I don’t have a dolls’ house.

For one thing we don’t have room for a dolls’ house and then …

I am tremedously fickle.

I like too many houses.

I fall in love regularly with little bijou residences, and huge manor houses, and German castles that look like wedding cakes – not to mention the Gothick gatehouses, and seaside guest houses …

My newest love is a Mid-Victorian Suburban Villa.

It is completely charming and comes with its own garden.

I had a struggle to get the roof to fit and then I had to print a mirror image of the plan, so that the garden did not look blank inside.

However, now that it is completed, I am ready to move in.

I did a quick calculation the front door is 9/16th of an inch tall – pretty close to the “right” size in 144th scale – so it would be approximately 7 inches in 12th scale.

So, say a 7 inch high door, and approximately 18 inches deep, and about 32 inches wide …

Which means that I need to find 7  foot of space if I wanted the garden as well – and I do want the garden !

I am sorry to say that I know absolutely nothing about the printers / publishers of this little villa, and can only wonder if there were more houses in the series.

The Prize Magazine was published for children in the late the late 1800s / early 1900s

Like The Strand Magazine, they were often bound into book form and it is slightly unusual to find complete ones, particularly earlier editions from the 1880s / 1890s.

I bought some covers (no interiors) dating from 1902 / 1903 a few years ago because I liked the pictures on the front.

There is a copy on eBay at the moment (from June 1902), if anyone would like to see an independent example of a full-size one.

The miniature versions are very easy to make and I only took photographs this afternoon because I was interested in trying out some new paper that I had.

So the difference the paper makes – ?

From left to right, the papers that I used are -

• LEFT supermarket basic (thin and will yellow with age)
• MIDDLE best acid free eucalyptus (should not yellow)
• RIGHT premium coated inkjet paper (should not yellow)

- and the differences between them are not as marked in the photograph above as they are to the naked eye.

So what did I do – ?

First, I scored the central crease on the spine – to make folding easier

(the example in the photo is of inkjet paper, notice how the coated surface is lifting.)

and then I cut along the top of the magazine – this makes lining up the back and the front covers easier.

(The example in the photo is printed on the basic supermarket paper – notice how it is not as smooth as the inkjet paper and how the ink has spread, making it slightly blurry)

Then, when everything was folded and firmly creased, I cut round the other edges.

(the example in the photo is of coated inkjet paper, notice how white the interior is compared to the cover.)

The thicker the paper is, the less the magazine wants to stay “folded”, so…

Next I took some pale lemon yellow tissue paper (this was the only pale colour I had to hand – a nice off white, buff tint would have been better) and very lightly glued two folded sheets inside the cover. This held the covers closed and gave  the magazine a little bit of (non-white) bulk without making it unwieldy.

(Don’t glue right up to the edge of the cover and leave everything looking a little bit “loose” for the most realistic effect)

Then I trimmed the tissue paper using scissors, so that it showed a little unevenly behind the cover.

The covers of the original magazines vary a little bit in size, but on average they are around 9″ x 6.3/4″

So, at 1 inch tall, these miniature versions are slightly larger than 12^th scale.

The copies that I made, do not open, but they do look quite realistic lying around, and I was rather pleased with the result.

In conclusion

• the coated paper did give the crispest print and the best colour reproduction, but it was rather bulky and I know that the coating is prone to flaking off, unless sealed
• the best eucalyptus paper (which should not discolour) had an attractive finish, but it was rather stiff and thick
• the cheapest, basic supermarket paper (which will yellow and age) actually worked best – in my opinion – as it had somehow had the soft, rubbed, aged effect of the originals.

If you want to make magazines that open, so that your dolls’ house children can read them, I suggest painting one side of a piece of paper with cold tea or coffee to make it off-white. Before putting the stained paper through you printer, and printing on the unstained side. Please make sure that it is completely dry and as flat as possible, before printing on it.

I now have 3 sets (18 copies) of The Prize magazine – and a dilemma…

But that is going to have to wait until later – and a new post.

Here is the pdf for all six covers – The_Prize_Magazine_OHM_20130109

It is also on the  Project Page with a few other things to make and do.

Happy Making !

revitalised photo courtesy of http://www.picmonkey.com

I am not going to have a computer next week so I have been trying to cram everything computer-related into this week.

Naturally, I haven’t managed to do half of what I wanted to do, but before I disappear off-line I thought it would be nice to post a Make and Do, so here (in a bit of a rush) it is – with a little bit of explanation first.

I seldom make a limited edition of anything.

The Pretty Village was an exception to this rule because, although I like it very much, I could not bear the thought of making thousands and thousands of tiny houses – endlessly.

The last of the limited edition sets will be in the post this coming Monday, and so I wanted to have a little bit of fun, both to celebrate and say farewell.

The result was a different sort of “limited edition” – there are only three houses in this set and what you do with them is limited to your imagination.

I have  re-sized the houses to fractionally over 1/2″ (1.25 cm) tall and, although they are not “easy”, they should not be impossible to put together.

I did photograph the “how to make” process but, unfortunately, it has been snowing on and off for a couple of days, and there was either too much reflected light (or not enough light ! ) to get good photographs – and not all the wonders of computer science could improve the photos much – so the following slide show is very uneven in quality.

The pdf  3_Pretty_Village_Houses_OHM_20130119   is, I hope, vastly better !

