mariaskid Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 i dont know about you all, but I think one of the most important things about having a dolls house is the background story. I always have a long involved history of the people who live in the house.... their names, their personality, their family history..... like the old granny who comes to live and has to have her ugly victorian furniture and her cat... and maybe the daughter coming home with a suitcase and a bunch of kids... and the cleaning lady who just leans on the vacuum cleaner and smokes... I think when you have a really good story, then you know exactly what kind of decoration these people are going to have, and what kind of furniture... they will all leave their individual junk around.... Even when I dont have the people in the house, they are all there inside my brain.. Do you think I should get out more.. Please tell me I'm not alone in my fantasies.. aaaaggggghghhhhh Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nameless1 Posted June 20, 2005 Share Posted June 20, 2005 Alone? Hardly. Oh, hardly at all. And I'm not the only one. Bear in mind that I live in San Francisco and my houses reflect life here. Then visit my dollhouse Web site, start with Miles & Theo's house, and all the links from there down are stories. If the same-sex couples aren't in your comfort zone, stick to Ingrid's earthquake cottage (since rebuilt as something else), and the two Brian & Marva stories. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nikki Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 MariasKid, I just saw your webshots, I LOVE those too cottages, they are so "Real Homey" looking. Like REALLY cool! I love them! I am still trying to work up the nerve to sew the dolls, but I'm going to give it a try when I round up those things, like stockings and stuff... Sewing by hand scares me, HA! But they are so cute. HAve you ever made any kids or babies? I would love to see some if you have.. n Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderwizzy Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Alone? Hardly. Oh, hardly at all. And I'm not the only one. Bear in mind that I live in San Francisco and my houses reflect life here. Then visit my dollhouse Web site, start with Miles & Theo's house, and all the links from there down are stories. If the same-sex couples aren't in your comfort zone, stick to Ingrid's earthquake cottage (since rebuilt as something else), and the two Brian & Marva stories. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> OOOOOOOOOOOH!!!!! I really enjoyed visiting all your people and reading about their plans and problems around their homes and lives. I loved the comment about the neighbors wanting Nigel and Giles to put up blinds and the color in Ingrid's bathroom affecting her choice of lipstick. Now, if you don't mind, I need to run off and share your website with lots of people I know will enjoy your humor and insight. Wizzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderwizzy Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Mariaskid, Well, if you need to get out more then so do I because my head is chock full of doll personalities - most of them are actual dolls in my possession, but I know for sure that I'm waiting for a Madame Apostrophe to arrive from France sometime this summer, she's going to be the teacher at the new school that I'm building. I'm building the school because Miss Matchstick cannot stand the smaller dolls getting under her feet while she tries to mix bricklaying jobs with setting up her confectionery business. And despite Madame Apostrophe not having made herself apparent in either a bit of wood, cloth or block of clay yet, she is talking to me from somewhere in my studio and I know she's bringing scads of cats with her, she used to be a dancer and she has no sense of organization... and so Madame Apostrophe is going to need a house of her own and I don't have one for her. She may have to rent rooms somewhere for a while until we find something suitable. Oh dear, it just goes on and on doesn't it??? WIzzy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaN Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 It certainly does! Mr. Bannister of Bannister's Doll Emporium is an eccentric old gentleman, and his sisters wanted to find some little 'vocation' for their eccentric brother to do, very Victorian. Actually, Mr. Bannister is from a story I read called the Misses' Bannister's Brother--and how he fixed toys, rare china dolls, etc. Mr. Bannister needed a store, so the bay suited him very well. He has already hung up his picture of the castle that was a favorite of his he visited while on Grand Tour as a young man touring Europe.... Miss Stephanie is a spinster who has long been in love with Theodore Bannister. As a young debutante, she too, went and was educated in Paris, etc. until her father rather inconveniently lost most of his fortune........ :lol: sadly, Miss Stephanie never married, Mr. Bannister was too much of an eccentric to settle down, and she has decided to recoup the family losses and provide for the remaining members of the family by opening a small store, selling French perfumes, laces, etc. that she is such a connieseur of..Thus, the Shabby Chic Boutique was born. It is called thus, (time period around 1900) because Miss Stephanie is selling many 'gently-worn Paris creations by French and English designers she accumalated in her youth. I too expect a horde of other 'characters' to start a shop, or family business, attached to Miss Stephanie or Mr. Bannister also! Lady Georgiana is quite impatient for Mr. Bannister to start on her daughter's Christmas presents! (Right now I have a rather homeless well to do family, Lady Georgiana, her governess, Miss Hester, her chauffeur, Arnold, and the children,,,,,,,of which there are several.Her husband has not yet made his appearance yet, so she is staying with distant relations!LOL! ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllThingsMini Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Hmmm, family stories, huh? Well, the only family I've thought up a story for so far is the one that will reside in my Gothic Villa...The Campbell Family. It's a family house that's been handed down through several generations and has a family curse for the "male" descendants...eternal life as a vampire-type of entity (still working on exactly what this will be). Ian, the current descendant and owner of the Villa, is in his late twenties and has a wife (Emma), a teenage daughter (un-named still) and an infant daughter, Emily. The time is current day, but a lot of the house is still in its older form (Emma likes antiques) except where modern ammenities are best suited and where she got the 'itch' to redecorate. The Campbell family curse is, so far, unknown to the female members of the household and if Ian has his way, it will remain so. You see, he's doing his best to research the curse and find a way to break it before he turns 30 years old...the day he'll succumb to the curse; as all generations before him. Emma and their teenage daughter have been told that parts of the old house are forbidden to them; the reasons never explained. For if they were to ever discover the secrets that hide from everyday life in the basement, the family secret would be out and the Campbell name would live on in shame forever; even IF Ian is successful in breaking the curse. For hidden down in the farthest reaches of the basement walls is "Mad Uncle Angus", driven to insanity by the curse on his 30th birthday; over 125 years ago. Ian's great grandfather Bruce locked up Angus after the suspicious death of his very own wife. Bruce felt it was his moral obligation to protect the family name and history, so down into the catacombs under the house Angus went...to spend the rest of eternity living out his life in darkness and secrecy. Only one other person knows of Angus' existence other than Ian...a lonely waif hired to care for him named Maddie. Maddie is the only survivor of a house fire that took her entire family a few years ago. She has no one. She was the only, and obvious, candidate for the job of tending to Uncle Angus' every need. She has been sworn to secrecy upon penalty of death; for obvious reasons. Well, that's my story so far...and I'm sticking to it. Yes, it's a little on the "out there" scale, but I think it's fun. ;) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judithfa Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Please tell me I'm not alone in my fantasies.. aaaaggggghghhhhh Alone? Never, there are many of us into stories/fantasies -- enough, as they say, to fill Yankee Standium. :o Stories are what gives whatever you are building "heart and soul" and makes the whole experience complete, in my humble opinion. B) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shutterbugkc Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Well, the Arthur I'm working on right now is the first house that is going to be Mine Mine All Mine. Therefore I am just now assembling the occupants but they are pretty much a very old version of my husband and I. The little old grandmother to represent myself is pictured in my avatar. She is resin and is seated reading a book. When she arrives, I will paint "Harry Potter #39" on the spine of the book. I love the Harry Potter series! Yes, yes, I know they are children's books. Wonder what that says about my maturity level? :o The grandfather I picked out for my husband is also seated and is holding a cat and a pipe. We of course like cats and have two right now. The pipe is a kind a joke. My husband doesn't smoke at all, but where he works, everybody else smokes and he hates it because he always comes home smelling like cigarettes. The story I have made for this is that after 20 or so years of working surrounded by smoke, when he retired he started going through withdrawl and had to take up smoking. Anyway, they grandfather has been back-ordered so it will be just me in the house for a little while. I'm sure I'll enjoy the privacy and quiet. In reality, my husband is terrified of flying so the story behind the tardy grandfather could be that he is still having to travel by ground and is therefore going to take a lot longer to reach their retirement cottage. B) Not a very elaborate story, but they are just getting started! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mariaskid Posted June 21, 2005 Author Share Posted June 21, 2005 I love it...... I LOVE ALL THOSE STORIES Wonderwizzy's Miss matchstick... lets just hope she doesn't forget herself and try bricklaying with glace icing!!! And poor Miss Stephanies unrequited love.... gosh how awful, and then having to sell all her gowns.... Mad Uncle Angus is just yummy and dont we all read Harry Potter.... so say nothing of pigging out and watching all the potter videos in one day! I did enjoy that, now... I'm off to see Calamari's piccies... immediately! