Cutting Eggs: To cut a hole in a chicken egg, lightly pencil the shape of your opening. Take ordinary white glue and apply a thin bead around the penciled line. Let dry thoroughly. Drill a tiny hole in the center of the area to cut by rotating the tip of a sharp Xacto blade around until you get a small hole. Then, you should be able to cut with those curved cuticle scissors. The glue will prevent the egg from cracking beyond that line. You should be able to lightly sand your opening smooth. Put the egg into a bowl of water with some bleach. This will kill any bacteria and remove the white glue at the same time. You can wipe it off with a damp towel.

Bonnie Gibson

Cutting Eggs: Thought I'd jump in on the egg discussion to tell you about the breed of chicken known as the Araucana, also known as the "Easter Egg Chicken". These hens lay various shades of green, blue, and sometimes even pink eggs. We raised several varieties of chickens and I can tell you these are also the hens with the sweetest personalities. Now if you take care of your little hens properly and feed them good food and let them in your garden to eat the bugs they will all have eggs with nice hard shells - not at all like the eggs you get from the grocery store. I made a little house in one of the Araucana eggs. I used a drill to put small holes in each end of the egg, then blew out the contents. I outlined the area I wanted to cut out with a pencil line and drilled a starter hole just inside the line, then used the smallest Dremel router bit to cut out the hole. The scale for the egg (in order to make a two-story house inside) worked out to about 1/8" (1:96) but I suppose if I had thought about 1:144 I could have put in an attic too! Anyhow, if you want to have a look at the egg it is on my web site http://www.minimotion.com under "Miniatures". The green color of it is the actual color of the egg as it came from our Araucana (well, after the egg was washed of course)! I did coat the inside with several layers of acrylic paint to help hold it together, and also touched up the outside where I cracked it (not saying how many times).

Tori West

Cutting Eggs: It's Science Fair time in Virginia. Last year my granddaughter did a project with eggs. She soaked an egg in vinegar for about 2 days. The shell becomes soft and rubbery. She used whole eggs, but you could use blown out shells and weight them down in some way to stay under the vinegar. Or you could just let it float. If it stays in the same place, you would have a soft side that you could cut. When you leave it out of the vinegar, it hardens again.

Martha

PLEXIGLASS CASES: I can't remember who was looking for the 8x8x8 Plexiglas cases that aren't being produced until later this fall. But I found some more. These cases look terrific and all sizes. Go to The Miniature Web http://www.etropolis.com/mini/ Then click on Bill Greenan.

Fannye

Downspouts, round or square - maybe it's a regional thing? My grandparents house, built in 1912, had round ones. My parents' house, built in 1939, had round ones. The first house my husband and I bought, built c. 1952, had round ones. And the house I live in now, built in 1964, had round ones until we had the new roof put on in 1995.

Nancy

Gutters: I purchased some from http://www.jsm-miniatures.com/ He has them in round and square. They are plastic, but I found a water based paint for plastic . I tried the primer and it does work. I am no quite up to the gutter installation, so I cannot tell you more, but they seem very easy to modify.

Susan Robbins, Germansville, PA

When to cut out windows: By putting the windows in I assume you mean making the openings. I would make the openings before because the clapboard might get damaged. The way I did it was to clapboard over the openings and then cut the clapboard with an exacto knife. That way you don't have to measure. The molding on the exterior of the windows that you get should cover any rough edges on the clapboard after you cut it.

Carol

When to cut out windows: I assumed you were asking when to install the windows. (before or after siding). I agree with Carol here also. The holes should be cut first, then the siding applied. The only thing I don't agree with Carol is about covering over the window opening and then cutting it out. I hate to waste the siding, and with the window opening cut, it is very easy to lay the siding on and mark it with a pencil for the saw cut, then apply. And as Carol said the window trim covers the rough edges.

Debbie

Fimo Baskets: Another thing I love to do, and I can't claim that it's my idea. If you feel reasonably happy with Fimo (I suppose you might be able to do this with all the other poly clays, although Sculpy 3 might be too soft) try making a mini basket by making long, very thin, sausages from it and plaiting them (flat on the table). Then you can make a super mini basket by just winding this plait around itself in whatever shape you want -

makes nice rustic style baskets for logs or bread. Last year I made Easter baskets like this and filled them with eggs and flowers (all made of Fimo) Such fun!

Florida Gill

Flowers from Fimo: Fimo can be used to make very fine petals indeed, I use a pasta machine on the finest setting for my flower petals and depending on the leaf a slightly thicker one for those. A small amount of paint applied with a dry brush and a minimum amount of water and I have managed to make some very nice flowers with surprisingly fine petals. I use Fimo as opposed to Sculpey because I find the latter too soft and it is not as strong for fine work, also it can get very sticky when worked for a while.

Jacquie