To escape from the slide show press the Esc key – it is usually in the top left hand corner of your keyboard

I hope you enjoy making these.

As a rule, I am not overly fond of paper dolls. I find the way they fall over if you breathe on them – not to mention the way their clothes refuse to stay on – exasperating in the extreme.

Despite this, I am rather attached to Mary Bell and Rhoda. Not only are they an excellent reference for Victorian clothing, but I like the way that, although they are very simple and probably not designed to last, a great deal of attention has been lavished on small details like the patterning of the floors and the pleats in the dresses.

Besides which they have such nice expressions and I feel sorry for them in their solid-looking boots and indestructible underwear.

The original dolls were published by Peter G Thompson of Cincinnati and, from their clothes, I think that they date from the late 1870s / early 1880 – but this is a far from reliable guess.

They were printed on a coarse, thick paper and are roughly about 4 inches (5 cm) tall – and in real life they are rather the worse for wear.

My miniature versions have been tidied up – by computer magic – and are just under 1 inch (2.5 cm) tall – well over 12th scale.

It is possible to cut out and dress the dolls at this size and if you would like to try this for yourself the pdf for both miniatures dolls is here – _Mary_Bell_and_Rhoda_Paper_Dolls_OHM_20130129

If you decide to print them, please bear in mind that your computer / printer settings and the paper that you use will make difference to the results that you get.

They are so simple to make that it seemed almost silly to make a slide show about how to fold the booklet and suggest how the dolls could be made to stand up – but I did it anyway.

Below are larger versions of  Mary Bell and Rhoda.

They are smaller than the original dolls and, as they are very faded and worn in their original state, I have cleaned them up considerably.

At 72 dpi, they are not the very best print quality, but they are “not bad”.

They should print on to a A 4  piece of paper but, as they are not pdf files, the size will depend on the programme that you use to print them with – on the other hand, as they are not pdf files, you should be able to experiment with the sizing to some extent.

I wasn’t intending to write about Raphael Tuck at all, but have just come across the most wonderful website.

http://tuckdb.org/

As well as a few examples from The Doll’s House Furniture Series

There are also things like the Louis Wain cat paper dolls

and E. Heatley’s Model Cottages (series 2)

Not to mention hundreds and hundreds of wonderful examples of period postcards.

It truly is the most fantastic resource and well worth investigating.

***   ***   ***

What was I intending to write about?

This week, Monday evening was supposed to be my “internet” evening and my plan was to have something ready for this blog.

I thought about what to write all weekend and came up with -

“Last week I made theatres.”

“This week I am making fans.”

I was planning to do a slideshow about making a fan (like these) but, after I had taken the first photo, my camera batteries died and they will take least 12 hours to recharge.

However, I will be making fans tomorrow too, so all is not lost and maybe I will be able to write two posts this week !

Real life, full-size fans come in all shapes and sizes and they are made from all sorts of materials. In fact, they vary tremendously.

There are, however, two important facts about miniature fans.

1. They are  very, very difficult to photograph – 63 photos and this was the best of them !
2. It is very, very difficult to find a print of a fan that does not lose its detail in miniature.

Below are a couple of superb (professional) photographs of very beautifully decorated painted fans.

The smaller fan (top right in both photos) is 12th scale (on my computer) and look how the detail vanishes in miniature!

Some people prefer to use scraps, like the one below -

Scraps are often boldly designed and can work very well, but rather than using prints (of any sort), I find it much, much easier to design and paint my own fans.

If you would like to make a fan, you may well find this more satisfying too.

Which brings me to a third important point about miniature fans, and the question that I am most often asked -

Are they difficult to make?

The answer is yes, and no.

I make sure I have a good night’s sleep, a large breakfast, and lots of daylight, before I make them. (This is the truth)

I have learnt from bitter experience that I cannot answer the phone and paint them at the same time, that the paper I use makes a HUGE difference to the outcome, and that it is vitally important to let the glue and paint dry completely before attaching the tassels.

They take TIME, lots and lots of TIME.

In some ways it is easier to make a batch of several fans because then you can be working on one while another dries – I  have had practice and I can make six printed fans in one day. (Wow !)

One painted fan takes me all day.

But, getting back to the matter in hand -

The fans that I put on Etsy are made from professionally produced prints, and the print quality is better than anything that I can manage at home.

I made the example in the slide show with a home produced print because I wanted to be fairly certain that if anyone wanted to make this particular fan for themselves they would have a decent image to use.

The original fan is French and the figures are supposed to be of Marie Antoinette, and her companions, walking in the grounds of the Trianon, but they are so very, very small that they really could be anyone at all.

I chose this fan because I liked the overall design and the rich colours. I also thought that the colour of the tassels could be varied to suit different needs.

Below is the pdf for image. If you decide to make it, I hope that it will work well for you.

Fan_French_Marie_Antoinette_OHM_130206

A walkthrough for making the fan (with tassels) is in the slideshow below.

To escape from the slideshow at any time press the Esc key (usually top left) on your keyboard.

I think this blog entry should be called: “How to Make a (printed) Fan (but not take photographs)”

I have not had a computer this week and, shortly after I have uploaded this, I will not have a computer / internet connection until Wednesday, 6^th March. Everyone who has been leaving me comments and messages –

Thank You ! I will try to reply as soon as possible.

I usually use a professional print service.
This example was printed on my home printer.

