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If you click on any of the highlighted text when you're reading the blog it will take you to the thing it is talking about. Usually in my blog it takes you to some of my photographs which illustrate what I'm saying. Sometimes it might be a link to a site which I think is worth checking out.
In all my passion for the new shop project I haven't forgotten that there are still things I need/want for Wentworth to complete it: amongst these were four pictures for various rooms. When I was home in the Summer I found someone in the States, via E-Bay, who did very nice pictures. She kindly agreed to search out specific ones that I wanted for the house. This she did and by August was ready to make them. I asked her to hold on for a while until I got to the States and I'd order them from there. This was partly driven by my having had four orders not delivered in the last three months - here and in the UK - what is wrong with the postal services these days!
Jeanette has proven to be absolutely wonderful. She describes herself as a perfectionist and she certainly is. Firstly she had to source the paintings. In the case of the Dreamers she even kept looking for better and better reproductions until she could find the one she was happy with. She copied and cropped them sympathetically to fit the ratio of the frames. She even retouched Liberty to improve some dark areas which were throwing up a peculiar result in the miniature. We had some discussion about frames but my instruction to her was that I'd take the simplest gold frame for them all. My only criteria would be that they were as thin as possible. I have already bought and discarded a couple of paintings because of their clunky frames. If they were scaled up they'd be something like six inches thick! I have a couple of mirrors in Wentworth which will probably go the same way for the same reason. The frames on these pictures are lovely and thin and look the part.
She does all this and you still only pay the regular E-Bay price, nothing extra for custom-made. This is my second experience of having something made for me - remember the wonderful Amanda's food? Both times the process has been a delight, the product just as I imagined and the price the same as if I'd bought it off the shelf. So (unlike me for ages) don't be bashful about asking. It seems (some) sellers are happy to do commissions without that meaning the price will double.
The contact on E-Bay is An Elite Dollhouse Miniature Shoppe. I'll add this to my side bar where I should have already started a list of favourite suppliers - very remiss of me.
I am sorry about the awful photographs here - they do not do the pictures justice but I don't want to unpack them and repack them as they are nicely packaged for the trip home.
There is a reason for wanting particular pictures. Wentworth is a sort of homage to my life with my children around 1990. It isn't supposed to be any kind of replica; it is just a few nods here and there to things remembered. I set off creating a home for a mom, dad and two children and found my choices were being prompted by things I recalled from my own children's life, so I thought it would be nice to relax into that and go where it led. When it came to pictures nothing seemed to fit either my taste or those times. I recalled three long-lasting pictures we had in our house and thought it would be nice to have those again.
The Dreamers was on the sitting room wall above the settee (because the colours went with the decor!!!). I grew to love it inch by inch and came to remember that I had seen it (and other Moore's) in Birmingham Art Gallery (I am a Brummie by birth and raising) so maybe that is why it chimed.
Liberty Blake in Kimono by Peter Blake (think Sergeant Pepper album cover) was the first proper priced and framed print my husband and I bought in the early 70's and lasted many years in our Dining Room. We always said it was a (spooky) premonition of our daughter as she looked like the painting at the same age.
The Kiss by Klimt has become a very corny reproduction as it has been done to death since those times but it reminds me of how fresh and exciting his work was to me when I came across it back then. This was actually a large birthday card which I had framed in the bedroom. I do still love many of his paintings even if they have now been debased and border on kitsch.
I can't identify the fourth painting as I simply asked her for a Victorian seaside print and Jeanette offered this. I liked its simplicity and it is perfect for the pseudo-Victorian bathroom in the house; not that the Victorians would have had a painting in the bathroom!!
So, all four will fly home with me at Christmas and be hung in their places. Time permitting.
I've added a third Blog to my list of blogs which I follow called Dollhouse Miniature Furniture Tutorials/1inch Minis. It is crammed with much more than that and, even better, does have wonderful tutorials for all kinds of things, so you can make your own stuff. The owner Kris has just been absolutely brilliant ... I sent an email asking if she had any tutorial (which I couldn't find) about finishing wooden furniture and immediately she wrote me three lovely emails absolutely bursting with help. I can't wait to follow her blog to see what comes up next. She has even promised me a (mock) iron bed tutorial next year. (Yes, she is that booked up!)
I want to say a big thank you to Linda for becoming a follower of Wentwoth - I am so flattered as she is the owner of Une Petite Folie which has to be the epitome of doll housing and a dream to aim for.
