Well this sure tests one's patience!

The water went really well, just pouring in 1/8th inch each 24 hours or so.  When it is first added the water is cloudy, like this

but when it dries it is clear.   Here is the pond filled up and with the bulrushes added.

The bulrushes were a learning experience.  I had ordered a kit from sdk Miniatures (they are also known as cat tails apparently) and made them up.  First I tried sticking them into the Realistic Water, using a toothpick to make holes.  But I couldn't get the holes close enough so I pulled them out. 

Next I stuck the bulrushes into a bit of air-drying clay and dug out a bit of the water to fit them in.  But decided that there weren't enough leaves - all the photos I had googled had lots of leaves.  So I made a whole lot more of the leaves and added them, then glued the whole thing into the pond. 

Still not happy, because they were clumped together and looked squashed, and didn't cover a big enough area.  So next day I dug them out again and cut out quite a bit more of the Realistic Water.  It dries tough and flexible, like a silicone so it wasn't easy to cut and gouge it out.  Pulling the leaves out of the air-drying clay wrecked most of the leaves so I made a whole lot more leaves as well as some of the seed heads.  Then they were all planted into a larger piece of air-drying clay painted dark brown and added 'soil' on the top before planting the bulrushes.  Then I left it all for the clay to dry for a couple of days.

So finally I was satisfied with the bulrushes and I think they look good at the end of the pond.
Meanwhile I was making up kits of flowers: two kits of azaleas and one of roses.  The kit of roses is supposed to be put in a vase so there weren't enough for the climbing rose I want to do.  I have ordered another kit (and some of other flowers too) and it should arrive any day now.

They are really rather sweet aren't they?

The azaleas were a true test of patience!  You dip the end of the wires into paint to make the innermost part then there are stamens to be added - these are so fine that it is a challenge to get them onto the wire without them breaking.  Next the petal shape is added, then leaves.  Now it doesn't sound too difficult does it?  And the azaleas themselves apart from the stamens were okay.  The leaves are no more than 2mm at the longest, and each night over the last couple of weeks I've been working on the plants - a couple of hours and my eyes were going blurry!  I don't know whether I need new glasses or not, but it took ages to construct the two kits.  Adding new leave tended to get glue on the leaves already on the stem, or glue got onto the fine-point tweezers I was using so that stuck to the leaf I was trying to add and it came straight off when I moved the tweezers, or the leaves would move by themselves.  It was really frustrating but I finally twigged that if I did just a couple of leaves and let them dry before adding more it worked better.

Here are a leaf stem and a flower stem.  I did 40 of the flowers and about 12 of just leaves.

And tonight I finally  got to plant them into two planter tubs by Petite Properties.  I'm really happy with how they look!

So now the house is electrified, the pond is done and some of the flower kits are made up.  I still want to do a kit of morning glory flowers.   And for the wires from the lights, I want to paint them so they merge in with the walls of the house and cover some of them with plants.

Blessings,
Sandie

Shining light on the matter

It was time to electrify the Little Duck House yesterday.  First we drilled tiny holes, one above the bed, one on the kitchen wall further down from where the cupboard will go, one above the bay window alcove and one near the front door.

I have written in detail about lighting Woodnook Cottage ((click here to go to the post)so I won't go into the same detail here.  The difference with Little Duck House is that I am taking the wires down the outside walls and will camouflage them behind foliage from vines or with the arbour against the wall, after painting the wires to match the house.

I was fortunate to receive some beads for lampshades from a generous person on one of my groups.  They make a difference to how the lights look and I am grateful for them.  Once the holes were drilled, I threaded the chip LEDs through the hole in the end of the bead, then through the hole in the wall.  I tested that the light was working by twisting the wires together with the wires from the battery.

Once I knew that the light was working I snugged it firmly against the wall and held down the wires on the outside with a bit of blue painter's tape.  Then I added a drop of glue to the end of the bead to keep the light in place. 

Once all the lights were working and in position I twisted the red wire from each of the lights to the red wire from the battery, not forgetting to slide the shrink tube over the wire from the lights first.  The green wires from the lights were then twisted together with the black wire from the battery, again sliding a shrink tube over the black wire.  Again I checked that they worked.  Now they need to be soldered together and the shrink tube slid over the join, then heated with a heat gun to shrink it tight over the join.

Here is the house with the lights on.  It certainly enhances the look of it.  This one is looking at the left side, and you can just see the one over the bay window enclosure.  The glow over the mezzanine is a reflection from the one below the mezzanine.

