Many of you will be familiar with my sister’s miniature work through her much loved website (www.miniaturechurch.co.uk - St Hilary’s Miniature Church) that she set up in memory of our late mother in 2003/2004.  At the moment, no decision has been taken about the future of this website,although I am sure it will continue as it currently stands for a while yet.

I am sure that those of you who regularly visit this, my own website, will have noticed that no new items have been added for some time now.   As you can appreciate, my priorities have necessarily been directed elsewhere, but I fully intend to start working again on making miniature food and flowers very soon.

I never thought I’d even be attempting 1/24th (1/2″) scale flowers, but here they are; sunflowers which are approximately 2.5 cm (1″) high from the flower to the last leaf on the stem.   They have been made as part of a commission, which was phrased along the lines of “loose sunflowers to go as part of an allotment scene”.  I merrily assumed they should be in 1/12th (1″) scale, ie about 30 cm (6″) high.  But no.   A further email asked that they should be about 2.5 cm (1″) high.   I gulped, took a deep breath and started thinking really small.

I’m just glad I wasn’t asked for daisies…..

Here is something different - not a 1/12th (1″) scale dollshouse, but an N Gauge model railway cottage and garden.  

For those of you who have not been initiated into the delights of model railways, N gauge is 2 mm to the foot, or 1:160th, ie compared to 1/12th scale, absolutely TINY!   You could call this a bit of a sideline for me - the model railway itself belongs to my partner, but I have been detailed to make all the scenery.   Or to put it another way, he does the technical stuff and I do the pretty stuff.   Yes, it is a departure from dollshouse miniatures, but there is nonetheless an overlap.  I still mix paint, get covered in glue and in many respects the whole difference is the matter of the tiny scale.

As an aside, the Warley Model Railway Club had a stand at the recent Miniatura exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham to demonstrate the railway hobby.  Then at the recent model railway show - also at the NEC - organised by the Warley Railway Club, there was a stand publicising the Miniatura and the dollshouse hobby.  A beautiful 1/24th (1/2″) scale house by Petite Properties was on display next to an O Gauge sized house and they were remarkably similar in size. 

Back to my partner’s model railway layout - I must emphasise that I am NOT building any of the houses.  These are a mixture of ready-built from resin, or constructed (not by me) from card kits).   However, they are passed to me to weather and add foliage.    The garden bases come in the form of cardboard templates which I do my best not to distort.  The design of the gardens are then totally up to me and I can let my imagination run riot.

I only wish I could make fimo flowers small enough - but I can’t!   I therefore (like most people) use scatter materials and any other railway modelling materials I can find.    At this tiny scale, I found that grey marbled paper and card made credible paving stones throught the lawn.  The “large” tree is about 2.5″/7 cm high, and was made from twisted copper wire (taken from a stripped down old power cable) then covered with a product called “flexi-bark” and finally the umbiquitous scatter material.

Who knows - one day I might make a 1/12th (1″) scale tree using the same technique ………

I will add photographs of this model railway layout as it progresses.   Next (so I am told) is the village green.  I don’t think it will have a pond!

UK Inland First Class - 21st December 2009

International Airmail - 4th December 2009

In addition, there will be no collections or deliveries from 25th -28th December inclusive.

To show you all things are not always straightforward, I should like to share some of the mini-disasters that have happened to me in the process of crafting these items (and some that have yet to appear for reasons that will become clear).

1) Wooden boards for the mince pie making - believe it or not the first two I used snapped, and this was purely down to a spot too much of brute force on my part. The downside of oiling boards to seal the wood is that the wood itself can warp if you don’t apply the oil evenly to both sides at the same time. So two boards warped, and like an idiot, I tried to straighten them - after I had stuck everything down. Snap. Oops. Start again.

2) Christmas puddings - I put them in the oven accidentally at too low a temperature so they didn’t harden sufficiently. As soon as I got them out of the oven, they crumbled into something resembling cat food. So that’s what they’ve become - all they’re waiting for now is a few splodges of gravy, then they’ll appear under “Miniature Miscellany” in yellow bowls marked “cat”.

3) Santa trays with brandy, a mince pie and a carrot. I am always very careful to get colours and shades right. So for the brandy, I “borrowed” a few drops from a friend, but even so the mixture I finished up with (almost set in the glasses) was slightly too dark. Never mind - brandy I’m told comes in different shades. However, for various reasons (that I’m too embarassed to own up to), the “brandy” also had air bubbles. Now I’ve never come across real fizzy brandy so I tried to pop the air bubbles with a pin. Disaster. Somehow, a slightly dark brandy turned in minutes to something resembling treacle toffee. Oops. I’ll try again. Keep watching!

So now you know!

