Safety Noses

I love the shape of these teddy bear safety noses, like a little flower. Noses like roses?   I just uploaded them to the web shop HERE.

To the new readers of my blog, welcome!  Many of you are probably dollhouse makers, because that's what I've been writing about a lot lately.   So, if you didn't know, for years I've been a toy designer and I have a teddy bear and doll making supplies shop.  I took an extended break while I dealt with life issues, but I'm easing back into business, and I'm zealous in my efforts!

 #safetynoses #teddybearnoses #softtoymaking #amigurumi

Terracotta Floor for the Del Prado Dollhouse

I couldn't post about the kitchen floor earlier, because I couldn't find the Cat.  It's heard that I'm looking for something starting with C.

I Cornered it at last.  I decided on terracotta, with slate accent tiles, to finish the floor of the kitchen. 

Here's a close-up look.
This part of the dollhouse happened effortlessly, and I'm very pleased with the result.

There were a few ideas for things I knew that I wanted in the kitchen, and had saved on my Pinterest Board. 

This is Marion's kitchen.  In her build of the Del Prado house, she added a false wall and turned the stove at an angle.  This makes the kitchen so much more interesting.  I simply had to have that too!

I wanted my stove to stand at a slightly raised level.  This was often done in old houses.  You can see where I marked the space for the stove, and glued a piece of card stock to the floor to raise the level.
If I was going to go to all the trouble of making individual tiles, I wanted an interesting layout on the floor, with accent tiles.  To help with the layout, I drew a grid on the floor.

Then I went ahead and made lots and lots and lots of little terracotta tiles, using polymer clay.  I started with a block of basic SculpeyIII terracotta colour, and rolled the softened clay to a thickness of about 1.5mm with a pasta machine. I happened to have a little 11mm square cutter in my stash, an impulse buy at a cake decorating shop.  I was very glad when I found it. 
I pressed out the tiles directly on to a ceramic tile, then lifted away the waste clay, and baked the little tiles directly on the ceramic tile.  That way they stayed nice and flat. 
Every time I rolled out a new sheet of clay, I added a little bit of scrap clay, either light brown, or black, so that the colour of the terracotta tiles would have slight variation, just like real tiles.  Whenever the clay rolled out unevenly, or there was a fold line in the clay, I left it like that.  It all adds texture and realism.

I didn't have a cutter for the slate tiles, I just cut those by hand.  I mixed black and white clay to make a really dark grey, then added silver glitter eyeshadow to give it a bit of sparkle.  It shows up as white spots in the photo, but in real life it looks beautiful.  In this close-up view you can see that the tiles are quite uneven in size.  Real life slate tiles would be cut by hand, and would have slightly uneven sides too.

I decided that I would have a round of terracotta tiles, followed by a round of slate, as a border around the room.  Then I would fill the inside with tiles laid diagonally across the floor.

I started gluing the tiles in an L shape, and used a scrap of card to align them before the glue set.  With each new row of tiles, I added an L inside the previous one.  This helped me to keep the spaces even. 

Completed floor.  Where the stove is going to be, I used slate tiles, and made a herringbone pattern. 

If you are curious about what needs to sit on that square of raised black slate, this is what I have.  I constructed the kitchen range and its surround years ago during my first attempt at the house.  Now that I've seen Studio E's incredible recently completed stove and hood, I realize that I have a huge challenge ahead of me to make this look better!

I let the glue set for a day before I started grouting.  The grout was an accidental discovery.  A while ago I bought what I thought was pre-mixed crack filler in a plastic bucket to fix up some spots in the studio wall where I took a shelf down.  I must have been looking for the cheapest bucket, and not paying attention to the labels.  When I opened it, I discovered that the contents was slippery and runny.  The bucket says it is plaster skim.  I have no idea what one would use it for, but it makes lovely dollhouse grout.  None of the grittiness of crack filler, and it has a slightly gluey texture which helps it to adhere. 

 I mixed black acrylic paint into the mixture to make grey.

Rubbed it into the tiles with my finger and let it set for a few minutes.

Then rub away the excess grout with a damp rag, using small circular movements, so as not to remove the grout from between the tiles.

When the grout had completely set, I used a dry cotton rag to put a gloss on the floor.  Polymer clay buffs to a lovely shine without the need to apply any kind of varnish or sealer.

So there's another floor finished.  I'm tempted to try using polymer clay to create old fashioned patterned linoleum to use in the attic rooms.

Happily, I've also figured out the perfect colour scheme for the interior.  I'm nearly finished with the master bedroom walls, and the colours make my heart sing.  But I will keep you in suspense over my choices, and how I came to them, for a little while!

B is for Bay Window

The bay window is where the dollhouse lives.  It is my happy corner.  I can see the garden, and the dogs come and chat to me through the window.  Today it is overcast and drizzling.  Just the right weather to stay indoors and get some crafting done.
I am going to revisit the colour for the interior walls.  I think I've found it!
Wishing you a happy weekend.

