Dark Wooden Floors: you could stain it with walnut stain to get it nice and dark. Then when dry use several coats of Mod Podge high gloss. It dries in less than an hour. Between coats rub it down with 0000 steel wool. This would come out dark and shiny like you wanted.

Helen from San Dieg

Floors: I've not been doing minis for long but did do the floors on my dollshouse and am pleased with the result. Use a stain/wood dye to colour the floor (might be useful to try it out on a small sample first to test for colour) when dry, sand with fine glass paper/steel wool. Clean off all dust and use a good quality wax polish (Liberon is excellent but any good wax polish will do) rub in well with very fine steel wool, leave to dry again and repeat process of polishing.....You can use as many coats as you wish to achieve the desired effect. No doubt there are other methods but this worked well on the floors I did. Good luck,

Jacqui in Hampshire, UK

Choosing Paint Color Help: We went down to the Home Depot to purchase some paint and I found this neat program put out by Glidden paint company. It allows you to choose interior or exterior shots and you add color to the walls, ceilings, trim and furniture.
It cost about $5.99 plus tax. It does not have to be placed on your hard drive it runs from the CD.
I have problems choosing color that go together and this program seems like it will help. You might check it out. If you don't have The Home Depot you might check out other companies that handles Glidden paint they might carry it.

Sclarise

Michaels had their wooden hutches on sale for $1.00 each. I was so happy with the results of my first go round with the hutches that I picked up another three! My first hutch was finished in a yellowy-maple tone and then antiqued and distressed. Just the perfect piece to send to a fishing cabin don't you think? I painted some wooden plates with silver paint so they look like tin plates and they are stacked neatly in the hutch. I am going to make some fimo fish to put on a platter and make lots and lots of canned goods to finish filling the hutch.

Reva Losiewicz

Weight: Another thought - I was thinking that one could glue metal washers inside wooden furniture pieces, etc. Perhaps not as heavy initially but they are flat and could be stacked. This would eliminate the need to melt the weights. Just a thought.

Caliandra & The Tattered Box

Arts & Crafts: Art Nouveau actually started just a few years earlier, in the 1890s, Art Deco you're dead on--for reference, have fun watching all those great movies from the 30s--but Arts & Crafts is actually from about the 1880s-1910s (it's closely related to Mission style).

Molly/StormBorn

Dutch interiors from 1900: there was a great difference between the interiors of the workers; the so called middle class, the rich farmers and the people who lived in towns..
Perhaps it is interesting for the others to know how we lived in the first half of the 20th century.
Something about the way WE lived, not poor, neither very wealthy. My parents lived in a workman's' cottage where I still live. See garden page at my website. My father grew fruit, worked in other peoples' gardens, served beer in pubs and later he also worked in a factory where they dry grasses for cattle food.

So their interior was very simple: when they got married in the 20ties, they bought the most necessary furniture in straight, dark brown oak, the seats covered in dark red velvety fabric, a carpet on the floor, which first had a layer of dark patterned floor-cloth. They had yuckie brown, hairy curtains! They did not have wallpaper, but the walls were painted in a gloomy green shade(30ties) BUT earlier that century the walls had had a deep pink color: Dark apple blossom.

There was a mirror above the mantelpiece! And there was a clock and a tiny , little bookcase, they did not have many books... They had BIG lampshades with frills, in the 40-50ties, but must have had oil-lamps in the early years.

The kitchen was painted in BLUE, . It was the same shade used in the farms; against the flies! In this kitchen we only had a 2 pan electrical cooking set. And a built-in cupboard. Important in every kitchen was the rack with earthenware drawers, hanging in a little wooden rack on the wall. For sugar, coffee, flour, little ones for herbs. The more luxurious racks had a clock in it. There was a sink in our kitchen, but we can still see that there have been alterations in the twenties. I think there was none when the house was built...(1900)

Next to the fire-places in the kitchen AND the living room were two little cupboards above one an other: which opened in the kitchen as well in the living room: the upper for stock that had to be stored absolutely dry, like meds, tobacco, her sewing box....and the lowest little cupboard was forstoring....wood and peat, to keep the stove burning in winter.

My parents slept in a bed in a small backroom, but we also had those kind of cupboards, we children slept in , called "bedstee"! These were in the living room as that was the only place we had a stove! So it was warm there. This stove was black and round, with copper finishings. But earlier they also came in several colors (olive-green or even apple blossom pink!) Under the" bedstee" was always a cellar OR, at poor people's: an extra room to store all those children; most people had at least 8 to 12 children, my parents only had three...

