Worthing, England - New shop: I am from England. Worthing in West Sussex to be precise. I have 4 houses the latest being a 6 roomed Georgian mansion. The reason why I am writing is because I have just found this wonderful new shop here in Worthing. Its called Ginny's Attic. Its situated in South Farm Rd.Tel no:01903 522599. I found it quite by accident & of course I had to go in to have a look! They are the most friendly helpful people I have ever met & although new to miniatures have a vast stock of accessories, houses, room boxes & craft materials including wood & haberdashery.

Liz Taylor

Miniature Horses: There's a number of horse artisans on one of my Yahoo! groups: ModelArabians@yahoogroups.com You can also find artisan links on the American Model Arabian Horse Association web site at: http://www.amaha.itgo.com/

JoLynne

Petite Princess Furniture: I recently found this website for Petite Princess items: http://www.yesterdaystoys.com/petite.htm

Stacey-Marie Torres

Silica Gel Warning: Silica gel is a wonderful desiccant, but PLEASE be careful with it. Silica gel is poison! Silica gel comes in shoeboxes, purses, etc. If ingested, results can be terrible. When my oldest daughter, Amanda, was small she ate packet of silica gel from a shoe box before I saw her grab it. I managed to fish most out of her mouth, but unfortunately, not all. Called the poison control, they thought all would be okay. One year later she began to have some odd symptoms for a 4 year old. Two years later (and many misdiagnosis in between), she was diagnosed with a devastating disease called Scleroderma, a connective tissues disorder, that is potentially deadly. One of the
possible causes is a family tendency to rheumatoid arthritis (which we have) and an exposure to Silica. Yes, you can get Scleroderma without being exposed to Silica, but it will increase the odds. Please, please be careful with small children and pets with this stuff. We learned the hard way and Amanda still deals with the consequences. Thank God, she is still alive. When diagnosed, we were told she would have 7 years to live at the most. That was 8 1/2 years ago! I don't want to discourage anyone from using Silica to dry flowers, bees, etc.; I just want to make sure you know what you are getting into.

Michelle in South Carolina

Quarter Scale Sites: I love 1/4" scale and I know of several people thatsell 1/4" scale houses and furniture. Of course, I want all of them!! Hereare a few:
Sally's Originals
http://members.tripod.com/~SallysPage/index.htm
Pamela Scott Miniatures
http://members.aol.com/daisy21/pam/index.html
Robin Betterley's 1/4" scale kits
http://miniatureconcepts.hypermart.net/RobinQuarter.html
Suzanne and Andrew's Miniatures
http://www.andrewsmini.com/
BJ Miniatures
http://www.bjminis.com/
Quarterkits
http://www.shawneelink.net/~umbrger/Quarterkits.html

Nancy in Ohio

Quarter Scale Kits: I carry 1/4" scale furniture kits from Mustard Seed.
http://JBsDollhousesMiniatures.comJB's Doll Houses and Miniatures, Yuma, AZ

Jackie

1/4 scale dolls: First I use a softer clay (I like pro-sculpt). I then put it on something to hold it so you never have to actually touch the face or head, such as a toothpick or putting it on foil, visit http://perfect-touch.com/ or visit my website http://BitsnPiecesOnline.com I am linked to them, and invest in some of their sculpting tools. They have war gaming tools that are incredibly small. I have the size up from that. They make all their tools and are very, very nice.

Joni

¼ scale Fimo head: Why don't you try to put a 'skin of Fimo over an already baked small circle or head from, so that it does not lose shape while you are working on it. You can also use a pea sized ball of tin foil as the armature.

Mary Kaliski

1/4" Sculpting: I have been trying my hand at sculpting in 1/4" scale as well. I feel your pain, lol. Actually I found a different sculpting medium for the smaller scales. The commercial name is Kneadatite. It's a blue and yellow ribbon epoxy. You take the two separate halves and mix them together until the mixture turns dark green. The texture is very similar to chewed chewing gum, yuk! The mix has about a three hour working time. It is easily added to and sticks well to itself. I have never had any adverse reaction from the epoxy, although I wash my hands after each use. I like it much better than Sculpey, etc. because I have hot hands. I'll try and post some pics of my leprechauns sometime soon. I've been sculpting a bunch of goblin heads for a doll maker from the movie, Labyrinth. I'll post some pics of them as well.

Shaun C

Live Plants: My mother once grew cacti from seeds and put them in miniature plant pots for dollhouses. It takes a long time to grow the cacti but there were a hundred or more that grow from an assorted package of seeds and a lot of different shapes and sizes. Because they grew so slow and needed very little water they could last a long time before they out grew there place in the doll house. This would be a fun project as long as you didn't need instant results.

Connie Stitt

Live miniature plants: The two women who used to enter the Philadelphia Flower Show with miniature scenes are Wanda Simons and Marnie King, both of Delaware. I saw two of their creations at the Delaware show and they were fabulous.

Beth, In A Miniature Manor