Ok. So it's been awhile, but I'm going to continue anyway. Day Three was construction day! We finished the interior paperclay and added little details if we wanted them. Then, before we put the walls together we wired the house so we could add working lights later on. This was done by cutting shallow canals into the exterior sides of the gatorfoam walls and then carefully covering the wires with bristol board. Once that was done we assembled the walls and left them to dry over lunch. We temporarily inserted one of the roof beams to make sure the walls were square and stable. This came out later so we could fit in the second floor and the rest of the beams. After lunch we put paperclay on the exterior walls, and since I had a little extra time, I made a plaque to put on the exterior of the fireplace. We textured the exterior walls with a cut down bristle brush and then added some smeared paperclay over that to create some extra dimension.

Day 2, Rik Pierce Class

Most of day 2 was spent putting paperclay on the interior walls. First though we had to weave pieces of Bristol board into a basket type pattern for the "wattle". The wattle is used to hold the plaster onto the walls. After we had secured our "wattle" to the walls we added the "plaster" or paperclay. The paperclay was rolled out thin and then placed over the walls. We then used our clay tools to cut out the piece of paperclay that went over the wattle. This left a part of the wattle visible and gave a slight feeling of neglect to the house.

We were then able to work on the area around the fireplace. We painted and glued some beams in place and accented the walls around it. Some people chose to brick then entire wall, some part of the wall and others left it blank. I decided to add some "delft" style tiles surrounding the fireplace. I wanted the designs to be very small and delicate so I used a toothpick instead of a paint brush. I'm pretty happy with the result, although the tiles should probably have gone on the interior of the framing. Well, I think that was most of what we did on Day 2. I'll update more soon! Day 3 is assembly day!

"Detailed by Lenor Johnson" from workshop page at philadelphiaminiaturia.com

  I'm here in Cherry Hill, NJ eagerly awaiting the Philadelphia Miniaturia show!
  This past week I was extremely fortunate enough to take Rik Pierce's, "English Thatched Cottage" class. Rik was an excellent teacher and the class was worth every.single. penny.  My classmates were excellent as well, and we had a lot of fun. Even though the basic structures were all the same everyone was really able to personalize them and make them all different.

 Just about all of our supplies were laid out when we got into class the first day.

Looking up at the front table it was a bit daunting to think that at the end of 4 days we would have a little cottage of our own. Amazingly it did happen, even if there is still a little bit of work to be done. 








  Much of the first day was spent prepping the wooden beams, and painting window boxes and the brick hearth. We also assembled the bay window.

 
I'll be posting more on the progress in a little while so be sure to check back for more!

Finished Custom Build! Apartment style

 I recently finished a custom ordered dollhouse for a very sweet lady in Maryland. She asked for a New York style townhouse and after throwing a few ideas back and forth we came up with this!

  There are two floors each with their own entrance. The second floor even has a cute bay window and all of the windows and doors open. It is off to its new home, and I can't wait to see what she does with the inside!

 So I was finally in the mood to work on Rapunzel's Tower this weekend. Actually got quite a bit done! I was feeling a little discouraged for a while because I was having a hard time deciding how I wanted to do the interior. Finally, I decided I would order a few packs of paperclay and see how I felt when it got here. Turns out that was the inspiration I needed and I practically finished the interior in a weekend. Of course, there are a few things left to do. A chimney and landscaping for the exterior and some minor touch-ups for the interior. It doesn't look much like the picture I started out with, but I'm ok with that. Here's a few pictures of how it looks now...

    My order of paperclay arrived Friday so I was able to begin work on the exterior of Rapunzel's Tower. I decided it would be a stone tower that was once upon a time covered in plaster. It took several hours just to do the topmost layer, but I am pretty happy with the result. It is drying now, and I should be able to patch up any cracks tomorrow.

    I also put in the second floor tile on Saturday. I wanted to use real stone, but they can be very expensive so instead I bought a slate tile at the hardware store for $.93 and took a hammer to it. Of course not all of the pieces were uniform in thickenss, but there was plenty enough my floor. The second floor room also got painted a dark royal blue with little silver stars, and the windows were also completed. I also started work on some curtains, but I'm not 100% happy with them yet. The picture above is of the second floor room. I'm not using this fireplace, I just needed a quick stand-in. The grout between the slates will also be painted a darker color so it doesn't stand out so much.

   In my last blog I posted a picture that really is helping inspire this miniature. The thing I like most in that picture are the little candles in jars that are hanging from the ceiling so I decided I needed to find a way to make those. I googled how to make your own electric miniature lights and it turns out it very simple so long as you have all the right supplies. This is the result of my experiments. Not quite done yet but I think you get the concept.

Hello! Welcome to my blog. This is my first post and I am still trying to work out a few kinks so please bear with me. I've been thinking about starting one for a while now, and since I am waiting for some glue to dry on a project I figured I would give it a go. This will be a place where I post news about my current and upcoming miniature projects, and also where I hope to get some constructive criticism or advice. I am fairly new to the miniatures world, but have been fortunate enough to be able to immerse myself in my projects. I also really love to garden so from time to time I may also post about that as well. A little bit of a hodge podge, but that might describe me also. Well, I think that is probably enough for right now, but check back soon for more!