My Happy Helpers

One common complaint of motherhood is that you are never left alone: can't even use the bathroom without a kid knocking on the door needing something.  So my hobby is no different!  I started to chip out the Leaky Cauldron pub floor and it attracted the attention of my girls. 

Luckily two of my girls are old enough now to actually help!  I was not surprised by my eldest offering to help me; she likes to help with everything I do, from laundry to miniatures.

It was appropriate that my middle daughter also wanted to help; I was pregnant with her 10 years ago when I took the class and first made the structure.  How appropriate then that she help me finish it up!  She is not into miniatures, but she is a Harry Potter fan so she was eager to assist.  Plus, she is great at deconstruction!

So, slowly but surely, the old plaster floor is getting chipped out!

Getting Personal . . .

I was so certain that I would struggle on a customer's dollhouse recently and when I encountered no difficulties with the job, I felt empowered and ready to tackle the world. Well, my tiny corner of it anyway.
 I know that I should be working on my Mansion.  It sits right here behind me as I type; a figurative elephant in the room. (Okay, it's not really as big as an elephant but to hear my spouse complain about it still sitting in our family room corner you'd think it was larger than a pachyderm).  Yet I went and brought a different project up out of the basement . . . .


My unfinished but still respectable structure



A local lady is trying to coordinate a Bill Lankford class here in Loudoun County.  It's his Leaky Cauldron/Diagon Alley class. On the pamphlet I made and posted at work, I used a photo of my own (unfinished but still presentable) Leaky Cauldron/Diagon Alley that I made in a Bill Lankford class 10 years ago. I never completed this project for a very stupid reason: The pub floor.



My Leaky Cauldron Pub Floor



I had never used wall spackle to create flooring so I wanted to make sure I had completed this part in class that way Mr. Lankford was right there if I ran into problems.  Unfortunately we were rushing at the end of class and I hastily created this stone floor in the last 1/2 hour before leaving.  And I hate it.  And I know I need to destroy it, chip it out, sand it, do whatever it takes to remove it!  Because I really want a wood floor in there.  So for 10 years I have avoided completing this project because I know I have a messy and labor intensive job ahead of me to undo my poorly done floor.

There are some minor other issues, but they are either quick fixes or decorating issues.  A window needs to be repaired and installed:

This window needed to be installed . . .

. . . but it broke before I got to install it.  So I have to fix it first.

Stones under the moving part of the structure need to be glued down with a special formula of soap and water (a special formula that is written on a tiny scrap of paper that may never be found in the "safe spot" I put it somewhere in my basement):

This collection of aquarium pebbles need to be glued down -- it's
amazing I haven't lost any of them over the years
as they just rattle around down there under the pub.

And, the part I am really looking forward to: various shop windows in Diagon Alley need to be filled.

I have cauldrons and owls for these two shops, but the shop just out of frame on the right
is a robe shop.  Not too thrilled about filling that shop, and am debating about changing it to a different shop all together.

There is also an exterior shop window that needs to be filled with some merchandise.  It is a muggle shop.  There is already one other exterior shop window that has Harry Potter books in it for sale.  Any ideas of what should be for sale in the other muggle shop's window?

Hinged!

Both hinges cooperated and turned out great!

Dollhouse Before: minor work needed on right side of house to reattach
 the addition front panel and the second story porch door back in place.

Dollhouse After: Cleaned, reattached additon front panel, put porch door on hinge,
reglued porch railing in place and interior stairs were given a coat of paint and reglued in place (not shown).

Customer was happy to have the childhood dollhouse swinging parts back in working order.  Addition panel was put on a new hinge and the porch door was reglued together and fit back on to the hinge.



Porch door opens and closes again!



I was happy that there were no issues with the job: hinges went on without a hitch!  Riding on a wave of euphoria over my hinge success, I decided to tackle a personal project I have been avoiding for 10 years: my Leaky Cauldron/Diagon Alley! It is now up out of the basement and ready to be completed!

Back!

