Recycling and upcycling

I haven't been good at blogging in the recent months; I have hardly blogged at all, and one reason is that I have been very busy making miniatures! In the past, I used to make stuff to be used in various projects: furniture and accessories for dollhouses and room boxes, fruit and vegetables for a market stall, bread for the bakery, messy stuff for the messy kitchen, books for the library, and so on. I have seldom, if ever, made anything for the sake of making it, without having any special project in mind. Partly this was because I started attending a miniature club where you could do a larger project or just do whatever you wanted inspired by what other people were doing. I wanted to try various materials and techniques, to learn new skills. It was also liberating to be able to finish something at one go. 

In this post, I will share some things I have made recently, mostly my own design and mostly made from rubbish. I have already shared many of these small projects in various groups, but here they are all in the same place, in no particular order. 

I will start with something that has received much praise and that I am really proud of because I have never seen anything like this. 

I had been saving these boxes from interdental brushes for years, knowing that one day I would come up with something ingenious, and that day eventually arrived. As we all know, painting plastic is a h-ll of a job, but thanks to chalk paint it has become easier and neater. When I paint with chalk paint I use a hair dryer which not only makes the paint dry quicker but also makes it dry smooth. The keyboard is a printie, and I also printed out a nice screen saver, covering it with transparent plastic, recycled of course. The laptop can be opened and closed, and there is also a printie on the bottom. I made five laptops with different screens. 

Another project that I am quite pleased with is rusty objects: buckets, milk canisters, tubs and such. 

For canisters, I use eyedrop dispensers. I made a few in zink look, but I wanted to practice making things rusty, and miniature friends seem to be more enthusiastic abiout them, possibly because they need more effort and patience. The lids are metal buttons. The rectangular tubs are butter containers you get at hotels, the round one, if I am not mistaken, clotted cream, and the bath tub is cut from a shampoo bottle. The handles are paper clips. To create the rusty effect, I first paint with ochre chalk paint, then rub with various shades of chalk pastels. 

Kitchen scales was a challenge: I saw one on the web and thought: I can make it! A small wooden cube, four tiny beads for legs, metal eyelet, metal button frame and a face printed from the web. The most difficult thing was to resize the face to fit exactly on the cube. 

This was another challenge I saw on the web, but I used a full-size cat gym as a model. It was great fun to make, but you should have heard all the swearing when the bits kept falling apart.

 

For Easter, I made Easter decorations, making eggs from polymer clay and using bottle caps for plates and some other rubbish for wreaths. 

A ridiculously easy project is pencils and crayons made from toothpicks. 

Another easy one was bars of chocolate cut from a catalogue page I had been saving for years. I photocopied the images on a black background and wrapped around pieces of cardboard. 

I believe I have shared rugs made with embroidery thread before. Somebody gave me a band the true purpose of which is unclear to me, but it has a perfect width for rugs, and I am amused by inventing interesting designs. 

 

Round mats can be made with twine. 

Golf pegs can be used for many things, for instance, pretty decorative lamps with thimbles for shades. I bought a dozen or so thimbles some time ago in a charity shop. 

Roll-up curtains are easy to make with a square of fabric, skewers, thread and beads. 

Venetian blinds are cut from bamboo place mats and glued onto craft sticks. 

A stool made from that famous pizza holder, with a seat made from floor protection pad - the kind you glue onto table and chair legs. 

The plates are cut from egg cartons, painted and decorated with decoupage - I used paper napkins with floral patterns. 

Last but not least, a few things I have upcycled. You can - or could once, before they raised prices - buy inexpensive miniatures at the Danish chain shops Tiger. They are good quality, but far too new and shiny. I like things to look natural and well used. Compare the before and after picture. 

 

I also painted shiny metal pots and pans set from Tiger to resemble the traditional Swedish enamel kitchenware Kockums. Authentic Kockums miniatures cost a fortune, but I am pleased with my imitation. 

I will stop for now, but I have more to show, including a range of plants and flowers so come back soon. I promise it won't be another year! 

Dark academia

 

When my daughter suggested that I make a Dark Academia room box, I had no idea what she was talking about, but after some research on the web I thought it was an interesting challenge. And of course the suitable format was a book nook rather than a room box. I had only made one book nook before, and I find it a fascinating format, but it has its special demands. A scholar's study would be just right. 

I made the crime scene book nook in a large cat sand box, but this project would be smaller, so a cat food box felt the right size. I covered it with wrapping paper. 

 

I wanted the front of the box to be a french window, and I had a frame from another project. I added a valve extending from the roof. 

I cut off a small bit of the beautiful floor I had from an earlier, dismantled project, and I printed out an old-fashioned wallpaper from the web. In accordance with the style, I made dark wooden wainscoting. For the ceiling, I used some leftovers of the magnificent Robert Adam paper.  Obviously, a book nook like this needs display lights, and it took me some time to figure out how to make and hide them. 

All the time I was testing different furniture and accessories. Some things I tried proved too bulky; some didn't quite fit in. I played with it for some time. But here is what it looked like just before I inserted the window: 

The writing desk is a Chippendale piece made from kit, with plenty of correct and interesting details that will never be seen in the final project. There are for instance small objects hidden in drawers. The armchair is likewise a Chippendale kit. I made the books from cardboard using book spine printies, but recombining them for individual look. Books on the floor are also made with printies, as are newspapers and maps. The chandelier is a fishing hook with some jewellery bits - I made it many years ago for my very first dollhouse. The clock comes from my clockmaker's room box; it's a large button with a printed clock face (I tried a grandfather clock, but it was too large). Just a couple of commercial minis: wine jar and glass, a candlestick, and of course a cat. A few more, and it would feel cluttered. 