Wedding Cake

You can make your wedding cake as simple or as complicated as you like. Whatever your choice of design and decoration, you may find the following tips of help when using polymer clay for your cake.

1. Put the cat out. Polymer clay attracts dust and fluffy bits more effectively than any vacuum cleaner. Cat hairs can appear from nowhere and embed themselves deep into the clay – even when you haven’t actually got a cat – so it is important to keep your working area and tools scrupulously clean. Nail varnish remover is excellent for this.

2. Cutters are wonderful for cutting out shapes but you need to take care when using them since it is all too easy for the middle of the shape to bulge out when pressing down on the cutter. Once the cake is cooked, you may need to slice the top very carefully to provide a flat surface.

3. If you want graduated squares (or oblongs) for a tiered cake and don’t have the appropriate cutters, try using an omnigrid. This is a special plastic “overgrown ruler” type tool used by quilters for the accurate cutting of material and templates. I have found it works very well for polymer clay – especially when using it with a tissue blade. (See picture).

4. If possible, once you have cut out your shapes, do not lift them from the tile, but bake them first in situ.

5. Don’t be tempted to varnish any of the finished surfaces unless you specifically want something to shine. I have personally found that un-varnished clay makes for very realistic icing.

6. Once you have your basic shapes cooked and assembled, you can decorate your cake to your heart’s content. If using ribbon, you will find the silk variety much more pliable on such small shapes than polyester and they therefore appear to sit more naturally.

7. Remember with polymer clay that so long as you do not over-heat the oven and burn the clay, you can re-bake as many times as you like if you want to keep adding to your cake.

8. Let the cat back in.

Click on the link below to see cakes and pastries I currently have for sale:

http://dollshouseheaven.co.uk/index.php?cPath=1&osCsid=42657f7ef1a9481f1e0ba676374eecd2

]]> http://dollshouseheaven.co.uk/news/?feed=rss2&p=87 http://dollshouseheaven.co.uk/news/?p=82 http://dollshouseheaven.co.uk/news/?p=82#comments Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:08:12 +0000 admin http://dollshouseheaven.co.uk/news/?p=82

Yes - you are reading and seeing correctly! I have a made a miniature wreath for a miniature church!

This was a commission from my sister for her miniature church, named St Hilary’s, after our late mother. Over the years, this church has been the scene of a wedding, a christening and many other church-related events, so it seemed right and proper to create a funeral setting in miniature. And flowers are a beautiful part of most funerals so I was more than happy to attempt this rather unusual commission.

This wreath is in the form of a cross and contains white lillies, white roses and lemon yellow roses together with an assortment of real miniature greenery. I started with a rough cross shape, fashioned out of paper covered wire to quite exact measurements to fit the coffin. The flowers were made individually on paper covered wire which was thinner than the wire I would normally use were I making the flowers for a vase. Firstly, I covered this wire base with some mossy type real greenery to provide a soft base for the flowers. Using lots of glue(!) I twisted the wires of the flowers around the wire/moss of the base, poking more greenery into any spaces.

I found that it was important to create this wreath quite slowly, by adding a little, letting it dry before adding more. It was therefore quite time consuming, but enjoyable nonetheless.

I made the solid mahogany coffin from a beautiful kit by McQueenie Miniatures. The coffin cover was crocheted by my sister from a pattern by Buttercup Miniatures, which was specifically designed to fit this coffin. The child doll is by Jane Davies (no relation!) and was commissioned for this church.

To see more on this beautiful miniature church and to see the antics of the congregation (mostly children and mostly created by Jane Davies):

www.miniaturechurch.co.uk

To visit the funeral page, and find out just why the children of the congregation have put a pair of muddy boots on the coffin:

www.miniaturechurch.co.uk/erniethanksgiving.html

For more miniature crochet and knitting patterns, needles plus all the materials you will need:

www.buttercupminiatures.co.uk

For beautiful furniture - both kits and completed:

www.mcqueenie-miniatures.co.uk

For the most exquisite dolls I have ever seen:

www.jsdartistdolls.com

Other than the ’sale item, half price’ sign, the dark stoney trough said ‘buy me’.   I hadn’t a clue what for until a recent walk in a park, and there was the answer suddenly at my feet.  The vibrant lights of spring flowers were bursting through the dead leaves of last year’s autumn as winter was finally switched off and that was it.   The moment to capture in miniature.  That’s why I’d bought the trough.

The first thing to do was fill the trough with a thick polymer clay layers of yesterday’s failures squashed together with a top dressing of brown clay.  You can relax.  The slimey trails in the photos did not come out of a 1/12th scale slug, just a tube of glue.  The stuff gets everywhere.

The main material I used to make this trough was polymer clay (Fimo).   I love using this for flowers for three reasons.  Firstly the infinite variety and intensity of colours you can achieve.  Secondly the ability to rebake and rebake, so you can create multiple layers of petals/leaves without disturbing the shape of what you’ve already done.   Thirdly, I have a big deep drawer full of it and it needs using up.

