Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2023 i Dolls House & Miniature Scene

You may feel that you already know this month’s showcased maker, Julie Gill, if like me you were an avid viewer of The Great Big Tiny Design Challenge on Channel 4 last year. Given her beautiful creations, it’s hard to believe that Julie was the first to have to leave the TV competition – but someone had to be first, and Julie had been given the particularly challenging task of creating Regency dining chairs under severe time pressure. But let’s take a step back to how it all came about. Julie, 55, lives in a village in Lancashire, where she owns the local chippie. She originally trained as a beauty therapist, and lived the dream in California, where she then trained as a nail technician. She returned home in 1991,…

I've always been a doll collector and have a vast collection of vintage Sindy dolls and furniture but eventually ran out of space for this, so moved to miniatures which I assumed would take up less space. This was about five years ago, however after building my first miniature house I was totally addicted and now my collection has increased massively! My daughters have now grown out of their toys so I have taken over their playroom and currently have about six large houses, four large shops plus various roomboxes and smaller buildings. I love escaping to the miniature world and find it both relaxing and rewarding. I have built houses from scratch using flatpack kits as well as renovating existing properties acquired second hand. I like doing both modern…

YOU WILL NEED MATERIALS REQUIRED White, pastel pink, fuchsia pink, dark blue, bright blue, green, lilac, yellow and red polymer clay Yellow, fuchsia pink, blue, green, white, golden ochre, dark cadmium orange and brown pastels Sculpey Bake & Bond (or similar) Gloss varnish TOOLS REQUIRED Small paintbrushes Needle tool or sewing pin Sadie’s Top Tip! “Always condition polymer clay with your fingers before use for maximum flexibility and to prevent the clay from cracking.” 1 Mix white polymer clay with bright yellow pastel to make a shade of cream resembling bread dough. 2 Roll the cream clay into individual balls measuring 6mm in diameter. You’ll need two balls for each small Easter bread you want to make. 3 Roll each ball into a tube 2mm in diameter, ensuring they’re of equal…

A time of change When Natasha Semenchenko first discovered the world of miniature art, intrigued by the ability to recreate the world around us in small scale, she could never have imagined how her life would change just a few short years later. As she left behind her home and family in Ukraine last spring, it was the power of imagination and a love of the arts which allowed her to continue sharing joy through images of her tiny, crocheted animals. Having spent time in Germany and Poland, I asked Natasha how she had found the process of continuing to create art during a difficult period; “Creativity heals the soul, saves you from bad thoughts, allows you to find new friends, admirers and like-minded people,” she tells me. “Creativity is…

The great dolls house revamp People often want to see my first and main dolls house and right now I’m a little ashamed of it! It’s in need of some TLC and I plan to give it just that. Maybe you picked up a formerly loved dolls house at a jumble sale, inherited one from your great-aunt, or just rediscovered the one you stored away in the attic from years ago. Like any home, dolls houses need periodic maintenance and repairs, even if they haven’t been in storage for a while. First, a little background: My Dad built this dolls house for me from a kit for Christmas in 1993. It closely resembles the home we built for ourselves a few years before and where we still live today. Much…

YOU WILL NEED MATERIALS REQUIRED Polyfilla Paint Glue Card Images of tiles Gloss varnish (optional) Fabric 2x Turkish bookmarks 2x Turkish rugs Wadding Foam MDF 2x turned posts Piece of stripwood roughly 1cm square Wood stain Shoe polish Embellishments 2x fretwork corner pieces Small tacks 1 Cover the interior walls with filler to create a textured render/plasterwork. 2 Paint walls with a light-coloured distressed wash of watered down paint. 3 Mark the walls halfway or so with a pencil line. 4 Paint below the pencil line in a diluted vibrant contrast colour. 5 Sand the painted wall for a more worn, distressed effect. 6 Print out scaled down images of tiles (and, if you wish, a street sign or house name for the exterior). 7 Glue the tiles onto card. If you…