Some time ago, I blogged about my version of the McLoughlin Folding Doll House, and I feel I should repeat here some of what I said then -

• I do not have, and have never had, a complete example of the Folding Doll House, and I have only ever handled rather worn and battered examples. For this reason, my miniature version also looks slightly faded and worn.
• I was born and live, and work, in the UK.
• McLoughlin toys are comparatively unknown here and so, rather than seeing them as iconic cultural items, my interest in them veers towards the technical expertise involved in their manufacture.

This being so, a large part of me wants to write at length about lithographic printing processes and modular manufacturing as applied by mid to late 19^th Century toy makers, particularly large companies like The McLoughlin Brothers.

However, I suspect that no-one, except me, is even remotely interested in this and so I will keep this short -

The McLoughlin Folding Doll House is one of the things that makes me wish that time travel was possible.

At school, we were taught that Henry Ford invented the production line – my guess is that The McLoughlin Brothers beat him to it by a number of years.

Finally, just a few more things before I leave you to grab the pdfs and start having fun –

• If you make up this house, please be aware that the weight and type of paper that you use will make a huge difference to the result.
• The printer and the ink will make a big difference too.

The walls and floors are here

McLoughlin_Folding_Doll_House_OHM_130301

Papers for finishing the backs of the floors (one spare) are here

McLoughlin_Folding_Doll_House_OHM_130301-a

A walkthrough for making the house is in the slideshow below.

To escape from the slideshow at any time, press the Esc button on your computer keyboard.

Here are some examples of a decorative design that I created from sample of old fabric.

They are 300 ppi and they print on my Canon Pixma home printer (via Paint Shop Pro 8) at exactly 1.5 inches (approx 3.75 cm) square each.

The little thumbnails above have been compressed by WordPress and will not print very well and, especially if you click on a thumbnail to see the full size version, they may well look much larger than 1.5 inches on-screen.

If you would like to print a sheet of paper, so that the pattern is the “right” size at 300 ppi, the pdfs are here -

Fruit_Baskets_OHM_130308_raspberry

Fruit_Baskets_OHM_130308_pale_pink

Fruit_Baskets_OHM_130308_blue

(The A4 sheets are enormously ink thirsty, so please do not waste your ink – print a sample to get an idea of the colour first.)

The photo below shows why I used 300 ppi samples and not 72 ppi samples.

ppi matters !

I know I always say this but – whether or not the papers print well and are useful to you (or not) will depend on the paper, ink and printing method used.

***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***

I had a chance to talk to someone who works as a commercial printer earlier this week and I asked him if there was any way to recreate, at home, the non-smudge result found in colour printed books.

SPOILER – Don’t get excited – according to him there isn’t…

After he had stopped laughing – he is a nice man, really he is – he suggested that I have a look at Shackell Edwards website, and then he calmed down and explained a bit…

The universal problem is, it seems, not only getting the ink onto the paper, and in the right place, but making it stay there.

The print finishes that we see in magazines, books, wrapping paper, etc are created by a combination of the paper, the ink and the finishing coating.

It is at this point that I am probably about to become temendously tedious to a great many readers so, dear readers, if you find the following dead boring please skip to the bottom of this post and vote for something more interesting.

***   ***   ***   ***   ***

I was asked, a couple of posts back, if I recommended using spray-on fixative to protect the surface of an ink-jet print.

I have heard of this being done and, as it seems to be a widely recommended method, it must work for some people.

I have tried fixative sprays in the past but, as the ones available to me are for fixing looses surfaces like charcoal or pastel to paper, they were not particularly effective on ink-jet ink.

This does not mean that fixative sprays do not work on ink-jet prints, only that I have not yet found one that does.

Anyway, after my conversation with the printer, and imbued (yet again) with the (mad) idea that there must be a way to “fix” ink jet ink to ordinary paper, I tried a little experiment this week.

I printed two samples onto 90 gsm photocopy paper and very carefully applied glaze of  -

• Ronseal varnish (this would not smudge on coated paper inkjet paper)

and

• white, water based, washable,”craft” glue for children (this would sit on top of coated inkjet paper and dry unevenly – it is good for crackle glaze and not much else).

With the following results -

Glue v Varnish on photocopy paper

Admittedly I had chosen to work with a raspberry pink colour that I know, from past experience, runs and smudges far more easily than most other colours.

So nothing daunted I printed another sample and got out my favourite white, water based glue -

This is excellent glue.
If it has one fault it is that it dries very rapidly.

- and tried with that -

I wasn’t nice and careful, I simply wiped the thick glue over the print with my finger. This darkened the ink and smudged it a little bit.

Then I got creative with water proofing for clothing (if you lived in the middle of England, you would probably have a bottle of this under your kitchen sink too !)

The Nikwax effect was… interesting

although I have to say my favourite part was the crumbling, aged effect on the  back of the paper -

After the Evo-stick and the Nikwax had dried overnight, I tried the water test…

and came to the conclusion that -

I still hadn’t found the solution…

***   ***   ***   ***   ***   ***

A very big thank you to everyone who voted and left comments. I appreciate your help very much indeed.

Here are the results of the poll – equal first are the Circus Procession book and the papier mache Easter egg.

I will not, unfortunately, have time to make two slideshows next week, so I think it will have to be the Circus Procession next week and (if everything goes to plan) the papier mache egg for the Easter weekend.

Please bear in mind that, although I can run through how I make the papier mache eggs, I cannot do a digital download for the mold !

