Wicker Chair Workshop: I have updated my website, with a wicker workshop in English. http:/ /members.tripod.lycos.nl/klarameyer/index.html.htmKlara the Netherlands

Play room furniture: , I've been noticing children's furniture in recent newspaper ads. They use "pencils" for the legs of tables and chairs. They look easy to make in mini, using real pencils. They would be great for a play room or nursery in a modern house.

MAP in Puyallup

Edging furniture: A twisted cord can be made using embroidery thread, just alter the number of strands until you get a size that you think looks right. Would feel that the tassel thread, which is often bunka, would be rather fine.

Robyn in Australia

Upholstery trim: Some of the most wonderful upholstered furniture I have came from

Sally Hardy. She would pull threads from the fabric to be used and after the piece was upholstered, she twisted several of these threads together to make the cording. It is amazing! The absolutely right cording for the piece. Sadly, Sally died some years ago. Her furniture was wonderful and contemporary!

Fannye in TX

Southern fans: I saw something on a Homes Across America program that someone may want to try to duplicate in their Southern Plantation. It is a large fan like object suspended over the dining table. It is shaped like one huge blade moved the blade back and forth over the table keeping the owners cool and at the same time keeping the flies at bay. While they were having dinner a "servant" would pull the chord making the fan swing. I don't think I've ever seen anything like that in miniature but it certainly was a staple item on a Southern Plantation.Ana

Victorian Doorbell: I grew up next door to a Victorian house with one of these round doorbells she described. The front door was huge, about 10 feet tall with wavy-glassed double Gothic arch windows that took up about two- thirds of it, and two pairs of wood panels below the windows, separated by moldings. Looked a lot like the door on the Arthur kit! The round doorbell was set into the molding between the two upper wood panels, which set it slightly below the doorknob. It could be installed on the door instead of the jamb because it was mechanical, not electrical. Turning the key wound a spring that operated a striker like the ones in grandfather clocks that hit the round bell on the inside surface of the door.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Victorian Doorbell: My life-size house was built in the 20's and is a build-it-yourself job from the Sears catalog; so it's not really a Victorian more a cross between bungalow and craftsman, BUT we had exactly the kind of doorbell you're talking about. It was installed right thru the wood door, over the knob.

Karyn

Victorian Doorbell: The doorbell on our last full-sized house had that doorbell (we still have it!). It was centered in the horizontal center horizontal panel of the door, just beneath the glass insert, which would have made it about 2/3 of the way up from the bottom. It was a two-panel door, with window above.

Noel & Pat Thomas

Victorian Door Bell: I remember my grandmother's was located in the middle of the front door which I suppose, for adults, was about waist high.

Bobbie

Victorian door bells: I wrote to a Victorian Architectural group and asked if they could tell me where Victorian Door Bells were located and this is the answer I recvd:

-- vintrest {vintrest1@msn.com} wrote: Victorian doorbells come in several configurations. The two most common are the twist-type and the pull- lever type. The pull types seem to be slightly older,(1860's-1890) but that is just based on my experience, not on documented proof. The twist type(like she described) seem to be more common from about 1880 and later only to be replaced increasingly by the electric doorbell in the 1890's.

As for placement, the most common locations are on the door framing- to the right of the door (like on my home)or, in the middle of the center panel of a door, below the glass, if the door had glass. The height also seems to be a bit lower than we are accustomed to today so that a young child could reach the doorbell, about 36" from the bottom of the door or less. Hope this will help. John "

Sherry in Arlington, TX