starts wide at the bottom and then tapers to being thinner at the top where it branches out. This window repeats the theme of the gothic arches of the trees which are the framework of the structure.

At first you might think looking into the window that somehow its shape is reflected in there but you are simply looking at and through the little window on the other side of the house by the front door. It too has the same leading pattern in the shape of a tree. Looking into the dollhouse through this window you can clearly see the slight distortion from the hand poured glass I used.

The carving of the branches in the header over the window continues the line of the branches of the trees from the corners of the house. I like the flow of that and the leaves on the tips of the branches. I have always loved the shapes of leaves. I don't recall planning that particular design detail to happen, I think it is one of those happy accidents that should have been in the plans. I never noticed that it had happened until just a few moments ago when writing up this description.

The natural boulders of real rock and the ground covering of natural moss and tiny bits of real branches and real fallen leaves all add to the feeling of the forest setting. The small vine on the base is a bit of wooly thyme. Watery thin acrylic paint tints the moss and the vine to keep them green forever. I have not taken the time to learn to make flowers from paper or fimo. The flowers in the pitcher on the sill are real dried flowers and they look perfect to me as they are perfect flowers.

Yes, sometimes our visions do become the reality we intended, this was one of those times and one of those photos where the magic did get captured.

If you come to the N.A.M.E (National Association of Miniature Enthusiast) convention in Seattle Washington USA in the summer of 2010 you can see this dolls house in person. The owner of the cottage will have it on display. It will be fun to see how she has chosen to decorate the interior. I will enjoy the chance to visit it and remember the fun and the struggles I had in creating it. Now and again I get to enjoy visiting some of the special real life houses I have owned and then recreated to my personal visions. The owners always have a great time talking about the magic of those places.

Blue Skies and progress

2009-11-27T18:57:00.000-08:00

The sun came out today and it was grand sight to see shades of blue everywhere. The water, sky and even the earth were blue. Fresh snow on the Olympic mountains provided the contrast of white. The breeze had the white capped waves dancing. Do enlarge the photo by clicking and join me on the beach. Bring hot chocolate with you to warm your hands and your insides, it is very chilly outside.

Welcome everyone come on into my new dollhouse. Pardon the mess and the duct tape, we are under construction. The carpenters took a holiday, they will soon come back to do some timber framing work. Then the plasterers will come and then the stone mason. The stone mason has yet to carve the stone sink that goes under the window on the left and to finish the fireplace. You have all heard the horror stories of trying to find reliable help in the construction trades.

Now you can finally see some progress on the dollhouse. Most of the windows are glued into the walls. I still have to cut the parts for a dormer and the roof.

I have always planned on adding a small shed roof extension. I thought at first it would be a shed roof on the outside to shelter tools and firewood. Then I decided it would hold a box bed for the inside of the house. It is called in France a lits-clos (bed closet). Some of them are free standing pieces of furniture. Mine will have a furniture type front facing the inside of the room. It is tucked in right next to where the fireplace will be, so warm and cozy snuggled in your little box for the night just like a kitten.

This shed roofed addition also helps with the overall look from the exterior and gives the interior more depth and adventure of exploration. An architect would have said it this way "breaking up the primary massing of the building".

It is a quirky cottage, the balance of the elements is informal rather than being symmetrical about a central point. But indeed there is balance and there will also be a lot of rhythm as you will see when it is all finished. One of the things that attracts me to timber framed houses is all of the rhythm of the framing members. It plays a little tune for your eyes and they simply must dance with a happy pace over all the details of the dollhouse.

A long ways to go yet on this project but I am feeling good about things. Perhaps it won't end up in the trash bin after all.

Router bits for dollhouse building

2009-11-24T19:38:00.000-08:00

My Christmas present to myself has arrived and of course I opened it since I knew what it was. A very special set of router bits that are made just for dollhouse miniatures. They fit into a 1/4" shank router. I will use them in my Bosch Colt router on the router table I made for it. You saw that in an earlier posting on my blog.

This router bit set is from Amana Tools.

Below is the website for the set I purchased, the MRS 2000. I am giving you a warning that the MRS 1000 has been discontinued even though it is still shown on the web page so don't try and order it.
Amana dollhouse router bits

Still learning new tricks for safely working on small parts almost every day. I finally found the brass C channel I wanted for the catches on my window latches so I started making new ones. I decided to cut the pieces to length first. Of course that created the problem of exactly how I was going to hang onto that small chunk of channel so I could drill a hole in it for a nail. As I have already told you brass wants to grab and spin while drilling it. After trying this that and the other I picked up a leftover piece of wood from the windows it was grooved to accept the glass. Oh joy, a perfect snug fit for the channel that put a little bit of grip onto the brass so it would not spin out or shift position when I went to drill into it. Into the vise my wood strip went, supported from underneath to keep it level.

I put a USA penny in the photo for scale, that drill bit still looks big in the photo but it is only .0292" (.741mm). The smallest size drill bits are numbered, this one is a #69, they are called wire drills.

Window Latches

2009-11-20T02:31:00.000-08:00

The working window latches are just about done. I can see that I need to move the catches on the upper and lower edges over to the right a little more. Digital cameras are so fantastic to use for an instant critique. It really gives you a fresh perspective and virtual set of eyes that have not been staring at a miniature part for far too long.

The handle in the center of the latch is a fragment of one of the Vintag brass findings I got at the Fusion Bead store in Seattle the other day. The brass rod has a darkening patina applied to it. No bling allowed on this dollhouse but there is a richness of texture and detail that tells its own story in this structure.

In case you are wondering about scale the brass rod I used is 1/32" in diameter.

While they are not a replica copy of any particular window latch they are of the early style that was found on old houses. They will do nicely.
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Never enough Vise

2009-11-16T15:30:00.000-08:00

You can't make tiny metal parts without good holding devices. The photo above shows a little guide block I am building as part of my window latching system. The square part is a bead I found into which I have drilled another hole. In that hole I have soldered a piece of 1/32" brass rod that has been trimmed to length and will be filed into a point. The pointed rod pin will go into the window frame and help keep the guide block secured in position. A dab of superglue will secure the guide block to the window frame surface. The pin primarily keeps the block from shifting side to side when under pressure and also adds extra surface for the glue to grab onto.

I have to use a needle file to point the pin and also to remove oxidation from the soldering process. Hard to hold anything that tiny with fingers so I have it held in a pair of flat nose, smooth jaw parallel pliers. You can find them on the internet using that keyword description. When the pliers grip the jaws stay parallel along their length. That creates a good grip that is also a gentle grip and it won't scratch my piece. The pliers I am using allow for a long part to go right on through them which is another useful feature.

Another essential tool for making my window locks is a high quality bench vise. The vise on the right is called a pattern makers vise, the vise on the left is an Eron block vise. The long bar in the pattern maker's vise is a parallel which raises the object I am holding up to the height I need it to be but keeps the object squared to the surface and supported from underneath. I used that when drilling the hole in the bead to accept the pin.

These small vise are created to a high quality standard. The jaws are smooth on the inside. When you tighten them the jaws stay parallel to each other, that is essential for micro machining work. Cheap vises lift one of the jaws as you close them and you only get pressure at a small point when that happens. It will also gouge your work due to that shift out of parallel.

Another good feature is when working with them on the bench I can flip them around from one side to the other and still have a flat surface to rest on the bench. That lets me work on small parts from several different sides without moving the part in the vise.

Every year I add a few new quality items like good vises to my tool collection to help me make small metal parts. I have a Panavise but it just does not compare in ability to the pattern maker's vise for most tasks.

Door and Window Headers

2009-11-13T20:55:00.000-08:00

What does the above image have to do with building doors and windows? Read on...

Just a quick posting here of a valuable design reference source to bookmark or save to your files.
http://www.locallocalhistory.co.uk/studies/lintels/index2.htm

Over the years I have seen a lot of dollhouses and a very common detail that gets mucked up is how the bricks, stones or wood over the top of the windows and doors are placed. You can't have tons of bricks and rocks falling on your head now can you?

I love the first illustration on the web page, it shows how to divide up the space at the top of the doors and windows. Fairly easy to do in a drawing program or drawing by hand using an inexpensive plastic item, a protractor, found in all school and office supply departments.

There are a wealth of styles and examples on this web page, my sincere appreciation goes out to the group that put it all together. It was designed as a teaching aide and it is a very effective one. Enjoy!

If you don't have a protractor you can print out the one at the top of the page. It is from http://wblrd.sk.ca/~realmath_dev/forestry/media/protractor.jpg . If you want to download it directly click "HERE"

Auxilliary Fence

2009-11-13T17:16:00.000-08:00

I did not find any C shaped brass channel of the size I needed on my shopping trip to the stores. However I did find some square tubing that could be made into C channel.

Brass is somewhat dangerous to cut and drill. It is soft and the bits of material being cut will bind up in the drill flutes and saw and even clog up your files. Because it will grab and bind on the tools it can spin out of your control and damage the part and you.

Working with small pieces of any type of material requires being able to control the material so it does not move in directions you don't desire. For this particular operation I created a purpose made auxiliary fence. Nothing special about making it just a piece of scrap plywood with a notch cut into it that I sized to fit snuggly around the brass tube I wanted to trim.

I clamped that purpose made fence to my normal table saw fence and from the back I pushed the brass into the saw blade. When I had a long enough cut (less than an inch) I pulled back on the brass tube to pull the piece back out of the saw blade instead of trying to push it on through. I don't need long lengths for my parts. If I had to cut long lengths I would need to make a second auxilary fence that was clamped behind, but clear of the saw blade. A long skinny length of material tends to whip around and lash back into the saw blade and of course knocking into the teeth on the saw blade would ruin the part.

