Wood floor... any ideas??

 The floor of the dining room is finally done... and I can't stand to look at it anymore right now haha! This was so much work, cutting every single strip by hand with a knife, sanding, fitting, glueing... I have been working on it every now and then for months and therefore I'm so happy it's done!

Well, almost done that is... I still have to sand it, and oil it. There are also quite a lot of little gaps in there.
But the thing is I'm a little scared to sand it! Can I really just sand the entire surface in any direction now? It seems that if I'd sand it now, there will always be parts that you don't sand in the right direction... And those gaps... could I fill the gaps with a little glue and then just sand the whole thing or would that become a mess...

Maybe some of you who have done this before can give me a hint? What's your experience with this?

Now I can start puzzling with the bay window, it will be quite the angle cutting frenzy!! Also I'm making a chandelier for this dining room, and I'll try to make it into a tutorial.

David Iriarte workshop @ Apeldoorn show

I promised to be a more frequent poster, so here I am again! =)


When I found out that on the 26 of October there would be a workshop by David Iriarte in Apledoorn, a day prior to the Apeldoorn dollhouse show, I immediately signed up!

My end result

Stands are being build for the next day

The example picture of the side table we where going to make looked exquisite!  First I was so excited that such an incredible artist was giving such a workshop! Then my excitement sank to an ultimate low when I realised I would have to paint this difficult and intricate pattern on the tabletop myself....

During the workshop

But I bought some tiny tiny paintbrushes, gathered my courage and drove to Apeldoorn for a weekend filled with miniature goodness.

It turned out I my fear of painting was totally unnecessary! David was the most patient, kind and helpfull teacher ever and I ended up enjoying every bit of the workshop so very much, including the painting job!

First result after the workshop

I didn't finish my side table at the workshopday, I am a bit of a slow worker... But I wanted to do it as perfect as possible... and David taught us every technique we needed to finish the work at home.

Finishing at home

Adding more details and shading

During this workshop I learned so much, even from my fellow students! I really hope to take more classes of some kind in the future because it has surpassed my every hope and expectation!

 

Finished the decorating... on to the patina!

 
It was so scary to finish with the patina, after all the hard work I was a bit scared I would ruin it. But it turned out very nice I think, it looks nicely aged now. I'm not yet sure in wich colorscheme and in wich room this table would fit best, but finding out is part of the fun!!

Ice and miniatures

I just realized how long I haven't blogged. There hasn't been much miniature progress lately, real life got in the way ;).

It has been quite cold here in Friesland in the Netherlands. So all the canals froze over. This equals ice skating bonanza/heaven here in Friesland! And you won't hear me complain!

The canal behind my parents house was the ideal place to start and end many ice skating trips, and I've been doing just that this past week!


These pictures where taken very near my parents house. With frozen fingers after quite a few kilometers of skating ;p

This picture shows a view of the village where I grew up.

On the miniature-topic, I finished 1 wall... yes 1. I still have to figure out how I'll create the walls in the bay-window part. I want to make deep sills, but that will be a little difficult to do neatly. But where there is a will...

Meanwhile I'm cutting tons of little veneer strips for the floor. A big room is what I wanted, but that also means a big pile of strips to cut! That's o.k. it's quite therapeutic. And I still need to tackle the mirror for the overmantle.

I'm also working on a tutorial for a chandelier to share with you all... Better stop talking and start working! :D

I should let you all know, that I sent my proxxon saw back to the store and got a completely new one. It makes a different sound and seems to work perfect so far. I'm very happy with how this was solved! (see previous post)

Schloss dining room progress 2

I've been thinking about this hearth for quite a while, how to construct it, what material to use, how will I make it look just like the one from my inspirationpicture. Here is what I came up with. I used MDF, coffee stirrers, cardboard, popsicklesticks and some fancy woodstrips.


I'm constantly putting the pannel back into the room to see if the sizes work.


Afther the hearth was an obstacle overcome, I could move onto the panneling. This is something I've been wanting to do for a long time! There was no way panneling would look good in my modern dollhouse, but with the Schloss I can 'pannel' to my hearts delight!

I'm a bit of a perfectionist and this part required lots of time, measuring, fitting and redoing.

Here everything lies roughly in place, not yet painted or glued down, so you still see small gaps here and there.
There will be a extension mantel piece on top of the hearth, it is to flat and unrealistic like this. But I'm still figuring out what material to use now that my tablesaw is out of order...

I've seen this beautifull mirror here from Lucy Askew that would be marvelous for this room. It looks so much like the inpiration picture and it would fit so nicely, but I'm still indecisive about paying 40pounds for a mirror. I could totaly reason my way into buying it, but then again where do I draw the line when I have more than 12 rooms to decorate?


And because I needed to see how the sizes would work (and secretly for pure enjoyment) I put the pannel into the room. Offcoures all the loose parts fell down. But when I squint my eyes I can see how this will work out, and I like it!

Now I'm waiting for the veneer I ordered to arrive. A dark nut wood, or a teak floor will be the next thing to do here.



I'll conclude with this non-related picture, that I took this week on one of the last sunny days. This is my parents' cat, who thinks he owns our boat with his big hairy ... XD

Schloss dining room in progress

The dining room is the first room I'll work on, since it has been on my mind the longest and the ideas I had for it where the clearest.

I'm working on 'presentation cardboard' whatever that may be (It was the closest thing to foamcore the local craft store had).
The fireplace will be pitchblack, the overmantle off-white just like the panneling. The yellowish wallpaper will be on there and all the corner and framing wood will also be off-white.

I think the floor will be wallnut, but I'm not sure yet.