In case you are wondering, I did vote.

To test that the poll was working properly, I voted for the basket for an Easter egg!

I do not make these for sale.
At the end of this post there is a link for
Jaques Andre Human,
who makes exquisite needlework items.
The chart for this design is here

I  wrote about the pattern for this rug in an earlier post.

After looking at my original pencil chart, I came to the conclusion that my charting is very like my handwriting – after I have forgotten what I have written, not even I can read it.

I am very fond of this design and one day – when I have the time ! – I would like to make a full-size version of the rug.

So, in the hopes that I could re-chart it from the finished piece, I have been searching (off and on) for my box of completed needlework.

With a great deal of help from an exceeding patient friend -

Quote – “Why do you keep all this stuff in the same sort of cardboard box ?!?!?!? “ 

- we  finally found the rug itself.

The design is a direct copy of a one on a small purse, which belonged to the mother of my Exceeding Patient Friend.

The purse was worked in silk, but I like the hairy, slightly uneven, effect of wool and so I worked my rug in wool – in half cross-stitch, on 22 count canvas. (This is a larger canvas size than the original.)

When I made it I didn’t have any “proper” wool, so I used darning wool (of the sort you used to be able to get for mending socks) for the coloured parts of the design, and thin yarn (of the type that comes on a cone for machine knitting) for the white background.

These days I would probaly use 2 ply crewel wool.  I would find it difficuly to choose just one supplier of wool to recommend, but if I could only choose one then I think it would be Appleton Wool   as it is always (in my experience) excellent quality and comes in a good variety of colours.

Everyone who believes that the stitches need to be worked in the same direction, please look away now.

If you look at the back of the rug you can clearly see that I worked the blue motifs in a variety of directions.

I did this so that the fabric would not drift out of shape and the rug edges would remain straight.

When I am working in half cross-stitch, both full-size and in miniature, I very often work the decorative motive from the bottom of the design to the top and fill in the background in a right to left (or left to right) direction.

Varying the stitch direction is not orthodox, but I think experimenting and bending “the rules” can be rewarding – sometimes.

I vividly remember that it took me a week – one rose, or one blue medallion, a day – to complete a row of pattern.

This is not exactly a speedy result, but if you would like to make one of these rugs for yourself  the pdf  for the full design is here –

Paula_Rose_OHM_130310

The colours in the pdf chart are slightly different from the ones that I used in real life (I was using very odd yarn, in non-standard colours) and the design, although it looks simple, is rather intricate.

If you click on the image below, you will be able to see, and print, a larger version of part of the chart.

I like bold, strong colours, but I think this would work well in paler, subtler shades too, and I am sure that you will find it a rewarding project to complete.

***   ***   ***   ***

I hardly ever make small needlework items for sale, and I certainly never make large items like rugs.

So, if you are looking for fine miniature needlework (at what I think is an astonishingly reasonable price!) I would recommend considering the work of Jacques Andre Human .

It is unfair of me to single out just his work on the Petit Connoisseurs website, as there are a great many things there that I think are delightful – far too many to mention…

All right, maybe just one …

Bianca by Anna Braun

Or two…

Flower arrangement in handmade vase
by Pam Jones

or three…

Large pitcher by Hestelle Mare

***   ***   ***   ***

Finally a big very thank you to everyone who voted in last week’s poll.

The result was a tie – 31 votes for the McLoughlin Circus Procession book and 31 votes for a papier mache Easter egg.

I hope to have the slideshow for the book ready by next Friday and (hopefully) will have another one (for the papier mache egg) ready by Easter weekend.

It’s a very long time since I made any of these books and I was rather surprised when someone asked if I would demonstrate how they are made.

First many thanks are due to Q, who lent me the original book and gave me permission to use it here.

Secondly, many, many, many thanks are due to Sharon who, several blog posts ago, mentioned that she thought that HP plotter paper gave her a better print.

To cut a long story short, thanks to Sharon, I bought a large roll of 80gsm (21lbs) HP plotter paper from Amazon.

When I tried it out on my printer at home I was astonished by the results.

It is very difficult to show the quality of the print in a photograph, but I am going to try.

The top strip is 80 gsm plotter paper and the bottom strip is 100 gsm best quality inkjet (un-coated) paper.

The top strip (which is 12th scale and smaller in size) was printed last week on my home computer. My printer has an unreliable paper feed and does not reproduce colours particularly well.

The folded strip below (which is slightly larger than 12th scale) is a professionally produced giclée print from about 10 years ago. (Giclée = fancy word for ink-jet print done by a very, very good, exceedingly expensive printer – in this case an Epson.)

Sharon, I can’t thank you enough.

I have tried and, so far, failed to photograph the difference this is going to make. I can only say that a 600 ppi, professional print on this paper looks as though it is on coated ink-jet paper. It is that good.

***   ***   ***   ***

The book in the slideshow below was made using HP plotter paper but it should be possible to get a reasonable print on ordinary photocopy paper.

NOTE – the glue makes a difference as well as the printer, ink and paper on this project.

I used Evo-stick white wood working glue – this has a thick consistency and dries quickly.

The text in my 12th scale version (even on plotter paper !) are only readable to dolls’ house residents so,  please visit Project Gutenberg, where the book is reproduced in full, if you would like to read it.