In the photo below you can see the backside of the auxiliary fence and the cut I made into the brass tubing. It is a very simple cutting task but a potentially dangerous one for injury to hands and fingers.

I will do any filing and drilling work to this piece before I separate my new C channel from the long length of brass tubing. It is good to have a nice built in handle. I will also use that advantage to clamp the piece to my drill press table so it does not spin out of control. This channel will hopefully become part of a catch for my window locking system. My reference book "The French Farmhouse" calls the type of latch an "espagnolette". I will be making a very basic, no frills version, of that locking bar system.

Creating holding fixtures so you can work with small pieces of materials is a skill dollhouse builders must develop. If you needed to modify a small piece of commercial, strip, basswood and safely run it through a saw or router you can use the same type of technique of making an auxiliary fence that I used to resize my brass tubing.

Squaring Up Assembly Jig

2009-11-06T16:19:00.000-08:00

Yet, once more you see a jig made out of odds and ends of leftover small pieces of materials from my workshop and you will keep on seeing them. It is the green thing to do, recycling at its best and it saves money.

I needed to square up and assemble the pieces of windows. The two white melamine strips are glued and tacked to a piece of plywood. They are nicely sqaure at 90 degrees. I used a large, professional quality, drafting triangle to help align that corner. That drafting triangle helps me setup all kinds of fixture and fences for dollhouse work. Glue and tack one strip to the plywood, then put glue on the second and using the drafting triangle as a guide clamp it and let it dry. You can add brads after it dries if you think they are needed. One caution sometimes glue lets pieces that are clamped creep out of position so keep an eye on it and while it is still wet gently tap it back where it belongs should that happen.

To clamp the pieces into the corner I use more cut off pieces of wood to the push the window components into that squared up corner. One of the pieces of wood I grabbed is my push stick for the small table saw. It fit in there and why cut something when it was right by my hand at the right time? It will go right back to being a push stick shortly. Did it surprise you to see me using those big clamps to do a delicate glue-up task? They don't have to touch the miniatures, they are simply holding the pieces applying the gentle pressure.

This is jig building at its most basic for a very basic and frequently required task. Part of the reason for creating this blog is to show some of the behind the scenes dollhouse building work that is not in books or magazines. If you want to start building and don't have a background in making things it helps to watch over someones shoulder now and again. Just remember there are hundreds of ways of doing the same thing. I don't use the same way all the time, it varies depending on my mood, materials on hand and if I am in the mood to play engineer or mad scientist and try something new.

Proxxon Miter Saw Fence

2009-11-06T14:33:00.000-08:00

The Proxxon KGS80 Miter Saw is a very nice size for many task when scratch building a dollhouse. Not for the tiny strip wood pieces but great for things like window and door frames, flooring strips and such. However as it is out of the box it is going to launch any small pieces you cut all the way across the room. It is a powerful saw for its size. Good luck finding anything small in the back room of my workshop and of course the parts can be damaged by the journey and landing.

To make repetitive cuts of strips of wood an easier task I built a fence out of hardwood. Now my cut off pieces stay right there on the fence and I don't have to go hunting for them. My custom fence is sized to fit into the existing clamp on the saw. I did not want to modify the miter saw as it is very good for cutting pieces of non ferrous metals in it's standard configuration. The fence is a piece of 3/4" thick poplar wood that is cut to fit into the clamp opening. It is a little tricky to fit the fence in under the motor and on into the clamp, you will have to mess around with the design making adjustments as you go. Do worry a great deal about getting the fence on the back nice and square to the saw blade so it makes perfect 90 degree cut.

I had not used the saw for a while as I knocked off part of the back fence during the move last year. But since I had been ripping strips of hardwood and had plenty of extra it was a quick repair with that rubbery superglue. Now I am back in action again, whew, that feels good. I really like this saw.

If you are going to make a setup like this for your saw keep in mind that the rear wood fence needs to be short enough for the motor of the saw to come all the way down. Look at the photo, you will see the approximate height you need.

I made my fence base so it extended out further to the left so I can clamp on stop blocks. A long stop block will reach in quite a ways towards the center.

It is very important for your safety that you need to know the correct way to use miter saws with stops. You must secure the wood you are cutting some place between the saw blade and the stop block. If you don't the wood will get into a pinching situation and the part can be damaged and so can you. Sometimes there is room for your fingers to do the clamping but don't take foolish risks. The eraser end of a pencil gets where fingers won't but sometimes even that is too big. You can make other kinds of custom hold down pieces as needed. When it is impossible to get in there with any kind of a clamp make a removable stop. Secure the work on the other side of the blade instead where you can get a grip on it.

You can find out more information on the Proxxon KGS80 by clicking "HERE"

Miniature Custom Carved Sabots

2009-11-03T11:04:00.000-08:00

I commissioned Linda Master to carve a pair of sabots for my coastal cottage project. Fishermen wore these to protect their feet from the wet long before there were rubber boots. Of course if a wooden shoe came off it would float instead of sink. They are much also warmer than wet leather.

They arrived just the other day. I love the custom carved shoe box she made for safe shipping.

You can see their actual size as they sit on the inch ruler.

This is amazing carving in miniature. The width of the wood on the shoe opening as it turns around the heel is so consistent I can't imagine achieving it myself. The leather straps are perfect as well. The shoes look just slightly worn and scuffed, exactly what I was hoping for.

Sabots are fairly simple compared to many items Linda makes in miniature. You really have to check out her web site. You will fall in love and want to spend all your dollars there. Click " HERE" to go to the website for Miracle Chicken Urns. There is an interesting story to go with the choice of name for Linda Master's business.

Linda does take custom orders so your miniature dreams can come true just like mine did. Have you ever wanted your real pet dog or cat to live in miniature size in your dollhouse?

Here is a preview photo of her 1:144 scale Noah's Ark

I learned an interesting tidbit about the word sabot, it is the root word for sabotage which came from throwing these shoes into the working parts of machinery during the war years to mess up production.

Installing the hinge

2009-11-03T08:36:00.000-08:00

My hinges started out all bright and shiny, these were the gold plated over brass hinges from Houseworks. First thing I did was take a butane torch and burn off the gold plating. Then I took a needle file and cleaned the burnt oxide off the back of the hinge so it is bare brass again. That filing step also roughed up the surface just a little, giving it tooth. Now the glue will stick to it nicely.

While I was at it I took some smooth jawed, duck billed, pliers and straightened out and aligned those hinge knuckles. Shame on you Houseworks, all your hinges have wonky knuckles. I also have to hammer the hinge leaves flat as they often have a cup to them.

Why mess up lovely gold plated hinges? Because the shiny gold would be completely out of character with the dollhouse I am building. My hinges have been out in the briny salt weather where plating or lacquer coating has absolutely no chance of surviving. I could have done a rust finish or a green patina finish but I am happy with the dull blackened look.

For the last several months I have been using a new kind of superglue. It is formulated with a little bit of rubber to make it shock resistant. I love this stuff better than any superglue I have ever tried before. It works just great for miniature hinge jobs and there is not a strong chemical smell to it. I got a gel version as hinges and recesses are never perfectly flat, the gel fills up those little gaps nicely.

Most super glue companies are selling this kind of rubberized formula, I am currently using the Gorilla Glue brand because that is what I found at the store.

When you go to glue your hinge be sure both halves are supported so the hinge is balanced and you don't have to fight it flopping around and pulling loose before the glue is cured. I have clamped a scrap piece against my door for support of the unglued half, you can see this in a photo down below where there is natural wood next to the blue door.

Spread a little glue in the hinge recess you have cut and push your hinge down into it. You don't want any excess glue squeezing out and over the hinge surface, use enough to make a full coverage but not a huge amount. Hold it down for a minute or so to make sure it is firmly set.

After the glue is set up I used a needle sharp, very fine tipped awl to poke in starting holes for the nails that came with the hinge. The awl is a better choice than trying to drill a hole, you can see how small the awl tip is in the photo below, it is super sharp. I grap the nails with flat nose tweezers that have small grooves all along the inside edge. The head of the nail slips between the grooves and they grip the nail so you can push to start it. First though I put a little dab of glue on the tip of the nail so it won't come back out of the hole. You might need to push the nail on down further with a small flat, metal object such as the tip of a flat blade screwdriver until the nail is fully set against the hinge.

Next I take a needle file and flatten the nail heads out quite a bit. That makes the heads smaller, they look more realistic and it also removes any gold plating. I used a chemical patina solution to darken the shiny brass nail heads and also the hinge. Now I have grungy old hinges for my grungy old door.

My favorite dollhouse hinges come from Micromark, they are solid brass and are not gold plated. The quality of the hinge joints is superior to those from Houseworks. However I did not have enough of them for this project and I did have lots of the Houseworks product.

Hinge recess jig

2009-11-03T03:24:00.000-08:00

I designed and built a simple jig today to create those pesky little recesses the door and window hinges drop down into. They are so easy to mess up trying to guide the tools by hand. Too wide, too deep, too long, crooked, I have made all those errors before and I was tired of fighting the task.

My jig is made from leftover pieces of material that were donated from Don's workshop. He has a real treasure trove of metal odds and ends and fasteners too. I used 90 degree aluminum angle. The larger of the two pieces was 1.5" x 1.5" by .125" thick. It is long enough and wide enough to allow me to clamp stop blocks to it and also the clamp the pieces I am going to attach hinges to.