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllThingsMini Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Mad Uncle Angus is just yummy and dont we all read Harry Potter.... so say nothing of pigging out and watching all the potter videos in one day! Uncle Angus IS an interesting fellow, isn't he? I'm really looking forward to the day when I can finally build the basement for this house. And speaking of HP...I watched all the videos this weekend! B) I've insisted that I now need all the books to read. I'm a HUGE HP fan. For mindless entertainment, and when I need a break from mini's, I usually drag out one of the HP video games I have and play it. I was even thinking of making the teenage daughter of Ian Campbell a student at Hogwarts, but we'll see. :o Another thought...the castle I'm designing...making it the estate of Godric Griffendor; one of the founders of Hogwarts. Do I have HP on the brain? YES!! And I'm beside myself with overflowing anticipation of the Goblet of Fire's release in the theaters on November 15th!! YIPPEE!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hydroped Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Shutterbug, Don't you dare talk about your 'maturity level' like that B) :o Shoot one of the things I love about mini's is it makes me feel like a little kid again! - I like to think of as the "grown up" version of playing with dolls, playing house or fort or castles or what ever As for Harry Potter I don't like reading the books till after I see the movie LOL but you better believe my son and me have all 3 movies and will probably get the rest as they come out. Making minis from the Harry Potter series is Fun!! I have some mandrakes made and would love to give the sorting hat a try, but that's for down the road I'm afraid. Yep I think stories are important they're what takes a house from being a shell - to being warm and filled little knick knacks that make it very personable and warm! -David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllThingsMini Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 As for Harry Potter I don't like reading the books till after I see the movie LOL Ditto, what he said! I have refused to read any of the books until a few of the movies were made so that there's no way I can get ahead of myself. Going to see the movies would be ruined for me in a way if I read the books first. Probably sounds weird, but that's how I feel. :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
molmrath Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 (edited) I am looking forward to getting the next Harry Potter book when it's released next month. I've already pre-ordered it at Amazon. :o I'm the opposite, I guess. I have to read the books first. Then see the movie, then read the book again. I love the stories behind all your houses. I think there has to be some kind of story to make the dollhouses come to life. I've started thinking out a history for my "Captain's House" but it hasn't fleshed itself all the way out yet. So far all I know is that The Captain (I don't know his name yet, everyone called him The Captain ) joined the management side of a shipping business after he retired from sailing his own ship, married a woman quite a bit younger than himself, and had the house built for her. They had a daughter and a son. It's in my mind that the daughter marries a promising young man that sails for her father's company and goes off to sea with him. After that, my storyline starts getting a bit vague. The Captain lives to a ripe old age, but the rest of the family history still needs to be 'researched' . The house is decorated in a fairly modern way, so it has to belong to The Captain's descendants in some way. I don't know their stories yet. Maybe as the house gets more finished the story will bring itself more to life. B) Edited June 22, 2005 by molmrath Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shutterbugkc Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 (edited) Going to see the movies would be ruined for me in a way if I read the books first. I know what you mean. I reread book three before going to see it in the theater and all I could think about through the whole thing was "hey, that's not how that went!" :o Oh well, I really enjoy the books and am currently rereading book 5 in anticipation of book 6 coming out in less than a month. It will be very interesting to see how they squeeze book 4 into one movie. It won't be very long to find that out either. Just a few more months! And Hydoped, I guess I kind of forgot that we are all feeding our "inner child" here a little aren't we. B) My inner child is well fed! ps. OOOOOOOOOh, I just had a thought. You know what the coolest roombox would be? Dumbledoor's office! Edited June 21, 2005 by shutterbugkc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nameless1 Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Maturity level? What's that? Before movies and television put story-telling exclusively in the hands of professionals, telling a good story was what grown-ups did in the long winter evenings. We just like to have our hands-on visualization of how the story works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaN Posted June 21, 2005 Share Posted June 21, 2005 Hmm,. Marie, the 'curse' could be that since Ian becomes immortal on his big 30, why not have it a cross with the movie 'Highlander' ( I just loved that movie, not to mention that hunky actor Adrian who played him in the tv series! :o ) the highlander was also scottish, from the fifteen hundreds, watch it is a great movie! Miss Stephanie is based on a lot of little old ladies I knew growing up as a kid, they may have been widowed, or spinstered, but like Miss Stephanie, they always 'overdressed,' i.e, pearls with jeans, big earrings, big hair, and alot of rings on, when they weeded the garden! B) They were also always called 'miss' ; no matter if they were older than Father Time himself! Our local Barnes & Noble is having a midnight harry potter party when the new book comes out---I've already at the behest of a little person reserved the copy! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hydroped Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Shutterbug! Someone did Dumbledor's Office - I wish I could remember who!! Have you seen Rik Pierce's Hogwarts?? Just in case anyone hasn't seen it here's the link: http://www.frogmorton.com/hogwarts.htm It's pretty awesome but I still wish I could remember who did Dumbeldor's Office - all I really do remember was that they had a Fawkes made by Nantasy Fantasy (I believe that's who made it) and it was really cool!! Yea that would be an awesome 'dollhouse' ! -David Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllThingsMini Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 I know what you mean. I reread book three before going to see it in the theater and all I could think about through the whole thing was "hey, that's not how that went!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaN Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 The link you want is Sally Wallace's site.. www.salsite.com Look in projects under Hogwarts...the castle was made by Ri,k Pierce Sally's castle even has the wizard's chess room. Most of her dolls were made by Ellen Poitras, Nantasy Fantasy--especially the portraits that are like the ones in Hogwarts, 3-d, the miniature books were made by Ericka Van Horn, alot of foods were made by Belara Beach Orginals, and Pam Jones made the mandrakes. Hope this helps! Go to the allthingsmini.com archives, we have an artist in molds featured on the online magazine that has also reproduced the staircases of hogwarts-- truly remarkable! :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anne Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Hello mariaskid! My dollhouse family has an own story too: It's the year 1912. There's Mom, Dad, 10 children and Dad's grandmother. They are living in a small town where they have built their own house. Dad is a "parvenu", an upstart. He inherited a few groceries and a lot of money by his rich uncle. Mom is the daughter of an American businessman who died a few years ago and left behind a mountain of debt. Mom and Dad married as teenagers against the will of Mom's family. Mom's mother wanted her daughter to marry a rich man. But Mom fell in love with a poor young painter, Dad, on a cruise to NYC and she left the ship with him to start a new life. 2 years later Dad inherited the money and they moved to Europe to build their dream house. Mom and Dad still love each other but Dad has to work a lot. Sometimes Mom feels a bit lonely and swamped with the education of her children. She is a very melancholic person and sometimes she's thinking of running away and leaving everything behind. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllThingsMini Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Go to the allthingsmini.com archives, we have an artist in molds featured on the online magazine that has also reproduced the staircases of hogwarts-- truly remarkable! B) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Actually, this is still an active article in the ATM online magazine. Haven't figured out exactly "how" I'm going to archive yet. :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Minis On The Edge Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 Mary Ann is such a sweet person too. We shared a table during both of our first Rik Pierce class. She is doing a mold making class this year at a show in Ohio I think. I gotta email her and ask. The prices are not too high either. We are on several different yahoo groups together also. She makes mold making seems so simple. I still have not tried it but I hope to soon! I want to make some 1/2" scale gothic doors and windows. Also, I think Mary Ann did an article on mold making this year in dollhouse miniatures magazine too. :o Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LisaN Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 her mold making techniques were in a recent issue of AM a few months ago. I'm sorry Marie, didn't know --but folks they're up and running! They basically run the same as the ones featured in AM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AllThingsMini Posted June 22, 2005 Share Posted June 22, 2005 MShe makes mold making seems so simple. I still have not tried it but I hope to soon! I want to make some 1/2" scale gothic doors and windows. Yes, she does make it seem so easy and I'm going to have to learn how to mold and cast my own components when I do my castle. I'm going to carve each original out of clay and make molds from them, such as decorative trimwork, columns, ceiling ornamentation, brackets, etc. I haven't figured out if I'm going to buy the doors and windows from The Lawbre Co./Architectural Etc. or if I'm going to make them myself. Depends I guess on how much money I'll have to spend on this project once I start it. Now, all I need to do is find sources for thin pieces of real granite and marble. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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