Here is the finished nook. As I always do, I left my secret signature, like Hitchcock has a vignette of himself in all his movies. But I am not telling you where it is. 

 

Bakery room box

 Recently, I have been making a lot of miniature breads and cakes.

 

I have never been good with clay, but some time ago I attended a workshop where I learned some basic techniques that made me more confident to experiment. Now I have a variety of stuff that demands nice display, and what can be better for displaying cakes than a bakery. I have been planning to make a bakery for a long time, but as usual I need to find an interesting point of departure. It is tempting to buy a shop kit, but that's not much of a challenge. I needed, firstly, an open cabinet, and secondly, glass counters. I also considered having some cafe-style tables and chairs, but decided they would obscure the cakes.

Now, my most important insight about starting a new project, even when you have a good idea of what you are doing, is to go through your stashes. When you, like me, have been collecting rubbish for years and years, as well as buying stuff you don't need at the moment but might need some time in the future, you totally forget what you have. In this case, I was looking for something else when I found these two cabinets.

 

The one on the left I bought many years ago and never used in anything because it is too large for a 1:12 project. I tried to use it as a book shelf, but it didn't work. The one on the right I bought at a car boot sale during one of my very last weeks in Cambridge, mostly as a farewell souvenir, because it is also too large, but I thought I might use it in a project one day, and as you see I was right. Just what an old-fashioned bakery would have. Scale won't be a problem in this particular project.


Rummaging further through my supplies, I found small transparent plastic boxes, probably from fancy chocolates, that I use for sorting small things. Suddenly I saw typical bakery counters!

I am getting cardboard boxes with my grocery deliveries that are just the right size for a room box. The first step was, as usual, just to put in what I have for a rough sketch.

The table  is something I made a while ago to practice making furniture from craft sticks.

 

It didn't match the cabinets so I painted it dark. The till is a metal pencil-sharpener.

Then I needed to decide on floors and wallpaper. If you wonder why I put so much energy in floors and wallpaper in my room boxes when my focus is on displaying something - it is absolutely essential. Sloppy background will ruin your project. So sometimes planning and building backgrounds takes longer than the rest of the project. When small things are to be displayed, too conspicuous backgrounds may kill them. Floors and wallpaper must go well together. They must obviously also go well with the rest of the objects. Sometimes it takes several attempts before you strike it right. Fortunately, I now have a good-quality printer so I can print several papers and test. I don't think I ever get it right at first attempt.

Eventually I decided on pretty Art Nouveau paper from Jennifer's page, my favourite site for printies. With such a colourful wallpaper, floors should be more discreet, and after long deliberations I choose a conventional, but unbeatable pattern.

Now on to details. Large cakes can be displayed on cake stands and platters, but for smaller cakes and biscuits I needed trays. Again, going through stashes is helpful.

These came with sets of miniature cutlery, and they fit precisely into my counters, but of course they needed to be painted. This looks more realistic, doesn't it.

First preliminary fitting:

Now I need to make more bread and cakes to fill the shelves and counters.

Come back soon.

House restoration: nursery and servant quarters

The next room I repaired after the big disaster was servant quarters. Once again, my step-by-step posts from two years ago proved helpful.

There wasn't much damage to this room so I only had to glue the torn wallpaper.

As with the guest bedroom, I only put in things I could easily find in my storage boxes, so the numerous details are still to be added.

Next to the servant room is the nursery. I love this room because you can add as many details to it as you please.

At first I though there wasn't much damage to it, just torn wallpaper and some minor damage to the floor.

 

On closer inspection, however, the door surround was broken.

It was difficult to mend because it was hard to reach. When I built the house, I worked as much as possible on flat surfaces, including inserting doors. This door, I remember, was particularly stubborn, but at least I didn't have to fix it standing on a stepladder, reaching to the farthest corner. It will never be perfect, but it wasn't probably perfect to begin with.

Then I glued the wallpaper,  made some improvements on the floor, and while I was at it, I painted some edges that I had neglected three years ago.

With the nursery, I believe I have found more or less everything that should be there, an abundance of toys and books. The only thing still to be done is hang the bookshelves. And a couple of children are still evacuated in the country, but the room is now ready for them to return.


To be continued.

Plastic furniture upcycling

My recent acquisitions of cheap plastic furniture include these items:



All are used, some heavily used, some broken, and none is a valuable vintage object. My new obsession with chalk paint demanded that these things be upcycled into something more interesting. Decide for yourself whether I have been successful. I will show before and after pictures, with occasional comments.

You cannot see it very well in the picture, but the paint created a nice fabric effect on the bedspread.

I will replace the mirror, which was crooked anyway, with a real mirror sheet.

 
I had nothing against the fabric, but I had to remove it, and it was glued firmly and couldn't be saved. I am not sure this is the best fabric, so I may replace it later.

The desk was the right colour, but still looked like plastic. Upcycled, it looked like ancient oak.

This is the result of two afternoons. More to come.