Weebles: The way that Weebles work is to have a lot of weight in their base. I have preschoolers make them as a science-based toy by taking those ubiquitous two-part hollow plastic Easter eggs and putting a lump of play-doh in the base (the wide end). They then draw faces on with marker pens. If you can find a tiny hollow egg shape then you could do the same. Alternatively, a solid shape that you could hollow out the base of and put weight in might work.

Wendy in Clinton, NJ

Working with leather.   If you are molding leather over a form of some sort then you want time to move it and adjust it.   In which case you want a glue that lets you slide the leather a bit rather than one that grabs immediately.   Mix starch paste with alkaline wood glue in the proportions 50/50.   I use it all the time for bookbinding full scale and minis.

TIP:   If you are working with leather and you want the APPEARANCE of stitched leather, run it through your sewing machine with no thread. It punches the holes nice and even.   Then glue as you would normally. It gives a lovely faux stitched edge.

Barbara B from South Africa

Glass Slippers: You are not going to have any luck drilling plastic because it will frost on you.   The heel could be cut from an acrylic rod that framers use to keep photos   separated from the glass.  I would go with the heavier clear plastic from a cheap travel case...cut the toe  to instep piece then overlap with the heel piece. Glue the shoe together using clear silicone. Decorate with rhinestones. I was going to suggest coating the shoe but I don't think you will need to. The shoe will be very wearable and the heavy plastic is not unlike leather for working when you use the silicone.

Laurie Sisson

In doing my artist's room/loft: I've had so many responses from you for suggestions that I'm now doing and here is what I did for paint bottles.   I cut off small lengths of a plastic piece of tubing 3/16 diameter, painted the inside with different colors of paint, then for the lids I glued on size 10A hearing aid batteries. Since these were all lined up in a cupboard there was no need for bottoms on the bottles. Very realistic, and to think of what lengths we go to   when we need something boggles my mind too!

Connie, Arizona

Ants in your pants or picnic, how to make them: I used to make ants and spiders (when you are the only boy living way out in the country with two sisters and a girl cousin a guy has to come up with some way of keeping them all tormented doesn't he?) out of the hair fine copper wire coils that were used in  old radios.   Since fine copper wire is hardly available now I am taking a bit of help from my fly tying times and using some very fine thread.

Wind several loops of thread around the flat end of a flat toothpick. Slip the thread off the toothpick and flatten it into a long ball. (you may need magnification) Make a couple of wraps a little ways back on the length of the ball to make a head (leave ends of tie long). Apply a little head cement (available at fly-tying shops) to the head and tied area. Clear fingernail polish works ok but a little slow to dry and thick. Tie a second length of thread the same way a little farther back to form the body joint.

The body joint and the head should be about the same size. The tail should be almost half the ant, long and come to a point turning downward. Go back and add another loop of thread at the same places and apply head cement to all and let dry. Once the cement is dry you can shape the legs from the ends of the loops and spread them out to look real.

Using a very fine needle thread a loop of thread through the head for feelers and stiffen all with head cement again. Let dry.

Bill Hudson, Eugene, Oregon

Picnic ants: I have a couple of ways for you to make miniature ants. I sort of 'discovered' this late one night when working on another project many years ago.

I was making something else, when some tiny beads rolled together and I thought they were an ant and tried to 'kill' it! Subsequently, I made ant farms using these. You can see them on my catalog page for Pet Birds and Small Pets at the link below my signature.

If you have any of those itty bitty holeless beads (in black), the ones that are smaller than the head of a pin, just glue three in a row and it makes a very convincing ant!

If you don't have the beads, take a piece of black sewing thread, (if you have silk thread it works well too) and tie a bunch of knots along a length of it. Put a tiny drop of any white glue on your fingers and roll each knot between your fingers to coat it with glue. Let dry, and cut close to each side of each knot, then glue them together wherever you want you ants, in threes. If you are really good at this, you can make three knots in a row, one right after the other!

Alice Zinn- Pt. St. Lucie FL

Floppy tassel report: A while back I asked for advice on making miniature tassels that were actually floppy. I received a number of suggestions and after much trial and error have now been able to make some silk pillows with properly floppy tassels. I wanted to share the advice that I received and what has actually worked. It turns out to be one of those things where miniaturizing creates unique problems and no one idea works on its own.

