On your alley: It is important to keep the eye moving at all levels...something of interest. Have you got a window with an alley view? Just make a picture frame style window, no cuts needed and make it "dark" inside with a curtain. Then add a flower pot to the window sill...inside or out. Or, a pigeon could sit there. For fun, how about an open window with a fluffy, pet cat looking down at the alley varieties? Or a picture of a parrot inside the window "talking" to the pigeon?

Now for the middle area...no graffiti needed but how about a circus poster? A play poster...that would give you information about the city and the date where this alley occurs. Some good ones are found on the internet or antique ones are in mail order magazines. (Cut them out, spray with fixative and apply with Mod Podge giving an extra top coat for protection.) Position the poster so a pedestrian could read it as they cross the alley. A reduced scale newspaper blowing about would also give more clues. Clues are a good way to think of your details. How can I tell viewers more about this set? Have fun.

Laurie Sisson

Needlework supplies and mini rugs: I have found the Needlework in Miniatures web site to have the crochet tools I need. She also sells knitting and rug making supplies and finished items.I learned of her from my MiniatureCrochet Yahoo Group. The URL for Needlework in Miniature is: http://www.angelfire.com/ma2/vmsw

or an easier URL http://www.pobox.com/~nim

Lynne, from Ames, Iowa

Polymer clay molds:. I just visited Sue Heaser's web site, and she now offers molds, too. Here is the link. http://www.heaser.demon.co.uk/products/Kits/dollmoulds.htm

Lauren from Abingdon

Medical miniatures: For the individual looking for miniature medical supplies try :
http://littleobsessions.com/ click on accessories and more and you will see Medical Items.

Nursemini

Alley scene: how about a fire escape for your alley? Or a window over the restaurant with an iron balcony? Could be the owner's apartment window, with some puny geraniums reaching for light. Maybe a convoluted drainpipe? When I was a child, on Saturday afternoons my friend and I used to go to the movies. After it was over we always had a little time before our parents picked us up, so we used to pick up milk and soft drink bottles to return for the deposits, which is where I got most of my spending money. (With the states having to pay so much to have litter picked up I wonder why it isn't done any more.) Anyway, we used to wander down alleys in that little South Texas town looking for bottles. I still remember the smell of old decaying vegetables outside a produce market door.

Separated by a narrow alley, the produce market's back entrance faced the back entrance of a western wear and leather goods store, a gathering spot for surrounding ranch folk (the store, not the alley). Besides a regular source of discarded soft drink bottles, the alley was a treasure trove of cardboard boxes and leather scraps, which my friend and I liked to take for our many projects.

Although he generally did not approve of people going through his trash, the western store proprietor knew us and had no problem with our rummaging, since my friend's father, a wealthy rancher, was among his best customers. "Just be careful, kids. Sometimes a sharp knife blade breaks off among them leather pieces" he warned. "And watch out for them winos from the pool hall"

I suppose you could have one of those guys, too, holding his bottle of bay rum or vanilla extract.

Wanna in El Paso

Medical miniatures: We make many unique items for a doctor's office, medical clinic or hospital. They are pictured on our website. We are continually adding new items , so check back from time to time.
Mark and Sharon Stockton,Miniature Artisans
http://www.stockton-miniatures.com

Sharon

Lynn in Cahokia

Alley scene: A while back, for a wonderful flower shop project that never came to be, I made an awesome dumpster for out back. It was so fun. I used a bending brake from micro mark, can't remember exactly what type of metal, but being a beat up old dumpster, I was able to do a crummy solder job on purpose!! I made the casters to roll and swivel, I fashioned it after the one out back of the bar I worked at. Sprayed it green with a phone# on the sides, everything like the real thing. I don't know what was more fun, making it rusty or filling it with awesome trash!! Something like this would be great in the alley scene, especially with a restaurant there.

Linda Master

Alley scene: when I 'saw' an alley in my head I saw clothes hanging from pulley lines, fire escapes (people dancing- west side story joke), a bum, or kids smoking, a pie cooling on a window.

Jen in MA

Making Mini Clothing:: There are many brilliant miniature seamstresses on this list and I'm sure they'll reply, too, but for my dolls, I sew many of the seams by placing the garment on top of tissue paper. After the seam has been sewn, I tear it away. It helps it move under the needle and not 'pull' that 1/8 " seam.

Diana Wieler