wonderwizzy Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 This is what I'm currently working on - turning a Primrose kit into a very small village school. There are a few more photos in my webshots. I've got lots of work still to do on the building and playground before I get to do the interior, but this was an impromptu project and I'm really enjoying it. Wizzy http://community.webshots.com/user/wonderwizzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 Wizzy, this is Adorable!!! I saw someone else make the Primrose kit into a school house and thought it would be a nice project to raffle for my daughters school! What did you use to make the bricks?? I am really impressed at your talent! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 Spackle! Wow, it looks great (just read the pictures in webshots LOL) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderwizzy Posted June 14, 2005 Author Share Posted June 14, 2005 This was supposed to end up in our elementary school auction too, lol. I may have to make them a second one because I'm not sure I could part with this. The bricks are spackle/polyfilla. Scribe it when it's damp, sand it when it's dry, paint on a mortar color wash, then paint the bricks. The little walls came from the wood dept at Hobby Lobby, they were supposed to be little fences. Wizzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 It looks adorable!! I LOVE it !! Thank you for sharing your talent Lady Wizzy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LPCullen Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 Ditto! It's adorable! And thanks for the tutorial on making bricks! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shutterbugkc Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 Oh my goodness! That is such a sweet little school. And think of all the cute little things you could have the school children be doing! Hmmm...a paper airplane suspended with fishing line.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderwizzy Posted June 14, 2005 Author Share Posted June 14, 2005 Thank you everyone! I'm really enjoying myself - I hadn't thought of a paper airplane, but that's perfect. The floorplan is so tiny that I'm planning to take the details up onto the walls - there won't be room for a supply cupboard, so we'll have narrow, open shelves with some supplies stacked up. I found a great map of the British Empire with all the empire bits in pink - had a hard job explaining the empire to my 4th grader who was utterly horrified that Europe went through a phase of sticking their flags into other people's countries. I found some photos of old toy schooldesks online that I've used as inspiration for plans for a set of desks. On graph paper it looks like everything fits into the schoolhouse -we'll see how it all turns out in reality, lol. I like the challenge of not quite enough space, it's forcing me to be creative about what goes in there. Wizzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaN Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 craft club used to sell those old school desks in kits. I love your schoolhouse--the primrose is such a darling kit to bash! and the polyfilla bricks are great! It's really amazing what you can do with this little house! Jim's printies has all kinds of maps, and even note pads of paper. Look in the gallery of Small Stuff, and go to Jim's Dollhouse pages...then click on printies. They have some great stuff that you could use for your schoolbooks. A shingle painted with that spray 'slate' from Home Depot would make great slates--chalk could be made from White sculpey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fov Posted June 14, 2005 Share Posted June 14, 2005 What a cute schoolhouse! This looks like a fun little project. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CatColorado Posted June 15, 2005 Share Posted June 15, 2005 How wonderful! I especially love the little coat pegs at just the right height. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaN Posted June 16, 2005 Share Posted June 16, 2005 I can't get over how cute the bricks are on this house? How long does it take for the spackle to dry? Do you have to work fast on scoring the bricks?? B) I've done it with paperclay...but never with spackle.......this sounds like something I would love to try. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderwizzy Posted June 16, 2005 Author Share Posted June 16, 2005 For the spackle brickwork, I work fairly fast because I'm not going for perfectly scaled bricks - if I was doing that I'd use a different method using cardboard. I spread spackle less than 1/8" deep on an area about 6 inches square, mark the horizontals and then the verticals, move on to spread the adjacent area and so on. If you wait too long, then the spackle turns leathery and will lift off the board in pieces, if you wait until it's dry, you'll be chiseling out the pattern. It turns leathery in about 10 minutes - I'm sure that depends on humidity etc. I use a bamboo skewer to mark the lines, wiping it clean on a piece of kitchen paper after a few strokes. Any little blobs that happen while marking the brick/stone can be left until it's dry (overnight) and then brushed/sanded off. Perhaps grab a bit of board/wood and experiment before taking on a real project. Everyone works at a different speed and with different amounts of fine motor control. If you want your horizontal lines to be straight, have something (stack of books/tupperware boxes maybe) on each side of the surface and balance a ruler across them - not touching the spackled surface - and rest your pointy marker tool against it for guidance. It helps a bit to mix a little white glue into the spackle - you can mix in some acrylic paint in for a grayish mortar color too. Let me know if you need more info - I used it for making the stonework chimney on Dithering Heights too (which I then decided didn't fit the rest of the house, but there's a pic of it in my webshots) I really like using this method - it can go over foamcore and thick cardboard as well as board or wood and if you make a mistake it's very easy to smooth over and start again. Wizzy B) http://community.webshots.com/user/wonderwizzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariaskid Posted June 16, 2005 Share Posted June 16, 2005 Wizzy I loved the schoolhouse... especially the bell on the roof, and the little brick walls are so realistic....Cant wait to see the finished product!!! Mariaskid Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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