A year or so ago I came across a maker on Etsy who was offering something a bit different: mid-century modern items, Charles Rennie Mackintosh mirrors, Gothic chairs, Art Deco pieces and modern bits and pieces too. They looked really well-designed yet were incredibly affordable. He had loads of five-star reviews so I placed an order. I was not disappointed! And so I discovered Mark Berbezier, who runs Laser Crafts by Mark. What impresses me – aside from the range of items – is how much thought has gone into the design stage, so that joins are carefully hidden to give the finished piece a more realistic appearance. Kits are made to ensure precision painting too, so it’s easy to achieve a professional finish. In some kits, such as the…

Miniature foundations The world of small scale has been a part of Theresa Parker’s life for as long as she can remember, a love of the ocean providing a backdrop for the coastal scenes inspired by the New Jersey shoreline. Vividly recalling fond childhood memories, Theresa remembers collecting acorns, fascinated by what she saw as their resemblance to a miniature pumpkin. But it is the dolls house built by her father when she was just seven which holds a special place in her heart. “My best friend’s father also built her the same exact dolls house, and we spent almost every day after school playing with the dolls houses at one of our houses. We spent our allowance money at local dolls house shops and even attended some miniature shows.”…

A grassy mound and a flash of inspiration… Twenty years ago this month, I sat daydreaming on a grassy mound, lost in thought in my favourite place; Corfe Castle. I was thinking about a little dolls house that I had recently built. Not wanting to keep it, I listed it on a relatively new online auction site called eBay. To my complete surprise, bidding for the little 1/24th scale terraced dolls house I had made quickly took off and its final sale price was way beyond my wildest expectations. As I sat staring at the rolling Dorset hills, an idea began to form in my mind… What if I made another dolls house… and another? Could this be a new creative venture for me? During the long car journey home…

It is said that the eyes are the window of the soul, and in my view, windows give soul to a house – whether full-size or miniature. The wrong windows jar! UPVC plastic windows on an historic Georgian house look plain wrong, whereas a traditional window on an ultra-modern home can be just as offensive to the eye. Getting doors and windows right is a good way to ensure realism at miniature scale. Starting with doors, let’s think door furniture. Door handles, locks, hinges, letter boxes, door bells, house numbers, door knockers, bolts, latches, key holes and escutcheons (key hole covers), fingerplates, door grilles, peep holes, hooks and hangers… perhaps even a door self-closer for a commercial premises. All can be found on full-size doors and so all should be…

YOU WILL NEED MATERIALS REQUIRED 3/8in (10mm) foamcore roof panels saved from last month Wood shingles 1/8in (3mm) x 1/4in (6mm) stripwood 1/4in (6mm) x 1/4in (6mm) stripwood 1/2in (13mm) corner moulding 1/2in (13mm) diameter dowel 1/8in (3mm) diameter dowels HO scale 2x6 strips 1/32in (0.8mm), 1/16in (1.6mm) and 3/32in (2.4mm) thick sheetwood Lightweight card Suede paper Stain paint sample card or magazine pictures with 5/8in tall cans 14-count cross-stitch fabric 5/8in (16mm) wide black/brown grosgrain ribbon Foil pie plate Steel-grey metallic, shiny red and shiny silver card Wire 1/8in (3mm) brass eyelets and tubing Sequin pins Plastic lacing Assorted small beads & silvery bead cap White acrylic paint Ultra-fine gold, silver, red, yellow and black Sharpie markers Wood stain White glue & super glue Museum wax adhesive TOOLS REQUIRED…

A number of things came together, creating the perfect conditions for a former Ministry of Defence blacksmith based in Portsmouth Naval Base to start creating the most perfect Art Deco pottery in miniature. Robert Wilbur – Bob to his friends – has always enjoyed making models. He told me: “All my life, I have loved making anything miniature. Model boats, planes, trains, dolls houses and lots of other miniatures, particularly those made of metal. I’d never thought of making anything from pottery though.” Last year Bob, 72, who had hung up his blacksmithing tools and retired some years back, was looking for a new hobby. He signed up for a pottery course at a local college. As a collector of full-size Clarice Cliff, her designs were an obvious starting point.…