Innholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Dolls House & Miniature Scene

You will need Materials required White, yellow and brown polymer clay 2mm green garden/craft wire Green and yellow cotton thread Green and metallic green acrylic paint White gift bow Yellow and brown permanent marker pens (extra fine point) Sculpey Bake & Bond (or similar) Super glue Craft glue 1 stem of dried canary grass for flower arrangements in natural/straw shade Self-adhesive landscape tufts Faux peacock feather Faux foliage Tools required Small paintbrush Wire cutters Scissors Needle tool or sewing pin Sadie’s Top Tip! “Follow the steps for the wreath up to and including step 8, using it as a base you can return to time and again to create a wreath for every season.” Sadie says… “Use a small amount of tacky wax to attach the wreath to your door…

I’ve always wanted a Robert Stubbs’ house, but the price tag (while worth every penny) is a bit too steep for me – so, necessity being the mother of invention, I set out to create my own Tudor-style home for under £200. Included within my tight budget I wanted bespoke features – realistic brickwork, pargeting (decorative plasterwork), oak beams, roof slates, stone floors… not to mention furniture, and all without breaking the bank. It was a challenge. I started with a Dolls House Emporium Stratford bakery kit costing under £140, which came with a lot of features as standard. In the downstairs room I created a flagstone floor effect by gouging out lines in the MDF base, in a flagstone formation, applying grey paint, then filling the gaps with Polyfilla.…

You will need Materials required 1/16in (1.6mm) thick sheetwood 3/32in (2.4mm) thick sheetwood 1/8in (3mm) x 1/4in (6mm) stripwood HO 2x10 stripwood 1/8in (3mm) diameter aluminium tubing (Model RR shop) Foamcore Matt board Flooring paper Black scrapbook paper Black felt-tipped marker Silvery metallic scrapbook paper Clear plastic packaging sheet Sueded, flocked, or patterned scrapbook paper Cotton/felt (contrasting bright colour(s)) Matching thread(s) Lightweight cotton Wool felt Quilt batting Wood stain Satin varnish Black acrylic paint White glue Superglue Double-sided tape Tools required Knife and steel ruler Small saw and mitre-box Grid paper Ball stylus Sewing machine (optional) Sewing needle Hacksaw Small hand drills Cut and stain the wood, make the module base Bench assembly Bench lids and installation Bench cushions Bookcases and ledges on jigs Make the table Make the TV…

One of the most original kit-makers on the miniature scene is Iriginals, a Dutch company where you’re sure to find something a bit different. Run by Iris Bronsgeest, with her husband Matth, the couple’s precision-cut laser kits are so well designed and you’re guaranteed to find something to fall in love with on the Iriginals website. It’s summer, so what better choice than this delightful food cart – just perfect for a little seaside ice cream kiosk in a delicious strawberry pink, pistachio pastel green or vanilla cream colour scheme. I made a very small amendment to my kit in that I did not fit the sink that comes as part of the kit, using the space to place a couple of ice cream containers instead. To dress my scene,…

New worlds I clearly remember seeing the very first issue of Dolls House and Miniature Scene magazine in a local newsagent, the brightly coloured cover inviting me from the shelves. That was almost thirty years and over 300 issues ago. Throughout that time, the magazine has continually brought together the finest talent in the world of small scale. Continuing that tradition is Kathleen Holmes, whose latest kitchen roombox combines the homely charm of days gone by with the latest techniques in miniature art. These days, Kathleen is one of our most well-known creatives, but it was whilst living in Alaska that she initially discovered small scale. “I wandered into a dolls house and miniature store and was immediately hooked,” she tells me. “At that time, in the early '90s, there…

A modern hair salon and a traditional arts and crafts living room may at face value have little in common – but they both started life as a Dolls House Emporium Cotswold conservatory kit, and have each been through two incarnations already. The first is Jo Lockyer’s Salon Maria, a hair salon named after her lovely late Aunty Maria, who sadly passed away last year: “I couldn't think of a better lady to name it after,” said Jo, from Bristol. Jo, a PA for a law firm, bought the conservatory second hand, already built and decorated. The same for mine, which was a Gumtree purchase, and both mine and Jo’s were in need of some restoration and repairs. Jo told me: “I like to work with both new builds and…