The hinges I will be using are just under 3/8" in length, they are the standard dollhouse door hinges you purchase from stores. To create a guide notch in the angle I used a 3/8" end mill cutter, I could have used a 3/8 straight cutting router bit instead. The bit created a little too long of an opening so I glued in a shim to shorten the length. Or you could use a narrower bit and take two passes to make the opening.

My chisel is guided down against the three edges of the opening. Hand pressure is all that is needed to make these shallow cuts.

The second piece of 90 degree angle was epoxy glued to the first piece. It is used to control how deep the bottom of the recess will be cut and to guide the chisel in so it is level for a perfect flat bottom for the hinge to rest on.

My chisel rest on the smaller angle as I push in to remove the waste piece. All you need is light hand pressure to pare out the waste. A very sharp chisel is required for the task, my chisel is .25" wide.

I hope this post inspires you to make jigs to improve the quality of your work and also to make it much less stressful. I made mine for both reasons as I hate to mess up windows and doors I have spent a lot of time making. I was dreading the hinging task so I motivated myself to do something to make it easy for all the miniature houses I want to build in the future.

The secret to designing jigs is to think about the motions you need to make for the task and how you can control those motions for accuracy and repetition in the simplest way possible.

How will you guide the tools you use to make cuts and how will you hold the piece you are trying to cut in the correct position?

You can build a hinge recessing jig out of hardwoods, just be careful not to allow the chisel to cut into the guiding surfaces. It will last a good long time. Or you can glue thin brass to those surfaces to give them an even longer lifetime of use. If you use a jig often and it gets a lot of wear then metal is a good choice.

Window progress

2009-10-29T21:18:00.000-07:00

The windows are coming along. I wish I could say they are almost finished but there is still much to do. I will be making the frames that hold the windows and go into the house openings next. Then comes the hinging. After that there is more wood trim goes onto the windows. There is a vertical piece that covers the join on the casement windows. There is a drip molding to fabricate that glues onto the lower edge of the windows and door. That drip detail keeps rain from getting into a house. After that is hardware, knobs, locks and such. Shutters will be made later and installed after most of the exterior work on the dollhouse is finished.

You will see on some of the windows that are not painted there are bits of blue showing. I paint inside all of the grooves I made to hold the glass. The blue color in there helps disguise the thickness of the glass. In addition the back side of the muntin strips that glue to the glass are also painted. You would be able to see the bare wood if they were not painted. Painting is done with a watered down, very thin coat of flat, exterior house paint. I run the corner edge of a piece of glass through the groove to act as a scraper to remove any excess paint. The grooves are painted before I glue the window frames together.

I have decided to cut new walls for the dollhouse out of the thicker foam cored EasyBoard. It is about 7/16 thick although they call it 1/2". I want window sills and 1/4" is just not going to give me that look. Having the windows and doors all framed up makes it easy to create the openings to the exact size. Two steps forward one step back, oh well it will get done one of these days.

I am looking forward to getting this part of the job done so I can get those walls up and start the timber and stucco work. Working with tweezers to put in tiny bits of muntins and then detailing them with a scalpel is not my favorite task. But I am not done with it yet, looking at the sets of windows next to the door I realize I need to take the muntins off the door and change it from a 6 lite grid to a 9 lite so the proportions all work together.

My original thought was to do some leaded glass windows but for some reason I decided not to. I do have two types of windows with different muntin patterns that might have been salvaged and installed at a different time. On a centuries old cottage replacement windows would be the normal look.

Even on more modern houses I have owned and renovated I have seen three sets of window changes on a cottage that was only 80 years old. There were the original wood framed, plus some single paned aluminum and also some double paned vinyl windows. All the exterior doors were different types too. Another house I owned was built with salvaged windows the original builder thought were charming.

Stop Block

2009-10-25T23:08:00.000-07:00

I am cutting the side frame strips for another dollhouse window. They are too long to allow me to clamp a stop block to the side of the miter block and too short to extend past the edge of the miter box to reach a stop block clamped to the table. Notice that I am cutting with the part against the back edge of the box. That is because I am using a saw that cuts on the stroke pushing away from me, that means I am pushing the part against the fence as I cut. This means a more accurate cut that does not wobble all over the place. If I were cutting with a pull saw my work piece would be against the front fence. Use the force of the cut to your advantage. Simple trick but one a beginner might not learn without some frustration first.

Here is where years of looking at creative woodworking jigs in books and magazines brings up the easy solution. Put a screw into the stop block, oh so easy to do and it gives me a fine adjustment stop block. No need to loosen and move a clamp, just turn the screw to move it a tiny fraction for the perfect length of cut.

Over the years in news groups I have had people write and say they don't know how to go about making jigs. Therefore I keep showing this type of everyday situation and easy solutions so everyone will realize jigs are not always complicated and they can be as simple as a scrap of wood, a screw and a clamp. These very basic items have just created a fine precision, adjustable, stop block for making fine miniatures in less than a minute of time. I will be using this one jig often.

I love that gold anodized Zona Miter Box and Razor Saw, they are so much nicer than the Exacto brand miter box. Just two pushes of the saw cuts right through the window frame. It is so fast and easy to use there is no point in setting up a power tool to do the job.

In-scale lumber knots

2009-10-25T16:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a neighbor in the building pulled up in front of the dumpster and started tossing in pieces of wood. He was tearing out the railings from his front stairs. The contractor had built them with wood that was not rot resistant so indeed they had started rotting in our damp climate. The stairs were only a few years old so I knew the paint on them was not lead based.

Not wanting to see a tree wasted I snagged the spindle pieces to see if I could use them for a miniature project. I have been working on a design for a house that will have natural planked walls in a lighter wood than the cedar I normally use for miniatures. I am so very happy I took the time to get that lumber. When I cut off the white latex paint I discovered in-scale knots just perfect for a 1:12 dollhouse. That is a very rare thing to find, I am thrilled with it. I could have haunted lumber yards for a long time finding just the perfect material. I did find a source for this lumber, it is Pine from Canada. The Home Depot stores in the Seattle area have it. But only the smaller boards such as 1 x4 and 2 x 2 have the small knots and small grain. Probably because this small diameter lumber comes from near the top of the tree where there are lots of tiny branches. I have to pick through the stacks of lumber, maybe, at best in a stack one board out of 25 or 30 has the small knots. I now have it on my list of things to look for when out running errands, Don takes the time to check for me too whenever he is in that store.

Here is a photo of how the exterior side of my door and one of the casement windows is coming along. It is sitting on top of the in-scale knotty timber I just cut. You can really see just how perfect that lumber is going to be in a dollhouse project. The aging on the door is getting close to perfect. It is a lot of work to get good aging, it is like creating a watercolor painting of an object. Most people just take sand paper to the edges doing that shabby shic thing. That does not create realistic aging on the exterior features of a dollhouse. Paint fades with a lot of variation in color, one color of paint for the door would not recreate that look. I have several shade of paint on the door plus I have grayed the natural wood and added a thin gray paint wash on top and splattered on some paint for splashed up dirt spots and bug splats.

Workshop Tour

2009-10-23T20:46:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my world where I am making stuff most everyday. This photo tour is from the front room. It is hard to tell how long this front space is from the photos, it is almost 30 feet long by 15 feet wide. Behind the green doors is a sectioned off room that is another 27 feet long. It houses the big, messy tools such as bandsaws, tablesaws, planers, sanders and such. That area will be toured at some later time when it is not in a state of chaos.

The shop was relatively clean today as I am loaning out table space for the next few weeks to my friend Don so he can assemble an automated machine he has designed for a client. When I planned out my space useage I built worktables out of steel shelving on wheels. The white tops were recycled from an upstairs neighbor in the building who was changing out their work stations.

Behind the white curtains on the right is storage, 2 feet deep, floor to ceiling height, 20 linear feet of steel shelving units. Those hold all the plastic bins and boxes of supplies and parts for making miniatures. There is also a microwave oven and little fridge in there and my camping gear. I can't stand looking at all that clutter so I made curtains to hide it all. Instead of industrial floor mats I use decorative carpets. A woman can only stand so much of the industrial look in a personal creative space.

Yes, that is a tiger you see lurking in the background, he is from Thailand, a folk art piece. Another tiger is lurking under the sink, you will see him soon. They are very heavy, made from teak. They add a touch of whimsy to my workshop.

The photo above is command central where I am writing this blog. Too many wires, I have cable TV, monitor, computers, printers and even a surround sound stereo system. Actually I use this space not just a workshop but also as my living room where I hang out. I know, I really do need to get a life, how pathetic.

One thing I like about my workspace is having a sink, it is not fancy, it was salvaged and has patches on it but it is BIG. Not fancy means I can wash up paint brushes and containers and feel guilt free about chips, spills or stains. Tim the tiger is lurking under the sink. The floor paint color was chosen by taking a piece of cedar wood to the paint store, that way the sawdust from the wood is a color match and not so noticeable.

This is my baking center where I make bricks and roof tiles and do other such tasks. I love the little felt lined, storage drawers on the upper shelf, I got them at Grizzly.com. Elsewhere in the shop I have other sets of small drawers that I purchased from Ikea. Everything is waiting for me to make nice printed labels, for the moment I am marking things with masking tape until I decide how best to arrange all the little stuff that is inside the cabinets. Up on the top shelf brackets is the mast to my sailboat.

My workshop also functions as my bicycle and tricycle garage. I faux finished the front wall as I did not like looking at plain concrete blocks. There is a shower behind the door in the corner next to the sink.