This picture was the main inspiration for the dining room. It is the frontroom of 'Hid Hero Hiem' in Bolsward. It used to be an orphanage and now it is a monument. I worked at a school nearby and a colleague was involved in the restoration of the whole building and it's rooms. So we went to visit. Needless to say it was very inspiring!

I've written about my compains to the company, I'll post the outcome.

Last but not least I've been having some problems with my proxxon table saw. Perhaps someone can help me out?

Whenever I put it at an 45degree angle, it starts smoking after a short while of sawing! Attaching the vacuumcleaner or not makes no difference. The smoke is not from the wood that is being cut, but comes from inside. The blade is not touching anything as far as I can see... It doesn't seem to be good or normal for such a saw as this one to be smoking at a certain angle...

Today after this happening again, it also gave me little static shocks! I don't feel save using it anymore now... any advice or experience on this matter?

The 'Schloss' in progress

An entire year has passed since I received the building plans for this dollhouse.
I've put many hours of my time into calculating, measuring, sawing, building and imagining since.

So whats the score at this moment? The dollhouse is almost completely put together. I have all the parts cut out, but I wont assemble it completely. I think I'll be moving in a few years, and I wouldn't be able to get it out of the room or out of the house ever again if I did assemble the house permanently!

So in the pictures the large library wing is still missing, and the huge roof and tower are not included in todays pictures either.


But the good news is that I can start with the interior, and along with that the exterior and neatly finishing all those odds and ends. And it is never to0 early to make flowers for the Schloss!

It's still going to be a german castle/mansion in the middle of the woods, meadows and mountains. So that's why I'll call it a 'Schloss'.

Some of the furniture you see is actually meant for the Schloss, but most of it is from my modern house to help my imagination.


I've bought some wallpaper and other supplies to start the real work. Oh you should see the stock of fabrics I've gathered! It's unhealthy! (I'll show that later!)

Please forgive the messy-ness of it all, the paper things in the hallway is to help design a good stairway.


I wanted to make removable walls but I can't find the material that I'd like. So for the first room I'll try a special thick cardboard, so that I can work on a flat surface and afterward install it into the house.
The house is way to deep to be making everyting straight onto the walls inside in a neat way. And I don't think I want to hear anymore funny comments about being a 'dollhouse-gynecologists'! :P haha

Byzantine miniature icons and tiniest seashells ever!

I'm back home from a very wonderfull holiday in Greece. Surprisingly and unintended I found lots of wonderfull miniatures during my trip!

First of all, these copies of old Byzantine icons. My pictures don't do justice to the detail in them. They are so small and precise, the pictures don't show it but you can see the relief of the paint strokes, they are so unbelievably small!
This is Saint Demetrius if I'm correct (and please correct me if I'm wrong) and his story

Please do click on the pictures to see the large original size, to see more details.
These icons will go in my new dollhouse in the making, a small castle.

This is Saint George (and here is his story klik)

I found these lovely little statues of the goddes Aphrodite/Venus de Milo and Nike (the headless one) goddess of victory. I think these will look good in a library or garden or something like that in my new dollhouse castle


Last but not least! We were on a beach, for a lazy day in the sun and some snorkling. I was happily bored and I was lazily running some of the grit/sand trough my fingers. I suddenly noticed a tiny tiny seashell in it!

So the rest of the afternoon we've been searching (again, very lazily) for these tiny shells and found many more in the most fantastic shapes and colors!


Please click the pictures to see them larger. I think nature made the most precious mini's ever and I'm glad I found them!

Bedroom finished!

Can you guess what this will become? I've been playing with the tablesaw again, there was something in the Ikea catalog that was still missing in the bedroom I'm giving a make over.


And what's a dollhouse room make over without new modern lights? So I rummaged around in my hobby drawers and found what I needed.


Did you guess? The woodbits will make 2 nightstands, inspired by these.


I painted them black, because that would match best with the other things in the bedroom. Because they'd become black I didn't mind the non-matching wood.


And here is a little nightstand, with a new modern nightlight on top!


It was evening when I took these pictures, so they aren't very sharp and bright.. But I wanted to show the bedroom and how it looks right now. I did a LOT of work on this room and I love how it turned out! The new bedding, the curtains, the floor, all the furniture I made, it was quite a bit of work and it all came together very nicely if I may say so myself.


The dresser I showed in the previous post was inspired by this one and is now finished up.

bedroom makeover in progress

I've been working on the bedroom, I got really caught up in it and by the time I remembered to take pictures it was already dark outside. Please forgive the poor quality of the pictures, my camera doesn't work to well when there isn't enough light.


The pillows where to small to make on the sewingmachine, so I stitched them by hand, and filled them with this black grit, meant as decoration in vases for example. It makes the pillows nice and heavy and easy to manipulate into a realistic 'fluffy' shape.

The blanket covers where made on my sewing machine and the extra blanket is felt that I fringed at the ends. To make everything look as if it is heavy and fluffy, small strips of double sided tape turned out to be very helpfull ;)


I also made a new floor for the bedroom. I used 3mm triplex and my new proxxon table saw to make the woodstrips, and I really like this much better than making floors out of lollipop sticks!

Behind the floor on my table are the curtains in progress and a little dresser. The dresser was my very first try with the proxxon saw and that machine scared the cr*p out of me! It even shot a tiny bit of wood onto my forehead! lol! But the end result is nice I think, and I learn a lot playing around with the saw, growing less and less afraid of the thing each time I use it ;)


Last, this blurry picture of the made over bed. I stained it a little more, raised the mattress and dressed it completely anew. I like it much better this way, more mature than the green don't you think?