I feel I ought to also mention that Paper Minis have a kit for this book (it is a long way down the page, so keep scrolling). This has a cover and readable text. There is also a tutorial on how to make it here .

I haven’t seen Paper Mini’s kits in real life and so I haven’t tried any out. They do have an enviable collection !

Finally, my version…

The McLoughlin Book that I copied was a simple accordion fold, or concertina fold, book.

In the slideshow I do not follow the usual instructions for making this type of book. (I was reproducing a book, not making one from scratch). There are some good videos on YouTube, if you want to see how one is usually made.

As the full strip of pages is 12 inches (30 cm) long, I have made two pdfs, so that there is a choice -

Print and join two strips – McLoughlin_Circus_Procession_A4_paper_20130322

Print one (very long) strip – McLoughlin_Circus_Procession_12_inch_strip_20130322

The pdf for the covers is here – McLoughlin_Circus_Procession_covers_20130322

NOTE – 23rd march 2013 -  from the comments there seems to be some confusion as to what “tissue paper” is.

In UK English, “tissue paper” is not a paper handkerchief (or “a tissue”), it is the sort of very fine paper that is sometimes used for wrapping small items before putting them in a gift box.

Have a look here on Amazon to see what I am talking about.

To escape from the slideshow at any time, press the Esc key on your keyboard.

Finally

The plotter paper is available from Amazon in A4 sheets too.

These would be much easier to store than the roll that I bought.

.

There is a page for those who like to Make and Do here and I am going to repeat here what I have said there -

• If you want to save the pdf(s) to your computer / a CD / data stick etc. you may do that too.
• You may use the contents of the pdf for yourself – and if you would like to make 10 of something and try selling them please go ahead, but do think first of all the other people who will be doing exactly the same thing.
• You may share these projects with your friends and family, and miniature club.
• You may link to them from your website / blog / satellite station, if you have one
• You may customise them.
• You may use them / the design ideas, in whole, or in part, as for inspiration for making your own things.

You may not copy the pdfs, or the contents of the pdfs, in whole, or in part, and re-sell them.

Sock is an Easter elephant – and I promised someone that I would write about him “properly” on this blog.

Sock is unique and most definitely not for sale.

His name probably explains a great deal about him, but it would also be useful to know that -

• His cap and back cloth are embroidered in 2 ply crewel wool, and the blue trim and tassels are embroidery cotton
• His tail is embroidery cotton too.

If you would like an elephant like Sock you might find this pattern useful.

This is reproduction – from a greetings card.
The original cigarette card was from a set called -
Household Hints (2nd series)

I am not very fond of sewing, but I enjoyed making Sock.

Next Week…

Making a Pop-up book.

There is still a short time before the poll closes, but it looks as though “Christmas Eve” is going to be a clear winner.

Many thanks to everyone who took the time to vote.

I haven’t seen many copies of the Theater Bilderbuch, and the (very few) antique ones that I have seen usually resemble the one on the V & A website.

[ Lucia Contreras Flores has an edition on her website that I have never seen before - you may need to scroll down the web-page to find it. ]

There are two modern editions that I know of -

• a German edition (ISBN 978-3480131631)

• an English language edition (ISBN 978-0722655368)

and these have been  re-engineered to work on a smaller scale, and using much thinner materials, than the original publications.

In order to make my miniature version work (to my satisfaction) I had to re-work the original construction too.

My version was designed for 100 gsm paper (I use the smoothest, best quality that I can find.)

90 gsm paper (in my experience) tends to be a little bit too thin and “soft” and, with repeated opening and shutting of the book, quickly loses its crispness.

I am mentioning this here because I have been experimenting with some paper that was recommended by the printers who do most of my printing.

It is 90 gsm, comes on a large roll and is designed to go through a printer “under tension” – in other words it is thin, smooth and relatively tough. It also gives a superb print finish, with excellent colour reproduction.

The printers call it “proofing paper”.

I still don’t know much about it, but I am quietly excited by the possibilities it seems to offer.

In the following slideshow I am using that “proofing paper”.

I would still say that most 90 gsm papers are probably unsuitable for this project, but you may know of a paper, or discover one, that will work better for you than the 100 gsm that I recommend.

It is definitely worthwhile experimenting !

***   ***

The pdf for this is here -

Theater_Bilderbuch_Christmas_Eve_OHM20130419

- and there is a page for those who like to Make and Do here.

I am going to repeat here what I have written there -

• Simply click on the link to open the pdf on-line. You can then print it without downloading it.
• If you want to save the pdf to your computer / a CD / data stick etc. you may do that too.
• You may use the contents of the pdf for yourself – and if you would like to make 10 of something and try selling them please go ahead, but do think first of all the other people who will be doing exactly the same thing.
• You may share these projects with your friends and family, and miniature club.
• You may link to them from your website / blog / satellite station, if you have one
• You may customise them.
• You may use them / the design ideas, in whole, or in part, as for inspiration for making your own things.

You may not copy the pdf, or the contents of the pdf, in whole, or in part, and re-sell them.

***   ***   ***

I found the method used to construct the modern German edition of the Theater Bilderbuch very interesting.

The background scene, the text for one play and the front of the next theatre in the series are printed on one sheet and the various sheets are then folded round each other and glued together.

Technicalities aside, the way that the front of the theatre frames the scenes, so that the edges are hidden – even when viewed from an angle – and the way that the overall scene changes depending on the viewer’s position make this (for me) not only an extremely good example of paper engineering, but it is also a wonderful piece of “theatre” – in every sense of the word.