The photo below shows Don (with hat) and his client who are assembling the custom machine parts. My tools and workshop space are not just for making miniatures, they are for making all kinds of items. The space is also functional for setting up as a classroom, it will hold quite a few students. At present there is 36 linear feet of counter space in this front room. The back room has another 32 feet of counter space. Naturally it is still difficult to find space to work on projects as nature abhors a void. It never matters how much room you have, there still won't be nearly enough in an ever expanding universe ironically called a workshop for making miniatures.

There is something missing from these photos....dollhouses... sorry but I don't own one, I make them and then they seem to leave me.

Acorn Cottage Roof

2009-10-23T17:59:00.000-07:00

I have been busy with things other than miniatures this week but I am posting a few photos on how I made that unusual roof for the Acorn Cottage.

The beams which support the roof have a curve to them which creates the curve for the roof. Putting it together is the tricky part. The beams have to be held in the correct position in a six sided radial pattern. So I made a custom assembly fixture. It is not pretty, just made out of scraps I had around the shop but it works great.

The plywood I used for the roof is thin, it will curve in one direction. Getting it stuck to the beams without using clamps was the tricky part. For this task I used polyurethane hot melt adhesive that comes in cartridges. The glue set up in a 90 seconds so the pressure of my hands holding the panel against the beams was the clamp. This polyurethane glue gets harder as it ages and it cross links with the wood fibers. This is probably not a glue and gun you will buy for the occasional job, the glue is expensive, the dispensing gun is expensive and the glue has an expiration date. I purchased my kit from ROCKLER

You can see the beams inside of the roof. The opening is finished off with a strip that will be grooved to accept thin, clear plastic to close the house off from dust and unwanted intruding sticky fingers.

The roof plywood is so thin you can cut it by scoring with a knife. I made a pattern for the shape and also a stencil to mark the rows of shingles. I marked the rows before I assembled the roof. You might think that because the plywood is thin the roof is not strong but it is. I used to use heavy plywood for dollhouse roofs but I realized as long as there are beams to help with support thin plywood is adequate and it is much more in scale. The look of the roof edge is nicer and it weighs a lot less. I created a wavy curve in the edge of the cottage roof to resemble the loose shape of the lower edge of the leaf canopy on a deciduous tree. The Acorn Cottage is very organic in its various elements.

The leaf shaped shingles I used for the roof are one of the unique features on this cottage. They started out as normal rectangular dollhouse shingles. A pair of scissors is all that is needed to trim one end into that point. Boring work but just fine for TV watching time.

Using Calipers

2009-10-15T23:34:00.000-07:00

A tool that gets used all the time in my workshop is a digital caliper. They range in price from several hundred dollars for a very high precision unit to about $40.00 for a unit that is just fine for most tasks on dollhouses.

You will see two of my calipers in the photo above, the one on the top is by Mitutoyo, I have had them for a number of years and use them for tasks in manufacturing workshops where precision is important. The caliper at the bottom of the photo is a pair from WIXEY I purchased about 6 months ago, it will read in fractions. Most fraction reading calipers are not very accurate but this pair is reliable in that you know there is only a four thousandths spread in which it will read the fraction. Huh you say? OK so a 1/4" in decimals is .250". The caliper display reads 1/4" in fractions anywhere between .248" and .252". Plus or minus .002 (two thousandths) of an inch is not an uncommon tolerance in manufacturing. But in miniatures you can see that gap if you are looking for a really snug fit. Most inexpensive digital calipers that read in fractions are not all that accurate, the Wixey pair is very nice quality.

So the conclusion is that fractions are OK to think about in general terms but working in decimal inches or in millimeters is way easier for math and digital calipers are so easy to use it makes no sense to me to worry about trying to mark or cut something to 1/64" or 1/32" and then read it off a regular ruler. It does not take long to memorize .25" or .50" or .75" or .125" instead of the fractional unit. If you can't remember there are a lot of free charts you can print from the internet that show the equivalent decimals, fractions and millimeters. I have a few of them around the shop for quick reference.

In the photo below I am measuring an inside dimension. I am going to divide that result in half and mark the centerline for my muntin location to divide up the panes in the glass area or the door. You can see the prongs on the caliper I am using for an inside dimension, I just slide open the caliper until they touch the wood. I look at the display to know just how wide that distance is. I love it, so easy on the eyes, no strain trying to see which tiny line reads on a ruler and they figure out what division it is. With a push of a button I can display the dimensions in millimeters instead of inches. This is a real time saver way to measure that also increases the quality of the miniatures.

In the photo below I am measuring the outside width of the door. You can see the edges of the blades I am using for this task.

In the photo below I am measuring the height of an object. The flat blade is placed against the table and you can see the flat edge of the blade that sits on top of the object.

In the photo below I am using a small protruding pin at the end of the caliper rule to measure a depth. You can use this method to measure the depth of recessed areas such as a dado groove cut to fit a tenon.

After ten minutes of using digital calipers you will be spoiled rotten and totally frustrated if you happen to misplace them. They are not just for engineers or geeks and there is no reason to be intimidated by the idea of using this tool, they won't bite you and they make the math very simple.

Its all in the details

2009-10-12T12:55:00.000-07:00

I have been busy the last few minutes sorting through the digital photos I took a couple of years ago in the Normandy region of France. What I was looking for were the details on real life windows from columbage buildings also known as Pan de' Bois, timber frame, half timber. If you do an image search on any of those words you will find a great many photos that people have posted on the internet of this type of structure.

I am going to do very simple muntins on my windows. Muntins are the strips of wood, steel or lead that divide up the panes of glass in doors or windows. The muntins will be glued directly on top of a single piece of glass both on the inside and outside. My task today is to cut the lumber, age the strips, paint them, let the paint dry and then cut and glue them onto the door.

I will also start assembling the wood casement windows for the cottage.

I like the lead flashing over the sill, I saw that detail on many old wood framed windows in France. I have on hand enough thin lead from the old wrappers that covered the corks on wine bottles to recreate this look in miniature.

Of course I also need hinges for my casement windows, this pintil hinge is so very beautiful, but it might be a little too wide of a design to fit my cottage window frame pieces. I would need to make 16 of them and that is a lot of work. Maybe if the new metal cutting blade I got for my scroll saw works out I can stack cut them in batches. I have been meaning to try that out anyway. If only I had a pancake blanking die for them it would be not nearly as difficult. But I don't have the steel material on hand to make the dies or the jig to hold the saw at a set angle to cut the die. It is something to think about trying but that list of things I want to try is longer than a lifetime at this point. Actually I have been thinking about this for 20 years and visited an artist studio to learn how to do it. Still not at the top of the list for purchasing the needed items, will it ever be? Maybe I will order the steel for it, I need to put in a order of steel to create metal spinning tool rest. Might as well toss that item in with the order.

You can see a pancake die in the photo of this etsy listing, click HERE

As long as you have one straight edge on your part design you can quickly make thin metal shapes using the die and a press. My workshop mate Don has a press I can use so exactly why am I not doing this? Not a clue other than I need to order an adjustable saw frame holder and they are expensive.

Rock Hound

2009-10-10T12:07:00.000-07:00

Historic Roche Harbor Hotel

My blog has been quiet for a few days as I have been away from computers and the internet. I went on a short trip to the San Juan Islands here in Washington State, USA. My friends had a few tasks to do on a lovely home up on a mountain. From the house we could see right across the water to the lights of Victoria, British Columbia.

It has been almost a decade since I have visited San Juan Island. On my list of things to do while there was to find one of the old limestone quarries and bring back some rocks for my miniature projects. The lovely old Roche Harbor Hotel in the above photo is located right next to some of the old Lime Kilns.

Kilns for burning limestone located at Roche Harbor

My rocks came from an abandoned quarry in another location on the island. There were several small cliffs of stone left exposed, all I had to do was pick up small chunks of scree off the ground.

Cliff of limestone at the abandoned quarry

The photo above shows some of my newly collected stone for the Coastal Cottage, I still have to break it up into 1:12 scale pieces. The color of the stone is going to be perfection, grey with a hint of blue and also some browns. It will blend nicely with the timber frame, stucco, floors, roof and landscaping. The stone will be used for foundation walls, the entry step, the exterior chimney above the roof and also bit and pieces in the landscaping. Perhaps I will carve the sink from it too.

Twenty minutes of work with a hammer, cold chisel and tile nippers and I have 1:12 scale real stone!

A tatlented stone sculptor from the Island, Tom Small, told me how to find the quarry. Tom's work can be seen on the internet by clicking HERE. I made sure to visit the sculpture garden at Roche Harbor as well as the local galleries on the island. The local Art Museum had a show of miniature sculptures including several of his pieces. Many of the items were of a scale that they could be used to create a miniature sculpture garden made of living small scaled plants.

Tom Small sculpture in the sculpture park at Roche Harbor, WA.

Beveling the Inset Door Panels

2009-10-04T22:34:00.000-07:00

I am placing a slight bevel on the two panels that will insert into the lower half of the front door of the cottage. I have tilted my miniature table saw over to about 10 degrees. The exact degree within a few clicks or so is pretty much arbitrary on this project. What I am after is a beveled look to the panel that is not too wide and it creates a width at the panel edge that will slide into the slot I showed you yesterday that I put into the framing pieces.

Mostly what I want to show is one way to do this type of wood cutting task safely. Holding small parts so you can perform some kind of shaping operation on them without messing up your fingers or the part is always something you have to think about. However people rarely show just how they do this, mostly you see how it looks when it is all done.

