Hello! Long time no see!

 Hi all. It has been a very long time between posts. I have been mini-ing a little (the odd mini basket, mini knitting, painting, painting 3d printed items) but I have made very little progress on my houses. I spent last weekend at a weekend away with my state mini enthusiasts organisation and it got me a little inspired. I painted the shelves in my doll shop so they're ready to restock. I also pulled out my Mountfield to work on the kitchen I had pulled apart.

Yesterday was a disaster. I had none of the things I needed, so ordered all the things and left it at that. Today, I opened the roof and found some of the things I needed - spare windows, skirting (painted and ready to go) and a spare sheet of wallpaper to replace a piece in the hallway that got ruined. I was so relieved and horrified at how dumb/genius I was to store it all in the roof.

Anyway, I finished up trimming the skirting in the lounge room and dining room beside the new fireplaces I made. Now I just need to make a new back for the dining room fireplace and finish painting the fire inserts.

I had already made the pantry for the kitchen, so I glued the door I had to the pantry shelves, cut a wall piece to fill in the opening in the back wall of the kitchen, then glued both in.

In that last photo, you can see my pieces of tile sheet that will be glued in. I am leaving those off for now as I am getting my husband to help me cut a window opening on the right wall tomorrow. Also I need the floor tiles I ordered to patch into the floor first. 

I've always felt the kitchen needed a window. I also want a window in the left wall of the front bedroom. I am debating putting one in the left wall of the lounge room too, but not sure it will fit with the dresser there. I will have a think between now and tomorrow. I have an idea to put a room in the attic, and therefore a dormer window, so for now I wanted to hang onto a spare window for that (although it's likely too big for that). Maybe the window in the lounge room could be a round one. 

Thanks for reading this far! Hope you are all well. 

1:48 Nob Hill furniture

 Hi all. This is a little post for Celeste, who asked what were the original furniture sets for the tiny Nob Hill. Photos shown below from the information that came with the kit.

I'm not dead!!

 Hi all! Surprise!!! I know it has been a very long time between posts. I have been doing a little mini-ing on and off but mostly in the last 12 months I haven't had a lot of interest. I have so many projects on the go too, that when I look around my craft room, it's overwhelming and I have no idea what to work on. Every project has a little annoying job to be done, which is probably why it's still sitting unfinished.

Anyway, last year I accidentally purchased a reasonably big dollhouse locally (which was a big surprise) that I think must've been built using the Remember When dollhouse plan book (it's identical visually but not sure about the dimensions).

I had intended using it for my one day Toad Hall, but the ceilings are only 8" high, so that was a fail. So I am using it instead of another build I had earmarked for the Greenleaf Aster (so will I end up building that now, given I am up to my eyeballs in dollhouses/projects???). It's pretty roughly built but it also has a lot of charm, so I am keeping quite a bit of it as-is, with a little prettying up.

This is the photo I am using as inspiration. I like the simplicity.

I started by taking the roof off, making it more manageable, and am working on the rooms on one end, then will spin it around and work on the other end.

This is how it is currently looking:

I need to work out what sort of railing I'll use for the stairs and wallpaper for the living room (bottom right). I had planned on painting a mural all around but I don't know if that will ever get done. I might paper it and then decide later if I paint something to stick over the top.

If you follow my Red Cottage Miniatures Facebook or Instagram, you might have seen I have been working on mini flowers. Here are some of my recent ones. It is nice to have the tiny flowers but I can't say I am particularly enjoying the making part.

Anyway, I hope you are all well and still making minis occasionally. Take care.

 

Long time no blog

 Hi all. I know it has been a very long time since I blogged. It wasn’t intentional. I just haven’t been mini-ing. Back in November I received a bit of a slap in the face from a fellow miniaturist, and it really just made me wonder what on earth I was doing. So for the last six months, I’ve had very little interest in anything miniature. I did some sewing and some paper crafting instead and really enjoyed doing something different. We have spent the last month in the US, where I was lucky enough to go to the Chicago International. I also got to see the Thorne rooms, Colleen Moore’s fairy castle and Kaye Savage Browning’s miniature collection at the Kentucky Gateway Museum. It was spectacular. No words really do it justice. 

