Alice in Wonderland room box

I have never made room boxes based on literature (except Lord Asriel's study, and it was pure imagination since it is not described in the novel). Since I am a children's literature scholar it may seem natural to make scenes from children's books, but for some reason I don't find it tempting, maybe because it's too obvious or too limiting or whatever.

In September I am doing a workshop for teachers in conjunction with a big international conference on Alice in Wonderland. The workshop will be focused on perception of size and scale, and what can be better as a point of departure than a miniature scene? 

For most of her time in Wonderland, Alice is three inches high, which is approximately 1:12 scale. This is apparently not a coincidence, but reflects spatial cognition, that is, the ability of our brain to understand size and proportion. Our favourite miniature scale is within the cognitive “comfort zone”. It ensures that the miniature world is still recognisable and comprehensible. If the scale is significantly smaller, psychology says, it demands a considerable cognitive effort. We miniature makers know it by intuition. If we work with smaller scales, it takes more effort to "see" the scale. 

Anyway, I agreed to do this workshop some time ago, and as a first step I took an empty wine box (formerly nursery, formerly yarn shop) and put in some random doors I had from various projects. This is what the text says: 

Alice “found herself in a long, low hall, which was lit up by a row of lamps hanging from the roof. There were doors all round the hall, but they were all locked; and when Alice had been all the way down one side and up the other, trying every door, she walked sadly down the middle, wondering how she was ever to get out again”.

 

 The box was the right shape: long with low ceiling. I put in a 1:12 doll, but I also found a tiny doll - dollhouse-in-the-dollhouse doll - to represent Alice when she shrinks to fifteen inches, which in our scale is just over an inch. I also made a glass table with a bottle labeled "Drink me". 

Then I didn't do anything for a long time. I needed a larger doll to represent Alice when she grows to nine feet, or 0.75 feet in scale. She is taller than the ceiling, and I wanted to convey the sense of claustrophobia, the horror of being stuck in a small space, that is repeated throughout the book. I also realised that white doors on white walls didn't look good. It was tempting to paint doors in different colours, but I thought it would be too patchy and distracting, a beach-hut feeling. Instead, I tried various colours on the walls. And I also made "a row of lamps hanging from the roof". The lamps are tops of eyedrop containers. I made some additional doors in my three-layer technique.

 

Of course the three Alices do not co-exist, but a room box can tell a story containing several episodes. This is the first episode, featuring the middle doll:

“Suddenly she came upon a little three-legged table, all made of solid glass; there was nothing on it except a tiny golden key, and Alice's first thought was that it might belong to one of the doors of the hall; but, alas! either the locks were too large, or the key was too small, but at any rate it would not open any of them. However, on the second time round, she came upon a low curtain she had not noticed before, and behind it was a little door about fifteen inches high: she tried the little golden key in the lock, and to her great delight it fitted!”

I have hidden the little door in the corner, and it is easy to miss it because the large doors will attract more attention. You need to adjust your scaling, just as Alice. Unfortunately, Alice is too tall to go through the tiny door, but when she drinks from the magic bottle and shrinks, she is just the right size, like the smallest doll. But sadly, she has left the key on the table. I put the little doll under the table to show how futile her attempts to get the key are. Luckily, she finds a cake that says "Eat me" and grows to nine feet... and so it goes on. 

The three dolls do not look alike so I had to make them look more alike, and the only way was to give them similar clothes. I didn't want to follow the stereotypical Disney-Alice image with a blue dress and white apron (it is also historically incorrect). There are some illustrated versions of Alice that portray her in a green dress, and I had a nice piece of green fabric. This was a good test of scale! The big doll's dress was child's play, and it was easy to trim it neatly with lace. The middle doll took more time and effort, especially since I didn't want to take off her clothes and ruin them, so I put the new dress on top of the old one. The tiny doll's dress took five attempts, and I am still not quite happy. But at least I think you can see that it is supposed to be the same character. 

