Roman turret, part 8 in which a fire is lit and various items are added

Read the previous posts about this project: part 1, part 2,  part 3, part 4 and part 5, part 6 and part 7.  

As I mentioned in the last post, I cannot finish the exterior until we have eaten enough eggs, because I need egg cartons to make stones. I had just enough to finish the right and left wall, but now I will have to wait. It doesn't really matter because it is just the back wall, but I still want to cover it.

Meanwhile, there are many small things to attend to. For instance, I was dissatisfied with the fire because it just didn't look right. After a number of various attempts, I gave up on using a tea light - it doesn't work in this scale. Instead, I cut a quarter-circle from a piece of foam board, painted it to match the walls and built a fire with twigs from my garden. I burned the twigs slightly on a candle for the effect.

Then I covered it with glue and sprinkled some red glitter on.

Next, I added two metal bowls. If you want to know how I made them, read this. I am glad I remembered them because they fit in nicely. And then of course there must be some food cooking in the bowls. The large one is couscous (reluctantly, as I don't like using real food in miniature projects, but it was less than a teaspoonful), and the small just tiny bits of leftover twigs. I think it looks like chunks of meat. I may add onions. 

The wall behind the fireplace must be blackened with soot. For soot effect, I burned some matches and crushed them, then painted with my finger on the wall.

Maybe not enough? I put some more twigs in a pile by the side.

Not sure whether the large cauldron is right here. But I am not attaching things permanently yet.

On the same wall, I wanted a shelf with some kitchenware. I made the shelf from craft sticks. The bowl and plates are from the same set. The shelf wouldn't stay so I had to support it and leave to dry overnight.

The metal ornament hanging from the ladder is an earring of unknown origin. I think it looks like a Roman thing.

On the upper floor, I wanted a wall bracket with a torch. In my Tudor house, I made wall brackets from beer rings, so I thought I would do it again, but see, the scale didn't work! And I wasn't sure how to make a Roman torch, although Wikipedia was helpful with images. I first tried to make flames from tissue paper, but it didn't work at all. I was about to give up, but browsing Pinterest, without results, I suddenly got an idea.

 
It's the same technique as making dolls' hair, and I think it worked fine.

 

I made a bracket from a small eyelet.

The sign from Hadrian's wall also had a rack on the upper floor with some fabric hanging on it - not sure whether it's supposed to be clothes, maybe a cloak?

I used a coffee stirrer and toothpicks to make a rack. I should have put a coin beside it for scale, but it's tiny. And it is probably a cloak hanging on a peg.

 

(Don't you love this character? I do. He told me his name is Cat).

There are probably other interior details I can add, but otherwise I feel that the project is finished. Of course, a project is never finished, but it is finished enough to be shared with people who are not interested in work-in-progress.

A picture doesn't do it justice. Maybe I should try to make a video to show it at various angles and zoom into details.

This has been a small but challenging project. Because I have been relatively free and because it has been far too hot for gardening, I have worked several hours a day so I estimate it took about 80 hours all in all. It gives a better sense of the scope of effort.

I enjoyed it a lot and I am really pleased with how it has turned out. If you enjoyed following my work please leave a comment.

Fire in the fireplace

Recently, at least one of my facebook groups has become obsessed with tea lights. Electrical, battery-powered tea lights that are apparently hugely useful in dollhouses. I have been far too busy with other projects, but yesterday I happened to be in a budget store, and they had these famous tea lights, so I grabbed a pack of three for £1. The batteries were included.

If you have been following my blog you know that I am coming closer to the perfect lighting solution, and I had some thoughts about flickering fires. Once again, there may be a way of putting all lights on the same system, but why not try something that everybody seems to be doing? So I tried.

 

When I shared this picture on FB yesterday, with a comment that I made the fire "the usual way", people kept asking me what the usual way was, and going through my blog I realised that I haven't ever told properly how I make fires, although I refer to them in many posts. So here is the secret, developed from Jean Nisbett's invaluable book.

Obviously, any background needs to be black, although you can also have brick or stone. What I discovered when I was making chimney breasts from foam is that foam crumbs make perfect coals for the fire. So I glued these crumbs on the back of the fireplace, and for the candle, on top of the candle (which I had painted black). Then I painted the crumbs black. If you want a log fire instead, take some real twigs and arrange them as you would with a fire. And of course you can take small pebbles instead of foam crumbs.

For the flames, I have used various materials that were at hand: coloured tissue paper, candy wrap, small pieces of shiny fabric or ribbon, all shredded into teeny tiny bits. Tip: orange is imperative! Just red and yellow will look unnatural. Nisbett recommends glitter, but I haven't tried that yet, just my usual useful rubbish. I spread some glue over the surface, sprinkled a mix of "flames" and added more glue.

This is what it looks like.

 

Or used to look like, because after I have tried the flickering tea light I will never again be satisfied with a static fire. Of course you cannot see the flicker, and I haven't yet learned how to add a video, but if you use imagination and trust me, the effect is amazing.

Fireplace makeover

It has been a while since I made something for the Georgian house. There is not much to add there, but the bedroom needed a freplace, and I had one from a set of plain wooden furniture.

This is what I made with it: I painted the inside and the base black and the front, white. I left the top as it was, because it was quite common with wooden tops, and it looks nice. I considered decorating the front, but decided that in a bedroom it would most likely be plain (I have a ornate one in the drawing room). I glued a piece of lace on the fireguard and painted copper. I made the fire in a technique that I have used for all fires, with some variations. I built a log fire with twigs from the garden and covered with tiny bits of red and yellow-golden ribbon, shaking them to make it look natural.

Here it is in its room. As always, just a tiny improvement makes a huge difference.