Raising the Roof

I want the Witch's conservatory's roof to be removable to make arranging the plants inside easier. First I created trusses (at least, I think that's what they're called) to support the roof.

Because of its slight coffin shape (not a perfect rectangle but an irregular hexagonal polygon) the angles for the roof panels on the end were going to be tricky and need lots of support.

Pieces all cut to fit

Painted black and plexi (still has protective film on it) cut to fit

And (of course) once I saw the bare bones of the roof, I realized it was going to need a spiderweb design!

Freehand drew the slight curve needed for the "web" and carefully cut them out. I used 1" wide strip wood so the webbing would be roughly equal distance apart.

And then my brain went into overdrive: this spider web theme conservatory needs a crystal spider chandelier! So I will have to make that once I return from my trip to Texas (helping my daughter move cross country). Found some on Etsy I liked, but I need them to be about 2-1/2" (most are closer to 4") and I need them to have a light inside since it's supposed to be a chandelier.

There's no light in it and it's a little big for my purposes, but oh so lovely!
Crystal spider by treasuresbytiziana Etsy shop

There was one trim piece missing (paint was still drying on it) but I was so excited by how it is looking I took some photos to share (ignore the plastic wrap covering the trusses under the roof - I didn't want any excess glue seeping thru and accidentally glue the roof to the structure; it is supposed to be removeable):

Then my plumber canceled on me so my day opened up; flooring was installed and trim moldings cut, painted, and glued in place. Conservatory will look better with landscaping outside, plants for inside, and (of course) a spider chandelier. But for now, here are the "finished" pics:

Can't wait to create the spider chandelier and I am very excited to start the main house exterior painting, window replacement, and landscaping! Hope I'm up for mini'ing some more once I'm back home from Texas!

Conservatory Color

The Rutherford's Witch's house will get a conservatory addition. I am creating it out of 3 mirrors I bought from Michael's:

3 tabletop mirrors I bought on clearance after Halloween at Michael's

Creating walls for the conservatory

I popped the mirrors off the back and then cut wood walls for it. Wanted the conservatory to have a coffin type vibe so I cut 2 more walls (to make the room rectangular instead of square) and ordered windows from NightfallDesignsCo on Etsy to complement the big Gothic windows.

It still needs a lot of work but I rough-fitted it together:

Then I had a brillant idea: since the big gothic windows are made of metal, what if I filled in the top design area with Makit & Bakit crystals to create stained glass?  I had done something similar with clear Makit & Bakit crystals for my wizard's cottage, so why not do it for the witch's house?

Crystals that melt in an oven

Didn't know what finish may be on the metal framing so I wrapped it in foil, filling in the design holes with the different color crystals...

...and put it in my "miniatures-only; no food!" toaster outside (in case of fumes). Then babysat it for the 15 mins it needed to bake to make sure nothing caught on fire. 

Sat on my deck in the early morning light with my coffee staring at my toaster

They needed to bake one at a time for more than double the amount of time they were supposed to take, but I was happy with how they turned out even if it did take almost 2 hours of my morning!

Crystals melted into a smoother glass but there are still air bubbles and imperfections...

...but I still think they are fabulous and perfect for my witch

I spray painted the walls black and have glued some seam trims where the walls meet each other. Loving how the stained glass looks!

Beginning to come together

Conservatory may need a chandelier now to light up the stain glass!

Now to admire my work for the rest of the evening, paint the trims black, and then start to plan/construct the conservatory roof!

Artply Rutherford Renovation

First complication in turning my childhood dollhouse (First post about Rutherford) into a witch's house was my teenage self apparently superglued the upper cabinets to the kitchen walls.

Gotta saw the cabinets off the walls

Once that was taken care of, it was time to strip the wallpapers. I knew this task would take hours, if not days, because my younger self didn't know what she was doing. Walls were not primed, Elmer's glue was used instead of wallpaper paste, and papers were wrapped into nooks and crannies where now my slightly arthritic 50-year old fingers struggle to reach.

Closing my online shop, winter illnesses, my eldest's college graduation and wedding, and then my youngest's high school graduation caused a long delay in getting back to this project. But I jumped in whole heartedly and stripped the papers all out in one day:

Some rooms had been primed, others were not

Did not strip the papers out of the top right room cuz that wall is going to be removed

A blank slate...

Some rooms are still a little rough thanks to the Elmer's glue

Then it was time to start cutting into walls. I removed a section of the wall to merge the 2 rooms up top into a larger room for the witch's bedroom. I still need to cut a doorway out to the conservatory (have to construct that first) and I need a section of the wall to be removeable to better see into the lower right side for a seance room (but I'm not cutting that until I hear back from the Etsy lady who makes the windows I want to buy for this house).

So until I hear about the windows, I am focusing on the conservatory construction. Which will also impact the front yard: I want a graveyard in front of the conservatory. Do I add an entire front yard or just the conservatory and graveyard on the side?

House with rough draft conservatory and front yard board in place 

I am also filling in the stairs to make the lower right room better suited for a kitchen/seance room combo.