This shows the light above the mezzanine window and also the one near the front door.  The blue tape on the photos is holding the wires in place.

I've kept the tape on the wires on the exterior of the house so they don't get accidentally pulled or something.   Once the glue dried on the lampshades I attached the roof of the house.  I'm not happy with the roof though.  I thought that it would be less fiddly to tile the roof before I put it onto the house but it wasn't a good idea :(.  I might have to buy a new roof if I can't get it working better.

I also added the second last layer of Realistic Water to the pond today, and put a couple of rocks near the pier part of the walkway.  They are bits broken off the Sydney sandstone we use in our real-life garden to edge it.  I will add a bit of paint to them later.  Hopefully I won't wreck the rocks doing that!  I wonder whether I've made the 'water' too deep though, it seemed a bit cloudy after the last lot even though I left it for 1 1/2 days before adding today's layer.  It won't have a full 1/8th inch layer over this one, I'll just add enough to hold the ducks in place and anything else I want to add.  I have some waterlilies I bought from BJ Miniatures which will look good on it too.

I hope the flower kits from sdk Miniatures arrive soon, it is a lengthy process to assemble them and I'd like to get going on them.

So that's it for today.  Now I just need to give some thought to whether I can salvage the roof.

Blessings
Sandie

Waiting for the water to dry

My friend Stephanie from Tasmania persuaded me to take the plunge and use Realistic Water for the pond on the base of the Little Duck House.  I have wanted to do water in my projects for a long time now but for some reason had a real hang-up about doing it.  I had heard that the Scenic products ended up with a tacky finish and that using two-part epoxy was the way to go.  But I just kept having cold feet when it came to actually doing anything - hence the lovely kit 'Pickett Pond' has been sitting there for years waiting for me to take the plunge!  But Stephanie has had good results with Realistic Water and gave me some hints on how to use it, so I ordered some.  I have been adding a layer about 1/8th inch deep each day or so, so it is not a quick process.

It starts off cloudy like this

and gradually over the 24 hours it becomes clear as it sets.  This is about the fourth layer.  I hope it is dry enough for me to add another layer before bedtime tonight but it isn't worth rushing it if it's not dry.

While I've been waiting for the water to set and dry I've been making more furniture kits up.  I showed you the kitchen before, here it is with the knobs added.

And just to show you the size of the stools, here is one on my finger:

I also did a drop-leaf table and two chairs with rush seats (another kit from BJ Miniatures)

These kits are lovely, made of delicate timber - very fragile but they look lovely.  I don't know why they have come out so dark in the photo though, they are made from cherry wood and they come with the tiniest gold no-hole beads for doors and drawers.

After doing the table and chairs I started on a rocking chair and side table, but broke the rocking chair in the process :(.  I've removed the rockers and salvaged enough of the chair that it will be okay if I drape a 'throw' over it.  The side table is sweet

I've forgotten for the moment how to crop photos on the blog so everything looks a bit lost :(

The last bit I did was a hutch.  Love hutches with bits and pieces on them.  This one doesn't have opening doors and drawer like the one I used in Woodnook (from sdkMiniatures) but I like the pretty cherry wood and it will look good with the bits I have ordered from True2Scale Miniatures to go on it.

No, it's not drunk, my hubby took the photos partly side on.

 The furniture isn't glued into place yet, and I still have to work out whether to put in a bathroom or not but the cats have already moved in :).  If you have followed my blog for a while you will know that I always have a cat (or two, or several) in each of my buildings.  I get them from minigems, she makes wonderful animals. 

There's a cat snoozing very comfortably on the bed

And another has claimed the arbour - again, taken a bit side on by my hubby so it looks skewed

The house is now ready for lighting and for the roof to go on.  Hopefully I will get those things done this evening. 
Blessings
Sandie

This takes the prize for fiddly!

It was really exciting yesterday afternoon when the order from BJMiniatures arrived - only 10 days from placing the order!  This site has lots of lovely little accessories and furniture kits.  So I've spent the last two evenings assembling some of the furniture.

