Making the front of the dollhouse

Hello there~

I start making my dollhouse last year.It was just on paper plans but the beginning of this year I start making the house it self. I will be showing you bits and pieces but I did not record everything I did so one will see the end results.
The "front' of the house will be detached from the house it self because its size. Just for you to have an idea, the front is 8 feet long... this is a quarter scale to human scale.


I uploaded my pictures backwards,sigh, I do that often,*blushing*. I will try to make sense as much as possible.
The picture below , I am cutting my 'tiles" . the actual titles of my house are 8" long by 2" wide. So for the FD it has to be 2" long by 1/2" wide.
Below are just some samples and not cut to the right size.


I spent 2 days thinking what material to use for the bricks. It NEEDED to be light weight. After experimenting with 3 different materials, I found one that I am super pleased. The picture above is showing a piece of foam, one Styrofoam and the other stuff .The last one is the one I choose. It is cheap and is something used on buildings. I got at the home improvement store. I tested to see if would take paint , and it did very well.

here are the tiles cut.... well.... started.... i will have to make few hundreds...

Most of the dollhouse is made at the wood shop but because we don't have air conditioner there but I do have here at the pottery shop, I "squeezed"things around so I can do some work here
I know it probably does not make a lot of sense but here I am making the base for the front of the house.

This picture was suppose to be placed before the one of the top....sigh.

This is a similar thing that I made in a 1:12 scale. Much easier then what I am attempting now.

Another one in a 1;12 scale. This is for my props....grin

Here you can see the entire piece.

my next pictures for the front of the house will make more sense.

Christmas turkey...yumm!!

Okay, I know I know it is not Christmas yet ,BUT I have many, MANY plans for our family dolls for Christmas , sooooo.... it is never too early to get started!!!*grin*

Making food -again!!! Ohhh... I must confess ....it is SO much fun!!!!!!

Okay, I better get to the point:
I choose a picture online for my turkey dish. I realized that I needed to make grapes , oranges and the turkey. First time for all... so needless to say .... I was nervous!
First I made the oranges ...
here you see.... sliced waiting for texture and color....

It is hard to show but the one I am holding has been texture and shade....ready to be baked.

For the grapes I used translucent fimo and shade with pastel green, I also painted the little leaves

the turkey turned up so good.... I was able to give a texture ( I used paper towels ) that looks just like the turkey skin!!! yeahhhh!!


I will make a second one .... it is for my copper kitchen.... do you want to see progress??let me know and I will post!*grin*

Here is my final dish and the picture I got online...what do you think????

Mini book and me!!:-)

Hello diary and my dear friends~
I confess I have been anxious to show you ...uhh, cough, cough,...me!!!*grin*



So no better way than to also share with you my first book scale for our family dolls.

To read more and take a peek on the inside of the book click here!!!

I hope you all had a blessed weekend like I did!*grin*

sewing day

My dolls!!!!!*smiles*
Hello Diary and my dear ladies!!!*grin*

I have been trying to spend part of my wednesdays doing something for our family dolls.
Today , for most part of the afternoon, I sew and was able to make several new dresses. I cut an easy pattern and it work so nicely that Imade few of it.
Most of the fabric are left over from my own dresses, I am almost done with a dress that I made for my doll from a fabric that is from a new handmade day dress for me. Because I have not been feeling well ( sore throat, yikes) I don't feel like taking a picture but as soon I feel better again, I will and post here.*grin*


I love them!!!!!! Aren't they cute??

sweet Becca!!!

Silly Becca!!!!

Another one finished!

They are almost ready!!!!!!!!!

I have made many many dolls but "NOTHING" compare to the joy that I had making my family dolls. yes, pouring the molds and forever sanding was something that i honestly disliked but I kept thinking how it would be when they were finally done.
Above is kate and gabby....
Here you see Josh, becca and ben
again....
becca LOOOOOOOOOOOVES her doll!!!
Sthef, kevin and are waiting their wigging... mark is sitting at my work table with a plastic cap on waiting for his gray highlights.grin... and clothes of course! Some i am making some I am buying from the Chinese.... they are incredible by the way...


I am having soooo much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

donuts...delicious donuts!!!:-)

Hello diary and girls!!!:-)

I never truly considered making mini food...why?because there are so many people already making and some really good ones BUT, when it came to find food for my family dolls , there were none!!!
Soooo... here I am"making mini food" pretty much for the first time, and guess what ?? i LOVED IT!!*grin*

yes, yes, I am the kind of artist that loooveeees to try some thing new... that is true but the end results is what truly made me happy.

As you see .... i end up with 2 different sizes.... yes... my mistake BUT I am so happy I did because I know some young girls across the country that has larger dolls and I am fixing to mail the large one for them as surprise! I think they will love it.

I made the boxes and even added the plastic.... now what you don't know is that my food actually needs a label.... "don't eat it" not for the looks but because they SMELL like the real thing...how? food scent fragrance...

isn't it cool????

I can't wait to add to our dollhouse kitchen.