Open room with staircase

Adding a wall to the steps for a kitchen sink/fridge (oven/stove will go on opposite wall)

Entire house needs to be primed black and then painted (plum and dark green). But for now I have gotten a little distracted by the front yard (full graveyard? spooky tree? pumpkin patch?) and creating stain glass for the conservatory...blog about the stain glass coming soon!

Popping Popcorn

I met new friends at the Philadelphia Miniaturia show 2 weeks ago. (Show was amazing for anyone interested -- multiple rooms of vendors! Well worth the time and hotel room to fully see everything.) One of my new friends mentioned she saw a popcorn string to hang on a Christmas tree: the kind with cranberries strung in between each popcorn kernel. And I remembered that was one of my "to do" list projects. So using my new friends as an excuse to not feel guilty about playing with miniatures, I "popped" right into mini mode and decided to make us some.

The popcorn I had made last year (Post of first popcorn I made) wasn't going to be enough for my project, never mind being enough for both my new friend and me. So, I got to work making more popcorn. Mixed about 3 parts white FIMO clay with 1 part translucent. Added a tiny dot of yellow and created my skinny snake to pinch pieces off of. Rolled hundreds of little balls, some got indented/poked with a needle, and then 2 or 3 were stuck together to create a "popped" kernel:

One round, one indented

Pushed 2 rounded together and the indented one is on top

My little popped kernel

Roughly 1/16"

My army of kernels (colonels? Lol)

Dusted a few with some darker brown chalk to resemble burn marks but you can't really see it

Then I had to "string" them. The cranberries were easy; they are beads. But the miniature popcorn had to be glued onto the strand. Plus I need the string to be flexible so it can be put on any tree (or garland or where ever my friend will put hers) so I can't just glue the kernels to the cranberry beads. First attempt was on nylon invisible thread. Big mistake. I could hardly see it to glue the popcorn in place. Plus it was very rigid. So I quickly switched to white thread and that worked great.

Threaded the beads on but glued the kernel to the thread allowed for the flexibility I'd need!

Friend's 2 foot long strand has been mailed to her and now I'm working on my shorter strands to go in to my miniature Christmas scene.

2 foot long strand

Up close

Still flexible!

But before I can work on my christmas scene, I have to first deconstruction/spray paint/renovate my childhood dollhouse into a witch's home!

Memories Before the Demolition (Artply Rutherford)

The Artply Rutherford was my first wooden dollhouse. I had received a TOMY plastic dollhouse when I was 5 years old, but the only real memory I have of it was that the dishwasher had a rack you could pull in and out: that detail blew my 5-year-old brain. But this was my first assembled "from wood sheets that you punch the pieces out of" kit (aka tab-and-slot kit). My mother bought me the kit when I was 13. I don't think she expected me to do much with it; probably assumed I'd lose interest part way thru assembling it and she'd have various wooden pieces laying around her basement. But I assembled the shell that first weekend and then spent the next 7 years, on and off, finishing it.

There's supposed to be a little porch roof over the 2nd story French doors that I obviously lost or couldn't figure out when assembling, but ultimately that will work out better for my future plans for this house...Anyway, 13- to 20-year-old me made a lot of mistakes. I was still learning. 

Overall view of interior

Some things I'm impressed I did: second story stair railing wasn't abandoned like all the other stair railings were, windows have their interior trims in place (some of them even painted to coordinate to the room), the bathroom door is on a hinge! Other things bother me to no end: tower railing is off center, didn't use proper glue for wallpapers, painted after house was assembled...the list goes on but you get the idea.

Painting after assembly means lots of paint where it doesn't belong, like on the porch floor

Some window trims didn't get painted on the sides cuz I glued trim on before painting them and I didn't want to risk getting the trim paint on the house

Many warped shingles - used the wrong glue

Broke original front door and 20-year-old me replaced it with this Houseworks door that unfortunately makes transom window above look like a gaping hole

2nd Story doors also got replaced - better fit, but why are knobs halfway up on all my doors? LOL

Very impressed hinges still work, but again, knobs are in place for the 9-ft tall people who live in this house. LOL

Has bugged me for a while that railing on tower is off center. Didn't bother me enough to do anything about it though.

My stained fingerprints left marks on the white wallpaper while installing the trim in this room

For some reason I didn't paint the ceilings in this house? (Also can see my awful streaky glue job on the wallpaper to the left there.)

I love the play room in this house, but using Elmers glue to attach wallpaper was the completely wrong thing for 14- or 15-year-old me to do! Every single glue streak is seen.

And several years ago, I thought about selling off the house, or even donating it, to make room for my ever-growing hobby. I had long since outgrown the house. I liked some of the accessories and the kitchen cabinets were very nice, however the rest of the furniture and decor wasn't really my style any more. But I didn't follow thru with getting rid of it because of the number of customers who came into my shop lamenting that they didn't keep their first dollhouse. And, technically this was my first dollhouse (my first wooden dollhouse and the first house I assembled). So I kept it, gathering dust and cobwebs, in the basement.  I am so glad I did keep it: because I'm renovating it into a spooky, not-quite-haunted-but-rocking-some-unearthly-vibes, witch's home. This project will barely be started on Halloween, but I had to at least start the process in October, right? That's kismet or something.