Petworth Miniatures - the finale

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I am not sure about the chandeliers.  It will depend on how they turn out when I have finished with them.  Then it will be a big decision for me to make as to which room demands the large and which the small.  More sleepless nights.  (I am kidding, honestly).

The demi-lunes were to go either side of the connecting kitchen/dining room door with large vases of flowers or ornaments or mirrors - depends what I find at the show!  Again the room may not be large enough to take them.  Fingers crossed.  I also need to buy dining room furniture.

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Finally, this little group is for the study upstairs, I have seen a small desk (just need to find it again!!!)  and I have a bookcase, so if I can get all that in, that room will be complete.

Petworth Miniatures - part deux

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Three wallpapers, but not one of them a wallpaper!  The books' sheet I am hoping will work inside a bookcase with glass doors, otherwise I am going to have to make an awful lot of books.  I may be being very fussy (what me!) but I wish it had a more mixed appearance rather than an overall reddish tone.  There again I suspect this sort of wallpaper probably does look like that in real life whereas, as I said, I want it to do something else.

The dainty floral(ish) stripe will just come in handy for trimming furniture, making boxes, whatever.

The lovely Chinese panels paper was intended for the Salon, but won't really go with the gold furniture.  The paper demands some elements of Chinoiserie and the gold stuff is more Louis Quinze.  It may go in the dining room if I can figure out how to panel a wall and how to use it and what furniture  to buy for it??????

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There are two major fireplaces in Les Roches - Dining Room and Salon - I hope these don't swamp he room.  I have no way of knowing until I get home and try them in situ, so I won't be constructing these over here.  The Dining room will have the mirror and Salon will have the Clock - more gold.

Goodies from Petworth Miniatures - episode one

Generally my spending sprees get shown in The Gate House blog; the logic being that it is the primary current build.  This lot is being shared here as they are (almost all) for Les Roches.

You thought I was excited at finding the storage box (over in Gate House again) but you should have seen me when this arrived from Petworth Miniatures.  It is absolutely the one I have been waiting for.  As there are quite a lot of things, I thought I might split the Post into three parts so its not too much to read in one go.

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Gayle's fabrics are decidedly some of the best for scale and nice subtle colours.  

The one in the centre I already have and like so I just wanted some more.  

The top two will make great upholstery fabric without too much bulk.  

Over on the left is a lovely woven black and gold dot material.  It is the only one that I know what I am using it for.  I want gold furniture in the salon with black and gold fabric.  As these rooms are so small and will only have a couple of pieces of furniture in them, they should be able to take OTT items without it overwhelming the viewer.  I am struggling with the walls - suggestions welcome.

The remaining three pieces of cotton fabric will most likely find a place in The Gate House.

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This will be my gold furniture (with gold and black fabric) for the salon.

Geraniums?????

It is probably kinder to myself to show my efforts before the 'reference' pictures of the real things.

These geraniums are made from a kit sold by D & K Enterprises.  I have already said what a great vendor they are.  This kit contains enough geraniums to last a lifetime unless you are creating a garden centre.  Better still, for me, it has instructions.

I tried to do exactly as I was told and here is number one geranium.  Already I am coming to the conclusion that flowers at this scale rely on the overall shape and the leaf shape to get an impression of the variety.  A lot of them will comprise of bunches of petals one way or another.

I was happy enough with that one to make another four and stagger the heights to get a feel for how they will look in a group.  I think they will do fine.

Glue disappears when dry

When you look at the 'inspiration' picture below you can see how the leaves make the plant look right.  I can see how my pretend geraniums above can look something like the real ones below - they need a mass of leaves added above the pot with these popping out here and there and they will be fine.  In terms of scale these are a very large variety of geranium which is what I wanted as I want a couple of large terracotta pots filled with them.  

I am happy to settle for plain, simple pots of geraniums.  

I also noticed doing this that the blooms actually don't have leaves that close to the flower so I will make some with leaves lower down and some with no leaves and arrange them according to their height in the pot.

Ideally I'd love to figure out how to add trailing lobelia for this sort of look:

I know it is a painting but it shows trailing blue flowers that could be lobelia and was the only one I came across.

Goodies from the Betterleys

I know I am on a non-stop spending spree right now but I am using funds I already have in a dollar account from stuff I sold here last year and monies from some 1/12th stuff I sold before leaving the UK.  So when you hear me pleading poverty and then see this lot day after day, that's why.