The first thing I did was to glue two bits of thin plywood together to make a base for the bed, since a normal bed won't fit in the upstairs gallery where my mini person wanted to sleep.  After it was well dry I rounded the corners just a little bit and added some Kleenex tissues to pad the timber base, and formed a double pillow from the tissue as well.  The rounded corners just make the finished corners easier to keep neat, and having the tissue to soften the wood base makes it more realistic when covered with a quilt.  One of the things in my BJMiniatures was a quilt printed with a pretty Baltimore design and having a green border that fitted the colour scheme well.  So I covered the bed with the quilt.  This bed will not easily be seen when the roof is on but what can be seen is pretty.  Here it is:

The colours in the photo are a bit washed out which is a pity, and you can't really see that the quilt tucks under the pillows and there is a dent to define the two pillows.  My mini person is quite happy with it.

Next I tackled a sofa, which came with fabric printed with tiny, tiny dark green checks.  In fact that fabric pretty well decided the colour scheme for the furniture.  It came in parts, made of plastic and you cover each piece as you assemble it.  Doing the front of the arms is fiddly but not too bad, probably because I've done similar things before.  I'm quite pleased with the way it came out.

I did the cushion out of left-over fabric.  I always think a cushion makes things more comfortable.

The other thing I did with some of the fabric was to make a window seat.  This was easy, just a piece of ply cut to the appropriate height, and a second piece of plywood to form the seat.  I padded the seat with Kleenex tissue again and covered it with the fabric, before gluing it to the support at right angles.  Then the whole thing was glued into the bay window.  It will be a nice comfortable place for my mini person to sit and daydream or read, or for visitors to sit and chat to her while she is cooking.

Sorry that the photo is a bit blurred :(

After doing those I tackled the kitchen, also from BJMiniatures.  This is a really nice little kitchen, having a fridge, stove and sink of course.  And it also has a kitchen island with two little stools.  Here are the pieces sort of in place, though I haven't as yet added the rings to the stove or painted the handles on the fridge.  There are taps to add to the sink as well.  Then tonight I did the island and the stools in front of it.  These stools are beautifully designed, but would have to take the prize for one of the fiddliest (is that a word?) thing to make.  I'm still not sure that I have the legs properly spaced or the ring between the legs even.  But here they are:

At this stage nothing is glued into place.  There are still the knobs to add to the cupboards and the finishing bits to do to the stove, fridge and sink.

After tackling the stools I was ready for something a bit less fiddly so I did the coffee table and console table that came in the kit with the lounge.  Don't know whether I'll use the console table in this house, but it certainly gives a nice place to put things.  I don't really want to use the space below the gallery because obviously the french doors would open inwards. But there is a space between the doors and the wall that could take the console table.

Now I have some decisions to make.  I don't like to have a house without a bathroom, even if it is a wall with a door in it, open or closed, to hint at the bathroom beyond.  But this house is a bit difficult to decide what to do about this.  Do I add a 'room' ?  It would have to go between the small window and the upstairs gallery if I do.  Or do I leave it as is and my mini person will just have to keep her legs crossed!!  What do you think?

The room could do with a carpet in the living room area, but nothing fancy I think.  I don't have anything appropriate at the moment.  The green rug I ordered from BJMiniatures is the wrong green for the lounge so not suitable.  Perhaps my mini person is one of the modern women who prefer to have bare boards for their flooring.

Now I have an idea what furniture will go in the cottage, I can make decisions about lighting.  I don't want to bury the wires too deeply after my experience with Woodnook Cottage, where it will mean digging the wires out to repair them.  

Hope you like the progress so far!

Blessings

Sandie

So very rusty!

What a long time it has been since I posted!  I thought that by now we would have packed up our house, sold it and moved and unpacked and got back to normal!  But we are still here due to family issues.  Still here but mostly all packed up so I haven't had access to most of my miniatures and supplies for over 18 months and although I was able to fill in the time with an English paper-pieced, hand-appliqued queen-size quilt called The Pemberley  (one of Katrina Hadjimichael's lovely designs, I go to one of her classes once a month and am now on my second quilt called 'Lambton' http://katrinahadjimichael.blogspot.com/) I have really missed having my mini fix!  The advantages of the hand applique is that I can sit and do it at night without creating a mess (once the individual pieces are prepared anyway).  Which has been a blessing to keep me from going completely barmy!

Finally I decided that enough was enough and when my Christmas present from my son arrived, I started on it.  It's the Little Duck House and base, from Petite Properties.  With most of our days at present ranging in temperature from the 30's C up to some in the mid-forties, I have set up a table in the lounge room and started working in air-conditioned comfort rather than my studio which has piles of packed boxes everywhere.