I have taken the small panels I cut to size and applied double backed carpet tape to them. Then I have adhered them to a larger piece of wood I can easily hold onto and push through the saw. I rotate the panels around four times so I get all the sides beveled. The tape is strong enough for this holding task because and I emphasize this fact boldly here I AM NOT TAKING AGGRESIVE CUTS. I am only taking a very small amount of wood off of the panels therefore the torque of the saw blade will not throw my pieces into the air or jam them down into the saw blade. There is also no danger of these thin panels slipping down and jamming into the slot next to the saw blade. I don't have to use a tall fence or feather boards to keep these tall, thin panels standing upright because they are stuck to that nice comfy to hang onto 2x2 board. A difficult cut is now very quick and easy to do.

I use double back tape a lot, it is very handy for work holding all kinds of things when a clamp or screw can't be used. I just ran out of tape with this job so I will drag myself off to get my favorite kind, clear plastic, thin carpet tape from the "Do It Best" Hardware Store. That is a nation wide chain in the USA and they also carry K & S engineering metals as well as Northeastern Basswood in the stores in my part of the country.

To find out if there is a "Do It Best" Hardware Store near you, CLICK HERE

I like this particular tape because it holds firmly but it is not impossible to get your part unstuck. Any tape residue will clean off the unfinished wood with acetone.

I could have routed the bevels on the panels or sanded the bevels into the wood or filed them or even planed or carved them. There are many ways of doing this same task if you don't have a tilt arbor table saw and/or don't like using power tools.

Feeling Groovy

2009-10-03T17:32:00.000-07:00

For both the doors and windows on my projects I first have to make the lumber that creates the frame pieces and then put grooves into those pieces to receive the glass or wood panels. This time around I am using poplar wood for the window and doors. Poplar is nice and hard and holds crisp details and best of all it is available at most any lumber yard. Sometimes the poplar pieces look green in color but that green will eventually go away and they will be the normal browns you see in most wood.

To cut the grooves into the edge of the lumber I use an 9/32" diameter, 1/8" shanked router bit. This bit cuts only on the sides, no cutting edges on the top of the bit. It cuts much like a blade on a table saw does. The advantage of using a side cutting bit in a router table is you are not trying to balance an upright thin piece of wood over the top of a table saw. You will have more control with the router table. The bit I use was sold by Dremel as a #198, Dremel has now discontinued making this 9/32" bit but it is still available online from Widget Supply as Item: D-AL21.
Link Click: Groove Cutting Bit

You will need to make several passes to cut the grooves to full depth. The reason I like the #198 bit is the depth is always the same, you go as deep as the 1/8" diameter shaft allows. When you hit the shaft you can cut no deeper. Another huge bonus of this bit is you can make arched windows by following along the edge of the curved window frame using the shank of the router bit as a pattern follower. The depth of the groove is just enough to hold a piece of glass securely and hide any minor chips on the edge of the glass. The width of the groove can be adjusted by doing a flip cut.

To determine the height from the router table to the top of the router bit first figure out the width of the groove. Now subtract that dimension from the thickness of your framing member. Divide that number in half and subtract it from the thickness of your framing member. Now set the height of the top of the bit to that calculation. I use a digital caliper to check the height of the bit. If you are using standard window glass or art glass you will need to flip the framing piece over and cut again to get the full width of the groove as the bit is not thick enough. With this method the groove will be perfectly centered in your framing member.

My lumber thickness is determined by the thickness of the glass I am using as is the width of the groove. I am not using micro thin glass this is window glass meant for real houses. Using this glass does push my pieces just above true scale dimensions as to the thickness of the door but it is not something viewers pickup on. The illusion is still there and that is what really matters. When I first began to make structures I was all worried about exact precision of dimensions for doors and windows. What else would you expect from a woman who for many years created aircraft parts where the tolerance of parts was measured in thousandths of an inch? But I learned to loosen up my thinking and my miniature work and instead of worrying about exact dimension I create that which is believably realistic and that which works visually with the project I am making and the materials I am using.

Creating that which is believable requires that you educate yourself by putting thousands of images of the real thing into your brain. Seattle is a long ways from the old buildings in Europe so I still start and end most days by looking at images of old buildings as well as reading about the history of the design and building of them. My bookshelves are located right next to my bed and there is always a stack of books by the table where I take meals and I take books along in my car as well for times when I sit waiting for a bridge to open or want something to read at dinner or lunch while out running errands. Many days of the week I browse the internet collecting images for the reference files I keep on my computer. Twenty years of this daily habit of ingesting images has been a real education in architecture and structural details. My mind now knows what feels just right and I can design original buildings in the style of old buildings from many areas of the world and from many eras.

Windows and Door

2009-09-29T20:50:00.000-07:00

The photo above is the entry door to the Acorn Cottage, is is a plank door with cross banding. The owl is a brass finding I bought. The door handle I made from a strip of brass I textured and bent then solder onto it etched brass leaves. I purchased the sheet of photo etched leaves at a miniature show. I also used the leaves on the light fixtures for this woodland cottage.

It is time to start making windows and the door for my new coastal cottage. That requires a lot of research and quite a few decisions before I can begin to cut the wood pieces.

I am going to create a few outward opening casement windows. They need the shashes and trim moldings cut to shed the rain away from the opening. These windows are also a good opportunity to add some small scale detailing to draw in and capture the viewers eye and give them a change from the larger textures and shapes of timbers and stucco. The visual animation of hinged opening windows and doors helps to break up the plane of the exterior wall surface. An outward opening casement also allows me to place a table right against the window. Objects on the table will help the viewer transition their interest into the inside of the cottage with a little sneak preview. The photo below shows a real life example with the type of detailing I will make.

I have roughly imagined a build date for my projects framing of around mid 1600s to late 1700s but the time frame for the dollhouse as it stands will be 1900. Now that gives at least a couple of hundred years of remodeling changes and wear and tear on the building. A lot of things happened to home design during that time span, chimneys and fireplaces changed and windows, doors and hardware changed too.

When you look at the really old buildings you often notice changes in the framing around door and window openings, maybe they were added or enlarged or made smaller or even closed up areas that used to have windows and doors.

I plan to have a few small windows from an earlier era on the sides as well as the casement windows. My centuries of fisherman owners were into salvaging and scrounging for some of their improvements and left other things intact from previous generations. Sometimes the sea washes up lumber for home improvements.

This is a scratch building job, you can't walk into a dollhouse store and buy an odd assortment of windows spanning several centuries that are going to fit into a custom design. Over the years I have made dollhouse windows several different ways and I have a few new ideas for making windows I want to try out on this project. This time around my front door will have window panes in the top half as I want some extra light coming into the interior.

The glass I will be using for my dollhouse windows is clear with little waves and bubbles in it. It was mouth blown in France. Up until about 1930 or so most window glass was made by these methods. Picture windows are a modern invention, old windows are made from small panes because that is the only aviable size the glass came in. If you click on the link below you will see a video showing how the glass I am using was made and why window panes were always rather small.
Mouth Blown Glass Video

Update I have finished the door and windows since this blog was first posted. You will see it showing up now and again on more recent posts.

Rope Twist

2009-09-24T22:15:00.001-07:00

I have finished carving the two rope twist supports for the fireplace. I will not be elected as master stone carver anytime soon but they look age and wear appropriate for the structure I am going to put them into. The areas where there is a little crumbling from inclusions in the stone is something I like, it adds texture and interest as well as making the stone look older. I think I might have made the ropes a little narrower but I am out of material so there will be no rework. Don says they are too big to be ropes in 1:12 scale, they are hawsers, big lines for mooring a boat.

The color of the soapstone is a nice blend with the floor that is going to be in the room.

Now I have more soapstone support pieces to make for the fireplace as well as a mantel piece.

Update to this posting you can link ahead to see these pieces in place. Just click on the line below.
Finished Fireplace

Practicing Rope Tricks

2009-09-23T13:28:00.000-07:00

I found some soapstone to use for the fireplace. I want to carve a rope twist detail on a couple of the upright pieces of the fireplace. You are looking at my practice rope twist carving scrap with all the flaws I made. It is sitting next to one of the pieces I will carve for the fireplace. I love the soft, grey and cream colors and that is how I will use it. If I put an oil finish on the soapstone it is dark grey, green, black, brown and yellow. What a Chameleon this stone is!

I show my practice pieces because I want everyone to realize you don't start out as a master the first time you try something. I expect my practice pieces to look pretty bad overall. But I know what I have learned and if I have gotten enough of a clue to do it right the next time.

I have never carved soapstone before so I grabbed a scrap piece and started practicing. Oh boy do I have room for improvement. Problem one, it is not that easy to get the segments marked out nice and even and then maintain that spacing. Problem two, dust immediately covers over what I am carving and that sure makes it tricky to see what is happening. Problem three, it is hard to carve perfect rope curves with tools that don't have concave curves. Problem four, no teacher around so this is a slower learning curve. The online instructions I found were of no use for making miniatures.

You can't learn how to do something just by reading a blog although it will give you some pointers in the right direction. If you want to do something you have never done before get out some scrap material, grab some tools and have at it. You will quickly figure out what does not work, that is the easy part. Finding out what does work and then being able to repeat those motions is real the trick.

I am truly enjoying working with soapstone. It cuts with a hand saw, band saw, scroll saw or table saw. It sands nicely too. You can detail it quickly with swiss needle files. That feels more like erasing material than carving stone. Using carving knives is tricky as you can flake off chips you do not want to remove. The needle files give better control for fine detail. A final sanding can be done with diamond coated needle files or wet sandpaper. I find it easier to carve soapstone than it is to carve wood so be sure to try it sometime. Fireplaces, fountains, stone sinks, miniature sculptures, bathtubs, doorsteps, stairways, counter tops, tables, benches, you can make any of these in real stone with just a few basic tools.