I may sell some of my "mistake' sizes on ebay or etsy and honestly i am not hope for new business but give some girls out there with large dolls some fun time!!!!

Stove & Fridge

Hello diary, Nita , Rosa & Christel!!!*grin*


Yesterday , was able to work with couple appliances. I should had taken pictures of what each of them looked like but sometimes my time is so "timed" that I get focused on the most important things and forget that taking WIP pictures is also important.
The stove above is partially covered with masking tape while I am spraying with cream color to match our REAL kitchen gas stove.



This are pictures of the stove almost done. I added the legs to match ours but also because this is the right scale for our dolls. The fridge is one that I bought on a state sale (((years ago))) I think I got for our marionettes but didn't use it. You can only imagine how excited I was when I took out the box and realized that it was "almost" the right size.


"Almost" is right. I had to add a good bit and sand it with a power tool because the fridge was so rusted I almost gave up.I am glad I did not because it turned up very nice, don't you think?

well, I still have some good work to do like painting the fridge and sculpting the handles..... but the stove only needs its legs painted. What do you think???/ Hey, is only the three of you here!!!*big grin*

Oh yes... that is (((me))) today as I got home from church and Gabby snap a picture of me so I can make an similar outfit for my own doll...*blushing*

Pottery & Pets

My title does not go together but with my time that is how I can write my page today.

My children surprised me with a wonderful "Mother's day" early lunch. I think about when they do things like this for me and for others because the attitude behind ( thoughts ,-plans and the actual doing it) is so special , even more than sitting and eating with them.

They made all my favorites dishes . How this came to be a surprise was that I first had my hair appointment this morning then when I got home I was told to go to my shop instead of the house.*grin*

They (are) wonderful!!!!!*grin*

sooooo..... I sculpted more animals and unload my kiln with some pottery that I had turned and fired not to long ago.

I glazed with a glaze that I use for OUR family dishes and pots. I normally use a clay named brown speckles and occasionally I use white stoneware but because I thought I was going to make white dishes only, I used the white clay . The brown speckled is my favorite because when I use these glazes they turn up much differently . I am happy with those too. This is the second set of dished for the family dolls ... I am working on my third.

I have decided that the white dished will have my illustrations. I made few miniature decals last year. I am so excited to use it now. They are decals that I can fire on the kiln, meaning that they are similar to transferware dishes. very lovely.

I made a large set , 40+ pieces 2 years ago for my patitadolls. They were too big for them and perfect for our family dolls.grin. The silverware are from Germany and one of my precious findings.... It is not easy to come across the same exactly set but I have bought those at 3 different auctions.it is such a thrill! They are made from real metal!

Eventually I will add my pet's pictures, the real ones and the dolls. I realized that I need to more of the same , at least for the dogs, in different position.Here are some in progress....

This is Jackie..... in her favorite position.... resting,grin. I was able to paint them and add lenses to the eyes... maybe tomorrow I can start with the wool.

time for bed..... I am so very tired ....but happy!!!grin

May day sewing

ahhh... today was such a beautiful cool afternoon.... what a May day!

I had the windows open wide and a soft breeze was coming in.... I could hear the animals outside including the sheep, cows and birds plus kiwi was softly speaking too.... lovely!

I was able to make 3 shirts ...2 for Mark and one for me. Oh Yes, these 2 have been ready for couple weeks now. I also have Becca and Gabby ready . Today I will drill and sand kate and Sthef . Hopefully next week I will be able to start working with the boys.*grin*

Mark is the only one with a wig now because I am using him and i as model for the clothes making. I don't want the children ( real ones) to see their dolls yet. The first picture of Mark you can see he has a corset to give him a little more "body"*hehehe*. It is easily removable too.

I didn't like this shirt too much.... I am not good about making male's clothes... the collar is so hard to make without a pattern...sigh.... I will get here. I am waiting for the mini buttons to arrive in the mail sometime soon. I did make another shirt... it did turn out much better than this one.These are very similar patterns of shirts that the real Mark uses.... the children thinks is funny... I think that *they* are amazed!!!!LOL

First post

Hi,

I am starting this blog to record my progress with our family dolls. This has been a 2 years project so far. Creating the dolls was the first step but so much more has changed and improved. I then started to think that I needto write a "diary' about it as these dolls are not "just dolls" but US, my family "frozen in time".... frozen in the year of 2009.

I can't think of any greater joy than been a mom. the memories that I have shared in my life with my husband and children are priceless an making the dolls is a way to "keep" some of this time alive.

We have so much fun already with all the making and searching for similiar items that we have in real life into miniature. Oh yes! I almost forgot to say.... these dolls are 1/4 scale HUMAN size. so every thing for them is our size divided by 4.

This is NOT an easy scale.... too little for an american doll.... not quite a tonner doll and too little Barbie. BUT this makes me more creative to make things and also excited when I DO find the right size pan, or silverware.grin.

Okay .... to end this I am posting a picture of all the dolls parts that have been already made from silicone molds into resin. I truly disliked this process..... now I am sanding and drilling holes.\

soon...