Wednesday 25 February 2015

Half Scale House Progress

This month I have been working hard on the half scale house, trying to finish the bulk of the work before my Architecture studies resume in March. I am trying to finish the complex interiors, so that during the busy semester, all I need do is paint the exterior and furnish the house at my leisure. 


Frankie Mayonnaise, the Scottish Fold puss has taken a particular shine to the house, and tries to scale it whenever she is presented with the chance. 


These are the two finished bedroom fireplaces. I used Phoenix cast inserts, and made the surrounds. I tried to give them both a Gothic flavour with assorted tiny laser cut bits.


The finished flowery bedroom. 


For the blue bedroom I had a blue paper ceiling, with a plain ceiling rose which I made from left over bits from the fireplaces. The tiny wire is fine, and easily passes under the ceiling paper unseen to be connected to a battery in the attic. 



As another little exercise I made some picture frames from strips of moulding. I painted them gold. It can be tricky with half scale being able to find appropriately scaled frames.



For an embellishment I edged the frame with some gold fabric edging I found lying around. Turns out later I had used the last scrap of garment edging my mum had saved from the fashion boutique my grandmother operated in the 1930s. I think it is kind of nice that it is now immortalised in my dollhouse forever. 


Choosing a picture for the frame was pretty easy! Here I did an image search on the ipad and picked the one that looked best. 


These are the assorted bits now waiting to go into the parlour. I have also been making some silk curtains, but more on that in another post. What I will say though is that silk is a fantastic fabric to work with in miniature. It sets like a board when sprayed with starch, and gives such a realistic shimmer that your eye is distracted from the fact that the material has a bigger grain than it should. 


Meanwhile I have also been volunteering at the National Trust headquarters at the beautiful Tasma Terrace in Melbourne. If you are in Melbourne, do visit! Such wonderful inspiration for future miniatures. 



12 comments:

  1. Hello Emily,
    This is an amazing project. I am very impressed by how realistic the rooms look...not an easy task in half scale.
    Big hug,
    Giac

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  2. Weird, you stopped showing up in my reading list so I unfollowed - followed and your back. Anywaaaay, the house is coming along leaps and bounds. I'm always in awe of this scale and anyone who can get so much detail into it. Both fireplaces look wonderfully Gothic.
    Love the pic of Frankie Mayonnaise inspecting your work =0D

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  3. Looking fantastic. I love the Brodnax Victorian wallpapers and have a stash for my Greenleaf Willowcrest (one day). You've done a great job on your fireplace surrounds too, they fit the inserts perfectly.

    If you were interested in a good source for cheap silks and silk cottons, Darn Cheap Fabrics are great - there are two Melbourne stores, but I've only been to one. You can google them to find their location as I can't remember! I bought a bunch of silk cottons for mini projects and it is very soft with a fine weave so perfect for small scales.

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  4. Hi. This house will look fantastic .
    Cant wait for more progress ....
    Timea
    enchantedolls.blogspot.co.uk

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  5. Está quedando fantástico. Me encantan las chimeneas . El marco será un gran recuerdo.

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  6. Están quedando estupendos estos avances, muy bonito.
    Un abrazo
    Maite

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  7. Unos grandes y maravillosos avances!!!!!
    Besos.

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  8. Your attention to detail has me wondering if I could/should attempt a 1/24 scale project sometime in the future? (You know, after I actually finish my current projects.) Lovely work!

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  9. Emily, thanks for your comment on my blog. Yes you can get desktop laser cutters, but there are trade-offs. I understand they don't always cut so fine and they have smaller cutting areas, and other things I'm not too sure about. Mine is off Ebay - a K40 if you wanted to google it. It still needs a bit of tweaking and it is prone to going crazy every now and again, and lacks safety features, but all in all it's doing a pretty good job. I will still need to get some things cut professionally, but have been learning a lot with getting my drawings right for good cutting. One day if things go okay with selling kits I'll probably upgrade, but for now it's doing the job.

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  10. Hi Emily! You have certainly made a whole lot of progress on this house and I really like all of the decorative elements that you have included. The mirror over the fireplace is really lovely as are the fireplaces themselves. Your blue ceiling with the lamp is just right and I can't wait to see the installation of those magnificent drapes! The swags of the valance are simply Marvelous!:D

    elizabeth

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  11. Me alegro de haber encontrado tu blog!

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  12. Fabulous work, and particularly impressive in such small scale...

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