So my sister is married! Yay!
Now it is time to focus on work again . . .
Customer brought in her childhood dollhouse that needs some minor repairs: fix porch access door, repair molding above front door and re-glue porch railings back on, and reattach front dollhouse piece which was on hinges but fell off. So two separate hinge issues (smaller porch door and large dollhouse panel). Not gonna be fun as hinges are my nemesis!

Revisiting WWII P.O.W. Dollhouse

The customer emailed me photos of the World War II P.O.W. dollhouse that we refurbished/cleaned up for her!  She said I could share these with you all:

The family room (we wallpapered the walls, put down flooring, and installed trims).
I love the curtains and rug in this room -- and the decoy ducks on the mantle!

Quite possibly my favorite: View from Dining Room into Kitchen!
Originally the only access to the Kitchen was thru that archway, but we made the
window mullions on that kitchen window (behind the stove) removable so
customer could better access that room.  She said it was a great aspect to have when
arranging the kitchen and installing the curtains in there!

Moving upstairs to the summer porch area . . . . very quaint!

The little girls room: Customer is looking for other curtains for this room,
but I think these sheers look cute too.  What a sweet spot for girls to hang
out and listen to their records (It's the 40's so there are records - kids, ask your
parents or grandparents!).

 The bathroom is so beautifully coordinated with the green polka-dot curtains
and yellow accents: really pops the color on the floor!

More bathroom.

 

Customer is still playing and decorating the last two rooms (another bedroom and a mud room) but it's nice to see something we worked on all flushed out and decorated!  I love it when people are enjoying their hobby so fully!



Playing with Paperclay

My first experience with paperclay was about 1-1/2 years ago and, in my opinion, it was a success.  Took me forever to complete the small project but it looked gorgeous!  I made the small "bricked" piece for a friend as a Christmas gift.  Took me 3 nights to paint it.  Found out after the fact (from another friend who

My first attempt at Paperclay.

has actually taken a class and been instructed on how to use paperclay as opposed to me who was just winging it) that I had done it the difficult way: I painted each brick one at a time, including the edges of each brick, then did a dark wash (wiping it away from the tops of the bricks so it would not alter my brick color) to get into the crevices between each brick.  Apparently I was supposed to do the dark wash first to get it into the grout and then the bricks just needed to be touched up with paint to give them some color.  A much faster approach than painting each brick and edges as I did.


But, having had success with paperclay on the smaller project, I used the left-over chunk of it that I had to make the 1795 kitchen floor!  I rolled it out and then stuck it in.  Then realized that it only filled about 1/2 of the room.  I did not know how much time I had before it started to dry out so I quickly rolled out another section and blended it into the first piece.  And still was about 3" x 5" too small.  So another handful of paperclay was plopped into the roombox!  Figured I could roll it out once it was in the room.  Which would have been a great idea if the rolling pin fit in the roombox.  So I used my hand to flatten it as best I could.  It is not as even as I'd have liked, but given it is a 1795 kitchen, they probably had some uneven floors (although not as uneven as mine, I'm sure! LOL).  Then I started creating my bricks . . . .

Drawing in my bricks . . . .

Seeing it like this (with only a few bricks drawn in) makes me think I could use this to make snow banks on another project of mine!  You can see my bumpy uneven parts on the right from the door way to the open end of the room and on the far left as I had to do a touch up spot in that corner where the paperclay was too thin.  The empty space on the floor is where my fireplace goes.  It's so odd seeing the bricks drawn in but all white . . .

Bricks all drawn in and left to dry for a few days.

Next I did the paint wash to fill in my grout lines . . .

Paperclay bricks with just a brown paint wash on them.

Then I painted quickly over the bricks with a burnt sienna color paint, slightly watered down in some spots because I wanted the bricks to look faded/old and very worn.

1795 kitchen floor.

Now I have to tackle some electrical decisions (wire it or use battery operated lights like I did in the other 3 kitchen roomboxes?), decide whether or not to add a window on the left, and then am ready to move on to the walls (stucco white)!

Honeychurch done!

All wallpapered (including ceilings)!

Interior all done.



Ceilings all papered.