“These tiny dolls houses are such fun to build and as long as you have a relatively steady hand and some trusty tweezers, they are also very easy to put together too.”Bea. Regular readers will already know that I have a deep passion for not just miniatures, but more specifically the smaller scale miniatures of the dolls house world. When I founded Petite Properties back in 2003 (oh my now I feel a tad old!) the dolls houses and furniture I created were mainly in 1/24th scale, which is half the size of 1/12th. Since then, it seems that as my business has grown, the size of the miniatures I design has gotten smaller and smaller. These days, the majority of the kits we produce are 1/48th scale. However, now…

You will need Materials required Titanic memorabilia printouts Light brown inkpad Thin faux leather Matching felt tip pen Small real leather offcut Heavy weight (around 150gsm) paper for the lining Four sewing pins Glue Old lace Polystyrene Sewing thread Any other items of your choice (perfume bottle, key, necklace etc) Think shipping disaster and more than a century later, and it’s the sinking of the White Star Line’s Titanic after striking an iceberg on her maiden voyage, that comes to mind. It has captivated our imaginations and has even featured in a few miniature scenes - my favourite being Conny van den Dungen’s evocative scenes of some of the grand state rooms. These can be seen in her museum dedicated to the iconic ship, which can also be seen online…

You will need Materials required Pastel pink, pastel yellow, dark green, white, pink, black and yellow polymer clay FIMO Liquid (or any other liquid clay) Tile to work and bake your pieces on Gloss varnish (water-based) Pink and gold mica powders Acrylic paint in black and white Tools required Toothbrush Craft knife 2.5cm round cutter (or other size of your choice) Blades Pasta machine (or rolling pin) Small embossing tools Pointy tool (needle tool, toothpick, etc) Sponge Wire Scissors Small hand drill (nail art hand drill) Finishing touch: To make the cake board, I cut out a circle of white clay slightly bigger than my cake and dusted it with gold mica powders on both sides. Then bake for 15 minutes. Eye shadows work just as well, just scrape a…

In his job as a design engineer, my father John did a lot of engineering drawings, but in his free time he engaged in the much more creative activity of sketching and painting watercolours. When I asked him 20 years ago if he could do some miniature paintings for my dolls houses, it was a great excuse for him to dust off the brushes and watercolour blocks! As the paintings were initially for my Edwardian-era houses, his first few mini watercolours were more traditional landscapes of places where our family lived, such as Durham, and Great Malvern in Worcestershire. Recently, however, I became interested in building modern miniature houses, and Dad thought it was a good opportunity to try painting miniatures in a different media, moving from watercolour to acrylic…

I love to make miniatures! It’s a great little world that’s all its own and I often get lost in it for hours at a time. It still amazes me when a simple piece of flat sheetwood becomes a realistic, 3-dimensional cupboard, chair, or bookcase. I’ve also made an antique car and even a backyard castle mostly from paper, as well as a whole Japanese garden landscape inside the ‘walls’ of a bamboo place mat. My approach to miniature projects is somewhat unique though. You might think I have a huge assortment of expensive tools, some very specialised and difficult to learn skills, and perhaps a studio to work in. That would take the fun out of it for me! I do hold myself to making projects of uncompromising realism,…

A window is so much more than just something to let in light and fresh air, and are often taken for granted. They are just part of the houses we live in or the buildings we work in. Miniaturists often overlook them entirely, except perhaps as backdrops on which to hang curtains. Whether you are decorating a dolls house or roombox, where your scene resides is truly important. Window artist Karin McArdle learned this lesson years ago. “I am delighted when my buyers share photos of my minis in their new surroundings,” Karin says, “and one such photo sparked an idea. It was just a blank wall in an Irish cottage that called out for a view. I created a window looking out on another thatched roof of a neighboring…