French style antique window handles and latches

Oval handles and latches like these in 1:12 cannot be found in any hardware shop.

After having this great response from the mini community about the windows I made I tried something in 3D. My designer Vijay drew them up as small as possible - after all it still had to be printable...

And today the I got the prints in white plastic!



Of course I had to paint them immediately!


Next time I thin down the paint so that details of the print are more pronounced.
And I would use a 1mm wire to keep the proportions (can feed up to 1.2mm).

Voilà!

Thought I share this with you all..

Basket Galore!

So, I went a little crazy ...
But every Provencal house is full of baskets of some sort.

I found some great work on Etsy and via FB.
Here my pick:

These are from Louise Pendreich (U.K.) via her Etsy shop AuldReekieCrafts

The tiny ones are for my shelves (which I have not built yet..)

These are from Etsy shop WickerMiniature (Russia)

The scale is a little large for 1:12..

These are from Kamilla Dlugowlska (Italy) via her Etsy shop MiniaturesMad

Custom made for me!

These are made by me... after I found this fabulous material!

Thought I share this with you in case you are looking for great basket makers.

Revealing my new project - the 'Lagnes' house

After three months of trials and samples I could raise the first walls!

I designed the house based on a real property that was for sale in Lagnes (near Avignon). It is in the middle of a village - the last house in the street. So, it has a bit of a garden on the one side and a view to the west - ideal...
Buying it was no option because the only fun would be the rebuilding part - and with a 7 hour drive one way (and French builders...) this seems a bit crazy next to running a business ;-).
That is why Mini is wonderful: I still can make the dream come true without really having all the hassle!

Because it is a real-life situation I was limited with the design of the house - it had to fit into the village and street: 2 storeys, no balconies, low pitched roof, etc.

Finding the best way to create the stone walls was the biggest challenge up to now. And I had my architect friend Francisco from Miniarquitect in my back, constantly challenging me to make it even more realistic. Thanks Francisco - I needed that push from you!

I made all the windows - they are ready for installation.

For all you window builders: AFTER I finished my windows I get the clever idea of having handles designed in 3D ;-) .

They are available in my Shapeways shop. I made an opening to of 1.2mm so that a wire or stick can be fed through it!

The first room that I can now present is the guest cloakroom :-)
I have not received the versi flags stones for the floor yet and worked with the little I had.

oops, the lampshade has to be adjusted....

And I finished the typical provencal fireplace (foam board).

Probably heading for the Paris miniature show in June to meet a few FB friends who are making great deco and miniatures. This chair is from Jena Jangren's shop Miniatyrmama - all the way from Sweden!

Keep u posted!

 

Table lamp blue

My passion.... lamps :-)


This weekend (mind you it is April and snowing outside!) I tried my hands at a more classical table lamp rather than making a designer model.

The fiddly part was drilling a 1mm hole the entire length of these spindles. Was a bit little building a tunnel: get it from both sides and hope that we meet in the middle.

Lampshades: pattern from Printmini
Material used: printable adhesive cotton paper (Silhoutte)
Mounting the shades: see blog from MitchyMooMiniatures , butterfly lamp


Painted them with chalk-paint blue/grey. Next lot I will try to get the 'shabby chic' look. There is definitely room for improvement:-)

And, still need to electrify them properly once the right LED bulbs arrive.

Ingo Maurer 'Zettel' Chandelier in miniature

My latest creation - did not have time for much more lately.

I made it twice: the first time I used superglue and non-shiny wires - it looked a bit messy in the center. I then used Bondic : it 'glues' instantly and is clear when dry. Much happier with the result.

Still, it is a rather delicate construction and I do not want to handle it too much. So, it is in a nice niche now until I can use it for one of my projects one day...

Tutorial: making realistic natural stone walls in scale

I can spare you trying out the various methods you can find on the internet because I found a great way of doing walls!

I wanted mine in a limestone look like you find them in Southern Europe.

