A total makeover!

During my maternity period I travelled a lot up north to visit my parents. After being inspired by other miniaturists on the internet, I finally got the courage to make my old Lundby-inspired dollhouse into a 1:12 scale cottage. So, this is what I've been working on for a couple of hours now and then; a total transformation of my childhood dollhouse! And I'm not done yet...

This is the house where it all started, I guess! My dear grandmother gave it to me for my 6th birthday, and it was handmade by a craftsman inspired by the familiar Lundby-house. I could sit for hours and hours and rearrange the furniture, picturing how it would be like to live there. So this house evokes fond memories and reminds me of a time where the imagination and the hours to play had no limits.. Sigh:)

The first thing I did, was to tear down the wall between the old kitchen and bathroom in the first floor to get enough room for a new kitchen - and this is the room I've been working on for now. The things you see in the room are a mix between old and new, something borrowed and something blue:) When I first started out as a sort of a newbie to this hobby, I thought a scene like this was made in a couple of days... Now I know it's like a puzzle with tiny pieces you have to go search for over a long period of time. And some pieces turns out not to fit at all in the end, and some has to be adjusted or made from scratch before they find their place. I guess it's a lot like interior making and decorating in real life; when you think you're done you always find something to improve... But for now, the summer vacation up north is almost over and this kitchen is as good as it gets! Welcome home!:)

The cute little bags of pasta and cabbage was a gift from Christel when I visited her earlier this month- thank you Christel:)

Last mini supper

... at least for this night!

Want to share some wine and bread..? :)

I am on summer holiday with family in the north of Norway, and have enjoyed some extraordinary warm and beautiful summer days here. This night the light from the midnight sun is absolutely gorgeous, so I just had to jump off to the shoreline to get some mini pics!

I was in a hurry to catch the magical midnight light, so all I brought was bread and wine. And roses of course, and some sort of old pink crochet cloth I found in my grandmothers attic. Perhaps the roses are too big and make the bottle look too small, but I don't mind- I had some great fun shooting this scene anyway.

Wine and bread, what else do you really need? Wine glasses..?! Hell, no! We're at the seaside of north of Norway, in the middle of the night- we'll drink from the bottle..! Didn't the Vikings do that as well?

(The truth is I haven't managed to get some nice miniature wine glasses yet..)

A very good summer night to my readers- I really appreciate that you're dropping by:-)

Weee.... miniature plates!

I made some cute little miniature plates the other day. Well, didn't actually make the porcelain plates, there were ordered from a website and delivered plain white. But, I printed out some nice plate designs on decal paper and transferred them onto the plates. And I gave them an outline with a golden marker pen. If you search for "vintage plates" you get a whole bunch of images that you need to scale to the correct size. I used the tutorial from this site: http://carolynslittlekitchen.blogspot.no/2010/09/tutorial-decorating-plates-with.html

Easy peasy and great fun!!

Mini interview!

Mini interview with Christel Jensen

Notification! I will wright this interview in Norwegian, but for those of you who don't understand the language, I guess Google translate would help you out:-)

Jeg tok kontakt med Christel Jensen etter å ha blitt facinert av hennes blogg www.christeljensen.blogspot.no og til min store glede fant ut at hun holder til i Norge, nærmere bestemt Haslum i Bærum. Jeg har holdt på med denne hobbyen i "min lille boble" uten å kjenne noen andre som driver med det samme, så det var utrolig gøy å få komme på besøk til en skikkelig proff som har drevet med dette i mange år. Christel Jensen fikk tittelen "IGMA artist" i 2006.

IGMA "The international Guild of Miniature Artisans"

 ble grunnlagt for å fremme gode miniatyrer som en kunstform for å øke bevissthet og forståelse av høy kvalitet og utførelse. Christel har etterhvert utviklet konseptet "The mini mice" som handler om livet til en muse-familie på landet. Hun lager alt fra musene, deres hus og interiør selv, og selvfølgelig også maten de lager! På en egen blogg: www.theminimice.blogspot.no kan du lese om musene og også finne boken Christel har laget om dem "The mini mice In the garden of lace".