Dear RG,

I have tried to email you, but my message has been returned as “undeliverable”.

In answer to your questions –

Yes, you may.

No, I don’t mind you asking – if you don’t ask, you will never know !

I am sorry, I don’t have a Cinderella scene for this theatre.

I found the parts that I do have in a small second-hand book market that used to be held on the South Bank of the River Thames, by the Royal Festival Hall. It was years and years ago now.

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The above images above are 80 ppi – They are not the best quality but they are “not bad”.

They should each print onto an A4 piece of paper / card – they are SMALLER than the original pieces.

In order to make the theatre at this size, I would use at least 140 / 160 gsm paper.

Sometimes this weight of paper is sold as “card”.

I am in the UK and I would look for something called “cartridge paper” – basically you will have to find a card / paper that works for you !

Everything that I wrote about scoring, folding, etc for the miniature version of this theatre I would say again for this size.

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4th May 2013 – Sharon has very kindly shared a couple of links, please see the comments for her full explanation -

I recently came across a link to this “set” on Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/taffeta/sets/72157614068345415/

… Images for the theater in this post were published in the magazine in 1924. They can be found starting in the middle of the third row of images… The images are posted by the “owner” of the Agence Eureka blog, where she has posted hundreds of vintage paper projects over the years… http://bibigreycat.blogspot.com/

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I have been busy this week, and I am still paying back the “Blog Time” that I borrowed earlier, so to be very, very quickly –

I make the cloth books as an antidote to “This has to be exactly right” book-binding.

This ABC book is based on one published in the late 19th Century by the McLoughlin Brothers in the USA.

The books are very flexible and can be opened and “posed” in a variety of ways. If they are left open for any length of time they will need to be placed under a solid weight, or between other books on a miniature bookshelf, in order to shut flat again.

The smallest text is just about readable without a magnifying glass.

Just as it does in real-life cloth books, the printing on the interior pages wanders up and down a bit – particularly on the last page.

The top and bottom edges of the pages are slightly rough.

These “faults” are intentional and reflect the condition of the original book.

Size when closed – 1 inch x 3/4 of an inch (2.5 cm x 1.9 cm)

PLEASE NOTE – the books are not “toys”, they are “collector’s items”

This is a Paper Palace to Cut Out and Color
Designed by Evaline Ness
ISBN 0-684-14708-4

My mother gave this book to me way back in the mid 1970s.

She had come across it in a cut-price bookshop that used to be on the Kilburn High Road (in London).

Shops like these are the last chance for a book that has been remaindered.

If a book doesn’t sell there it is pulped, and I have always been glad and grateful that this one, at least, was rescued.

I have never taken the book apart in order to turn it into a 3d palace, but I have decorated (and re-decorated) again and again in my imagination.

One of the things that I find particularly pleasing about it is the way the shape of two of the rooms is changed by the triangular supports.

Then there is the way that it is possible to allow furniture to spill out of the rooms, not to mention the way that the owner of the palace is encouraged to use their imagination – and plenty of gold !

Whenever I need to make something fine and golden for a dolls’ house, this is one of the first places that I visit for inspiration.

The book is still in copyright, so I can’t share it it great detail here -

- but if you are inspired to make a Paper Palace of your own, and would like some furniture to go in it, I would suggest having a look at the digital copy of The Girl’s Own Toy-Maker that is available from Google books.

It has some rather nice furniture patterns (as well as suggestions for a couple of small houses and other paper toys) that can be made from paper / card and I think that all of the designs could be worked up into something more substantial – with a little bit of work.

Here are a few of the simpler items -

I was delighted to discover that there is a companion volume for boys too -

The Boy’s Own Toy-Maker

I made these nativity sets last March and have been trying to get a “nice” photo of a finished one ever since.

So far the best I have come up with has been rather blurred…

The best that I can hope for, therefore, is that the combination of the above two photos will give some idea of the finished article…

The nativity started life as an old Christmas scrap

I have no idea how this will print -
I suspect that although it is relatively large
it is also poor quality

If you would like to make this miniature nativity for yourself, the pdf is here -

nativity_scene_christmas_OHM2013

If you decide to print and make the nativity, please bear in mind that your computer / printer settings and the paper that you use will make difference to the results that you get.

A walk-through of how I made mine is here -

There are more things to make and do on the projects page and I am going to repeat here what I say there -

• You may use the contents of the pdf for yourself – and if you would like to make 10 of something and try selling them please go ahead, but do think first of all the other people who will be doing exactly the same thing.
• You may share these projects with your friends and family, and miniature club.
• You may link to them from your website / blog / satellite station, if you have one
• You may customise them.
• You may use them / the design ideas, in whole, or in part, as for inspiration for making your own things.

You may not copy the pdf, or the contents of the pdf, in whole, or in part, and re-sell them.

This is my 101st post !

Happy New Year,!
I hope that 2014 will be a good year for you all.

I came across some advertisements at the back of a Victorian book of fairy stories and loved the fabulous use of different lettering.

There are eight (in miniature) on this pdf -

OHM_140921_victorian_bw

and they should each print at about 2 by 3 inches in size.

In the test run that I did, I printed them very quickly on thinish, poorish quality, A4 printer paper and was very pleased with the results (although, as usual, not with the photographs of the results !)

