Garden Hose: To make a hose I use wire that has a green plastic covering or you could paint some green. You could probably purchase green wire in the gardening section of a hardware store. To make the nozzle, use the end of a biro.

Karen from Dubai

Garden Hose: Go through your findings or go to the fabric store and get a grommet (those little metal things like a crownless hat that are inserted into belt holes to strengthen them). Then look through your medicine chest and glue supplies for an expired bottle with a very fine nozzle; cut away the rest of the bottle. Paint these pieces a matching brass color. Look around the hardware store to find plastic-coated wire the right diameter to fit inside the grommet, preferably green. Buy about 18 inches. Glue the grommet, quot;brim" side out to one end, the nozzle to the other. Coil around a paint bottle, tying raffia if necessary to hold shape.

If you don't have grommets, they have enough uses to justify buying a small box. Glued to the top of a fancy bead, they make the cup for a candleholder. Cut and paint a skewer slightly less than the width of your bathroom, slide a curtain onto it, put a grommet on each end brim side out, glue the grommets to the walls, voila, your shower curtain has been hung. Punch a paper crown for the grommet hat and use with pompoms or q-tips pulled off the stick to make tiny snowmen with top hats, etc.

Loretta Sniarowski

Garden Hose: I assume that the hose will remain in its coiled or what ever position it is placed in; therefore; Ideas;
1. Very thin rope of clay with "brass" spray nozzle
2. Appropriate thickness of wire, painted garden hose green.
3. Cotton twine (appropriate thickness) wet with glue so it can dry in the position you want and then paint.

Dr. Bob

Garden Hose: Cut bell wire in green or white to the length you want (20 inches looks best) remove green covering with a razor blade for the 2 ends (about 1/4 inch.) Using the barrel clasp from jewelry cut the jump rings off with wire cutter and glue end of wire through the tiny hole in each end of clasp with crazy glue (one side is a male and the other female fittings.) Let dry and roll hose around a medicine bottle and voila - Garden hose!

Gail

Varnish vs. Shellac: When I refinish life size furniture, I use a coat of shellac thinned half and half with denatured alcohol before I stain. This works the same as the products used to even out stain. All it does is fill up the more absorbent parts of the wood grain (like the ends) so the stain is absorbed more evenly. I also use the same 50:50 thinned shellac between coats of stain, especially for dark stains when several coats are required or if I'm 'draping' one color of stain over another. It keeps the second (or whatever) coat of stain from dissolving and rubbing off part of the first coat. You have to sand lightly after each coat of shellac.

I use varnish to seal the stain and give shine. I use mostly non-varathane varnishes in satin finish as I want my antiques to have a glow, not a gloss. I rarely use water based varathane as I don't like the way it feels and I don't find it as durable. However, water based varathane allows you to do several(3?) coats in one day and will not yellow. And varathane will not waterspot like old fashioned varnish.

You can use shellac instead of varnish, but the finish will be not as tough as regular varnish and will dissolve if you use a furniture polish with an alcohol in it, like some of the sprays. Shellac comes in white (goes on clear) and orange (goes on amber.) You choose depending on the color of the stain you are using and/or how 'warm' you want the finish to look.
If you use shellac, you can only clean your brushes with denatured alcohol or shellac thinner. Turps won't touch it. Water makes it gummy. I can't remember where varnish came from, but shellac was the resin from a tropical beetle.

Heather in Toronto

Inlay Strips: You may want to check out http://www.constantines.com for inlay strips. They have a pretty good variety of assembled veneer inlays. Free catalog also.

Brian

Flooring: A member of club wanted a stone floor for her kitchen. My other hobby is lapidary (stone) work and I have a 16" diamond saw I use to slice my rocks. Anyway, I took a wax 1/2 gallon milk carton and filled it with stones of the size that I wanted for the floor, then filled the carton with cement, not concrete - to much sand in concrete and wears out the sides of the blade. Let it dry for a few days then I placed it in the saw and sliced it like ham. I can cut some rocks down to 1/16" (break a few). Once cleaned of the saw's oil, I broke the stones out. Most of the stones I use are flint rocks and are harder that the cement The cement usually breaks first.