 - Hvordan havnet du inn i miniatyr-verdenen?

Jeg lagde noen hobbybøker omkring år 2000 hvor jeg lagde figurer og ulike gjenstander i Fimo-leire og etter det begynte jeg å lage smykker av den samme leiren. Etterhvert ble jeg inspirert til å lage miniatyrmat av Fimo-leire og drev med det en stund, til jeg fikk idéen om musene og fortsatte å utvikle deres verden.

- Hvor mye tid bruker du på å lage miniatyrer?

Å lage miniatyrer er ikke bare hobbyen min, det er også mitt yrke og livsstil. Jeg kan jobbe med dette både sent og tidlig og har den friheten at jeg i stor grad bestemmer over dagen min selv. Slik sett blir det å lage miniatyrer mest styrt av når kreativiteten kommer. Men den kommer hele tiden, selv når jeg slapper av og leser en bok eller ser noe på TVeller på nettet, så jobber mine tanker om hvordan jeg kan utvikle mine egne ting. Så kreativiteten er aldri avslått! Hendene kan kanskje slappe av, men hodet jobber hele tiden.

- Har du noen hjelpsomme tips til en som er nysgjerrig på å lage ting i miniatyr? 

Det kan være greit å begynne med et lite prosjekt, som å lage ett rom av gangen (roombox). Man kan kjøpe inn ting til å for eksempel lage et vaskerom eller et lite bad og så etterhvert prøve seg frem med å lage egne ting, små håndklær for eksempel, før man avanserer med å lage hus. Asiatene er utrolig flinke til å lage små enkeltscener, sjekk for eksempel ut Nunus house eller Studio Soo på Pinterest. Det finnes forøvrig en masse inspirasjon på nettet, for eksempel youtube og diverse høyprofilerte blogger som er verdt å sjekke ut.

- Hva betyr det å lage miniatyrer for deg? Og hva er utfordringene?

Når jeg lager disse små tingene og kommer inn i en flow hvor jeg glemmer tid og sted og verden utenfor, er det som en slags meditasjon. Jeg er ikke logisk laget, det er ikke slik hjernen min fungerer så jeg har alltid måttet drive med noe kreativt. Bakdelen med å ha sitt kreative kontor i eget hus, er at man må være mer strukturert på det man driver med. Det er alltid noe annet man kan gjøre, sette på en klesvask eller lignende så der jobber jeg med meg selv kontinuerlig. Men når man er kreativt anlagt så går det muligens utover strukturen- man kan ikke få i pose og sekk!

- Hvis du hadde ubegrenset med tid og materialer; hva ville du gjort da?

Jeg vil gjerne videreutvikle konseptet om "The mini mice" så jeg ville brukt tid på det og hentet inn ressurser som kunne hjulpet meg til å lage et produkt som var enda større og enda bedre. Jeg ser jo at det er mange muligheter med dette konseptet, det kan bli flere bøker og kanskje en film...? Tiden vil vise, man må begynne et sted.

Takk for intervjuet og tusen takk for at jeg fikk besøke deg, Christel, og titte inn i din fantastiske miniatyr-verden!

Porch finished!

Finally.... The porch is finished!

I have been working on the exterior of my house and here is the preliminary result. I guess I will do some more accurate decorating later on; a shelf on the wall, a doorbell maybe, a picture above the door... but that will have to wait;)

The doormat is made very easily by cutting out a piece of striped fabric (I don't know the exact english word, but in norwegian it's "striestoff"). All the exterior windows and door has been sanded to achieve the worn look. I also changed the exterior walls completely, the walls were originally painted in a glossy yellow from the factory that didn't look "real" at all. I painted the walls in three layers of white gesso, which gave a very nice cement texture before adding a grey/brown wash on top.

