Queen Anne tea table

My next Chippendale project was the tea table.

 

I wanted to replace the plastic Playmobile Victorian tea table that had served me well, but it was now time for something more elegant. It looked easy to make, but turned out really hard, because all moulding had to be mitred, and mitring moulding is my least favourite part of miniature-making, after painting windows.

 

There was enough moulding if you are clever and cut wisely, and that's what I didn't do. Seriously, this is something I can never get right. So I found myself with a too short piece of moulding and no way I could get replacement. What could I do? I just glued on another tiny piece, sanding it as much as I dared. I will pretend a naughty child has broken the edge and a clever cabinet-maker has mended it.

 

After three coats of varnish it looked really neat. And in its environment you might not even notice it was broken.



It is remarkable how every small improvement makes a huge difference.

More replacements

I have replaced another piece in my Victorian house. Among the many things from the flea market there was a plastic coffee table, not particularly pretty, but I thought I would decorate it with egg-shell mosaic. I saved egg shells, painted them in two shades of gold, and while they were drying, I took the plastic table to see how it would fit in the room. Frankly, the room is rather crammed already, so another table would probably be too much. And then I suddenly saw the coffee table I made all the way back five and a half years ago when I was taking my very first steps as a miniature maker. I was very proud of myself then, because I had either pinched from somewhere or discovered myself that chess pieces came handy. But it was then. Today, I see how clumsy the table is:

There simply aren't tables like that. And I realised that I didn't have to bother about mosaic; that the plastic table would be just fine. Don't you think?

 

Then I put in the display cabinet from the same flea market round. The displayed objects are too large, but it will have to be so for a while. 

Chairs

Among the most difficult things to make are chairs. They need really good tools, and although I finally did make some chairs, initially I bought them from ebay. But some of the chairs you get from ebay are quite ugly or they simply did not fit into my house so I made new upholstery.

I am really proud of the coffee table. It is made from a metal brooch or buckle I'd had for years. Suddenly I saw what it really was. The base is a chess piece.

Putting up walls

I have now come to the moment, about a month after I first started, when I had to decide whether I wanted more rooms in my house. I didn't have to, but it was a challenge. I had to make a decision because I also wanted to have floors and wallpaper. Reluctantly, I made some purchases from ebay (again, I will show eventually how I made much more intereseting floors), but I used my imagination when I made the wall between the dining room and the drawing room. The dining room wallpaper is self-adhesive shelf paper.

And, viewed from the other side

And the full view of the drawing room

There are quite a few new details that need description. I wasn't confident about regular dollhouse lighting so I got Christmas tree lights. Viewed from the five-year perspective, it was highly unprofessional and quite ugly, but I was pleased then. I painted the light-holders and even the wiring. The mirror was among the very first things I made, even before I had a mitre box, therefore it isn't very neat, but I have kept it for sentimental reasons. I made the coffee table from a bit of my favourite venetian blind with four chess pieces for legs. The tea set is from ebay, as is the table lamp, made from a copper coin. But I made the chandelier.

I saw when I took the picture that it was a bit lopsided. But I made it myself, following the instructions from a book by Eva Malmsten. It is a quite a job because you need to keep the threads apart. I will show in a separate post how to do it. The large circle is a bracelet and the small a matching ring (both junk). The crystals are beads which I have threaded on copper wire. The hanging icicles are Christmas decoration.