Mini Automata

In 2006 on a trip to England I bought all of these little items in a miniature shop in Bath. I have always been fascinated by the little lion tamer automata toy that you can see on the far right, and always wondered who made it, well I discovered their blog today, enjoy!!! 

 http://stleger.tumblr.com/

Elga

Victorian Dollhouse Study

I haven't posted about my dollhouse for a while so I thought it was high time that I show you the study and how I did certain things. I prefer things like curtains to be removable for cleaning and wiring for in case anything goes wrong in the future. Here you can see the basic shell of the room, the middle floor plank is loose, the floor has a groove cut in it for the kitchen's light fitting wire, in the back of the wall there are two holes, one for the wire and one for the fireplace light.



On the left wall you can see two screws above the window, the curtain pelmet fits on here. The lamp's wire goes through a hole in the wall to the outside.



Here you can see the holes in the back of the pelmet that fits over the screws in the wall. The lace curtain are sewed to the curtain at the back, the curtain fits on a rod that fits into grooves on each side of the pelmet, this means that I can clean the curtains if a spider or any other creature decide to make this their home and trust me they do on occasion.



Here you can see the lamp's wire on the outside of the house going through a hole in the corner to the back of my house where all the wires will be hidden behind a chimney breast. The scullery closes against this side of the house so the wire won't be visible. Check under the label Victorian dollhouse if you want to read earlier posts that I wrote about this house.



My husband helped me with the fireplace, the front and back was made from a piece of galvanized steel. In this photo you can see the back of the fireplace, the loose piece of flooring is back in place as well as the hearth stone.



Here you can see the fireplace from the front, the molding around the arch was made from twisted wire.



The animals on top of the bookcase were antique fair purchases and carved from bone, the porcelain horse came from my grandma's sister and the hunting scene was painted by Anet Pearson. The rug was my first petit point rug.



I still need to finish the paint job on the pelmet, but I will do that once I have made the second pelmet for the window on the front of the house. The elephant on top of the High Boy is a Victorian chess piece carved from Ivory that I found at an antique fair. I bought the lamp in a miniature shop (I think it has closed down now) in Bath, England in 2006. A wing chair is on my to do list for the study. The painting above the desk is another one by Anet Pearson, unfortunately it seems as if her website has disappeared.



The floor above the study is still loose, when I start work on the third floor of my house I will complete the ceiling, I find it a lot easier to work on the walls etc. without the floor in place. I hope to get some work done on the parlor over this weekend.
Hope you all have a fun filled weekend!!!!
Elga

New Furniture

I have been working on a new piece of furniture these last 2 months and I am finally making some progress now that I have all my tools sorted out. I am using Mopane wood for this piece of furniture.Hopefully mine will look as good as the original when it is finished, this is an early 19th century sewing table with a sliding screen in the back to protect Milady's face from the heat of the fire and you can see it here.



I am actually making five of them and they all have owners already. Here you can see the 5 sets of fronts and backs, the scrap piece in the one back is where I milled out a slot for the sliding screen, quite a tricky little job. I am still going to cut off the square parts on the bottom of the legs, they help to keep everything square while gluing.

Elga

Victorian French Knot Rug

The lap stand has really proved its weight in gold, I am stitching a lot faster and easier than before. I have started a rug for the parlor of my Victorian dollhouse, I am using french knots again as I like the pile look that it gives to the rug, I found the chart here and there are lots more on this site to enjoy!!!!

Elga