I realised how out of practice I was at working with a computer when I didn’t manage to get them lined up, or even the right way up on my first attempt. (I have been, and am still, busy, busy, busy, but that is a story for another time.)

Here are a few more on a larger scale, so that you can resize them to suit yourself. (Click on the pictures to see them full size).

I hope that they will be useful and fun to use.

Afterword

I don’t host any advertising on this weblog.

If you see adverts then they were put there by WordPress, who have to make money in order to maintain this blog site.

By paying WordPress a small yearly fee I could arrange for there to be no advertisements on this weblog. I am too mean / poor to do this.

This is going to sound rushed, because I am supposed to be doing something else this morning, but I saw this and I thought it was too good to miss.

Paper Model Kiosk (aka Crechemania) have a very large collection of downloadable paper nativities on their entrancing, enthralling, amazing website. Some of them, like the miniature example above are free. (Miniature in this case = 3 x 1.5 x 3.5 inches)

The downloads page for all their nativity sets is here.

To use the site and receive a download, you need to register your email address.

When you ask for a free (I MUST NOT, (cannot) buy them all, although I want to) download, a link that is live for one hour is sent to your email address. By clicking on the link in the email, you are re-directed to the Crechemania website and can then download a pdf of your selected nativity.

I have just tried this out and encountered one minor problem – the registration part of Paper Model Kiosk’s site did not work smoothly for me in Firefox. It was, however, fine in Google.

I am going to repeat the Crechemania Free Download Service agreement here :-

By using this Crechemania Free Download Service I agree with the Crechemania.com download policy; that these downloads are copyrighted material; that they are for my personal use only. I may download as many items as I wish; as many times as I wish; print as many as I wish; assemble as many as I wish; give away as many as I wish. But I may not sell them; offer them for sale on Internet sites; post these as Downloads on my Web site; or mailing lists; and I agree to the receipt of Crèchemania.com email notices and newsletters about crèche downloads, news, and information; and I understand that I may receive periodic emails notifying me of Chrèchemania news and updates.

Afterword

Any advertisements that you see on this on this blog page, are not mine.

WordPress has to fund this “free” weblog service somehow and so they sell advertising space to third parties

I could, by paying WordPress a small amount of money, stop the adverts appearing here.

I haven’t done this – and considering that I could buy a couple of nativities for the same money, can you blame me?

The Not Very Encouraging News

1. My camera is not working reliably
2. My little home printer is not working at all

Result: no paper projects to do on this blog until above are fixed or replaced

The Good News

1. The scanner part of my printer is working. (I am not saying that it does a wonderful job, but at least it is working)

The “Oh no, what now…” News

Due to building work at home, alot of my things have been in store.

While in store, some things evidently became damp (see foxing on scan of card below)

Foxing (the brown spots) is the result of a type of mould and I have to go through everything and check / air / scan / throw away / make tough decisions about it.

While doing this, I thought that I should make the effort to digitize my paper-based archive. [Archive, in this case = a very grand word for a box of postcards, scraps and other miscellaneous junk.]

However, I have so much to do (in general) at the moment that I cannot – must not – spend more than 1 hour a day sitting in front of my computer.

Despite this, in an unwise(?) but praiseworthy(?) attempt to share what I thought might be useful to other people interested in making miniature things, I created a page called Printables on this blog.

I then came swiftly to the conclusion that:

1. My idea of what is “useful” may not be universally “useful”
2. I will soon run out of storage space, if I add full size images randomly
3. Looking through lots of thumbnail sized images on a computer screen is tedious

Result: a suggestion that is going to end in disappointment for some people.

The suggestion is this:

There should be a comments box on this page and, if you would like to, you can leave a message there letting me know what would be useful to you. Please be as specific as you can, for example magazines is good, but magazines (fashion, 1950s) would be even better.

This would be a great help to me, as I could spend more time scanning and less time uploading (not at all useful) images here.

A couple of things to bear in mind, please:

1. My 1 Hour a Day Computer Rule
2. There are only 24 hours in a day and I do my best to be asleep for at least 6 of them

Finally:

Below is the result of one hour’s work. Most of the time was taken up by typing the descriptions and double checking that the right description was with the right card and how they were displayed on screen etc., etc., etc. This means that any scans I upload here are not going to have detailed written descriptions.

And I can’t decide if the following should be called: “cigarette cards“, “lithographic prints” or “possible miniature theatre scenery“, so please don’t be surprised if images are not classified as you think they should be.

No. 2 of 25 Reproductions of Celebrated Oil Paintings
“Dutch Boats off Flushing”
De Reszke Cigarettes – J Millhoff & Co Ltd.

No. 20 (of 80) in the series Evolution of the British Navy
– no manufacturer name given.

No. 19 (of 25) Reproductions of Celebrated Oil Paintings
“Dutch Boats in a Calm”
Army Club Cigarettes – Cavanders Ltd

No. 3 (of 25) Reproductions of Celebrated Oil Paintings
“Dedham Mill“
Army Club Cigarettes – Cavanders Ltd

No. 12 (of 25) Reproductions of Celebrated Oil Paintings
“The Valley of the Llugwy”
Army Club Cigarettes – Cavanders Ltd

No. 7 (of 25) Reproductions of Celebrated Oil Paintings
“The Stream“
Army Club Cigarettes – Cavanders Ltd

* * *

Afterword

I don’t sponsor any advertisements on this blog

WordPress need to make money in order to run their blogging service and so they sell advertising space.