I have added some Alice-related items to the scene: chess pieces, the Queen of hearts, mice in different scales, a clock. I wanted to have a looking glass, but I cannot see where I could fit it in. I have some time to work on it. The workshop participants will be asked to create their own room boxes inspired by Alice's growing and shrinking. It wil be exciting to see what they come up with.

Cabinet renovation

This is not exactly about miniature.making, but not irrelevant and an illuminating story.

When I first got involved with miniatures, almost eight years ago, I made my first dollhouse in a book shelf. I had zero experience, low self-esteem, a limited range of tools and plenty of enthusiasm. Also, I was on long-term sick leave and had all the time in the world to play and learn. And the house grew and filled with things.

Then I got a job in Cambridge, and we moved from Sweden to the UK. It was hard, physically, mentally and emotionally, and bringing the miniatures with me was imperative. This is what I wrote about it, in retrospect, with a further link to when it was actually happening. I remember crying floods, contemplating whether I was making a terrible mistake (I still wonder sometimes, but probably not), and I asked my husband whether he would allow me to re-assemble my dollhouse in the old wine cabinet from his childhood home. We had only had for a little while after his mother had died. It is a lovely piece, handmade in Swedish folk style, with rough wooden surfaces. It was quite worn-out on the inside so I painted it, although it was before I started making miniatures and learned how to renovate furniture.

Anyway, we brought the cabinet with us, and in our tiny rented house I started rebuilding my miniature world. It became a key to my sanity as I escaped from the horrors of adaptation to the new job and the new country. It is long ago now, and memory is merciful so it is only with some effort I can remember how desperate I was, but the miniature cabinet was my fixed point.

The cabinet proved to be great fun to work with. It had mirrors at the back which I had to remove, and since I was sure the dollhouse cabinet was for ever, I took the mirrors to recycling. I drilled holes in the back of the cabinet for lighting. I made floors and bought real dollhouse wallpaper. By Christmas time that first year, the house was restored and many things added.

At that time, I couldn't even imagine that I would ever embark on any other miniature projects, but eventually I first made some room boxes, then my husband gave me a Tudor shell, and so on - you can read it all in my blog if you wish.

I did not forget the cabinet dollhouse and added and improved things. But the idea of a really large dollhouse was growing in my mind, and finally, a year ago I became the happy owner of this huge property that will take me at least another year to complete. In case you have not seen it, this is the most recent post.

From the beginning, I moved most of the objects from the cabinet house to the new project because it helped me to decide on decoration and general planning. The cabinet remained as storage, but already then I knew that one day I would like to restore it back to wine cabinet. As I tore down the wallpaper and removed floors, surfaces were damaged. It disturbed me. I kept moving things, and finally last week I put all remaining objects in a cardboard box, scrubbed the cabinet and inspected it for necessary action.

As I adjusted my perception from 1:12 to full scale, my first thought was: What kind of idiot damaged this beautiful cabinet with double-sided tape! Then I remembered that the idiot believed that the cabinet dollhouse was for ever, and I forgave her. It took ages to scrub and sand away the tape and other remnants of the barbarian miniaturist's disrespectful handling of the cabinet, and as a result, the surfaces were smoother than when I painted them ten years ago and probably smoother than before the previous painting - there were at least three different layers of colour before mine.

When I went to the DIY store last week to get white paint for the doolhouse, I brought home some colour cards and chose one I thought was closest. Of course it wasn't even near close, but it was a pretty colour, and now I have painted the cabinet, and it is back to its original function. I have ordered new mirrors, and it will serve as a wine cabinet again. But it is another story.

Imaginative use of full-size wallpaper

I went to get more paint the other day and took home samples of embossed wallpaper. I have already used it for various purposes, from fireplaces to wall panels. This time I needed it to make mouldings on the inside of the fronts. I wanted paper rather than real mouldings so that the front doesn't get too heavy. And frankly, it's much easier. The right front was straightforward: just cut a strip and glue on. But you can imnediately see the difference.