For wooden floors, I bought a 10"-100 tooth carbide tip blade from company that makes tools for pen and pencil set for $35.00. I can cut wood thinner than 1/32" with it but my flooring planks are usually 1/8" or more. Some flooring can be nailed but I glue most of them. Using glue requires a lot of attention since the board tend to lift up with glue on one side only. I have to wait for the glue to dry before adding 4 or 5 more pieces. It usually requires sanding since the planks cut on a table saw vary in thickness. I have built gazebos and a few doll houses and planked my floors using red cedar, walnut,oak or pine, the oak looks the best. I use the left over planking to shingle the roof (at 2500 shingles or more per roof) then clear-coat everything.

The biggest problem in wood flooring is finding fine grain wood. Some wood grains, like soft pine, is too course and throw the scale off. Some floors can be made using 1" wood pieces, turning each one 90 degrees to the next block. Different color wood makes a checkerboard floor.

Dan B.

Parquet Flooring: I just completed a great parquet floor that turned out wonderfully. Here are some tips on making it easy.

1. First I glued 1/8 X 1/16 bass wood strips using glue on the bottom only so there was not any seepage onto the top, onto 11 X 17 1/8" graph paper in groups of four (this will give you mini size 6" squares when complete).
2. Then stain each set of four (I used Golden Oak) and let dry.
3. Using that handy X-Acto miter box, cut each length of 4 boards into 1/2"squares (Turn the strips upside down so that the graph paper is on top and it gives you easy 1/2" marks. Put all your mini parquet into a zip lock bag for use)
4. Cut another piece of graph paper the size of your finished floor. I marked out an area for the parquet, and a plain wood strip border around the perimeter of the room.
5. Glue the 1/2" squares onto the cut graph paper starting from the middle out. Use the graph lines to line up your pieces. Push them up tight close to each other to minimize gaps.
6. I glued a border of walnut stained board around the parquet and then finished with Golden Oak outside of that.
7. Fill any gaps with putty and then run a coat of Golden Oak stain over it all.
8. Apply final finish of your choice.

It came out absolutely lovely and I am very impressed with myself. I prefer the 1/2" squares to the 1" squares. It just looks finer.

Michael

Bespaq: Bespaq produced a catalog about 6 years ago but it's been virtually sold out and out dated for 3 years. He has put out a few update flyers from time to time. He is not on line but his products are available through my web site http://www.dragonflyintl.com ( I can order in anything I don't have in stock) or through many others.

As for as how extensive is the line. It is very large. They produce most items in several finishes, Fruitwood, Walnut, Mahogany, White, Unfinished, or some hand painted. His latest pieces are hand painted on silk or on the painted wood surface. They do all styles including Chinese, Mission, Queen Anne, Federal, Victorian, and many others.

Bespaq dates from the Mid 80's when Pit Ginsburg incorporated after Fantastic Miniatures went out of business. He bought out several of the products from that company and continued to work with the owners of Fantastic Miniatures making the products in Taiwan until Pit Purchased a factory in Mainland China and moved his production there. All of his pieces are hand cut ( no lasers are used) and his workers are paid very well. His master carvers are paid better then some doctors in China. I was recently reading an article of Chinese Arts and sadly China is loosing it's skilled craftsman to the more global society. Skills that were once passed down through the family are now being lost to the younger generations who want things faster and more modern like their Western counterparts.

How Large is the Line - I can tell you I've been to his warehouse in San Francisco many times and it is about 6,000 square feet of warehouse space stuffed from floor to ceiling with boxes of furniture some places on 2 floors. It is amazing that He can find anything in there yet amazingly he not only knows all his stock numbers but where things are at in the warehouse. My Hat is off to Pit Ginsburg of Bespaq for bringing us a quality piece at affordable (savable) prices. When the day comes that we loose him from this industry (hobby) it will be a sad day indeed. He is a true Gentleman of our Hobby.

Deb (the Dragonlady)

Glove Pattern: There's a full-size glove pattern online at http://www.glove.org/site/default.htm, which you could probably scale down and use (or just use the thumbnails). I'd cut it out, not cut out the thumb hole, fold and glue together, then cut out the thumb and glue its two sides together and glue it on the body of the glove. The double thickness of the leather or cloth would make the glove look real.

Alternately, you could glue thin leather to itself, then cut out the gloves and thumb pieces and assemble. Of course be sure to make the right and left gloves different ;)

Maura Bass