So given I have nothing to show that I have been working on, I will show my show purchases. (The photos are out of order, for which I apologise, but I am writing this on my ipad and not at all convinced I can rearrange the photos successfully.

Close-up of a clock (D-Tales miniatures), squirrel (puppenstuebchen I think) and key with tassel from June Clinkscales:

Clock, squirrel and key as above, basket also by D-Tales, bag by Minis2you and wine carrier by Pierluigi:

I think these are all Puppenstuebchen except the dragonfly by Lami’s minis (sorry, I don’t remember these things too well, plus they’ve all been tucked in a box for a month):

Half scale plants by Paula Gilhooley and basket also by D-Tales:

Flowers for planting in a garden by Twinheart:

A decent photo of the dragonfly:

The best thing about my visit though was that I got to meet two long-time friends, Keli and Robin. Having them to wander around the mini show and have dinner with was really a highlight. Next time I hope we have more time. Anyway, Keli gave me this vintage 1:24 scale stove (and some sweet Millie August wallpaper). How cute is it? So now I have the dilemma of whether I paint it or not. It is missing a leg, and the paint is badly chipped, so perhaps I will give it a replacement leg and paint it up for one of my houses.

A tureen (Art of mini), a box of oil paints and two kitchen tins (on floor) (Alemikimikri) and roller skates and ice skates (Minis2you):

I think this is a type of stove from Peiwen Pettigrand (which reminds me I should message her and ask). I bought it largely because I just loved it and have long given up worrying about having a specific house or scene for things to go in.

A closeup of the paints:

I have some other bits and pieces still to show you but that will wait for another post. I really splurged, after having to cancel this trip twice already and a few years of saving up. But guess what? I really want to go again next year!! We will see I guess….

Chateau update (plus other stuff)

Hi everyone. I have spent a good few hours this weekend making progress on my chateau. There has been some setbacks, including a diminished supply of a paint colour I needed that has become rare/expensive. I solved it by getting a sample pot of paint using colour match. So now I have a big pot of paint plus the formula to make the same colour again if I need it in future. So many parts got repainted in the new paint and we're back on track. I finished my wall mural last weekend and here it is temporarily held in place in the entry. Now some trimming of parts to make everything fit, a bit more painting and then we're very close to done. Wondering if this needs a sky blue ceiling??

It's a really satisfying place to be. The salon is currently having the front wall panels glued in place, so no photos. But it is also progressing. 

I have also begun seriously rehabbing the Fairfield I bought a few years ago. Not much to show, but it has been partially pulled apart and reglued. It was an example of what not to do - wallpapers in slots and on tabs, hot glue, parts not meeting up. The whole base is twisted and no idea how. Or maybe the base is fine and the whole house is twisted? 

This is a reminder of how it looked. I pulled out the fireplace wall as I will make a new wall to go there with a fireplace to the left for the living room and a stove to the right for the kitchen.

And here, stripped and reglued.

If I haven't already mentioned, this will be a seaside house, based loosely in the early-mid 1960s, because I loved the book 'Clarence takes a vacation' so much. This is how the exterior will roughly look (although at this stage, not sure I am going to attempt the curved front window..... but we'll see!

I have also been making miniature baskets, with some slow improvement. These are all earlier ones, except the green one at the back and the white one at the front. It's a fun pastime, but I am still testing thread thickness to find the perfect size.

And the last thing I will share with you today is my Robin Betterley Liberty Bay shop (sorry it's a bad photo). I pulled it out after many years of sitting. It turns out there were only a few things left to do to finish it. I hadn't attached the box that sits inside the frame at the back to enclose it, and wondered where the heck those pieces would be. I had just finished reorganising my craft room, which is why I seized upon the shop in the first place, and I recalled seeing a little bundle of wood and acrylic bits and THEY WERE THE RIGHT ONES!!! Miracle of miracles as I seem to spend more time looking for stuff than doing any mini making.

So now it's just finding some pieces to go inside, although I do have a few accessories already.

OK, I will leave it there as this is getting quite a long post and I am hungry.Two good reasons to stop! Hope you are all well. We have a 4-day weekend next weekend so I hope to have more chateau progress to show soon!!!!! And finally I can start planing the next storey (dining room and another room to be determined....a whole new set of dilemmas). Fun stuff!!! Take care out there!!!

