Monday 30 April 2018

The Sweet Pastry Shop Display

Hello everyone,

Hope you all had a great weekend. Another busy week has gone by and thinking about it we came to an end of another month. Time does fly! 

I have been very busy with The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn project and I have so much to share with you. I am pleased with the outcomes so far but today I will be sharing with you a very small project that I had for quite some time.


The Sweet Pastry Shop display is another one of those small projects that I never got to share on my blog before. This goes way back since 2010. I remember that the Dolls House Emporium had this display with a few pieces which were given for free when placing an order.

I had decorated the inside with a blue striped wall paper and also designed the shop sign. To the front I had decorated it with marble contact paper which till today still looks like new.

Eventually, a few years later I had started working on polymer clay and added a few pieces of my own which are the small pastries at the back and the cake which is on the right hand side of the shop window, below the tray of small pastries. 


The polymer clay pastries that I did


Below you can see my first miniature cake made out of polymer clay

I also added wall lights to the display and now it hangs on one of my walls at home. 

Even if it's a tiny project, it was 'The Sweet Pastry Shop' to inspire me to eventually make a bigger project which turned out to be "The Coffee Corner".



Hope you like it. It's not much but I still like it and it's good to have something in miniature at home. 

So this is all for today. I can't wait to share with you the new update on The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn so keep tuned. 

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

Sunday 22 April 2018

The Parlour in The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all fine and had a great weekend. Finally it seems that Summer is approaching. After a couple of gloomy weeks, in the past two days, it was quite warm and sunny. Can't wait for my warm Summer. Some would disagree with me, but I have always been a Summer person.


Finally I got to work on the last room of the Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. There is still so much to do and add in the other rooms but I always tend to finish the essentials before I go into detail.  The last room for this building is The Parolur. Thinking about it!!... What was this room all about after all? Parlor game is a group game played indoors. The Victorian era was most certainly the Golden Age of the Parlor game and was extremely popular among the upper and middle classes.  When guests were invited for parties, teas and other occasions, these games, were most definitely played in the best room of the house which in this case was the Parlour hence the name. 

I had a few ideas for this room and the one thing that I was definitely not sure of was the staircase. As much as I love these spiral staircases, I just didn't like how it was positioned and surly wasn't going to look the best for a Parlour. My first solution was covering the under stairs with a wall. book case, with anything that I could think of. I just didn't want to see underneath the staircase.


Another problem with the room was that there was already a big chunk of floor missing because of the opening of the staircase, so I had to be very careful how to go about it. When I was quite sure of what I had in mind for the room I started working on the lighting of the rooms below. 


Once that was done and settled, I started taking measurements to add a wall to cover the staircase which would have a door leading to another room.....(don't ask me where it would lead because I don't have any idea) ...at least it would give the impression of more depth I would say to the building, and next to the door I went for a small book.


Before I could continue working I had to work on the staircase, adding the posts, spindles and railings. 


It was brought to my attention that the staircase needed something more....a carpet!!! Why a carpet??? It took me hours to do. I knew that this was going to be quite a challenge especially with that type of staircase. Actually I used two different carpeting which I scraped when it came to do the turns, then finally the third carpet was the best! To add a bit more to the challenge as I was still not convinced of the carpet, I did a few rods with some thick wiring. The results at the end were definitely worth the frustration.



Once the staircase was settled I wall papered the remaining walls and also did the flooring. Just like the previous rooms I added the wooden trimmings in the staircase.



After all that, I had to start working on the wall that would cover part of the staircase. I used thick cardboard and wood to build it and covered it using the same wall paper. The book case was mostly covered leaving the shelves visible. 


I couldn't wait to see this wall in place and I was so happy with the end result. It completed the room perfectly. Here are a few pictures of how the room looks like so far. 




Hope you like what I have done so far. 

There is still so much that I want to add to the room. I have so many ideas for it now and I can't wait to continue working on it, so make sure to keep tuned for the next update on the progress of this project. 