Paint and Petulance

Things were going so well with the Del Prado house.  I made a beautiful kitchen floor, which I will show you in a future post.  Then I realized that it was time to decide on paint colours and a colour scheme for the house.  I want light and airy, but still loosely Victorian.  In this house, I want harmony, none of that fruit salad effect where room colours clash.

Research wasn't helpful:
 A housepainter in 1893 observed, “Some people want their houses pure white throughout, while others have them painted as dark as possible, and some peculiar combinations of color are often selected, but we never dare object or we might lose the job.”

From Wikipedia:
 The choice of paint color on the walls in Victorian homes was said to be based on the use of the room. Hallways that were in the entry hall and the stair halls were painted a somber gray so as not to compete with the surrounding rooms. ... There was a favored tripartite wall that included a dado or wainscoting at the bottom, a field in the middle and a frieze or cornice at the top.

So the walls could be light or dark, one colour or three, patterns or plain, textured or smooth.  No help at all.

Elga suggested that I imagine living in the house, and paint accordingly.  At this time of my life, with deteriorating eyesight and an aversion to dusting, I want everything gleaming white, with no dark corners, and no clutter whatsoever.  Not going to fly in a Victorian setting, I'm afraid.

I dithered for days without touching the house.  Finally I took out some paint and just started dabbing the rooms in a test colour to see how it looked.  Ivory in the kitchen, and grey in the hall.

It looked awful.

The ivory walls in the kitchen were cat pee yellow.

Grey made the hall appear narrow and bleak, prison corridors come to mind.

Very discouraging.  Next I researched wallpaper possibilities.  I was in the middle of printing a test page when the printer broke down.  Reason abandoned me, and I succumbed to a decline that would have left a Victorian lady swooning on her chaise lounge.  Except that I did it much more dramatically.  Pounding of the printer (which didn't help), followed by a full scale weeping tantrum that lasted a day.  The printer was the last straw in a whole bale of things that went wrong lately.  Now I'm in what Nancy calls 'a funk'.  I don't have any creative energy.  I'm stuck.

Fortunately it's happened to me so many times that I recognize where I'm at straight away.  It's not the dollhouse's fault, or the printer.  One comes to this place when you let go of your inner calm.  I've let myself be overwhelmed.

I've learnt some coping mechanisms along the way.  Of the many I've tried, these are the ones that give the best results.  I'm sharing them in case you need them too :-)

1.  Step away. 
Whether it's physically walking away, or notching down the emotions around a situation,   distancing yourself gives better perspective.

2.  Do something different.
Tidy a cupboard or clean the oven.  Keeping your hands busy will give your subconscious mind time to work things out.

3.  Rearrange your workspace.
Bring something cheerful into your studio.  Flowers, a colourful throw, a companion animal.  

4.  Give yourself a treat.
Being in a funk is sometimes a way of saying you're sorry for yourself.  So be kind to yourself.  Have a beauty treatment, buy a book, light a candle and soak in a bubble bath. 

5.  Eat, sleep and talk
Eat healthy, sleep enough, and maintain an exercise routine.  Visit a friend or spend time with your partner.  When I become irritable and weepy it's often because my healthy living regime has become scrambled by stressors, or I've been spending too much time in my own company.  It is a vicious circle.  The more unhappy I am, the more I eat junk, don't sleep and isolate myself from people, the more unhappy I become.

6. Pen and paper
I pour out pages and pages of all the petty things that destroy my calm.  Writing it down really gets it out of my system!  And while you're writing, make a to-do list.  A plan of action is a good way to get moving again.

7.  Take random pictures.
Looking through a camera is looking at the world with different eyes. 

8.  Fast or Feast on technology
Check how much time you spend on the Internet and social media.  Sometimes taking a break from my computer entirely for a few days helps.  Other times I need stimulation and browse on Pinterest for hours at a time.  Whatever works, make it a conscious decision to do that, don't just act from habit.

I save these for really stubborn periods of being stuck in a funk.

9.  Change of scenery
Take a trip.  Move your body and your mind into a completely different space.  Sometimes a holiday really is needed, not a luxury.

10.  Do something new
Build a kit.  Enrol in an online course. Take a dancing lesson, cookery lesson, learn to play a musical instrument.  Try something different from what you usually do.

And while I'm doling out advice:

#TipOfTheDay

Operating mechanical equipment while distracted can have unexpected consequences. 

Don't turn on your electric toothbrush in midair.

A is for Action Figure

A is for Action Figure.
I'm in a mood.  Nancy calls it a funk.  She suggested we start an ABChallenge to counteract the negativity.  So here's my A.  He's fit to fight.  We're a team.