Entrance finished!

A month has gone already since my last blog entry! Enjoying outside was further up on my list than working on the house - but I did finish off a few things...

The advantage: it gave me a bit of distance from it all and I suddenly knew how to furnish and decorate so that it looks realistic.

Decided to use modern coat hooks and wall lamp as a contrast to the door

Look, I just unpacked the shoes home from Patricia Santi!
Tried to make the sneakers from Pepper - but that was even extremely fiddly.
So I settled for espadrilles...

It is the door from Pipi that makes it all so magic!
And all my baskets now found a home ...

And Francisco's lamp looks perfect on this commode.
Please note the electrical socket ... ;-)
(Staircase not attached yet - hence not straight)

New table lamps I made! My passion....

a lamps, of course...

with wood

with beads

with stone

Pictures for the lounge

Did the flooring on the upper floor using balsa strips - ready for decorating now

and I filled the dresser shelves

Does anybody have an idea how to make the tile roof (spanish barrel type)? The plastic sheets look terrible and real clay tiles are going to be too heavy. Gratful for any ideas..

Marion

Miniature Kitchen with natural stone walls

I have been pottering around quite happily and my house is now starting to take shape.

First: 

the kitchen, which I did twice because I did not like the first more rustic version.. it somehow competed with Pipi's door.

...see what I mean?

Pierluigi's gas hob is perfect for a French country house and I was glad he gave me a couple of extra dials for the oven. For the first time I used these tiny LED lights from Nalladris. They are a little whiter than the ones I usually use but: they have white wire and no resistor I need to hide somewhere!

Second: 

made a few pieces of furniture

- A console in the entrance hall using the baskets I got from Louise Pendereich and lamp from Francisco.

- A country style dresser for the dining area. First bought this one but this was way too big for a private home - I never noticed that it was meant for shop furnishing;-). 

And third:

I completed all the wiring and things I needed access to - and then came the big moment where I could put in the ceiling!

Now, it was time to fit all the ceiling hanging lamps, especially my Ingo Maurer Zettel lamp!

The chairs are standard stuff: broke off the back, gave it an angle to make the chair more realistic, repainted and recovered. The table is standard as well but I only used the leg and made a new top. 

Great to share this diary with you all :-)

Marion

SIMP Miniature Fair in Paris 2016

Spending more than 4 hours to get that little???
Seems crazy - but it is always difficult to avoid kitsch...

And then: to meet all the FB friends finally in person :-)))

Probably the greatest decorator is Janny Warnaar of Artofmini. She has a wonderful way of presenting things... I am very impressed! And therefore it was rather difficult to get access to their showings because the rock the market somewhat with their products (good business sense..). Janny, wonderful finally meeting you in person. Wish I could hire you to decorate my new house :-)

With Catherine Ferouelle of  l'atelier du chat botte I shared a salad, a smoke and we just took to each other instantly! What an admirable artist: totally uncomplicated, ready to share knowledge and she simply seems to have fun experimenting. One day, Catherine, I will be as good at painting as you are... long way to go though.. Looking forward to getting your garden chairs though :-)

And I finally met Francisco and his lovely (good looking) mother from Artmajeur! We have been exchanging so many mails about perfect stone wall, LED for his lamps and his perfect models.. I could obviously not resist and chose the lamps that are least retro to fit into my present project.

I promised Susanna Alberti of MiniatureFashion to come to the Milan Fair! Susanne, glad that we met in person and I could see your delicate work! You should be very proud of your sense of fabric and fashion...doing creations like you do is totally beyond me :-)

I always worked with LED light from modelltrainsoftware in USA. I few miniaturists have mentioned Nalladris and I had a look at their LED products. This is really an alternative AND their lamps to not have these terrible resistor units I always have to hide somewhere. Bought a few and will check them out...

And: Elisabeth Causeret with her pottery...

And: Elsner van Gronow with an incredible choice of metal ornaments....

When unpacking my 'loot' it looked like so little...
But I am so excited about using all these things eventually :-))

Working with Versi Flags Flooring

After all this I am now highly qualified in laying tiles!

And I have to admit that I had to rip out the entrance area again after I messed it up with the grouting... grr. But it was only a question of patience - and having enough spare tiles ;-)

I got them from MinimumWorld and they are great because one side is sandstone and the other slate - so, one has the choice. I opted for sandstone inside.

I drew some lines to help me keep the directions.After trying a number of glues, Pritt stick worked best and was least messy.


Once dry, I did NOT varnish them but spread polyfiller on the entire surface - covering everything with a VERY fine coat.

Just to immediately wipe it off with a damp cloth. Looked as nothing was left ....

... but after 4 minutes it shows that a thin white film remains. Perfect because I wanted a more homogenous look - without this 'whitewash' the floor seemed to busy.

Weights come in handy as well...

I made a test to see what varnishing the floor would do - and it showed that the white did disappear somewhat. So, I left it unvarnished, even though a little shine would have looked great as well. Can't have it all!

Here what it looks when all is dry. In the background under the newspaper hides that great door I got from Pipi Turner! Fitting it without a door frame meant that I had to polyfill around... will show you once I have it perfect.

Take care

Marion

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!