We may also be giving up our second (winter) home here this season so I am garnering as much as I can of the US stuff in case that happens.

So ... my Betterley package arrived...... don't forget, you can click on the photo to enlarge if you want a better look....  or a betterley look....

To go at the foot of the bed in Les Roches if there is enough room.

Looks like a Les Roches piece but may end up here in the Gate House????

You've seen these before.  This is just a restock of useful stuff.

I thought I was buying a little plastic machine; this is a kit.  That should be fun - no really - that should be fun.

Useful 'grasscloth' paper for baskets and boxes

A really nice creamy/faded toile for Les Roches bedroom

Americana - Triple Thick Glaze

This post is to show how the triple glaze worked out but, before that, I must start with an admonition - seriously - to any newbie following this blog this is the biggest tip I can give you.....  Try to spend some of your mini spends on tools for the job.  I have a pretty measly hobby pocket and at the beginning (three years ago) I tried my best to make do with anything I already had around the house when it came to tools as I begrudged every penny not being spent on something lovely.  Here's a clue as to why you need the basics:

My kit is in the UK and no way do I want to duplicate stuff by buying it again over here.  I used a small sharp fruit knife to cut the tabs holding the pieces in their frame; this is the result.  Luckily it is easily cured with sand paper but it does add another process and it  risks snapping the pieces.  You need a decent knife......  and small sharp scissors.  I cut out the paper tile frame with curve-bladed nail scissors - need I say any more.......

I have a list of essential tools at the top of the blog you might want to check out.

On to the glaze.....

Being impatient I hate waiting for things dry.  This is even worse when something needs two or three coats to get the finish you want: tiles for example.  I wondered if this triple glaze was the answer.  It claims to do what it says - that is - give you the equivalent of three coats of a gloss finish.  I have used acrylic gloss and clear nail polish over the years and they each do the job but, generally, they need more than one coat.

$1.99

It is pretty easy to get; just Google it for the nearest place to you.  Mine came from Jo-Ann's.com but I had a poor shopping experience with them, hence my not recommending my source.

from the kit

This is the printed paper from the kit.

one coat

This is one coat of the glaze drying.  It didn't seem to make the ink run though you could matte spray coat it first with a fixative if you were concerned.  It smells a little like nail polish but washed out of the brush with water so I assume it is acrylic and/or water soluble.  There are no brush cleaning instructions.  It took about ten minutes for me to be able to handle it OK - I imagine longer would be better - as I said, I am not patient.

Finished

It gave a good glaze, pretty clear and with a little profile so it does look quite like tiles.  As with all these things it would work really well at 1/12th but it is acceptable if you really can't bear to be doing three coats to get here.  The imperfections around the edge of the glass (it is actual mirror glass) are nothing to do with me.  I presume it comes from cutting mirror pieces that small (?).  It adds to the 'rustic' charm.  This mirror will be in Lucien and Matilde's apartment - bought on holiday in Spain.

The kit is a Petworth Miniatures one:  Tiled Mirror Kit  1/4 scale  Q830  $5

Attacking the rose

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If you also read The Gatehouse you will have seen this box before I began filling it.  Great box with twenty-four tiny pots with screw-top lids - perfect for all those leaves and petals.  I peeled off the label from the little packets and cut out the reference number for the particular 'specimen' and stuck it to the bottom of the pot in case I want to order more any time from D and K Enterprises.

and the table was bare

Sadly all my tools/kit are in the UK so I don't have tweezers or stylus or anything particularly useful so this should be fun.....

That part was written before I actually attacked the rose!  Right now, post rose, I am controlling a lot of tears, foot-stamping and general frustration.

Here's how it went....

five (yes there are!) sepals

the three leaf arrangement that roses have

finished object not too shabby for first attempt

what a shame it is as big as his head!!!!!

do you think six of these stuffed in a vase would do???

As you can see - failure all round.  The finished rose would work OK in 1/12th and I haven't a clue how to make a 48th.  Any help would be very welcome.


Footnote the next day:

Nil desperandum....  using the head of my husband (still attached) I decided peonies were about that size so, with a bit of judicious scrunching and five more flowers added plus pointy leaves, my 'rose' might live to see another day.

huge peonies