After measuring a few real ropes I realized that the lines are placed at 45 degrees and the width of the individual diagonal twist section is very close to half the width of a three strand rope.

Old floorboards

2009-09-04T03:26:00.000-07:00

I did say this was going to be an old, rustic, coastal cottage. I think a fisherman lives in it. Not sure if he has a wife.

What a worn and somewhat grungy floor. It takes at least 4 times more work to make this kind of floor than to make a pretty, nicely stained and laid floor with no wear and tear.

Every board had to be hand planed to make them look hand cut and also to make them uneven as if there were a little warping going on. I needed to create small gaps here and there between my nice straight boards. Then scratches were added and a few dings of course. There are the hand shaped trenails pegging the boards down.

The finish is done with many layers of stains, golden oak first then pickled oak and on the top layer I brushed in some dark walnut. It is done with a wet in wet glazing method. Then I rubbed down the floor with rottenstone which helps reduce gloss and adds an authentic ground in dirty look. Top with a final pickled oak wash.

If you ever need to put piles of dusty grey dirt into a miniature scene such as an old shed or basement just grab a box of rottenstone from the hardware store. No bugs or critters in it to worry about. Just good clean dirt, actually it is limestone that has turned into powder and surprisingly it is used to polish things.

That worn old floor started life as lovely Sitka Spruce planks meant to be used for the backs and tops of guitars. They were factory seconds that had been tossed in the firewood pile. I have quite a big stash of this wood, love it because the grain is so tight. In the photo below you see some of the floor board strips and also a plank below them that has not yet been cut. The floor board strips in the photo are just under 3/4" wide. If you enlarge the photo you can see the amazingly tight growth rings in the board, perfect for making miniatures.

Brickology Part 4

2009-09-03T15:31:00.000-07:00

Would you look at those miniature bricks in the photo above! WOW I am so thrilled, I actually managed to achieve the look I was after. No way would anyone think these started out as a package of terra cotta, colored paper mache clay, the Plus brand from Activa, from the local hobby shop. They might even think they are real bricks. A few hundred more bricks and I will get to be an expert at making the chipped edges. Right now the chips are too similar looking. Picky, picky I am so particular I will drive myself nuts. You can't see the difference without a 10 megapixel camera aimed in as a magnifier.

So today it is time to describe how to take the bricks you made in the previous tutorial segment, using the food processor, and cut out on the board and get them to look even more realistic.

The first step is to take your scalpel and clean off any rough edges from the cutting process. Then take the scalpel and make some chips in the edges of the brick. You can chip off a corner by putting the knife against the side edge and pushing it in a bit while pulling up towards the top of the brick. A lot of the bricks are not truly straight edge so you can create a little curve by carving away some of the edge of the brick. If you want to round over the edge to soften a few here and there use some fine sandpaper. Also you might want to add a few more voids and chips into the top surface of the brick. The scalpel is also the tool for that as are fingernails.

So that is it, sandpaper, scalpel and fingernails to refine the shapes and the most important thing is to have good reference photos of real bricks. Don't go looking at my miniature bricks when you make yours or you will be making a copy of a copy and they won't look nearly as realistic as they could.

You have started out with a batch of miniature bricks that was a fairly uniform color. The color change is done with good quality water colors. You will need black, raw siena, burnt siena, yellow ochre, and white. If I had some blue on hand I would have used it to modify the black here and there, some of the burnt areas on the real bricks had a blue and purple cast to them. Next time I head to the art supply store I will pick up a tube of blue.

Looking at photos of real bricks try to copy as best you can the color variations. Water colors will blend into each other and soften the edges of color bands and that is fine. Don't forget to carry the watercolor down onto the side edges of the brick. You don't know if the grout will completely cover that edge or not. Hopefully some of your bricks are of slightly different thickness or even warped a little. On a real wall bricks are not perfectly laid with absolutely flush surfaces or even in perfectly level rows and spacing. Slight variations in your project are essential, cartoon like giant, variations will make the project look clumsy.

Next you will need to seal the bricks to keep the colors from running when you grout the wall. I have used a stone sealer on mine, it adds no gloss to my miniature bricks. The sealer I used is by Aqua Mix, Sealer's Choice 15 gold. I purchased it at either Home Depot or Lowes, sorry I don't remember which store it was. This is a water thin liquid in a bottle, you can brush it on or even air brush it on.

I have detail carved, painted and sealed my bricks as individual pieces held in hand so I had something to show you on the blog. Normally though I would first glue the bricks to the dollhouse surface and then do those tasks. It is also much faster to do these tasks when the bricks are installed than trying to hold, pick up and put down individual pieces. This method is slow enough without that!

Brickology Part 3

2009-09-01T20:58:00.000-07:00

This Brickology lesson is for making handmade, antique style, miniature sized bricks using paper mache/clay air drying products.

The clay I am using today is Plus by Activa, their Acitv Clay formula works too. I have tried the Das brand of clay but did not like the results, it has too many paper fibers to give a clean cut. All of these clays are made from earth minerals which are the clay part and for strength they add paper fibers along with a few other ingrediants. I started with a terra cotta colored formula. If you let this product dry it won't look like terracotta, it will be a pale pink which is sad because it means more work to get the right look.

Right out of the package the Activa Plus clay is too wet to roll out with a pasta roller. If you simply take it out of the packackage and immediately roll it out with a rolling pin the surface will be very smooth and that won't look like hand made brick. So I started messing around with the clay to see if I could dry them out, improve the color and achieve the textures of hand made bricks.

The idea for the ability to make the clay behave differently and get a different surface texture on it is based on my experiences of making the perfect pie crust. The idea there is to create crumbs and then add just enough moisture to get it to stick together. The dough has to be handled gently so you keep the crumbs, which are fat coated with flour, intact enough to create flaky layers. Too much water and it turns to mush, too little and guess what the crust is not smooth it cracks and flakes. So that is how I approached making bricks that have texture with cracks. But I will tell you up front that getting the mix just right can be frustrating and there is a learning curve to it.

I do the mixing in a small food processor. I tried it in a full sized machine and it did not work for this method, too much volume to get the clay to crumb. I got a very nice small Kitchen Aide machine that was on sale for $30.00. You don't need a high powered machine. The only speed button this machine has is for pulse.

Because the clay is too wet to start with you need to do something to dry it out. You could pinch it into lots of little pieces and let them stand for a while to evaporate some of the moisture. I added in some powdered earth pigment which soaked up the excess liquid. I also added in some PVA glue for extra strength. Adding more PVA helps moisten the clay if you get too dry of a mix. The ingredient I added to increase the strength of the color is tinting medium which I purchase at a local paint store by the ounce. I put in a terracotta color. Even with the added color the bricks will dry too light but you can paint on toning colors after they dry.

I make up lots of smaller sized batches. If I get a batch that is too dry or too wet I set some of it aside in a lidded storage container. Those not quite right batches can be used to adjust other batches that don't have the right moisture content. Also you start to get many color variations which is perfect for a hand made brick wall.

In the photo below the clay mache has had powerded earth pigment, glue and tinting medium added to it. It is nicely crumbed but it is too dry to roll into bricks. I do try to get my mix to this stage as it is easy to add more moisture to get it to begin clumping. Be sure to set aside in a covered container some of these too dry crumbs in case you need to adjust a mix that becomes too wet.

The photo below shows a batch that is just about right, a little more moisture is OK but not any more dry than this image shows. To the crumbs I have now added more PVA glue and also some water. Adding glue only will make the clay much too sticky to go through the rollers, it needs to be a little slick to pass through. You can tell you are at the right stage because the crumbs start to clump together, just like that pie crust making method. A perfect mix is the instant when the clay suddenly becomes a ball but it is easy to make it too wet so I stopped just before that point. A spray bottle of water is an easy way to add just a little bit of water without going too far. So it is pulse, check to see if it clumps, if not then spray some water, check again and keep going until the mix starts to bond together. My mix turned out to be a little too dry for perfection but it still worked out OK.

Now that you hope you have a workable mix you need to see if it will go through a pasta rolling machine. I am using an Atlas machine I found at a thrift shop. You can now purchase these pasta rollers for using with Fimo type clays. As seen in the two photos below first make a clay burger patty.

Now cover the patty with a piece of flexible cutting mat and take it down to about 1/4 inch or so in thickness. That will allow you to run it through the pasta machine. I am using the #3 setting on my machine. How thick you want to make your bricks is your choice, there is no rule to this game. All that matters is getting the look you want for your miniature building.

Now run the clay sheet through the pasta rollers. The sheet should just hold together. If it does not hold together and come out as a sheet because it is too dry put it back in the food processor and add more water. If it is too wet and sticks to the rollers then put it back in the food processor and mix in some of the reserved dry crumbs. The rolled clay sheet might come out pretty rough looking and it might even have long pieces flaking off the surface (or it might look perfect). Both those factors are great, you want this, you don't want a perfectly smooth surface. Mine came out pretty darned rough with a few holes, I was in doubt it would be good enough to use. Look at the photo below,I catch the dough as it comes out on that extra piece of flexible cutting board.

In the photo below I have just trimmed off the dough into a rough rectangle and I have patched up the holes. Then I slid the clay dough onto my cutting board placing the flex mat on top for the next step.

