Barbecue, part 2

Read the first post about this project.

Following from where I stopped: I painted the fence green, let it dry, painted over white and wiped it off with a cloth.

I remember a comment from a facebook friend about aging miniature objects. Why are people so obsessed with aging, they said. When things were first used, they were new. That's absolutely right, but a perfectly painted mini-fence just doesn't look natural. Or maybe you need a different kind of paint. Chalk paint? I need to learn how to use it.

Anyway, here is the fence, and it's time to make a backdrop. Since the focus is on the outdoor scene, I won't bother to make a whole house, just a front, but it doesn't mean omitting details.

I started with a piece of cardboard, matching the size with the yard.
  

  

The door and window will be fake, so when I painted the wall, I wasn't very particular.

 
However, I didn't like the smooth surface. I didn't have sand paint, but if you use coffee grounds the effect will be similar.

I had some left-over slates from an old project. I have since then learned how to make roof slates, but at some point I need to use these left-overs, and there isn't enough for a larger house, so I decided to use them.

 

I painted them rusty red.

 

As you see, I have also started making a door. I cut it from a cheese box and painted in the same technique as the fence. For the little window, I used a lid from a spice jar, cutting half of it and inserting "frosted glass" (plastic file holder) and a dark background behind it. The door knob is a paper clip.

This is as far as I got today, and I will save some fun for tomorrow. I have an idea about how to make the window. Come back soon!

Yes, there is a lizard under the swing.

Barbecue

During a raid on a craft shop I came across this set of garden furniture.

It isn't particularly elegant, but it wasn't expensive, and I thought I could make something interesting with it. I have never made an outdoor scene, and the grill just begged to build an environment around it.

The first step was to decide on the size of the scene, and because it is an outdoor scene, I didn't use a box, just a piece of cardboard. I may add a backdrop, but I am not quite sure yet. Flagstone deck felt right for a barbecue, and it is fun to make from egg cartons.

 

You need a lot though, as I remember from my Roman turret project, and in a household of one, it may take some time. So I made as much as my current egg supply allowed and moved on to making a fence. I could have made a stone wall, but it would obscure the scene, and I wanted something that would emphasise the scene without disturbing it. A conventional wooden fence felt appropriate.

At the moment, most of my tools and supplies are in storage, waiting until I get a place of my own; moreover, what I have brought with me turned out to be quite random: for instance, I don't have my cutting mat and have to do with a piece of cardboard. Which works perfectly well.

I like putting furniture even in unfinished environment because it helps with planning the whole project.

I cut the cushions from a kitchen sponge cloth. I also decided that the owner of the patio is a bit lazy and hasn't weeded between the stones, and everyone who has ever had a stone patio or yard knows how stubborn weeds are.

Yes, I know that you can buy miniature grass in model railway shops, but what's the challenge? Much more interesting to make your own by unraveling a piece of fabric. Once again, my supplies are random, but I will save the dark threads as they can come handy in another project.

This is a later stage (when I had consumed more eggs), but it shows what I did. Bits of embroidery thread, bits of florist tape, and a few fabric leaves cut to measure.

I found a very interesting gate structure on Pinterest, which didn't work in small scale, but at least I made something less usual. And then, on my walk in one of the wonderful corners of my city, I saw just what I needed:

I have never seen a gate lock like this. My walking companion was puzzled about me being so excited and taking pictures of something so ordinary. But it isn't all that ordinary, is it? It's very clever, and it was fun to try and reproduce it in miniature.

 

The battery is for scale.

I was so eager to build the fence that I abandoned my principle to paint before assembly. It will of course be much more difficult to paint, but on the other hand I needed to see what it would look like before I can decide what paint to choose. I am considering the rusty red as in the picture of the full-scale gate, but I am anxious that it would be too conspicuous. If you want to know what I have decided you will have to come back.

In this picture you also see a bit of my workspace.

To be continued.

French cottage style bedroom

I am getting bolder and bolder with my Chippendale kits and want to try different techniques and finishes. I have several kits for chest of drawers, that are mostly similar, and my large house doesn't have room for more chests, so I decided to make a chest that didn't fit into any of my projects. The chest itself wasn't particularly interesting to make, exactly because they are more or less the same. I won't show it step by step, but what I did was paint it with antique white acrylic and then add decoupage decoration. I had never made proper decoupage, and I am not quite sure I made it correctly, but I was very pleased with the result.

The drawers are not glued yes, because I always insert drawer handles before I glue on the fronts. The kits comes with standard handles and plates, but I didn't think they were suitable for this style. I wanted something like I have on my 1:1 chest, metal rings. I have plenty of these from junk jewellery, but they must be attached to the drawer in some manner, and it took me some time to figure it out. As usual, I was just rummaging through my supplies when the solution jumped at me. 

 

These champagne wires are among the best and most versatile materials. Easy to work with too.


 

When I shared this picture in my Facebook groups, one friend commented: "Yes, this is what I always do". And I thought I had invented something remarkable.

Anyway, this piece did not fit with anything, but I wanted to make something to go with it and made a bed. Again, I won't show how I made it step by step, because it is exactly like other Chippendale beds, with stringed bottom. Like the chest, I decoupaged the headboard before assembly. 

 

Making the mattress was again straightforward when you have made it several times, but I have always had issues with bedding because it won't stay. Then I remembered a trick I have seen either in some book or on the web. If you want a piece of fabric to stay, glue it to aluminium foil. In this case, I didn't even have to glue, I simply sewed it inside the blanket.

 

Now I could tuck it in neatly. Mind, I would never ever have this pink in my own bedroom. But this seemed appropriate. And the two pieces went nice together.

 

Now, however, I had a dilemma. I already have a shelf full of single miniatures that do not fit in any existing projects. I put the chest and bed tentatively in a cardboard box, but realised I would have to make the whole environment: floor, ceiling, wallpaper, and the box was too small, and a larger box would be too large... So I made a compromise.

 

This is my first corner vignette, and next time I will do it better. When I asked advice of my miniature friends, they suggested foam board, mdf and other stuff, but I am a recycler, I don't want to buy materials unless absolutely necessary, and also I wanted to make the scene then and there. The wallpaper is a printie from the web, and I made the floor quickly (relatively, maybe two hours) from self-adhesive shelf lining, cutting 4 cm strips and gluing them in a pattern. I used 1:1 embossed wallpaper for mouldings.

The dressing table and the chair are temporarily borrowed from a different project. I have another table kit and may make it in the same style, or perhaps it's not necessary. Maybe sometime I will develop this project in a whole room box or even a small holiday cottage, but at the moment the two pieces are nicely displayed.  

By the way, the tea service comes from a set of earrings an American friend has given me.