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


 

Crisis averted!

Hi all. So I made the decision to just go forth in wild abandon on my chateau and then spackle as needed. I have a vague plan. Make the front and side opening panels, attach them (one with magnets and one with hinges), get some of the trim pieces attached, undercoat, continue putting the detail trim pieces on and then see where we are at. I have started the front opening panel and decided it was just too heavy. I really should've made it in two, rather than one, but it is too late to change that now unless I waste a heap of gatorfoam and the time it took to cut the window openings. The upside is having to recut the sides means I can disguise the presence of the hinge a little. I also need windows. I have a heap of mould making silicone and 2 part resin, so I might try making one and casting it. In the past, I found mould making the easy part. Getting the resin right and bubble free is another thing entirely. Anyway, worth a shot. 

I also made some important discoveries whilst tidying up the chateau mess - I had forgotten that I had partially constructed cornice moulding for the salon and had purchased two Alison Davies ceiling roses. Derr. But I am further ahead than I had realised. Yay! So the salon is getting very close to being done. It is amazing how much time goes into fiddling with the last few little bits, much of which can't even be seen. 

And the stairs for the French shop reno are partially done. I got some parts to make the balustrade but will need to pin lots of wood parts together to make them, which will be tedious. You can see the stair shape in the photo; just need to cut the risers and treads for the bottom steps and glue everything together. But for now I want to focus on the chateau.

In other news, the Coxwolds is almost done. The landscaping needs finishing (I might get some flower/plant kits) and it needs shop signs and downpipes. I also need to connect the individual lighting wires to the thingo that the transformer connects to. For the record, only one light isn’t working. Pretty impressive huh? I also have a spare wire that doesn’t seem to be connected to anything. I suspect it may be a spare wire as initially I planned on having three lights over the shop counter but ended up with just one, and I think I hadn’t removed one of the two wires that weren’t needed. The house has now been moved out to the pool house in the back yard with the Mountfield. I now need to start working on furniture placement and finding accessories. Oh and a bathroom sink.

Here is the Coxwolds in the backyard having its roof painted.

And these photos are as it is in its current almost finished state, out in the backyard cottage:

I actually made a corner piece of painted MDF to sit on the pavement on the far left of the above photo but forgot to place it for the photo. Photo below shows the sitting room where the stairs come up and the kitchen with the corner pavement piece on the floor.

Landscaping to be finished. I think it needs some pots and stuff out front too.

I made a little shower screen like my grandmother had in her home.

Sorry the photos are a bit lopsided, but it was up against the side wall so I struggled to get a good angle for the photos!

So now it is afternoon and I am tired and think I will call it quits for the day. Have a great weekend everyone. I hope to show photos of the chateau salon soon!

Baby steps

Hi all. We are in December - can you believe it?? I last posted in July... heck. I guess I have some catching up to do. First I'll show you some little bits and pieces and maybe over the next week or two, I will post some photos of some pretty stuff from our September holiday in France and Italy (sigh, feels so long ago).

A couple of years ago, I missed out on a very pretty dress made by a Melbourne lady whose stuff is sold by another Melbourne lady at the Sydney miniatures fair. Ergo, I commissioned one. It finally arrived a few weeks ago, and it is stunning. Here are the front and back views:

(it even has a petticoat lining)

And completely unnecessarily, she also sent a tiny pair of adorable shoes:

Instead of paying Dianne (the lady who made the dress), I actually made a rose vine for Di, who paid Dianne the cost of the dress (love the barter system):

This is the vine on my Black Walnut cottage:

(it needs some shaping but it is just propped there)

I have worked on my Coxwolds as it is soooo close to being done structurally. I made the sink unit, based on a real life picture:

(Weirdly my taps look much lighter than their real life antique brass look)

Please excuse the crappy photo but we have had rain and cloud and heat and wind and, well, everything. So hopefully will get better shots when the flooring arrives and I can install everything.

I have also done a little more work on my chateau. Here is the rear courtyard entry. Again, terrible photos as it is an enclosed, small space. I will get some photos when  I have finished painting the panels. This is the litmus test to see how I go with painting an aged stone effect. Wish me luck.

