Thatch roof: Here in England thatching, although an ancient craft, is still practised. My great grandfather was a thatcher near Oxford. The method is this; armfull size bundles of straw are gathered together and tied with a straw twine. These are then placed on the batons of the roof and held in place with a wooden peg. A whole layer was done like this. Then the second overlapped the first, the same as a tiled roof. In some counties, thatchers have their own "signature" of an animal or shape modelled from the straw and the roof.

Liz Taylor

Warping Foamcore: Foamcore has a nasty habit of warping. I always use plywood for the floor to prevent warping. On the other hand, if just the paperclay is curling up and not the foamcore, then you probably didn't spread the layer of yellow glue evenly on the foamcore.

Rik Pierce

Warping Foamcore: Foamcore has a nasty habit of warping. I always use plywood for the floor to prevent warping. On the other hand, if just the paperclay is curling up and not the foamcore, then you probably didn't spread the layer of yellow glue evenly on the foamcore.

Rik Pierce

Warping Foamcore: So this is what I've learned. 1/4" thick foamcore can't be used with paperclay. But paperclay, as Rik has proved, does make great stone and brick and rock. Still, Harry Potter's classroom needed a floor so I made a new floor using the technique Joanne Swanson used in her wizard's classroom how-to in Dollhouse Miniatures. She said to use 1/2" foamcore but I had none, so I used the 1/4" and worked fast. I scribed the rock outlines on the floor as Joanne directed and painted a grey basecoat with bottle acrylics. These dry fast so within 10 minutes I turned the foamcore face down on wax paper, rubbed water over the back with my hands, added more wax paper and weighted it all with some very heavy horse reference books overnight. Did this again for another basecoat the next day. After that I was able to add shading with paint for more realism but the foamcore stayed flat.

I think the Paperclay just had too much moisture over a long period of time for this technique to work.

Denise Pritchett

Stucco on Foamcore: Terri said she wants to stucco the outside of her foamcore roombox and is worried about warping. Just a thought--and I confess I have never used foamcore--if you draw the dimensions of your outside wall on a piece of paper, cover this with clingfilm and make your kleenex stucco wall right on the clingfilm and let it dry flat, you can then peel off your wall and glue it to your box with much less moisture coming into contact with the foamcore, which seems to be the root of the problem. It should work, but you might want to experiment on scraps first.

Donna from Devon

Stone Floor: Go to a home improvement store i.e.; Home Depot or Lowes, and get a 12" square vinyl tile with a stone texture. They come in various shades of gray and tan. With a ball point pen, lay out the stones in a pattern you like, then using a x-acto knife cut through the top layer of vinyl about 1/32" on both sides of the layout line. This will give you two parallel cuts about 1/16" apart. Then peel up the 1/16" strip and you will find you have a gray line that looks just like the mortar between the stones. It takes a little practice but you end up with a stone floor that is smooth and flat and looks great. Another added plus is that the tiles are adhesive backed so you just peel off the backing paper and stick it in place. If your floor is larger than 12" square then match patterns on the edges of adjoining tiles and you can make a floor as large as you need.

Rik Pierce

Foam core: I have discovered that if you spray foam core with a clear acrylic spray, one or two good coats, and let dry thoroughly, you will not have any warping. It has worked wonderfully for me.

Shirley Medlock

Foam core: I've used foamcore without any warpage problems because I generally spray it on both sides with fake granite paint for a stucco effect. When assembling foamcore, I always strengthen the glue bond by simply sticking straight pins through the joins. The textured paint finish "disappears" the pinheads on the finished building.

Loretta Sniarowski

Foam core: I had a miniature shop years ago and built several structures from foamcore. I was inspired by a fellow named Garth Close who was the owner at that time of Handley House Miniatures in Texas. He had a booklet/plans for several very nice and very sizey houses built from foamcore, so I tried it. This was some twenty years ago--and the structures I built are still very sound. I can't recall all I did while constructing them, but I know they are painted inside and stuccoed outside in one case--and I don't recall any warpage problem. Mind you, this is 1/2 inch thick, not 1/4 inch. I know I used contact cement to glue them up. I would think that some of the glues today would work as well. I may have painted them after they were assembled. Can't recall for sure but believe I did.

My point is: don't give up on 1/2 inch foamcore. I don't know that I would use it for a large complex house, but it certainly works well for room boxes and wall hanging pieces and small houses. In the shop, we did do a few with foamcore as the basic room and then enclosed by a larger plywood box. It is easier to wire that way. You can always slip it out for maintenance.

Phyl in Kentucky

China silk: Sue Veeder mentions that china silk is hard to find; I'd like to share the url for Thai Silks, which is http://www.thaisilks.com. They have every kind of silk in the world, I think. Years back I ordered a set of their samples, which are just the right size to make mini-pillows with. A few weeks ago I scanned in some pictures of fancy pillows from a decorating catalog, sized them for 1:12, and printed them on the iron-on transfer paper. Then I ironed them onto some cream-colored silk (like Sue, an old blouse), then used the little colored squares from Thai for the backs. Since these pillow patterns are not my own, I don't sell them, but I give them away sometimes.

SUSAN