I could, by paying WordPress a small fee, make this blog advert free – nice as this would be, it’s not going to happen soon.

These date from a time when I was trying to fit many Christmas decorations into a very small space.

• Glue two sheets of thin card (140gsm each) together
• Glue the paper pattern (photocopy paper, probably 80gsm) to the card
• Place under a flat,heavy weight and allow to dry completely before cutting out
• Cut out slot first
• Then cut out tree (cut away from the inner corners towards the outer edge)
• The raised surface at the cut edge may be removed by burnishing with the back of a metal tea spoon
• Test fit and make adjustments

Decorating is a matter of choice. I did all of the following:

• Paint
• Allow to dry completely
• Glitter (this is the fun but messy bit)
• Allow to dry completely

I ran out of time, daylight and ideas when it came to photographing the finished trees, which is a pity because I like them and think that they cast pretty shadows.

I don’t know what size the above pattern will be when viewed / printed on another computer / printer, but the trees in the pdf below should print at 1 inch (2.5 cm) tall, which is the size of the examples I made.

OHM_011215_1_inch_Christmas_tree

2017 !  How did it get to be 2017 ?
I didn’t think it had been that long since I wrote something for this blog.

There should be a nice photograph here. But I don’t have a camera at the moment and the results that I got from the Android Tablet that I borrowed were a bit… odd…

So you are going to have to take my word for it that the images below are of a really a rather nice little model farmhouse sitting in its own garden, and propped up at a peculiar angle either on the cap of a tube of toothpaste or a cork.
 

The farmhouse is something that I was trying out today and, while I was struggling with a knife blade that wanted to break and paper that wanted to tear, not to mention disbelieving the way the card I was using absorbed water-based glue like a sponge and went soggy, I thought that, as well as being relatively simple to make (just don’t use the card I tried using first of all), the finished farmhouse would look good in a miniature nursery, school-room or shop.

And so here, if you would like to try making this for yourself, is a pdf of the parts for you to play with too:
OHM_Farm_and_Garden_20170524
The usual request remains the same: make the model, share it and, if you want to, sell the finished article (but think of all the other people who will do this too), but please don’t re-sell the pdf or the artwork itself.

Instructions for putting the model together:
The paper or card that you use and your printer ink will affect the finish and the colours you get. 
If you have never made anything this small before and would like to see detailed, step by step pictures for a similar project, please take a look here at another small house on a base – the walkthrough is towards the end of the post (which is much shorter than this one!)

Materials:
I used 200gsm paper and water-based glue, which I applied with a brush.
This was mainly for speed, as this was a trial run for me.
Printing on a thin paper and gluing this to thin card would work equally as well.
The main thing is that you need something that will hold its shape when folded and will not fall apart when glued.
Note: If you glue 2 sheets of paper, or paper and card together, make sure they are completely dry before cutting them out.

First (for reference only) look at the picture below:
The fold lines are marked in red and the slots that need to be cut out are marked in blue.
These lines are fine and black on the pdf and, if you don’t know what you are looking for, they are easy to miss.

What I did:
Scored along the fold lines first. 
Then cut the slots out, cutting away from the corners.
Then cut around the outlines.
Then made the creases in the various parts – centre roof, house walls, etc.

I found that it was best to fit the front of the house into the roof first and then fit the back to these two pieces once they were assembled. A little bit of glue inside the house, applied with a paintbrush, will hold all the parts together.

The hedges fit around the outside of the garden base.
A small amount of glue, applied with a paintbrush, and left to dry on the thin edge of the garden base is helpful. Once this is dry, another thin layer of glue can be applied and the hedges should adhere to this without giving too much trouble.

I assembled the garden so that the coloured part of the hedge was on the inside and, when it was all in I place, I discovered that there was a significant gap between the front hedge and the garden base.

So, after I had glued the house to the back and the base and was certain that everything was dry and fairly stable, I made a second base out of two layers of card.
I measured and cut this to be a little bit wider than the original base. The new, slightly larger, base makes a tiny ledge around the sides and also strengthens and neatens the appearance of the whole thing.

The white, unprinted card and the cut edges now looked a bit stark to me, so I washed some thin water-based paint over them – green for the base and the outside of the hedges and light orange for the chimneys.

I am sorry that I do not have the means of taking better photos at the moment – this is a nice little model and deserves a better picture than I can achieve right now.

A Minor Point :
The original cards are about A5 in size. This would be very small if reduced to 12th scale, so this model is not 12th scale, just a useful sort of size for a dolls’ house.

About the Cards :
There are 12 cards in the set that I have. They were published by A M Davis, Quality Cards & Co (London).

.

The original cards are uncoloured line drawings. I made copies and coloured some of those. (This was a lengthy process as they were probably lithographed and the interference dot-matrix pattern, or whatever it is, is appalling. It would have been quicker to draw my own design out.)
The set is undated and I have no information about the original publisher.
A quick look on the internet did not  make me much better informed about them, but I did find two enjoyable sites, which are worth a look if you are interested in vintage cards:

http://www.postcardy.com/article04.html

http://vintagerecycling.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/am-davis-quality-cards.html

If you are interested in making paper based projects like this one there are a few more available on this page

Finally:
I have always said my photographs are awful, but this has to be a new low point.