Take the rolling pin and using it over the top of the flexible mat smooth out some of that rough texture that came out of the pasta roller. Your piece should look something like the photo below. Maybe it has more cracks and rough spots, maybe it is smoother. The point of making small batches is that you will need a lot of variations in textures to make a good looking brick wall. No two batches will roll out the same and that is good.
My friend Don noticed something in my finished brick samples. There was a trend for the details to run from right to left on the same direction of diagonal. Don has an incredible eye for detail, I sure did not pick up on it. This was caused because I always rolled the pin from right to left on a slight diagonal; be sure to vary the direction you do the final, smoothing with the rolling pin on each of your small batches so you get random details on the surface of your bricks.

Now things get much easier, all you have to do is make the cut lines. You need very thin blades for this, thick blades mess up the edges. So there are two tools of choice a scalpel and one of the very thin, long razor blades made for slicing Fimo type clays. The scalpel works good for the long lines and the blade is good for the short cross cuts. I find using the scalpel for the second cut leaves little pulled out of shape hooks of clay. Those can be trimmed off later if all you have is a scalpel. I tried using the long blade for the long cuts and it is hard to get it to line up if not long enough for a row. I am using a steel ruler and lining it up with the marks on the grid sheet under the cutting mat. My ruler was cork backed so I put the cork side up to keep it out of the sticky clay. Steel washes better than cork. Take any leftover scraps from around the edges and toss them back into your covered container of mix, you can add them into the next batch.

Now let your bricks dry. If I place my boards in front of a fan the air movement dries the bricks to leather hard in 10 to 15 minutes. I can then transfer them onto a baking sheet and finish the drying job in a few more minutes at low temperature, 150 degrees in my convection oven. But that is the hurry up way, you can be green and let them dry for a day or so. The sun makes a great, quick energy source for drying but that is in limited supply at the moment. If the bricks start to warp cover them with another cutting board, flex mat side down or the spare sheet of flex mat and a magazine. Let them breath once in a while to evaporate the moisture off.

The next part of the lesson will be cleaning up the bricks, adding more texture and painting them. The long tutorial is almost over!

Brickology Part 2

2009-09-01T16:52:00.000-07:00

This Brickology tutorial segment is about making the cutting boards you will be needing. While each brick will be unique there still has to be a way to control the size of the brick.

Knowing what era your dollhouse was built or remodeled is the first step in making bricks for the project. I can't tell you what size to make your bricks because depending on the date, the geographical location and sometimes the architect the standard sizes of bricks varied. During Queen Elizabeth's rein the size standard was different than the size during the rein of Charles I. These sizes were controlled by laws. Early American bricks were influenced by the British standards as the brick makers were immigrants. The modern standards in place now are created by builders associations. Tax rates were also an influence, structures might have had a per brick tax, that meant the bricks got larger so the tax would be smaller. While that brick tax was going on in England there were some really large brick sizes used on new buildings.

So do your research and find out what size the real life brick would be and then divide 12 if you are making a 1:12 project. Don't worry about rounding up to the nearest fraction, the decimal answer is better to use. The next step is to cut a brick to that dimension and find out how much it is going to shrink. Yes these clay materials always shrink so you must increase the size of your miniature brick pattern to compensate. You will only find out by experimenting what dimension you have to start with. As there is more material lengthwise in a brick it will shrink more in that dimension. Next use a program that will allow you to duplicate lines across the printed page. That creates your cutting guide.

You will need to make layout pages for the lengthwise bricks and if you want to also make them for the header courses of bricks. Header courses are where the length of the brick goes back into the wall instead of across the face. This provides greater strength for walls. So this is yet another wall detail you need to decide on, are you going to have header courses and how often will they occur? Some brick wall patterns have a lot of headers in them. There might also be decorative soldier courses. You will also see these long edges of the brick exposed in arches over windows and doors. Just running bricks lengthwise over these opening is not architecturally correct. Those are load bearing areas on a real building, the wall above the door or window would collapse into the opening if they are not properly engineered. Don't forget window sills, they too have a special pattern. Search out images and web pages that show how to build brick walls. Look closely at photos of real brick buildings from the era of your dollhouse.

Because this is a small batch method of brick making due to the width of the pasta roller machine I have made a number of cutting boards. My boards are made using some leftover plywood, I could have used pieces of melamine coated bookshelves. I adhere my guide lines to the board with 3M Super 77 spray adhesive. Next I put on the top surface also using the spray adhesive. That surface is a clear, flexible plastic cutting mat. You can find these at grocery stores or in the kitchen section of a department store, hardware store or kitchen store. I got the big ones and cut them in half. They came two per pack so that made 3 project boards. Only 3 because you will also need a piece of cutting mat that is not attached to a board. I will show you why you need it in another segment of the tutorial.

If you buy two packs you can create more cutting boards with a different grid size on the backside of the brick cutting board. I have a roof tile grid on one side of my board and a brick grid on the other side. I also have a long brick grid on one side and the header brick size on the other side of the board.

The cutting board is also the drying board.

1st sample real clay brick

2009-09-01T04:04:00.000-07:00

I just rolled out and cut my first trial sample from the real clay I purchased. After they dry I will fire them in the kiln. I want to make several batches in different thickness to see what works best. Some bricks will be thin to use as a brick veneer over the plywood or other dollhouse shell materials, others will be 1:12 scale full dimensioned bricks. I also want to try making veneer corner bricks.

I loved working with this regular clay a lot more than I did working with the Das, Plus and other brands of clay/paper-mache mixes. It cuts nicer and the color is much better. The variation in color you see in the photo above is that some of the bricks are close to being dry as they were near the halogen lamp and other bricks are still pretty wet. The clay is not a bad bargain at $10.00 for 20 pounds. Of course the real expense is in the firing and the cost of the labor. But cost aside I can't purchase this product and there are no tutorials on it so I am teaching myself the skill.

So far I feel I am on a good track towards achieving a realistic texture to match that of old handmade bricks. There are definitely a few tricks up my sleeve that makes that texture happen but nothing too complex.

Brickology Part 1

2009-08-30T16:46:00.000-07:00

Today I started walking the immediate neighborhood taking photos of bricks on old buildings. I started making miniature bricks last night. My new dollhouse has a raised hearth fireplace, wood storage underneath, built in spice cupboard to the side. I have not gotten as much of the construction done as I hoped as I had to design the fireplace. It is not looking promising to make a 30 day completion goal but I am having a lot of fun so I don't really mind. There is a Seattle dollhouse show in March.

My roof tile method is what I will be using to make the brickwork on the hearth. This blog is a bit of a teaser in that it only contains reference photos of bricks that I took at lunch today. The how-to blog is coming later when I have the hearth finished and ready to photograph.

I am going out on a limb here and state my opinion that egg cartons do not make realistic looking bricks on dollhouses. The closest it comes to reality is where the hard kiln fired face of a brick has broken off and the soft clay inside is eroding away. Mushy rounded over edges on paperclay bricks don't work either.

Having stated that strong opinion I will soften it by saying that not all dollhouses have to be photo realistic looking, they are fun and they are a form of folk art where photo realism is not the point. The dollhouses I create are a blend of folk art and realism. So you keep right on doing what you love best because it is good and great. But if you want to try for something closer to the real thing then go and look at the real thing, look very closely, touch it, feel the surfaces, absorb the experience into your memory banks. Use a camera and record the experience to take back to your studio. Pick up a fallen brick from an old wall to use as a door stop or to weigh down something being glued together.

The photos that follow are the record I made of a late 1800's structure in the neighborhood that was built with local, hand made bricks. The color variations come from the position the bricks were stacked in the kiln. The smoke and heat creates a kind of glaze. Some of the striped color variations are from where an adjacent brick was stacked thus protecting the brick from the heat in that spot. Heat also creates cracks and spalling. Because the clay is hand packed into the molds there are often fissures in the layers of clay. The clay itself has grit and other inclusions in it and there are variation in color from the earth. When the mold is removed from the wet clay it can distort the shape of the brick. Moving the newly formed clay to the drying shelf can distort it and the person moving it might leave visible prints of their fingers. while the bricks are of similar size and the clay material is dug from the same pit there are absolutely no identical bricks unlike modern manufactured brick where they all look the same.

These brick photos do create a kind of abstract art where you look at things in detail. Don thinks I should do a gallery show of the images at a local coffee shop and sell people the prints. Who knows maybe I will give it a try sometime. I will need to shoot at the golden hour of intense sunlight from the west when there are long shadows.

Timber framing for a dollhouse

2009-08-24T22:12:00.000-07:00

Lumber for the new timber framed dollhouse.

I am not going to be creating a real mortise and tenon frame for my dollhouse. That can be done but I have chosen a different method, one of overlaying timbers onto a plywood substrate.

The first task after the basic design is to choose the wood for the timbers. I am using Western Red Cedar. It is technically not a cedar tree, it is a member of the cypress family, thuja plicata is the proper nomenclature for this species. This is a plentiful, tree farm grown, local tree in the Pacific Northwest.

I was fortunate to find some fine grained timbers at the local home supply store. I was hand selecting for fine grain with a little curve running through the boards. They must have fine grain on both the top and side surfaces. My goal is to have it look as if the structure was framed with in-scale trees. You can't use branches for this kind of work, they might be the right width but they don't have enough growth rings to look authentic. The pieces I have just cut have between 25 to 35 growth rings per inch. That is fairly good for imitating old oak timbers, there could be more rings but that is very difficult to find without cutting down an old growth forest.

I started with 3/4" X 1-1/2" pieces and have split them on my table saw. That was the size of lumber I found that day with the right grain. Sometimes I am lucky enough to find 2X4 lumber. If I am going to have the timbers show on both the inside and outside walls of the house I will tape the split halves together before taking them to the bandsaw for further sizing. That way the inside and outside of the piece will be a match.

