A half-scale study

I never tried the half-scale, that is, the 1:24 scale, and never had any intention to do so until I bought this set of furniture in a thrift shop, bundled in a plastic bag among children's toys. I had no particular plans, and I didn't even like the furniture, but miniaturists are hopeless - they buy things they think may perhaps eventually likely come handy one day. I have no idea where these things come from - except that some time later I found a matching armchair in a serious antique shop, but the owner didn't know what it was and didn't see much value in it.

 

What I did have was a wooden wine-bottle box, the kind that come with very expensive wines that you get as a gift. It felt exactly the right size to make a half-scale room box. To begin with I simply put the sofa, desk and clock in the box and added a couple of things.

 

The fireplace is made from embossed wallpaper which in this scale proved just right for the carved-marble effect. The fireguard is a clothes hook. The table is made from a chess piece with a large copper coin on top. The kettle and milk jar - probably bracelet charms - were part of a lot I bought at Portobello Road market in London. I made the bookcase from two building blocks, added decoration to match the desk and glued on book rows from a catalogue (the famous image from Bodlean Library). The window is cut from a plastic fruit container. 

I then tried various flooring, but in this scale even very thin strips of wood look unnatural so I had to compromise with paper floors. I chose the smallest-patterned wallpaper, and I also used paper for rugs because even the thinnest fabric felt wrong. I made curtains from ribbons

And of course I added pictures, candlesticks and other small things. The round picture frames are buttons. The vase is the tip of a ball-point pen.

Of course most of the furniture was ready-made, and there isn't much to add to this project. Yet it was very interesting to work in this scale because everything you are used to suddenly becomes gigantic. Now I certainly understand the attraction of this scale.