My mother had no modern washing machine until the seventies! She washed all her life in that big wooden washing machine(NOW available in mini!) with an electro motor under it, so she did NOT have to rub on a washboard! We did not have a TV, BUT we had radio, from the beginning on! (20ties)

Neither did we have an refrigerator....I did not know how she kept her food cool....well, we had instant airco: the wind blew right through the house! The walls were only one stone thick with a plank wall on the inside. Not to mention I had colds very often...

We had no bathroom either...once a week in a tub and we went to the outside loo, mentioned before in this digest. You people in the countryside of America lived in almost the same circumstances. I even have read stories about NO electricity. My parents did have electricity; as they lived in a village. But when you lived isolated , somewhere in the polder, in the middle of nowhere, the electric co. did not give you a connection. So those people used oil lamps 'till the 60ties!

Farmers had the so called "Good room" of Mooie kamer; an extra room where they only came when there was something to celebrate and you wanted to impress people! This room had beautiful dark red upholstered chairs, mostly neo-classic or Biedermeier, luxurious velveteen wallpaper, a Bonheur case (see my website; the parlour)Etc. etc. Questions? Just mail me! ati.jonker@planet.nl http://members.tripodnet.nl/atiekees/

Atie, Holland

Ebay and miniatures: I have made significant miniature purchases from e-bay and would like to offer some observations for potential sellers.

1. Describe each item in great detail. The dimensions, weight, materials used and a color description. (Monitors are all different and the color differences can be tremendous! That "mint green" blanket I see on the monitor may be a putrid lime color in reality.)

2. Provide exact shipping costs the buyer will be required to pay or provide enough information (weight, dimensions and location of seller) so that the buyer can find out what the shipping will be. If you tack on a "handling fee" make sure the buyer is aware of that also. If the handling fee is over a dollar or two, explain why. Good packing materials are expensive and I'm happy to pay to have them used in order to keep my purchase safe. If you are going to slap a label on the box that you picked up at the grocery store, I will probably really resent having to pay you $10.00 in "handling".

3. Provide a short, concise list of payment types you will accept. Don't go into laborious explanations as to why you will not accept certain payments because "too many buyers have not followed through with payment". It makes me feel that you don't trust me up front and makes me uncomfortable about buying from you. Simply state what you will accept and leave it at that. I take no offense with "I accept PayPal and US Postal Money Orders only."

4. Describe your item in as straightforward a manner as possible. If it was made from a kit, say so. If it was made from a kit with embellishments, I would like to know that also. Don't say something is "hand painted" when it is hand stenciled or a decal has been embellished. Be extremely precise in describing what you are offering as many buyers are being extremely precise in what they are purchasing! If the description is vague, I usually just move on to the next item.

5. Give a little "extra" with your item if possible and you will get repeat customers. I have received such things as a cute little tatted doily, a booklet on dollhouses, a photocopy of a simple little project and one nice lady tied a bow around the package and tucked in a little handwritten note telling me she hoped I enjoyed building the project. I keep track of these sellers and check out their auctions on a routine basis simply because they were pleasant about the whole process.

6. e-mail me when the item is shipped and let me know how you shipped it. Make sure you ship it using the method I paid for. I once paid for some magazines to be shipped Priority mail and they were shipped "book rate". It wasn't worth quibbling over but I will never again buy from that seller.

I too will now step down from my soapbox! I just thought that some of you that are just getting into e-Bay selling might like to hear from a big e-Bay buyer!

Reva

Marketing: Most miniature artists probably do get a start by putting their work in shops on commission (which means you get paid after something sells, and the shop gets its percentage) I started that way too. But it's better money to sell retail by mail order. You have to do a little advertising to work up a mailing list. I went to your site and saw your lovely floral designs, and I'm sure they will sell.
The other possibility that came to mind is adding your work to a compilation of artists' work that someone else would take to shows for you. I know there are people out there who don't have enough things alone, but offer several other artists' work on their show table. This would be commission work too, but would get your name out in the public. Put feelers out to see what you can find - it would have to be a person you could trust.

Paulette Stinson in IN

List for Business Owners: You might want to check out this list of owners for valuable help and insights into owning a miniature business. GoldenSwanMinis-subscribe@onelist.com(for business owners)

Marilyn, MI