 

The left front was a bit more complicated. For some reason, the large front doors came without inside surrounds. It said so on the package so it's wasn't a mistake. And you may remember that I had to massacre the front in order to get in the door, and it didn't look good after that. I thought I would make surrounds of dado rails, but again, it would make the front heavier, and... anyway, I just used the same wallpaper strip, and if you ask me, I would never notice it was fake.

 

You will have to imagine the floor that the man is just about to step on from the balcony. When the front is closed he will be stepping into the upper hall.

I haven't yet decided what I will have on the walls - probably pictures, mirrors, book shelves, sconces. And I haven't decided what kind of curtains I will have.

A side effect of my playing with embossed wallpaper was that I found exactly the kind of ornamental plastering I wanted on the outside. A tiny detail that adds a finishing touch and makes my house unique.

 

I now have to abandon the exterior for a while and go back to floors, panels, stairs and mouldings. But it feels good to have pretty fronts.

Further exterior progress

This weekend has been dedicated to the right-side front. After I finished the left side, I just couldn't leave the other side as it was. And I decided I liked my original idea for the left side so I used the two patterned wallpapers and painted the middle floor green. As with the other front, I swore a lot at uncollaborative windows, but - now I've done them all! It took some hours.

 

I am very pleased with the result, and I think it fits well with the three adjacent rooms. There will be fake mouldng between the ground and first floor.

I am not showing the outside because there are still some small details to finish. Come back soon.

Hutch cabinet

I have finished another Chippendale piece from my latest bargain, a hutch cabinet. I have stated repeatedly how much you learn from miniature-making. How else would I know what hutch means?

I haven't taken step by step pictures because it was very simple, except for hinges, but even those were relatively easy, thanks to excellent instructions. And after so many pieces I have made, I am no longer intimidated by teeny-tiny handle plates, keyhole plates and escutcheons (here is another useful word!). The drawer and the doors can obviously be opened.

 

I have deliberately not varnished this piece because I like its plain-wooden roughness. I haven't decided yet where it will go, possibly to one of the rear corridors where I can, for instance, put a clock on it.

 

I had a visitor recently who was utterly fascinated by my rear corridors. She was a theatre person!

Exterior progress

My impulsive work on the fronts had unexpected consequences. I liked the colour scheme on the left-hand front so without any further considerations I painted and papered the inside.

 

I am very happy with this, although I still need to add fake mouldings. I will need to visit the DIY store and pinch some 1:1 embossed wallpaper.

But you may have noticed something. The windows are in. And the doors!

Yes, that's right. But it sounds far too simple, and it wasn't. I had completely forgotten what an ordeal it was to put in windows. Just to put me off guard, the first window went in nicely, but the remaining seven were a pain. I realised that I must measure and cut the opening in the paper before I put in the window, but paper after I have put in the window. With one window I forgot, and it was a lot of extra work. Sand, scratch, sand, sand, sand... But when I finally turned the front over to glue on the surrounds I felt that the time had come! Honestly, I hadn't planned to do this until much, much later. But I just couldn't help it.

Everything had been prepared: primed, sanded, painted and sanded again. But as with all steps in this project, the actual work implies much more than the instruction "Glue in place...". The pillars wouldn't go into the pillar caps, and in fact the pillars were 3mm too long and I had to saw it off. The supports didn't fit the openings. The quoins were either 5mm too long or too short, depending on how you view it. I didn't take step-by-step pictures because there wasn't really much to show, but I swore all the way. There were new edges to paint (I had thought I had painted them all), mouldings to cut ("Cut mouldings to size", says the instruction, child's play), yards of masking tape to hold things together.

But my biggest problem, that I had been supressing all the time, was the front door. My beautiful front door that I stained and painted more than six months ago! I said then that it would be months before I got that far, and I was right. Six and a half months later I must eventually face the problem I knew was there all along. The door is bigger than the opening. This is because I bought this door separately - the door provided with the kit wasn't nearly as beautiful.