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx



Sunday 15 April 2018

Charles Dickens - Book Display

Hello everyone,

Hope you are all fine and that you enjoyed your weekend. It's been a tough week for me, from Monday to Sunday. During the whole week I was very busy at the office, the daily routine which never changes, worked on miniatures for my clients and when the weekend arrived things got even tougher. Sometimes you can't do otherwise; priorities take over, even if by doing so, you have to sacrifice the things that you love doing. It's been a stressful weekend starting from Friday. There is always a time when the house you live in needs extra attention and maintenance. On the whole I have managed to do everything except work on my project. 

While clearing up I got to  find two of my displays in my studio flat. I totally forgot all about them. One of my displays was the book display called Charles Dickens. 


 This display book goes way back to 2011 and funnily enough, I never ever shared it here on my blog.  I remember that for 2011 the Dolls House Emporium had celebrated the UK rich literacy heritage that included the 150th anniversary of the publication of 'Great Expectations' by Charles Dickens, the 200th anniversary since the birth of Charles Dickens himself and the 200th anniversary since the publication of 'Sense and Sensibility' by Jane Austin. 

Obviously as I always loved English Literature. even in my younger days, at school, English Literature was my favorite subject apart from the English language and History. I loved Shakespeare, Jane Austin, Charlotte Bronte but I loved Charles Dickens the most. I remember I studied Great Expectations which I was totally hooked on. Some of my favorite books were, Christmas Carol, The Haunted House, Oliver Twist and The Old Curiosity Shop.  They bring so many memories.

So when the Dolls House Emporium made this book display, I wanted to do something that reminded me of the love I had for the English Literature especially Charles Dickens. The book display isn't big but still a few items can be displayed. 

Today I was shocked to see that the book display wasn't looking as nice as it did when I made it. The wall paper was stained and the outer paper of the display was falling apart. 




I couldn't bare seeing it in this state, so after putting the kids to bed and all was done. I got to work on it.  I started by opening the display and remove the items that were inside and the wall paper. 


I went for an original wall paper, which I down sized and printed it. 


Once the wall paper was pasted in, I placed my dear old friend the doll Charles Dickens. 


The desk needed some cleaning from all the dust.


Finally I added all the pieces to the display. 


And here is the display book looking far much better than it did. 






So this is all for today. Hope you'll like it. At least I got to do something such as small in miniature after all. Hopefully, this week, it will be more easy going and I will get to work a bit on my project. Make sure to keep tuned for the next update on The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. 

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx

Sunday 8 April 2018

The Stairway in The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn

Hello Everyone, 

Here we are once again. Hope you all had a great Easter and a good weekend. Have been busy like always. I have to admit, it has been a good week too. Have enjoyed the kids being at home, worked on a few miniatures for clients, have moved the last few dolls houses to the new area and also got to work on my new project.


Before I start I wanted to welcome the new followers to my blog, WELCOME!!! Also I have some more exciting news. My Miniature World Blog has been awarded with another achievement by being ranked 9th place in the Top 40 Dolls House Blogs on the web. I wasn't expecting anything of the sort. I don't have words to thank you all for your constant support and encouragement to make all this possible. THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!


Coming back to the project! I have started working on the staircase of the building. The first thing I did was wall paper the walls, the flooring and the ceiling. 



Once that was done, I have done the cornice in the ceiling and skirting all around. Between the different wall paper  of the ground floor and the upper room I have also did a wooden trimming. This makes a bit of a difference I think. Then just like I did with the first staircase, I got to marble the stairs and even covered underneath the stairs with the same embossed paper that I used for the ceiling.  




When the staircase was done. I had planned to carpet the staircase and obviously use the stair rods. They were quite fiddly to do but so far I have managed to do one of the staircases.


I started by drilling small holes to the staircase were the rods are secured to the stairs. Then I fixed the stair posts in place with glue. 


Once the glue was set, I added the rods which needed to be shortened and added the carpet. 


I was very happy how it turned out. It looked very realistic especially when I put the stairs in place of the room. 


Once that was settled in, I added the last stair posts and railing. It did take me a while to finish but it's definitely worth the time. I can't wait to finish the remaining stairs which will also have a carpet and all. 

Here are some pictures of how the building is developing so far. 




Hope you liked what I have done so far. I know it isn't much. I'm really hoping that I will get to do the rest during this week. So keep tuned for the next update on The Master Swordsman Pub & Inn. 

Wishing you all a great week.

Take Care and See You Soon.

Hugs,

Rebecca xxx