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Green always looks so good in a study. 

Janet, sounds interesting! 

I have a first layer China painting batch firing in the kiln, several of them are men, very different painting men, a little nervous to see how they'll turn out. 

I poured a few new molds this afternoon, fell in love instantly with the fairie girl, although I think of her more as a Santas elf, those ears....swoon

IMG_0049.JPG

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Oh my ... she's a beautiful one!  I can picture her with flowing hair, with those fabulous ears peeking through.  Like a little black dress - she can be dressed up for a Christmas elf, or dressed down-to-earth for a fairy.  I love her.

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1 hour ago, Keifer said:

I’d be interested in seeing those tiles!  Also curious about the technique. 

Here's the tutorial Keith http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=forums&module=forums&controller=topic&id=39559

I did a test on card stock first, great results. Chris used veneer, I had some but predicted it would be difficult to do without the pieces falling apart. I tried it on thin balsa wood sheets, again, quite good results but I poured it on quite thick so the 'tiles' were a bit too thick for my liking. I tried peeling of the balsa backing and ended up with something like that shiny plastic you used to use for drawer liners or on shelves? could be used as vinyl covering on 50's 60's chairs...or something. Interesting effects with this stuff. It leaves a glassy high shine surface. The treated balsa was hard to cut straight but not impossible - probably easier with a table saw. I think I'll try it again with card stock. I like this product though, I think it will come in handy for a lot of things. A little goes a long way, it's easy to mix but takes a long time to dry (overnight) and a couple of days to cure completely.

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21 minutes ago, WyckedWood said:

..., fell in love instantly with the fairie girl, although I think of her more as a Santas elf, those ears....swoon

 

 

I look forward to seeing how you paint her pretty face Karin. Have you ever tried sculpting a doll yourself?

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1 hour ago, WyckedWood said:

Green always looks so good in a study. 

Janet, sounds interesting! 

I have a first layer China painting batch firing in the kiln, several of them are men, very different painting men, a little nervous to see how they'll turn out. 

I poured a few new molds this afternoon, fell in love instantly with the fairie girl, although I think of her more as a Santas elf, those ears....swoon

IMG_0049.JPG

I think she’s lovely 

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She’s got lots of personality :) 

10 hours ago, WestPaces said:

I look forward to seeing how you paint her pretty face Karin. Have you ever tried sculpting a doll yourself?

I have messed around with polymer and made some greenmen faces and lions (for exteriors) but never tried a full doll. I prefer the look of porcelain dolls so it would be a process of sculpting and making a mold for porcelain. There are very, very few people still making 1:12 porcelain molds so someday we’ll have to learn how to make our own if we want porcelain dolls because the molds wear out eventually. 

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Working on the last few chores on the Yellow house before wall templates can go in. The biggest challenge lately has been the weather! I'm using spray adhesive to attach paper to the templates, and it needs to be sprayed outdoors. It's been either too humid or too windy, so I'm just waiting. I'll get all of the prep done, though, so it's all ready to go. It's supposed to be stormy today, so I'm also going to take the day to organize some inventory.

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38 minutes ago, stickyfingers said:

I'm also going to take the day to organize some inventory.

I need a way to organize inventory. I put up shelves and got some nice clear plastic boxes to house items going in to the Beacon Hill and Pierce/Bohemian Inn, but as I was cleaning up the studio yesterday I unearthed a couple of boxes of other stuff -- swap items, things so cute I just had to buy them, items received as  gifts -- with no particular build in mind. Discovered a few things that got moved to the BH and P/BI boxes, but the rest got packed up again. Out of sight, out of mind. 

Has anyone taken the time to photograph this odd lot and make a real inventory in a notebook, digital or hard copy? 

Linda, what's your plan of attack?

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Yesterday while I as at Miniature Designs I half overheard a few people talking about something similar. I think they were saying that they make a list, then number each box.  Not sure how helpful it would be for "forgotten" items, but I can see how it could work good for finding things you know about without having to open every box. But maybe a list with pictures would support both scenarios.

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I spent a couple years buying the opaque plastic storage drawer units when I's see them on Amazon. People return them, then Amazon re-sells them at 25% to 50% off the original price based on condition. I find them roomy and sturdy. My workroom is my dining room and can be seen from the front door so it was important not only to find things, but to have it look as organized as possible.

IMG_4824.JPG

I do not make lists of inventory but instead organize the drawers into categories. For example:

  • Furniture
  • Furniture Kits
  • Landscaping
  • Flower making supplies
  • Acrylic paints
  • Glues, resins, modeling compounds
  • Lighting supplies & fixtures
  • Household, decor and common minis and supplies
  • Hardware, beads, mechanical parts, findings, frames
  • Props - finished minis from tutorials or magazine articles I use as props
  • Doors, windows, shutters & structural parts
  • Misc. craft supplies like specialty paints, glazes, guilders paste, markers and alcohol inks
  • Hand tools, hand saws, sandpaper, files, glue gun and supplies, clamps, soldering supplies
  • Scrap wood, veneers, shingles
  • And then I have a dedicated drawer for each of the projects that are in the planning stages. Once a project is finished, I can start a new plan and begin filling the drawer again!

I also made a separate bin to store all my wood supplies and trims. Here's a post about what I used here:

http://my-miniaturemadness.blogspot.com/2015/04/getting-organized.html

It's still going strong after three years of use!

I find it fun when I need something to "shop" my own supplies. It is really simple (and fun) to pull the drawer, set it on my table, and go through the items to find what I need.

Hope this helps give you some ideas on how to combat the ever challenging hoard of mini tools and supplies!