Of course being mostly packed up meant access to my glues, tools, accessories etc was either limited or non-existent.  They are either deep in the bowels of our huge storage shed or in boxes with other boxes on top and not necessarily labelled with the particulars of the contents.  I did list some but became distracted due to the rush of packing them.  So much to my chagrin I've had to buy new paints and a lot of new bits and pieces. 

But boy am I rusty!  I found that not only did I not follow my usual method of assembling a kit but I did things that made it more difficult in some ways, such as not painting the floors until the house was assembled.  Then I decided to use a method of 'plastering' the inside walls that I usually only used for 1/12th scale, which is to mix paint with talcum powder.  This gives a nice rough surface which would have been okay for the exterior but was a bit out of scale for the interior in 1/48th scale.  But it will have to do.  I've sanded it down a bit and did a couple more coats of paint to smooth it out somewhat and pushed on.

Then I did the outside walls with some interior filler so they have a rough, plastered look to them as well.  For a change I decided to paint the house and mixed Jade green with cream to produce a nice soft green.  All the trims are done in cream and it does look quite pretty.  I forgot to take photos of the house in progress but here it is at the stage it is now, with the windows and doors installed.  The front porch isn't attached yet because I want to paint and distress its roof first.

I did take photos of progress with the base though.  Here it is when first assembled.  The lego blocks are to keep the apertures for the house lined up exactly

Next step was to pad the openings of the pond and the exterior with newspaper to fill in the gaps.

This was covered with paper strips covered in glue - like papier mache, moulded and squished until it was pretty well the shape I wanted.

And over it all I did a couple of layers of interior finish, to give it more stability and strength.

I didn't pad the opening where the house will be, because the batteries can be tucked inside there when I light the house.  They can have a bit of double-sided tape on them to hold them in position so they don't fall out when the project is handled.

Once the whole base is painted dark brown (as per Bea's instructions) it doesn't look so messy and the brown gives a base for the landscaping later on.  I took this photo a bit later on, after I'd started to landscape the bottom of the pond.

Next I assembled and painted the walkway that goes around two walls of the house.  Because it is outside I distressed it a bit.

And here it all is at the moment, roughly in place.  Still have the exterior trims to add on a couple of bits.

I have decided to be very brave and tackle my first attempt at doing water instead of using the clear plastic supplied for the purpose with the kit.  Thanks Stephanie for the encouragement!  I've ordered some so I need to wait for that to arrive.  Along with numerous flower kits from sdk miniatures and furniture from BJ Miniatures, Debbie Young (Young at Heart) and other bits and pieces. I am a bit worried that if I leave it too long it will end up yet another ufo, so I hope the orders arrive soon!

Blessings,

Sandie

 

Happy Easter!

Hello dear readers!  I have been awol for a long time now.  In case you are wondering, it has mainly been due to health issues - mine and my family's.  I had bronchitis for several months last year and was just beginning to recover when my son became ill.  It turned out that he had to have his CV shunt renewed so he went into hospital for his 27th surgery on his brain.  We have been fortunate for the last 16 years that he has had a respite but for the first 10 years of his life he had lots of hospitalizations.  He has cerebral palsy and hydrocephalus and has two shunts from his brain to his stomach.  One of those shunts kept blocking and had to be renewed each time.  This last surgery had some complications and he had four weeks in hospital then another four weeks in rehabilitation.  Christmas was then on our doorstep and no minis of course during all that time.  After Christmas my darling husband Peter had increasing trouble and pain from his hip so finally he went to see about it and the result was a total hip replacement.  He is in rehabilitation now after the surgery.  So between looking after our son and visiting my DH, along with all the daily chores, life is very busy at the moment.  I certainly appreciate all that Peter normally does!  I have also been making twelve quilts for an Aboriginal school in Outback New South Wales, and they have to be completed by the end of this month.  Nine completely done, 3 tops done ready to quilt.  I will post photos of them when they are completed.  So please excuse me for not blogging lately - I hope to get back to minis when Peter is home and these quilts are done, and then I will post about what I am doing :)  I also hope that this year will see a larger studio being built for me in the back yard, by my brother.  More to come on that too.

In the meantime I want to thank you for hanging in there, I see that there are still some faithful followers checking out the blog and I'm sorry to disappoint you by not posting lately.  And I want to wish you and yours a very happy and blessed Easter.

I hope to 'talk' to you all soon!
Blessings,
Sandra

Here's to a wonderful 2017

I am looking forward to a much healthier and less stressful 2017, and wish all of you the same:  may it be filled with much happiness and many mini joys!