First I ordered a stencil from Bromley Craft Products together with a bag of Sandstone Brick Compound. Mind you, it is not quite as yellow as on their picture - but is slightly pinkish. I added some yellow acrylic paint to the mixture before spreading it on the foam board. I used a spatula and did not even out  - just rough and as it comes. Like this I do not have an even stone surface.. some are a little thicker, others have 'creases', etc.

Once dry, I colored it with greyish water color and dry brushed with raw umber (or Vandyck) and yellow acrylic paint.

Next step is to spray it with a matt acrylic varnish. That has to be done twice - leaving it to dry completely between the applications. It is important that you actually see the varnish forming a film! The stones need to be absolutely water tight.

If the rocks are not totally waterproof this is what will happen...

For grouting I used normal tile white grouting from the hardware shop, adding a bit of grey powder so that the contrast is not too stark.
Cover liberally (haha, as if there was a choice...) but scrape off excess.

Once the grouting is REALLY dry, use a sponge or micro fibre cloth to uncover the stones!

Voilà!

1:12 Scale Shipping Container House completed!

Making the video took a bit of time: first had to sort through I don't know how many photos!
Good thing though judging by the trash bin :-)

Here the star photos:

Everything else at: https://youtu.be/79w7sS_GHk4

And a 'making of' at: https://youtu.be/uHb93uoT3po
Struggled a bit with this one... and by the time I did the personal end bit I just could not care any longer! No re-takes or such - just as it happened. Main thing it was done :-)

And now I will take a rest from model building. The bug will invariably bite me again... but it does not have to be tomorrow. You will notice when I start blog writing again ;-)

Sundeck part 2

... and other things---

TRARA! Done...

The sail softens the industrial look of the building ...

And the roof is on as well. My graphic artist friend Denise (who is the girl-friend of my one-line game buddy) works for a packaging company. I wanted large waves that were not sandwiched between two cardboards - she made it possible ordering some samples for me !!! 

Thanks Carol, Denise and Annina for helping me make the decision about the color. The 'ageing' bit will have to wait until you come to my place to do this, Annina :-))

Because I am really no good at painting, I used very fine real concrete to make the floor in front of the house ... had to cast a bit more to make the gully look real :-)

And then I noticed that the nano light in the ceiling at the entrance was greenish!! Horror!! There must be a bit of green in the wall paint - or maybe the light itself tends to give a green light.

I could resolve it to some extent by putting a brown parchment paper over the light. Now I can live with it. Hehe, and the entrance is finished as well! 

And here how I hid the electrical input:

First I tried the yellow ones used for model airplane building. But they were too tight - kept ripping the socket out when I wanted to unplug. Then I found these insulating screw joints - wonderful tiny and hold together perfectly :-))

At the end of a project, all of the sudden things come together very quickly - I thought that I had another 2-3 weekends to go. But there is not much more to do: looking for a bedspread in the right color, making the patio table, attaching the solar panels, a bit of vacuuming inside and cleaning the windows :-)

And then the photo shooting to make a short video again - this time on he beach. There are small patches of sand around our lake here - but do I really want to transport the model there??

Sundeck part 1

First weekend in a while thatI could spend some time on the container house.
The inside is complete (see previous blogs) but now comes the roof and the sun deck.

I decided that this house is at the beach - and made the most important thing first:



The grill plate is from Mini de Pierluigi and for the rust effect I found this great set:



The construction is starting to take shape...


Not much really - but enough for one Sunday :-)

Publication Doll's House Magazine Christmas Edition 2015

It has been a while since I sent an update. Been kind of busy at work and did not even get around to communicate this - and this really was my miniature highlight in December!!

Carol from Doll's House Magazine put together a great article about my previous project, the Swiss Log Cabin model:

She did this wonderfully - wrote a story and even gave some ideas on interior decoration items when furnishing a log cabin... just like in the 'big' magazines.

To see the full article

And for seeing even more - see the video on youtube.