I used only very simple tools to put the whole arrangement together – just tweezers, a needle, a razor blade and my fingers.  I know that very flowers can be crafted using the many wonderful flower cutters available.   However, the sad truth is that I’m no good with cutters!   I don’t know why, but as soon as my fingers spot cutters, they turn into fat sausages incapable of handling or manipulating anything.  This leaves me with the time-consuming method of tweezers, a needle, and obedient fingers.

My method when making flowers is always to start from the centres and work outwards, rebaking the different layers if/when necessary.   I haven’t actually ever needed to dissect a flower but I often root through them in nurseries counting petals.  And yes – that’s in public.  (As an aside, primulas have five petals, sometimes six, and they seem to overlap quite randomly.  I thought you’d like to know that.)

The crocuses and the primulas had the same ground rice origins at their centres.  Thirty-three gauge paper-covered wires were dipped in white PVA glue, then into ground rice that had been already mixed with pastel chalk (orange for the crocuses, yellow/green for the primulas).   These were left to dry and harden.

For the single coloured crocuses, it was a question of rolling a manageable sized ball of the clay, gently drawing off a petal shape from one end then nipping it off with the needle.   This was applied to the pre-hardened centre with a dab of PVA glue, and the exercise repeated and repeated.

The primulas were made slightly differently, having bi-coloured petals.   I made a log of the two colours in a rough petal shape, took very thin slices off with a razor and shaped them with the needle and tweezers.  These were applied and overlapped onto the centres.

Although snowdrops in real life have coloured centres, you can’t actually see them unless you turn them upside down, so I skipped that step and started with the petals.  The three inner petals were made using a very basic cane with white and a green “V” shape, from which a cut three slivers.  I then drew out three longer petals from a ball of  white clay and placed these in between the three inner petals.  

At this stage the flowers were all baked.   A word here about clay baking temperatures. For delicate flowers, you must make sure they don’t bake at too low a temperature otherwise they will crumble. Depending on which clay you are using and the plasticizers they contain, the necessary range is 110 – 130 degrees C but you will need to experiment with your own oven as they are all slightly different.   For my oven the correct temperature for flowers is just one tiny click below Gas Mark 1.   An accidental tiny click above Gas Mark 1, a long phone call and the flowers are burnt.

Once baked, I added additional greenery to the stems of the crocuses and snowdrops while the rest of the leaves were made separately.  If you want to add very fine veins to a polymer clay leaf, or simply give it that extra little crinkle, try pressing the clay against a “skeleton leaf” then removing it before baking. I came across these skeleton leaves (see photo) in the card making/scrap booking section of craft shop and I think they worked particularly well with the primula leaves.

When it came to arranging the flowers in the trough, I had no great design in my head.   I just dug holes with the needle and placed them and re-placed them until I was happy with the effect.   I didn’t use glue at this stage, but chose the liquid clay.  This gives a sufficiently globular medium for the flowers to stand up in, but doesn’t set until going back into the oven so I could move everything around until I was happy.   The whole thing went back into the oven to harden the all “earth” and liquid clay, and the scene was now set.

Now for the finishing bit.  The fun bit.  Throwing scatter material around the base of the flowers and leaves.   And it’s so easy. It all comes out of bags (apart from the diluted PVA that is spread first.)   First of all the loose earth, which is just very fine brown railway ballast.  Like the glue, these tiny granuals did get everywhere, so they had to removed from petals and leaves with a pin to prevent the appearance of a premature aphid attack. Then the miniature real dried leaves – again railway material.   (You can get mixed leaves, oak leaves and ivy leaves.   For the trough, I stuck to oak leaves).  Then finally other odd bits of greenery which I’ve picked up at various dollshouse/model railway shows and the trough was complete.

So there you have it, a moment in spring, my lasting memory of a beautiful place in a park at a particular time in the year that will last for many seasons to come.  It is something to hold on to.

A fantastic £4,700 was raised on this day which the club are passing on to the charity.

For myself I had a lovely day and it was a pleasure to meet so many miniature enthusiasts.

This dollshouse fair and exhibition is being held by the Exeter dollshouse Club in aid for the Force Cancer Charity.   Along with 12 exhibitors (including myself) offering a variety of items for sale, there will be a large display of dollshouses and room boxes.  There will also be a draw with some outstanding prizes, tombola and a sales table with items produced for sale by the club members.  Light refreshments will be available.

Doors open at 10.00 am.  Admission is £1.50.  Children under 12 are free. 

A previous exhibition, held in 2006, raised £3,719 for the charity so help them beat their own record this year!

For further information on this fair, call 01884 821672.