To Pris, The Thorne Rooms

Hi Pris,
I am lucky enough to be able to go by train to Chicago; I visit my daughter, Katie. She is the product manager at the flag ship Victoria's Secret Michigan Ave. store. I go to the Art Institute when I am there and sit in front of the rooms! It's fun to listen in on the non-miniaturists' comments. I love the whole Art Institute, the Impressionists make me cry. I always wanted to work in a museum, loved art history.
I bought the book, too. I look through it all of time. I've read the philosophy of the Kupjacks, make it look real, things don't have to work, light comes from somewhere else, you don't leave lights on when you leave a room, you don't leave doors and drawers open in real life so don't do it in miniature. I believe that way, too. Makes it much easier to blame it on a "philosophy" as to why I don't make my kitchen cabinets open! Ha!
Now you would think that I have also been to several Chicago miniatures shows, not a one! I know I would need a LOT of money, so I don't even go. I have never been a "window shopper", when I see something I want, I want to buy it, right then. Now that I am making the furniture and stopped on the corner cabinet I don't need anything. I am a practical person, I work with a budget. I really love making all that I do, but it came from need. I was not satisfied with what I could afford so I taught myself to make the things I liked.
Katie lives within walking distance of "Think Small by Rosebud". It is a very nice miniature store and I have fun shopping there when I go to Chicago. They have a workshop in the basement for the miniaturists to work on their projects. The houses are put on wheels and wheeled away when not being worked on to have room on the tables for others to work on their houses. It's great, you just go upstairs and get what you need, keep a list, and keep on working. You should see the houses! Some are replicas of homes in Chicago; I admire all of the miniaturists there. The last time I was there I needed help picking carpet out to match fabric and paint; ladies came from everywhere to help, even offering from their own stash. Nice people!
Inspiration can come from anywhere, be on the look out! TTYL Kris

Answer to Daisy

Hi Daisy, I thank you for your kind words about the kitchen. I have an Ethan Allen Catalog, I think they still publish them, it has beautiful room settings, that I have copied, but the most important thing are the measurements. I will convert to 1 inch scale to make my furniture. As I said I made everything in the rooms, except the pottery and the red step stool. I sell the kitchen chairs, I have examples in the blog of these slipper chairs, ( January 8, 2010, Furniture for Sale, Too). I can make them in your fabric, I sell upholstered furniture at cdhm.org.
I know Ethan Allen has a web site, Google them up and look at all the beautiful furniture and get some ideas, think of how you could go about making something. Use the skills you have and make it as close to the picture as you can. Break it down in parts, what you can do and can't. Find the things you can do, gain skills and confidence doing those and move on to something else. That is how I did it. And I read every how-to article I could get my hands on. Books, don't pass these up at the shows. I have so many, if I got one thing out of one book I thought the price was worth it.
If you have a used book store go in and see if they have any miniatures how-to books. I was very surprised when I found them at my used book store. She gets them in every so often, some of them are old, back in the 1970's, these aren't so good. You have to sit down and look through them to see if there is anything in them that can help you. For ideas I look for decorating books, they are a hoot when you find the old ones. I have an old Ethan Allen catalog from the 1960's. Home Depot has lots of beautiful books on trim and how to use it, those are good when you are building your doors and windows. They have books on bathrooms and kitchens, books and books, I love books.
Another place to look is the antique section of the used book store. There a lots of books we can use there, too. I would love to be able to make pottery and china so I buy books that show shapes and patterns. The teapot on the kitchen table is one I made from Fimo using a picture from a book on English porcelain and pottery, "The World of Wade, Book 2". I love Clarice Clift, I hope I spelled her name right, anyway that book had some things in it that looked like her style. I haven't found a book just on her at the used book store, yet.
Information, I collect information and resource books. My problem is remembering what I have, so every once in while I take a quiet afternoon or evening and look through a big stack and make notes and stick tabs on the pages I want to remember. Before a project I will go through and make copies and stick everything in a folder just for the project and refer to it all of the time.
Magazines, they have them on country, cottage, shabby chic, just about every decorating style. Next time you are buying groceries take a look at these, I bought many just for ideas on how to decorate a room box I want to do . . . . in . . . .the . . . . F. .U. .T. .U. .R . .E . . . . .
I have many, to say the least.
Lots of resources, look around. TTYL Kris

Pictures of My Current Project, Put On Hold!