Mid year update

 Hi all. I have been slack this year on posting here. I apologise for that. I feel like I haven't achieved a whole lot though. As mentioned in my previous post, I have been working on the chateau. Progress is slow - many layers of paint - but I have been painting a mural for the entry. You can still see the underpainting in places - the birds, a plant on the left side of the largest panel, the stairs and the pagoda/rotunda thing. The main images were taken from a real life garden at Villa Ephrussi de Rothschild in France (website here). The narrow panel and the largest panel sit either side of a door, the birds will sit above the door and both the largest panels go up one side of the stairs (hence the sloped bottom edge). If only I could come up with a good stair rail design, I'd be set.

 And this is the rejigged salon. I am working on the front/window wall and curtains for it (see below). 

I am adding a cut down lace fringe trim to the curtains. Here I am trying to get the colour right. I have cut and shaped my pieces and will paint them then glue everything together. I hope it is convincing. I found a scrap of faded silk in just the right colour in my hoard, but it wasn't enough. Then I came upon a larger piece that was unfaded, so I've had just enough to make the curtains and hoped I didn't screw it up.

I also had a table selling my half scale kits at the Victorian Association of Miniature Enthusiasts show earlier this month. Here I am at my table. It was fairly quiet so I didn't sell anywhere near as much as I usually do. Maybe the early effects of a slow economy?? 

And also, I have been accumulating mini doll moulds. I have been pretty lucky to get quite a few Doreen Sinnett, Janna Joseph and a few other moulds, so I am trying to get some cast. These are in porcelain slip, my first attempts. Wow, is it fragile!!!! I am not sure I will make more this way. I will get these ones fired and then decide. FYI I have poured parts for complete dolls - this is just the last few parts I needed to make complete dolls.

So after that not-so-exciting update, I am off to do a bit more on my curtains. I hope you are all well and still making minis! XX


 

Sydney miniatures show

 Hi all. Thought I’d write a quick post to show some pics from the Sydney mini show last weekend. There weren’t labels on the displays, so not sure who made what. I do know that this first photo was a workshop from a Cat n Co workshop at the last AMEA convention.

These are most of the minis I purchased. Items for the Chateau from Christmas Everyday.

Rolypoly doll and artwork by Dawn, Faberge egg by lady sitting next to my table (wish I got a couple more), basket by Lidi Stroud and everything else from Andrea Currie (also wish I’d got more!).

And gifts from my husband who helps me at the Sydney show. A bookcase and rocker made by Lynn Palmer (https://www.jarrahminiatures.com/)

Plus a few other bits and pieces like lace, some stair spindles and fabric. I got a bargain lot of doors, a window, table legs, corbels AND two bed kits and a dressing table kit made by Small Pleasures (and long ago discontinued). So the Mountfield might get an attic bedroom!

And this beast! A ginormous 1:24 San Franciscan. I will put a lot of my Bespaq in this. It’s got BIG rooms. I made some interior wall adjustments and will now need to alter door and window openings in situ. What a job.

It was so lovely to meet so many of my customers, as well as having time to chat to other makers. Really made the long drive worthwhile.

I have been working on other minis in dribs and drabs. I have been trying to get a little done on the chateau most weekends in an attempt to finally get a couple of rooms done. I haven’t posted about it in soooo long, but I pulled the whole structure apart to reconfigure it. I decided to use photos of one Paris townhouse rather than make it an amalgam of different French buildings, as I couldn’t decide on details. The last time we were in Paris (2018) we stayed in an apartment that was, to my surprise, just a few houses down from a house Linda Carswell had posted photos of on her blog. I was enamoured of it then, and still am now, so it became the dream.

So I will post some photos soon I hope of that project. I decided to really make it my own, and forget about sticking to time period/architectural rules. It’s an old house set in modern day, so I can do with it as I wish! Somewhere I would live myself.

Also just wanted to let you know that I was trying to post comments on your blogs for a few weeks and it wasn’t working, and then I figured out why it wasn’t working and fixed it. So I can comment again. My apologies - I wasn’t ignoring your posts. I just had a brain fart.

OK, take care everyone. I hope your mini and real lives are going well and playing nicely! Xx (And sorry, it wasn’t such a short post afterall!)