If you want just the illusion of floppy tassels then that is easier: incorporate fine beading wire, or the wire from the edge of wired ribbon (already nicely covered and disguised) into the hanging cord of your tassel. You can then place the tassel how you like.

For truly floppy tassels it is a bit more involved. Tassels that would be 3" to 4" long in real life do not have enough weight in miniature to flop, so I have been incorporating tiny beads into the tassel head for added weight, and they look nice too.

The tassel cannot be attached right up against the pillow otherwise it just sticks out; it needs a length of thread out from the pillow to allow it to dangle and flop; the length of this is a matter of experimentation and personal preference. The hanging thread needs to be as flexible as possible. The only thing that I have found to be sufficiently flexible is silk thread, separated down to its smallest stranding. This means untwisting and separating it one step further than you would normally do for petit point, so that it is no longer plies twisted together. You then need to dampen and iron these strands to straighten them further. I worked out that any time threads are plied or twisted together, the twist adds rigidity, which is want you want to avoid to have your tassels be able to flop. You can separate DMC down to this level but it is then not strong enough, and just pulls apart when you try and do anything with it.

Wendy in Clinton, NJ

- Vilene is used in sewing to give some body to lightweight fabric, I think it is called Wonder Under in the USA. It is an iron-on product that looks like tough tissue paper and one side has a layer of adhesive on which is placed on the fabric and pressed with an iron, preferably a steam one.

- Lawn is a very fine cotton fabric, such as is used for handkerchiefs, Liberty's of London are very famous for their lawn fabrics, but you must have something similar over there.

Maureen in Hemel, UK

Silk Felt: I know it as silk paper.

The method I've used needs unspun silk and cellulose adhesive. Silk tops, noils and throwsters' waste work. In the UK you can buy them from Texere Yarns in Bradford. You can use wallpaper paste but paste without fungicide is better.

You also need some netting - old nylon lace curtains work fine, or you could use old window screens - two pieces each a little bigger than the size of the "felt" you want to make.

- Make up the paste. It needs to be slightly runny.

- Put one piece of netting flat on a waterproof work surface. Holding the mass of the silk in your left hand, pull tufts out of it with your right hand. The tufts will have fibers aligned along their length. Lay the fibers on the netting with all the fibers running in the same direction. Do a row and then start again further down, overlapping them a little like roof tiles.

- When you've covered the area you want, add another layer with the fibers at right angles to the previous layer.

- When the layers are thick enough (they go a lot thinner when the felt's finished) put the second piece of netting on top.

- Now the messy bit: spoon or scoop some paste onto the top of the netting. Rub and pat it, adding more paste, until the whole thing is saturated. Wash your hands before you stick to everything!

- Leave it to partially dry then remove both pieces of netting before they become completely stuck. That's it!

It dries stiff. Soaking it in water will release the paste. If you decide, after it's dried, that it isn't thick enough, you can just add more layers on top.

You can:

- Mould the partially-dry (but still flexible) felt over a bowl or similar object that you have covered with Clingfilm.

- Add snippets of thread, coloured silk fibers, torn scraps of paper, bits of gold leaf, skeleton leaves, flower petals and anything else you can think of to the felt - but cover them with a very thin layer of fibers to hold them.

- Take off the top layer of netting after you've worked the paste in and manipulate it with your hands, add ripples and textures.

- Make some parts very sheer and some parts heavy.

- Dye some or all of the fibers before you start.

- Paint the finished article with acrylics (but don't over-work the surface or the paste will start melting!)

- Emboss the top layer with heavy lace, stamps, kitchen implements.

- Embroider it ...

Sally Holmes, Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England

Room by Room update:    Below is the company's response to my letter.

Absolutely we will be repeating the line for this year. As a matter of fact it will be on TV in the fall [2002] and should be even bigger than last year. Unfortunately many retailers are now sold out of most of the rooms and do not get more in until later this spring or summer. You can try TTGO.com to see if they still have some additional rooms left at this time. If not, KBtoys.com will be carrying all 12 rooms, but probably not until this summer. Toys R Us will be running a special Laura Ashley version of the house as well, but not until the summer.

Special thanks to Shirley in Bakersfield, CA for hooking me up with the website. http://www.ringsidesupplies.com .

Donna Baird of Indiana