I made the crochet purse myself (as seen in "Crochet purse in bedroom") and the bread is made of Fimo. The vases with flowers were originally brown/green, I covered them with white primer and sanded them slightly. The flowers are basic scrapbooking material I guess you will find in every hobby store (in Norway Panduro).

I replaced the door handles to a pair more similar to the ones in real life. The ones that originally came with the house were simple cupboard handles. I also painted these white, they were originally brass. I can't stand brass..! 

I made a very quick bench with a couple of shelf holders and cut small pieces of wood on top. I painted them in a grey wash before gluing them in place. This porch is a very narrow one, but I really wanted a place to rest and have a drink and enjoy fresh bakery from the kitchen inside.. (which is a mess as we speak, by the way:) I made the crochet basket with raisin buns, soaked it in a glue/water mix to create the shape.

I think the owl adds a bit of humor to the decoration.. Have no idea were it's originally from, I just picked it up among my stuff just before the photo shoot.

Well, I hope you enjoyed the peek! If I should add anything, I could tell you it was a hell of a job carrying the entire house out in the garden to take the pictures..!! :) But I really do think that pictures taken outdoors creates the best setting for a shoot, the mood gets best with natural light.

Pimping up old furniture

In this post you can follow my sofa as it gets refurbished shabby style...

Before and after picture. I decided to pimp up some of my dollhouse furniture, finally got the guts to do it. I was so tired of my victorian living room, with heavy red velvets and the dark stains, I just had to do something.

 I got this sofa at a bookshop in Denmark last summer, together with some old dollhouse furniture that were scrapped in a box. I payed 100 DKK for 5 pieces, a reasonable price! I love findings like this:-)

This piece here is a mass produced sofa you can find in most toy shops, especially the ones with a small section for dollhouses and furniture. It's an easy piece to do a make-over of, it's made of wood and the fabric comes easily off.

First I ripped off the fabric and sanded the sofa.

I actually used nail polish remover to get the remains of the glue off.

I painted the sofa with one layer of gesso, it's an acrylic based paint used as an undercoat to give "tooth" before painting. Furniture like this is usually coated with a varnish from the factory that is very difficult to get off. Especially because the size and ornaments makes it difficult to sand.

On top of the gesso base coat I painted one layer of brown acrylic paint-

it gives a little more vintage style to the final result and gives depth to the ornaments.

Two, three coats of an antique white acrylic paint and one coat of matt varnish to add a subtile shine.

The last and crucial point to the process, rubbing the sofa with mahogany beeswax - gives the ultimate patina to the furniture I think. I glued some new fabric on top of the old mattress, and the wooden seat underneath it. I thought it looked pretty enough without fabric on the back and the armrest. Gives more of a "scandinavian bench" feeling to the sofa.

The final result! Made some quick pillows, and I like the colors but some of the pillows are a bit too big. I can change them later, so no worries!

Arrange and decorate as you like- hope you got inspired:-)

Et miniatyrlig funn!

OMG! My family and I went to a flee-market this weekend, and guess what; I got an original Lundby dollhouse from 1960-1970 for 100 NOK!
I was so exited I smiled all the way home with my house safely in the back of the car. The house is all made of wood, compared to the Lundby-houses produced today which are made in plastic. Together with the house followed a box of furniture, it was like Christmas day pulling out one piece after the other. Although the house and furniture are in 1:18 scale, it's possible to use a couple of the tables in my 1:12 dollhouse.

The original catalogue for the house-

I found this picture on the internet.

The house is not in mint condition and several furniture and accessories are missing, but still- it's a vintage beauty.

And would you believe this; some of the electricity still works!

The box of furniture contained a vintage Rocket lamp!

How cool is that..??

Beautiful functionalist-type fireplace.

Love the wood carrier and the wall-lamp!

I believe this is a replica of a well-known chair from the 60's.

This was all the kitchen furniture that followed the house.

Check out the wooden formica table!

Time typical stairs, although some of the steps are missing.

It's not a big deal- they are easy to replace.

The cutest radio!! My parents have one of these at home in real life, and it's a typical radio from the 50's.