Miniature wheelchair

Some time ago I saw a picture of a miniature antique wheelchair on the web. For some reason or other, I got fascinated by the idea and saved it in my project bank for the future.

For a wheelchair you need wheels, and I consulted my miniature groups, with variable success. Of course, you can buy anything from model shops, but that's not what I typically want, so I put the idea on a back burner.

Then I happened to pass by one of my favourite craft shops, Tiger. I always go in to see whether they have something interesting, and this is what I found:

Frankly, I don't quite understand the "build-your-own" aspect because all you need to do is add pedals, and I cannot at all see why you need four wheels, but since the only thing I wanted was wheels, I got four for the price of two. And a tiny screwdriver as a bonus.

I took the bike apart (this is when I again wondered about "build-your-own") and painted the spokes.

As we all know, acrylic paint doesn't work on plastic so I had to paint with enamel. I wanted the spokes brown, to resemble wood, but I didn't have brown enamel and wasn't confident to mix my own.

Enamel paint takes ages to dry. Meanwhile I made the chair itself. I used a kit from the House of miniatures.

 

I could have made a chair from scratch, but the challenge was the wheels, and I have far too many chair kits anyway. I will not show how I made the chair because it was straightforward. I used a piece of leather for the seat because I am not good at cushions.

What was less straightforward was attaching the wheels. My initial thought was simply to fix the wheels on a toothpick and glue to the brace, but of course the wheels would not turn, and it felt like cheating.

 

Back to the group again, and I hope my miniature friend doesn't mind me quoting the instruction in full.

"Take wire thick enough to fit through the wheel centre hole. Now, measure a piece that passes underneath the seat of the chair. On either side, bend the wire at a 90 degree angle towards the ground. Then, at the correct height to match the centre of the wheels, bend it outwards on both sides to lie horizontal. Place each wheel onto the two ends of the wire to check the height. This is where you decide how high off the ground the chair will rest. Then, if you can find a tiny washer or flat disc that fits onto the wire, thread that against the chair. Add the wheels. Now add another disc or washer against the wheel. Make sure the wheels can spin easily. Take cutters and gently cut off the wire close to the washers, leaving about 3mm. Glue a small bead on to the tip of the wire - not the washers and not the wheels - as they must still move. For balance, the best would be to add two chair legs in the front, so that the chair doesn't tip over. Then the nurse can tilt the chair back a bit, and push it forward easily. Unless you can find a miniature wheel for the back, to prevent it from tipping over".

Guess whether I was intimidated! This was by far the most sophisticated miniature I had ever made.

To begin with, the only wire I have is champagne wire. It was the right thickness, but of course it isn't straight and cannot ever be fully straightened. But it is easy to work with. I didn't have washers, but I made tiny spacers from card. So it was easier than it sounded, until I realised that I had no idea how to attach the axis to the chair. Back to the group and the same guru: 

"You will have to mark the position of the wire on the chair base. Then glue wood strips on either side of that, but leave enough space for the wire to fit in the middle channel. Once the strips are glued down, you can glue the wire into the channel, probably with E6000 or some similar strong glue. If you want it to look pretty, you can cover it with another strip of wood or toothpick, or even just paint it to hide the glue".

I don't know what E6000 is, but I used my usual strong glue, and it all worked fine. In my excitement, I forgot to take pictures. But I followed the instructions, glued strips, then glued the wire and glued a piece of coffee stirrer on top. When I painted the whole assembly you almost couldn't see it. I used a tube from a cotton bud to cover the worst uneven parts of the wire, and it looked even more impressive. 

Ideally, I wanted raising foot rest, but it felt a bit of an overkill. (Next time maybe). I don't know whether the foot rest raises on the miniature I first saw on the web. As I was rummaging through my supplies, I decided that sticks from Magnum ice cream would be most appropriate.

 

I didn't attach them yet, because first I needed to figure out how to make the back wheel. Again, I didn't have to, but having got that far I at least wanted to give it a try. I had the fork from the plastic bike, but it looked too coarse on the delicate chair. I didn't have small wheels with spokes either and didn't know where to get them, so if I ever find one I will replace, but what I had was a little wooden wheel the origin of which I don't remember so it had to do. And it took me several evenings to figure out how to attach it so that it could turn. 

 

I know it's protruding too far back, and I will make it better at some point (when I also have a better wheel), but at least it serves its purpose. 

I don't remember what the handle used to be, just some bit I had in my supplies. As usual: don't throw anything away, it may come handy. 

 

I am very pleased with this project. It isn't perfect, but it is one of the most challenging pieces I have made, and it is not unlike what I envisioned. I have no idea where it goes in my various environments.  Maybe I can put it by the stairs in the great hall, waiting for the poor invalid to come down. And I now need a nurse to push it. 

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.

Champagne chair

A very happy new year to you!

One of my Facebook groups has asked me to show how to make a chair from champagne wire. This is the right season! So here is a very simple tutorial. All you need is a pair of pliers. The person who taught me said she could do it with bare hands, but I cannot.

First, you need to release the "legs" from the wire. Then you can shape the "back" as you want it.

 Fix the back onto the legs. Here I think pliers are necessary.

Here is your chair. You may want to add a seat cushion. You can also remove the metal seat altogether and make a cushion from card or something else.

And finally, you can add something to the back, for instance, pieces of junk jewellery.

 It took me fifteen minutes to make. Enjoy!

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.

Using imagination

Among the many brilliant ideas that I borrowed from Eva Malmsten and that immediately gave my dollhouse a unique look was this Dutch tile stove. Stupidly, I don't have a good picture of it from my original dollhouse, so this is a more sophisticated environment, but the stove is the same.

I am sure I have never seen another bottle like this, before or after. It happened at the right moment. The top comes from a different bottle. In Eva's book, she glued several jars on top of each other, but I had the shelf height to fit it into. I used a envelope clip and a piece of broken chain, two thumbnails (with plastic cover removed) and a jar lid for base. The doors (it is just one piece) are cut from metal foil, the kind you get off champagne bottles. The handle is a envelope clip, and the hinges small pieces of metal that fell out of something I was dismantling.

I think this piece is still among my top-ten favourites.

Getting materials

The next day, December 29, my daugher and I went to a huge flea market in Stockholm. Now that I had read the clever books I knew what I was looking for, and with your miniature eyeglasses you start seeing the possibilities. Take wooden candlesticks: turn them upside down, cut off bits if needed, glue together bits from different candlesticks, and here are your round tables with elegant turned stands. 

The best thing I found that day was a wooded venetian blind which I have to this very day used for furniture-making, rather than buying expensive materials from hobby shops. Remember: venetian blinds are indispensable for a miniature maker. I also found a box of wooden building blocks - another great thing for furniture making. I got an electic candlestick the use of which I will show presently, but among other things it contained copper wire. I got a load of photo frames. A bagful of metal buttons, to make lids, frames and candlesticks. And a little table in just the right scale, which the same evening became the beginning of the kitchen. 

But first I started a dining room with one of my new round tables

The tablecloth is a napkin, the bowls are for sushi soy sauce, the fruit are from some old potpourri, and the candlestick and the vase are just those many small silly things you don't know what to do with until you start making dollhouses.