Hopefully there will be many UFOs completed and projects done right through to the end as well :)

Happy Christmas to you all!

I would like to wish you all a very happy Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate at this time of year).  May you all have a wonderful time full of love with friends and family.

Nearly finished....

Well, except for a lot of touching up and a couple of areas that I am very unhappy with.  I have spent whatever time I could squeeze into the studio over the last few days doing fiddly things and today I was able to put the last parts together.

However I am not happy with quite a few bits - the doors look messy, the roofing material on the larger dormer moved after I glued it on and I didn't realize until everything was dry.  And I messed up the wing roof sections by trimming what I thought was extra bits, only to find that they were then too small :(  I was able to cover up that mistake to some extent by putting in a strip of paper into the grooves where the roofs met, and painting them to match the roof - like flashing.  On the opening to the rear wing roof I had to cut away some more of the wood because the flashing solution wouldn't have worked there.

When I look at it closely I see so many areas that I'm not happy with, but they'll have to do.  And that's not like me at all.  However there's no way I can fix them so I'll just hope they aren't as glaringly obvious to others as they are to me.

Anyway, here are some photos of it now.

I love this view, it shows the windows in the side as well as both doors.

Front door still needs the shop sign and the 'open' sign attached

Rear view of the wing.  Love the door and balcony on the side of the main section

Rear view of main section.  The shop door wouldn't stay closed so it will stay open a little bit

The colours in the photos are a bit light.  In real life the blue is a bit darker but with the light on in the room and the flash working, it came out pale.  I will need to go over everything really carefully and touch up areas where the paint has had other colours go over it.  Today I decided I didn't like the colour of the roof and mixed another grey for that, and repainted it.  So that will probably need touching up and then distressing with lighter and darker colours.   Also, I need to paint the edges of the walls and touch up around the dormer windows where they attach to the house.

Those things are all very fiddly and will be time-consuming but they are necessary.  However at least while waiting for paint to dry I can start on the furniture kits.  I just love this little house!  I'm disappointed it wasn't my best work by far but when all the furniture and accessories are in it, they will distract the eye from its faults.

A quick look at 'Vignettes'

As I said before, Bella Rustica is part of a trio of buildings all with a French theme.   Bella Rustica is a shop and a pension with owner's accommodation, Le Lapin Saute is a restaurant with owner's accommodation and Vignettes, the smallest of the three is a shop selling kitchen accessories.

Here is a photo that I've scanned from one of the order sheets for the furniture and accessories.  I apologize for the quality of the photo, it was only a small one on the sheet so it is rather grainy now it's enlarged.

Trio of French-themed buildings on base, from Suzanne and Andrew's catalogue

I found where I had put Vignettes away and thought I'd share some photos with you.  I realized when I looked closely at it that there is a little bit to do to finish it, mainly adding bottles and plates to the shelves and units in the ground floor shop.

It's a sweet little building and I really enjoyed doing it.  Here is a front view,

You'll notice that there's a gelato stand that can go at the front too, here that is in closeup.  No, the top isn't on crooked, it's the way I hold the camera to take photos, they often end up looking a bit odd :(

the right side of the building

and now the left side.

An overvew of the open rear of the building.  Hmmm, I notice now that the door of the ground floor has come out again.  These doors are a pain!

A close-up of the 2nd (top) floor, where the owner's bed/sitting room is located.  I added the kitty to the chair in the bedroom - all my projects have to have a cat or more as you might remember.

A close-up of the 1st (middle) floor, where the owner's kitchen is.  I had to add another cat to this section :)

And one of the ground floor, showing it with all the shelving units in place.

A look at the left side of the shop.  These shelves need more bottles and plates added to them.

And a view of the right side.

Here's the shelving unit that goes in the right side

and here's the central shelving unit, ready for some more plates and bottles to be added (front view)

And the rear of the same shelving unit.  The empty shelf is supposed to be filled with vases, which are printies that you cut out and shape to give the illusion that they are fully formed, plus plates and platters.

It won't take too long to finish adding those bits and pieces and it will be ready to display.   I don't think I'll be buying the base that is shown in the first photo, which takes all three buildings plus has a park with fountain and seats much as I like it, because I also have a kit called 'La Belle Femme' which I think would go nicely with these three and I'll possibly make a base to take all four buildings.

No time to do anything on Bella Rustica or anything else for that matter, it's been a busy day.  So I'll get back to it on Sunday and hopefully will have it finished, or almost.  And I'll post photos then.