 I have used a Sue Cook wall fountain and overdoor ornament. I have to finish the door for the opening. It will have a light behind it so light will shine through the little windows in the door.

In related news, we had our upstairs windows replaced, which meant some touching up of plaster and repainting my sewing room. I am not overly fond of pale walls but it makes my studio much lighter. And whilst everything was in disarray, I took the opportunity to put in some vinyl floor (it had always been painted chipboard which was peeling and was noisy). Looks so much better.

Lastly, some photos of the few minis I managed to find in Italy and France. Well, only Italy actually.

An adorable Pinocchio made of ceramic (although not really a mini, he's probably about 20cm tall). One day I will dress him. And a little puppet theatre:

My Murano glass minis (I'm not sure whether they are from Murano in Italy or Murano in China but that is OK)

 (this shows them with one of my 1:24 chairs, so they are quite tiny)

(Puffer fish!!! Hehehe!)

 OK, I will leave it there for now. I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season. It is a difficult time for many I know, so extra hugs to those of you in that boat. We will be having a quiet one. xxx

Off on holidays soon

On Sunday, my husband and I fly out to San Francisco for three weeks, where I will be doing a Rik Pierce class at Shellie's Miniatures. Should be a great trip and September is supposed to be the best month in San Francisco. Will try to post an update whilst there. I hear they have some pretty buildings there! Tee hee!

For now though, some updates on my projects.

I have decided to lightly grunge up the interior of the doll shop. I've grunged all the painted surfaces (architraves, door, skirting, cornice) with a gel medium/linen coloured paint mix, and will grunge the corners of the wallpaper just a little with a light chalk pastel dust. I decided it would be more in keeping with the overall feel I am aiming for. So thanks to readers for their suggestions (Elizabeth, Margaret and PILAR6373), they were greatly appreciated.

I haven't ordered the accessories I was wanting for the Mountfield, so progress is slow, but I've done a bit to the laundry, including installing a sink with taps and towel rail, a shelf (actually made two but so far only one has been attached to the wall) and painting up a Phoenix metal vaccuum cleaner. I will show pics soon, when I have got a little further. I have also finished the two chairs from the music room. I added a few more splashes of paint, covered the cushions with a floral print fabric and made some cord from embroidery floss for trim. I am really happy with them and think they suit the room perfectly.

I have also been working on accessories for the French shop. I purchased some Lisa's Little Things kits, so some of these are going into the shop. The thread box is on top of the red display table on the left. 

The notions counter on the right (below) is also one of her kits. I have always loved her kits, so it is great to finally have some to put together. Still playing with the placement of little accessories but do you ever just leave something where you put it initially? I keep changing lots of things in this house.

And a little photo of the back room:

I also don't think I've shown this room yet, as I wasn't quite sure for a long time what it would be. It is now a sewing room, given that the occupant of this shop is obviously into sewing. The sewing machine is a Rement one. I think it is reasonably within scale, but strangely the peddle cord is too short to go from the machine all the way to the floor. I might need to replace the cord with a longer one. It's not shown in this photo as it was dangling off the table and looked silly. You can see my hand painted metal kitty playing with wool in the foreground.

And lastly, I have put together the shell of my chateau. I will need to get the windows cut up very soon, before I can start installing the interior walls, so hopefully I will get organised and have them done whilst I am away. I have them mostly drawn up and ready for laser cutting. I need to find something to have them made from first though. The laser cutting place doesn't stock thin enough boards.

This photo shows a wall that will go in the salon. They are the Robert Dawson (the Modelroom) wall panels I got at the Kensington Dollshouse Fair in 2012. The spaces between panels will be the windows. I want to paint these with a bit of colour and can't decide if I want to turn them into something like the panels from the Dauphine's private study at Versailles or not. I'd need to add a fair bit of detail to get that effect, and it is a room I have to replicate somewhere in this chateau, but not sure if it will be in this room or another. I have a little while to think about that though, whilst I wait on windows.

Here is a pic (from a google search) of the Dauphine's study. It is my favourite room at Versailles.

 Well, I hope you enjoyed my updates. I am off to vaccuum my floor and water the plants and then pack. Hope you are all well and happily miniaturing away.