Now, the kit has been cut with precision laser, and I had to make the opening 1 cm larger. I don't have a laser, and I don't have a proper tool to perform this operation. I won't tell you how I did it because you would view me as a barbarian, but it doesn't matter: after many hours of toil it's done, and whatever didn't look proper is now forever hidden behind the surround.

The French door wasn't much of a trouble except the very last detail that freaked me out: peeling off the protective plastic from the glass. I was clever and put in the door before I glued on the balcony rail, but I didn't want to take off the plastic in case I spilled glue or paint.

I am aware you are getting impatient and don't want any more words, you want a picture! And here it is:




I wish I could say: It's finished, but of course it isn't. The right-hand front isn't even started - you can see one window is crooked because it is just white-tacked. So six more windows, mouldings, quoins, and many, many tiny details that need attention. And of course there is the whole front staircase to build. Now the exterior feels odd without it.

And yet I am glad I have taken this important step. The house is not finished and won't be for a long time. But it looks more finished than a week ago, and an untrained eye won't even notice all the missing details. However, I do. Still a long, long way to go.

Adding space

I know I am nowhere near, but suddenly I felt I would like to test the inside of the fronts. Most dollhouses with opening fronts do not have anything on the inside, possiby apart from curtains. At the very best, the fronts are wallpapered to match the rooms.

In my cabinet dollhouse, that does not exist any more, I had fake windows, semi-flat bookshelves, paintings and wall sconces on the inside.

In my retro house, I have all kinds of semi-flat stuff on the removable walls. 

When I was making my Georgian house, I read some clever books that used the inside surface of the fronts to add the sense of space and also some further decoration and ornaments. I tried it and was very happy with the results. I never really finished that house, and now I have given it away. But before that, I had mirrors, pictures and other decorations on the inside, and when you opened the fronts, it gave a sense of additional rooms.

Besides, if the fronts are closed nobody can see that you have matching wallpaper on the fourth wall.

Or it may perhaps work in a smaller house. But mine is so big that if I have matching wallpaper on the inside, it will be too much.



So here I am, with two large surfaces. I mean, very large surfaces. My task is to create an optical illusion so that when the fronts are open it looks as if there were more rooms. Up to nine more rooms.

There are several challenges. Firstly, the colour scheme on each side has to be carefully thought through. It is still more important than within the house, because the walls are not separated by a real floor, they will be only separated by a fake rail. Secondly, the colour scheme has to be compatible with the walls inside the house. Not too bright, not too contrasting.

It is easier with the right side, because it will just be three rooms. Something like this:

 

The green sheet is just to mark the colour - I will paint this section, and I will frame the panels, which by the way are genuine Japanese hand-made paper. The rails that separate floors have to be higher or lower than the floors inside the house, because otherwise the fronts will not close. But it doesn't matter. The bookshelf comes from another house and is too large so I will trim it to fit between the windows. I believe this might work: larger pattern at the bottom, small on the top, mono-colour in between, with pretty panels. And the whole scheme, pale green, goes well with the adjacent rooms.

It was more complicated on the other side. To begin with, I tried this:

 

The two papers go well together and with the reception room on the right. But then I imagined two more colours or patterns above, and then two more, and that felt far too much. It would distract attention from the main rooms. So instead I tried this:

 

The colours still go well together, but this way there will be three patterns rather than six. Let's pretend it is three very large halls. I will then paint the top floor light blue and either make another framed panel or just hang mirrors or paintings between the two sets of windows. I will add rails and cornices. I may add fake or semi-flat pillars around the doors. I may also make window sills for flowers and other ornaments.

So preliminarily, this is what it will look like:



I think it may work. I will let it stay like this for a while, and maybe I will move the papers around, and maybe it will end up completely different.

By the way, all papers come from Jennifer's Printables, which is a great site.