Lamp Shades: Just go to Jim Collins site and click on printables then listed under furniture you will find various lamp shades that you may print out.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Meadows/1832/

Marilyn from Michigan

Laser Cut: There are dollhouse and mini-furniture kits that are laser cut. That means, the individual pieces are cut out by a focused laser beam that cuts by burning through the wood. Because the laser beam can be focused into a beam that is finer than a saw blade, the precision of laser cut parts is amazing. The cut edges have a shiny, burned appearance. The thicker the wood, the longer it takes the laser to burn through it; the more charred the edges.

When you first open a laser cut kit, the smell of burned wood can be overpowering and some people have allergic reactions to it. If you let the pieces air out for a couple of days, the noxious smell goes away. The charred edges can be eliminated by lightly sanding. This is necessary if you are going to stain a furniture kit. With dollhouse kits, you can simply use a primer like Kilz and paint over the charred edges.

I have been fortunate in working with a local company, LaserTech, designing and building some of their prototype mini kits. The laser cutting machine is a marvel of space age invention. It can slice through wood, plastic and metal like they were foam board. It is huge and expensive and a little frightening to watch it in action. The operator must wear thick, tinted goggles because staring at the laser beam can cause permanent eye damage. The beam is directed by a computer using a program similar to AutoCad.

In my dreams, I imagine there some day being a smaller, home crafter version of a laser cutter available but the safety issues would probably keep it out of the marketplace.

Sally Cook-Thomas

Laser Cut: A laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) is a device that creates a very narrow, beam of coherent (one wavelength or color) light. This give the beam a very high energy. Kind of like the sun and a magnifying glass, only much stronger. When this beam hits a non-reflective surface, it basically vaporizes anything it hits. If you place a piece of paper or wood into the beam, it will burn a hole though it, turning the wood to smoke. The edges of laser cut pieces are typically charred for this reason. Most laser cutters have an x-y table which is computer controlled. This allows your piece of wood to be moved in two directions so you can create any 2 dimensional pattern you chose.

Since the light exerts a miniscule force on the wood, it can cut very fragile or delicate things without destroying them. The major limitation is that it works in 2 dimensions, so you can't, in a practical manner, make a 3 dimensional object.

Tom & Kari

Glycerin: "What is glycerin and where does one get it? … Linda in Leroy, OH " Glycerin is (you will be sorry you asked) a clear (colorless) liquid obtained from rendering of animal fats or can be made synthetically. Formula is C3H5(OH). It is Hygroscopic (attracts water) It is used in the manufacture of soaps and medications, Also some plastics. For practical purposes in your area in the winter if you get sheet ice on your car windshield; before the rain comes and freezes, spread glycerin on the windshield and when the rain hits it and freezes it is a simple matter to "push"it off. (old cab driver trick) Where to buy it? any store that sells toothpaste "vbg" personal health items or drug stores. If you rub it on your hands and face prior to painting a human sized room, any paint that splatters on your hands or face is simply wiped off. Less expensive than cold cream and less smelly than Vaseline Which I used to keep paint from sticking to my skin. Now aren't you sorry you asked?

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Glycerin: Glycerin is a humectant--it equalizes moisture, basically. (Do NOT use it as a moisturizer on your skin if you live in a dry climate as it will pull the moisture out of your skin and disperse it to the drier air.) You can buy it at a drugstore, both plain and mixed with rosewater.

Molly/StormBorn

List for Aussie's to swap and trade? Sue here, Well, I did it, we now have a swap and sell list for people in Australia and New Zealand. All are welcome, please feel free to join us, its an open list. list website page is at Group home page: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mini_downunder_swap_and_sell Group email mini_downunder_swap_and_sell@yahoogroups.com

Sue Maynard, Founder

Paper Pulping: I found out that toilet tissue is better than paper towels and most likely facial tissue is even better. The toilet tissue yielded a pulp that was cottony and velvet like to the touch. Real soft. You do not have to tear the toilet tissue into itty bitty pieces and then put it in the blender. Nor did I soak it over night. I found that if I put water in the blender (2 glasses of cold clear water). Then I pull from the toilet tissue roll perhaps 2 feet of the stuff and pulled that apart to make about 3 or 4 sections with 3 squares apiece and put that in the blender. Pulsed it and keep adding paper until the machine tells you its "choking" on the stuff. I pour the pulped toilet tissue into a nylon square of screening which is sitting over the opening of a large plastic jar (huge jar that pretzels came in). After I have emptied out the blender container I can pick up the screening and twist it until I get the pulp almost free of water. I open the screening and remove the pulp which now is a stuck together mass. I put this into a plastic salad bowl; plastic because as my wife saw I was going to use one of her cooking bowls she said something's in her native tongue (American English) which would make a sailor blush. I never knew she harbored such a vocabulary. See the things one learns from minis. O.K. I now have the pulp in the plastic bowl. Over this I pour some white glue diluted with tap water perhaps 50:50 I saved some of the Elmers' containers and put the water in those and shook well. I then kneaded the mass and actually reconstituted the pulp with liquid (glue + water) Then it was applied to the frame I had prepared.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Removing acrylic paint from Fabric: An easy and inexpensive way to remove dried acrylic paint from fabric is with rubbing alcohol. You can also clean your brushes with it. If the paint has dried just pour some alcohol into a cup and soak the brush (or fabric) for a while, then rinse. It works wonders and can save an expensive brush with very little effort. I was taught this trick when I took tole painting classes.

Karen Golomb

Removing acrylic paint: Acrylic paint can only be removed mechanically (scraped off) when dry and the remains by using acetone. But acetone may leave a stain.

Marcella

Metho: 'Metho' is short for metholated spirits. I think it may be called 'denatured alcohol' in the US. It consists of ethanol (the kind of alcohol you can drink) mixed with methanol (wood alcohol)... Adding methanol makes the mixture poisonous. Me, I *hate* the smell of metho, so I use isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol.

Charlene