This is an unpainted pine catalog corner cabinet my daughter left here at home when she moved to Chicago. It was free to her, now free to me! This all started in "Miniature Collector", they had an article about a miniatures store, the owner's mother had decorated a beautiful antique Queen Anne corner cabinet with a dollhouse inside. I have always wanted a dollhouse in a piece of furniture, a baby house. Suddenly I remembered the corner cabinet Katie left and now I have my baby house! Hope you enjoy the pictures, I have had fun figuring out how to make everything.
I didn't make the pottery, that's a weakness of mine, love Jane Graber. Didn't make the red step stool, that's Aztec, I think.
Made the doors and trim around the front hall, it's all poster board! Used my Dremel and it's workstand to make the turnings on the kitchen cabinets and the center island. The hall floor is from a rubber stamp from Michael's, big square block with different sides to stamp marble, how cool. The furniture is all from Ethan Allen, with a few changes I've thrown in.

If you have any questions on how I did anything, just ask and I will gladly try to explain it here in the blog.

The rug on the kitchen floor is a copy of one from the Internet printed on the ceiling paper from a previous blog entry. The counter tops in the kitchen are painted to look like red granite and the baker's rack has painted black granite. No, the kitchen sink in not a china one, I made that from wood and painted it, several times. The faucet is from aluminum tubing and wood, I turned the handles with my trusty Dremel and workstand. I didn't like the door hardware available so I made mine from wire, it's twisted, painted black and I used a diamond paper punch to make the escutcheons. The banjo clock on the wall is from a picture I found on the Internet. I laminated very thin slices of wood to create the curved outer box of the clock. I did make the teapot on the table, my experiment with fimo.
I have more to do to the back porch. I made the door and screen door. I made the windows, the ones I can afford seem so chunky. I want 4 murals to represent the seasons. I have a goose, and I am going to dress her!

The fabric on the couch and chairs by the bay window have been reduced on the printer. I do that alot, the color isn't always the same, but it works most of the time. I reduced the fabric for the chairs in the kitchen, too. I bought a coordinated set of fabric from Keepsake Quilting for the living room. I used Jacqueline Kerr Deiber's instructions to make a piece of caning for the back of the chair in front of the desk. I didn't drill holes in the chair, though. I laminated an oval and sandwiched the caning between it and the chair back.

Going to do a bedroom and a yellow and blue "ducky" bathroom on the top shelf, that is if I ever get back to it.

I especially love that this cabinet is in my workroom, with me, and that's where I am basically all of the time! This is my little dream house.

Kris

P.S. Yes, that's the lady leg lamp from "A Christmas Story" I had to make one for myself. Don't where I'm going to put it, though.

P.S.S. I don't know if you know this, I just learned it, but if you click on a picture you can make it bigger, full screen.

Hi Pris!

Just found you signed up! How cool is this Internet stuff. I don't know how to answer your comments so I just answer in the blog. This is so much fun. Kris

CDHM'ers Looking for furniture?

Hi CDHM'ers! If you are looking for furniture you'll need to look through the older posts, they will have titles telling you they have furniture. Trying to add something new all the time, but have custom orders to do, too. I love your custom orders, making something special just for you is a lot fun. TTYL Kris

Full Size Techniques, Minis Can, Too

I have been looking at some full size techniques and they can be applied to minis, too, just like the marbling I did before. The next technique I am going to tell you about is aging a painted finish. I could never get this to look right, then watching This Old House I saw the way to do it.
I haven't gotten my suede paper, yet. I am anxious to try out making rugs with it, I hope it goes through the printer! TTYL Kris

Cheater Rugs

I have a couple of ideas for cheater rugs.
The first one uses wallpaper. I bought a roll of textured wallpaper at one of the big box home repair stores, Menard's. I like them, I have one in Springfield, IL, takes me about an hour to drive there, but it's worth it. This textured wallpaper is what we miniaturists buy from Hobby Builders as ceiling paper. I cut it 8 1/2" x 11" and using my printer I printed rugs off a Internet site selling full size rugs. If the rug has fringe glue a piece of muslin to the underside of the wallpaper, be sure you have straight grain at each end. Trim the sides even and leave at least a 1/4" at each end and ravel the muslin to look like fringe. I've used this for the big room size rugs and lots of little throw rugs.
The next one isn't mine but it's good nonetheless. Have scrapes of carpeting left over? Make them into something special by cross stitching or needle pointing a border around them. I measure my piece of carpeting and make the inside border the same size. I needlepoint using 22 canvas, the size of canvas is your choice. You can use Aida cloth, too. After I am done I finish the edge of the border, everybody has their favorite way, and glue the carpeting into the middle of the canvas or Aida cloth. Another way is to cut the blank part of the fabric out and glue it with the carpet in that blank space onto muslin.
I have another idea but I am waiting for www.dragonflyintl.com to send some suede paper to me. I tried flocked card stock from the scrap booking store, it caused a paper jam in the printer, several times, I'm hardheaded, I tried more than once to make it work. Going to try the suede paper to print rugs. Think it could be great!
Kris  P.S.S. on this blog, I am recommending buying suede paper from www.franticstamper.com, it works in your printer.