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20 minutes ago, Keifer said:

That’s impressive!

#Goals

Thanks Keith! This photo was from two years ago, so it has continued to evolve. I can generally find what I am looking for in a matter of minutes, so it was worth all of the planning, patience and work to get it to this point!

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2 minutes ago, sparklepuppies said:

Oh my goodness Jodi, that is awesome. I love how they are all the same.

Thanks Tracy! That last ugly white one will get replaced eventually - I've had it since 2002! But it would mean moving the entire row down another 10 inches in order to fit one that is the same size as the majority of the black ones. I'd have a major project moving everything to make the change, and I am not looking forward to disrupting the creative flow! Maybe after I finish the Storybook Cottage.

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42 minutes ago, Keifer said:

I would like to know what the 3 projects are on the top shelf?  I didn't notice these upon first glance. 

The one on the end closest in the photo are two Asahi Tea House kits bashed together side by side. I made it into a modern beach house called Alki Point, after the area we raised our kids in, in Seattle. It was a spring board for me to design furniture and fixtures in TinkerCad, then have them printed in 3D through Shapeways. A lot of fun. You can see the project chronicled here:

http://my-miniaturemadness.blogspot.com/search/label/Alki%20Point

The second is one of the Houseworks Street of Shops roomboxes. It is a Starbucks. The exterior still needs to be bricked, but I was holding off until I got the other two shops in the series completed so the brick work would be consistent. That was in 2013. My attention span leaves many projects "almost" finished. I did it before I started blogging in 2015, so I have photos but not much in the way of a diary. I did make everything in there myself.

http://my-miniaturemadness.blogspot.com/2017/07/starbucks-at-pike-place.html

The last was the Sugarplum kit. I did a lot of bashing to it, and made shop displays for the inside as it was going to be a soap shop. I recently sold it on eBay, as I realized I had just lost passion for the project. See? Short attention span! :cheezy: I did chronicle the build on the blog tho:

http://my-miniaturemadness.blogspot.com/search/label/Shabby%20Chic%20Soap%20Shop

It is so nice of you to be interested, Keith! 

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Karin, I have just been looking at that doll again. It has a very striking look on it's face, not at all doll like. It looks very knowing, super intelligent, slightly superior.I can see it being a man of knowledge, or a woman of the same status it could go either way. Wizard, magician, professor, someone in authority. School teacher fairy maybe. It is  just ever so slightly looking down on the world, stuck up a bit maybe, definitely a superior being.  I am not sure which mold it is and wether or not I have it but it is calling me!!!

Ok so I am a wee bit eccentric, I know...

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4 hours ago, My Miniature Madness said:

Hope this helps give you some ideas on how to combat the ever challenging hoard of mini tools and supplies!

It gives me all kinds of ideas ... thanks for taking to the  time and effort to share all the details, Jodi! I have 3 similar storage units with a total of 20 drawers. If I were to do a major clean out and reorganization, this could be a start. :hmm: Some mini tools could go out to the garage workspace, and my worktable is a desk with drawers for items I want close at hand. Time for some spring cleaning before summer arrives!! 

I have a deadline -- our community is having a yard sale on May 5. I work well against deadlines. If I were to get sorted out, I could put some mini items that I don't foresee using into the sale. If they don't sell, at least they might spark some conversation with the folks who stop by. 

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On 4/19/2018, 6:54:26, WestPaces said:

Remember the lovely blue wallpaper we both got a sheet of at the fair? I managed to paper the master bedroom of my BH with it, it looks lovely! (Well that is if you don't look too closely, it was my first attempt at wallpapering and it's a bit of a patchy job oh and I only papered above the chair rail...)

Do you need any more of the blue paper? You may decide to redo the patchy parts. I was going to use it in the master bedroom but found some lovely light green background flower print cotton (quilting) cloth in a nice scale for the walls with a coordinating green/small polka dot bit for bedding and maybe curtains. The blue paper has gone into the stash. I have no immediate plans for it, so if you can use it I'll be happy to send it along.

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5 hours ago, Thimble Hall said:

Karin, I have just been looking at that doll again. It has a very striking look on it's face, not at all doll like. It looks very knowing, super intelligent, slightly superior.I can see it being a man of knowledge, or a woman of the same status it could go either way. Wizard, magician, professor, someone in authority. School teacher fairy maybe. It is  just ever so slightly looking down on the world, stuck up a bit maybe, definitely a superior being.  I am not sure which mold it is and wether or not I have it but it is calling me!!!

Ok so I am a wee bit eccentric, I know...

Jeannine, it's child size. The Parker Levi fairy girl, I think you have her? If you don't have her she's located on the "fantasy" page. She fits their Kelly range which I think is 3.5 to 4 inch. She is head attached to torso but can mix and match with Kelly parts. Today I cobbled together the fairy ears onto one of the Kelly smiling heads, then added the head back on to the fairy torso. Those dimples combined with the ears are so cute! (Greenware in photo isn't cleaned yet obviously) I saved the fairy face as a half head, you're right about the expression and I think it will make a really cool wall hanging, outside a front door maybe, a little imposing....maybe set into some scroll work. Not gargoyle looking,  but something like that..

IMG_0067.JPG

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Using the face as wall art is a terrific idea!  My mother has an old pair of heads on the wall - one looks like a young Greek god, and the other could be some people's idea of how Mary (Jesus' mother from the Christian bible) might have looked.    

What you did to transpose the smiling head onto the fairy form is nothing less than magical itself - I'm eager to see these creatures finished.  I love them both.

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