Curtains and copper

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

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.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

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

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

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.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

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 a water cooled, diamond blade tile saw. 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.

The other side

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

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

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

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

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2010

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.

Rock Hound

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

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.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

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.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

Cliff of limestone at the abandoned quarry

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

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.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

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.

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

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

Rope Twist

photo copyright Karin Corbin 2009

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

1:12 fireplace from real stone

You can click on the photos to enlarge them.

Here are the promised photos of a fireplace I built for a dollhouse. The stone was gathered from a leftover stone pile from a real life chimney in Carmel by the Sea, California. I am able to work this soft limestone with a hammer, chisel and tile nippers. I do cut down larger chunks on a water cooled diamond tile saw although they could be split up by hand just about as easily. There is a hollow plywood box as a form under the stones for the chimney and interior for the fireplace. I hope you enjoy seeing it. Real stone looks so grand and yes so very real. I love the crisp, sharp, broken edges. That would be very difficult to achieve with paper-mache.

As you can tell by the interior scene this is a Christmas themed dollhouse. The elves are busy cooking in the kitchen. More photos of the project below.