It would be lovely to see other followers and it won't leave Linda all lonely out there. Please sign up if you are a regular visitor as it is lovely to see who is popping in now and then. From the Stats I collect I know readers (or visits to the sites) are in the hundreds and I even get emails from a handful of you so I actually do have names/personalities here and there but more would be very welcome.
This isn't a great photograph, the finished bag looks absolutely brilliant. It really does look like animal skin (leopard?) and leather. My mini-me in 38 Wentworth Court wouldn't have real leopard, of course, but she would have a jolly good fake and certainly leather.
I hope it does show how fiddly it was to do. The toothpick should give you some idea of scale and it is constructed like a real bag in several pieces, including the side gussets.
I am very pleased with myself because I seem to be acquiring the biggest skill of all - patience. I am the world's worst for chucking something which frustrates me for more than a couple of minutes. I stuck this one out even though it took tweezers and good glasses to construct.
The two challenges were threading the 'leather' strap through the buckle; whoever made the one for the sample picture in the pack didn't bother! That done the worst was to come. I needed to add the tiniest (no-hole) beads I have ever seen as metal fasteners for the strap and one for the tongue on the buckle - again this was my invention. The kit actually said the beads were for marking the holes in the shoulder strap, as the three straps I had bore no resemblance to what was going on in the instructions I just decided to make the bag myself - I know what a handbag looks like!
That said I'd still recommend the kits as they are beautifully laser cut and on great textured paper. I bought them at a show in the UK from an English stall holder who gave the distinct impression they were 'hers'. She had a fantastic range made up in all kinds of fabrics and finishes and some kits which matched several of hem - I bought the kit (nearer to my budget). Before starting to write this I thought I'd better find out who she was. It appears these kits are actually made in America by Tiny Tailor who, for all my web trawling, I've been unable to find. When I googled the kit itself I found a handful of people who sell them - this is one of them: Mini Doll Kits. If you are not in the market for a handbag you might like to check them out any way as they have some other nice stuff.
Today's playtime was filled with making two little fans and their fan boxes. It is hard to honestly assess the difficulty level for this one. I skip read through stuff at great speed and then give it another cursory glance and think I know what I've read (a bad habit of a fast reader - useful sometimes!). Any way, I did that with the instructions accompanying this kit and decided they were rubbish and it was best to go it alone. I then complained how useless the printing was because various bits and pieces didn't fit together and there were no tabs for gluing pieces together, etc. etc. etc. When I re-read the instructions after the make I spotted a couple of things I hadn't really taken notice of some things then made more sense. To be fair to me, I still think the instructions could be greatly improved and the notion that you can successfully join two pieces of cardboard without any tabs seems overly optimistic to me - although I haven't actually tried it. All that said, this is a lovely little kit; the only thing you won't get in it is the embellishment I did on the right hand fan. I have several of the tiny no-hole beads left over from the handbag kit so I thought I'd add them to the ribbon trim on the box and fan - waste not, want not. The fan on the left actually folds up and will go in its box. A nice idea would be to cut a split down the centre of the bottom edge of the bottom of the box so you could pull the tassel through to the outside. I think it might be a bit of a challenge to get it in the box with the fan. The tassel is too chunky for my taste so I may return to this some time and change it for something else.
They came from a glorious site which you really must visit called The Craft Pack Company. I have an endless list of things I want from them.
I'm not sure where these will take up residence. They were bought last year to finish Sally's fan collection in 38 Wentworth Court but they would be nice for a shop display in Le Tout Paris - first, of course, I have to find out if a fashionable shop would be selling fans in 1912 - I think perhaps not?
NB: (This post is in Wentworth and LTP)
I've added Pages to the right hand column. The first contribution is the piece I've just written for an on-line magazine called Dolls Houses Past and Present
I was asked to write about building the ELF kitchen. The published piece will probably bear no resemblance to this - we shall see.
I have found it impossible to get two chairs to match the four dining chairs I already have so I have finally given up and settled for two which nearly match. Technically, right now, they are just pieces of wood as I have to make them. Construction and upholstery is a doddle for me but I am a bit twitchy about the staining and polishing of the wood to get a good finish. If anyone has any tips please email me or post a comment here. I am keen for any and all information I can get from a 'real' person - I have done all the web trawling I want to do on the subject I just need the confidence shove. Since buying these I have gone on to buy a load more stuff in white wood that I need to finish in various ways. So keep your eyes open for the extended cursing here and in Le Tout Paris.
Take five minutes to have a look at this. Now I know what I want for Christmas. The Shrink Ray