In the photo above you can see the way the grain curves within the piece of wood. I use a pair of dividers set to the width I want for my timber and follow along the natural grain lines. Then I take the piece to the bandsaw and cut on those lines. The next step in the process will be texturing the wood. I don't have to worry about table saw or band saw marks showing up as those will be removed in the texturing step.

If I want a straight beam I choose a piece of wood with straight grain. But all the beams being perfectly straight means that my dollhouse would not have a realistic look for the style of structure I am trying to create. See the photo below for an example of using narrow trees on a old structure.

Tile batch show

2009-08-19T19:50:00.000-07:00

A sample section of the tiles I have been working on. They are just loosely laid out in rows on a board. I have made no calibrated attempt to get the rows even. You know how it is, you just can't wait to see how it is all going to look someday in the future. Of course they will look different when the dollhouse roof is finished. There will be more darker tiles in the mix, I have not made any of those "kiln burnt" batches yet with the black in them. There is no moss, mildew, dirt or bird droppings on this sample either. They do have some water color washes on them bringing up various shades of the terra cotta color range.

As a side note it takes about 720 tiles to cover one square foot of dollhouse roof. I will need somewhere around 2,000 tiles for my project. One reason it takes so many is there is a required triple overlap to this kind of roof covering. That means only the bottom one third of each tile is left exposed.

Now I have to quit having fun and get back to organizing the chaos that reorganizing creates. I swear that I make a bigger mess than ever when I make changes to the workshop space and it seems like I will never reach the goal.

Company is coming tomorrow so I have to get the workshop cleaned up before midnight. Tomorrow we are going to be putting together a tutorial on aspects of wiring a dollhouse without using flat tape products. From one of my dollhouse newsgroups I rounded up a local volunteer who wanted to learn. It is much easier to shoot photos of someone else instead of using a timer to trigger the shutter.

Oh no, TV is tempting me, a show about the excavation of the fort at James Town just came on public television. What to do? Work? Play? Stay up late and be sleepy tomorrow? The show is going to win, it is fascinating.

Castle Guedelon

2009-08-11T18:54:00.000-07:00

My workshop mate Don caught a National Public Radio broadcast today about a brand new real life castle being built in France. They are only using construction methods and tools found in the medieval times. No electrical power tools here, everything is man, water or beast powered.

Note that when you go to the links you can return to this blog by using your browser's "back button". As I don't own the copyright to these photos I have linked you to the original web sites for viewing.

Click here for a link to the broadcast audio file

Among the photos I found doing an image search on "Guedelon" and "Tuiles" was a set of photos showing the tile makers at work. You can see on the end of the tile there is a nub or hook made by pinching the clay at one end of the tile.

Click here for the photo set of the Guedelon Tuilerie

Click here for photos of the tiles being fired in a kiln

That hook they have made locks into the space between the lathes on the roof. If you wish to see a tile roof being installed on Guedelon Castle there is a website about the construction of the castle and a page on the site showing the installation.

Click here for a link to Tuile installation.

Don't you think there is a big difference in the look of modern tiles versus medieval methods hand made tiles? The Guedelon tiles have a lot of variation in color, the blue appearance is from the position of the tile in the kiln. Also there is a lot more warping of the tiles. Commercial doll house tile products simply don't give you that look so I am making my own tiles.

I don't have any progress to report on my own dollhouse. I am busy rearranging space in my workshop to install another 12 feet of countertop. I plan on using that space as home base for my miniature making CNC equipment. I need to get them back into the dust producing area of the workshop. One thing I need to order are dirt filter bags to put over the computer case and the monitor. Computers and dust don't mix. I do have dust proof keyboards. The roll up, flexible keyboards are great for that purpose.

Roof tile progress

2009-08-06T15:41:00.000-07:00

The first batch of weathered roof tile keepers.

I am starting to achieve the look I want for the tiles my roof, another dozen batches and I might be satisfied. I threw out the first experimental batch as the color, shape and texture were not up to my expectations. The batch in the photo above is representative of the aged and cracked end of the spectrum. I made some adjustments to my mixing and rolling methods as also added more color to the mix. I am not adding premixed paint, I am adding in the tints they put into paint cans to make it the color of your dreams. That avoids adding in excess liquid. Put in some PVA glue to give the tiles a little more strength and some powered earth pigments to keep the clay dry enough to run through a pasta roller. Whirled it up in small batches in a mini food processor, kneaded it together, rolled it with a pin to flatten the piece enough to get it go into the pasta machine.

Some of the tiles for my dollhouse roof will be worn and cracked, others will have far less texture with a much smoother surface. Different areas of a roof get different amounts of sun, wind and rain all of which damage the tiles. Remember each of the tiles on a real roof was hand made, not machine made, so each is unique. This batch has more of the weathered look, other batches will have more of the smooth tiles. That look is dependent on the variables of what I mix into the batch. More or less liquid is one factor, this batch was on the dry side. It is also dependent on how smooth I decide to roll it out, I left this one on the more highly textured side. A scale of 10 with 1 being smooth and 10 being rough this batch ranges in examples of a fairly smooth 4 through a 10 with its ragged broken edges. The cracks in the tile are not from the clay shrinking and splitting, they are created along the outside edges when it goes through the pasta machine.

But mixing and rolling is just the start, the tiles have to be cut to size without pushing the edges down leaving a rounded surface. Miniatures loose character if you loose all the crisp sharp edges that are supposed to be there, they no longer look believable.

Tiles for the roof

2009-08-04T20:44:00.000-07:00

A lovely old building in a beautiful public garden in Cambremer, France. Great place for lunch too, they serve crepes at those tables. I went back twice and took many photos of the restored timber framed buildings on the estate. But what I am posting this photo for is the view of the charming red tile roof that covers the structure.

Tired of dealing with making timbers and sawdust today I turned to another task I need to accomplish for the new dollhouse, making roof tiles.

I had experimented with achieving the look I wanted a few years back when I first started this project so today I got out the box of materials to get back to working on achieving the perfect, flat, terracotta roof tile (tuile plate).

One thing to figure out was the dimensions of the tiles. I needed to know the height, width and thickness. For that I searched around and found some places on the internet selling antique, salvaged tiles, they listed the dimensions. Naturally there was some variation of size between lots of tiles on different web sites. These materials were not ordered from the big box stores, they were locally made products, hand crafted.

Colors vary a lot from tile to tile even on the same roof. There might have been a different batch of clay dug from another section of the pit.They might have been fired in a different section of the kiln. They could have been fired on different days at differing temperatures.

All that color variation means I can't open up a package of terracotta air dry clay, roll it out, cut to size and glue it on the roof. I have to make small batches of a wide range of terracotta colors. I am using the Plus brand of air dry clay from the Activa company. I will vary the color with universal tinting mediums from the paint store as well as natural powdered earth pigment. I make small batches of the clay and mix them in a small food processor. I run it through a pasta roller a few times to blend it some more. If the mix does not feed through the pasta roller easily adjust the mix with more liquid or add more clay or earth pigment. It takes trial and error until you get used to the feel of what a good mix is for rolling. A little color streaking is a treasure to be enjoyed and very authentic.

After it comes out of the pasta machine I place the rolled piece between two pieces of flexible cutting board and roll it with just a little bit of pressure using a regular rolling pin. Then I cut it into tiles using a straight edge and a scalpel. The thin, very sharp scalpel leaves nice sharp edges on the tiles without rounding over the edge.

A hundred small batches of a thousand tiles and the job will still not be done. Further color variations will be added with watercolor washes. The paper-mache clays do tint nicely with watercolors. Then I will have hundreds of subtle shades of tiles on my dollhouse roof. You can understand why I have to get an early start on it, I will be making roof tiles for many weeks to come. This is a very labor intensive process but the results are totally worth it.

The next two photos show authentically aged roofs. Now if I can just achieve something even close to being as interesting. Try not to turn to other peoples dollhouses so much for your inspiration, instead do image research and try to achieve on your dollhouse a feeling of reality from life. There are thousands of these inspirational old buildings still standing in Europe although it does look like that building won't be around for long if the roof is not patched up. The sign in the dormer window say "a vendre", that means the place is for sale, what a fixer!

Cutting thin strips on tablesaw

2009-08-02T15:27:00.000-07:00

The best way to safely cut thin strips on a tablesaw is to set up a gauge on the side of the blade opposite the fence. The gauge must be in front of the saw blade not in the cutting area of the blade where it would create a dangerous pinch and kickback situation. Note that I am using a push stick for safety as I have the blade guard removed. The saw shown in these photos is a Jet 10" cabinet saw.

The wood you are going to cut is set against the gauge and then the fence is moved over to the wood to be locked in position against it.

I have used a magnetic block on my steel table top as my gauge in these photos. It is just short enough not to bind the wood as I am cutting. I have it slightly angled so only a point is making contact with the wood. Another way of doing this is to have a gauge located onto a piece that is a snug fit in the miter slot. Set the wood against it, locate and lock the fence, then remove the gauge before you make your cut.

Rockler makes a jig for thin strip cutting. It is OK but I think there is a little too much play in the slide and it needs shimming. You can make something adjustable for yourself that fits into the miter slot. If you have only a small point of contact you don't have to remove the gauge.

I will be using the strips I am cutting today for making close studding on a timber framed dollhouse. The strips will be cut to width on a band saw and they will be textured before I glue them to the structure. You can see close studding on the real half timber structure in the photo below.