Round Wiring: round wiring works very much like tape wiring. If your transformer is going to be in the lower left area of the house (inside or out, does not matter), then start in the upper right of the house with the wiring. From the first fixture you will have 2 wires. You can call them A and B, black and white, green and purple. Take those 2 wires to somewhere near the next fixture (in those grooves that are already there) and solder the black wire from fixtures 1 and 2 and an extra piece of black long enough to reach to the next place. Solder the white wire from fixtures 1 and 2 and an extra piece of white wire long enough to reach to the next place. Now you have 2 fixtures wired, and still have only 2 wires to contend with. Do this throughout the house, making sure that black goes only to black and white goes only to white and there will be no short circuits. With good soldering joints there will also be no flickering or partial failures. NOTE: When doing this in grooves in the wall, you do not need to insulate the solder joints if the black wire solder joint is an inch or two away from the white wire solder joint in the groove. They won't be able to touch each other and therefore will not short circuit. Make liberal use of a pencil to mark what you are doing, and plan ahead! When you have reached the lower left (or whatever) corner of the house, I would anchor the two wires to a small "terminal block" so that if the transformer cord is ever yanked it won't yank the wiring that is in the dollhouse. Then just connect one connection on the transformer to the black wire and one to the white wire and you are done. If you are using a transformer that does not have a fuse or circuit breaker, please wire one into either the black or the white line. Radio Shack carries them, and they are cheap insurance against a fire. For details on types or sizes of transformers to use, depending upon how many bulbs you will have, please email me privately so I can address your particular needs. Round wiring is actually easier than tape wiring, according to every single student I ever taught both methods to. I no longer teach tape wiring. If anyone does choose tape wiring, please buy and use Tom's insertion tool, it is the only way to go with tape wiring. I know of many failures with tape wiring, but I also know of many successes. Round wiring fails eventually if the joints are not soldered. There is no free lunch.

Barbara Jones

ROUND WIRE: May I commit major social blunder and offer a rather unpopular view on dollhouse lighting? My hope is that some of my dollhouses and or rooms will be preserved into the far distant future. This in mind, I don't feel that miniature fixtures with grain of rice or grain of wheat light bulbs are likely to survive THAT long. Some mini fixtures would be very difficult to replace the bulbs in IF such bulbs are still offered say 100 years from now. Likewise with tape or ribbon wire. Unless run as a continuous, unbroken, single piece- - -circuit breaking tarnish at a joint or a break in some obscure corner is probable given enough time. For myself, I prefer reflective, concealed lighting that uses widely available incandescent aquarium style light bulbs in ordinary sockets fed by 16 or 18 gauge stranded WIRE run through routed grooves at wall to wall or wall to floor/ceiling joints. Route walls/floors wide but shallow to receive walls then route slightly deeper and narrower for a groove to conceal wires which are laid in place as part of the shell assembly process. In half scale I use 6 Watt, Nightlight style bulbs. For 1/4" scale I use 12 volt automotive lamps but still with round wire. Whenever possible, I run the two leads to a single bulb by separate routes to prevent shorts even if the insulation deteriorates completely. I also try to run completely separatecircuits for each fixture. These aren't "rules" or necessarily even popular "standards". For me, they are long considered decisions that I try to follow but even then, there are always exceptions.

Mel K. in Las Vegas

Tape Wiring: I have used tape wire throughout my houses and have not had a problem after over 7 years. When I first started I tried the folding method but didn't like it and went to making cuts and bradding them together. There is an easy way to insert the brass brads which will also make sure that they are inserted properly. Make a small starter hole with a pushpin. I know they sell a special tool for this but a pushpin works just as well. Place the head of the brad in the end of needle nosed pliers and then push the brad into the hole and bang in with a small brass hammer making sure that the brad goes in straight. I use 2 brads on each side of the tape wire so you are using a total of 4 at each junction. You might want to practice this technique first. I find that I do periodically have problems with plug receptacles, they seem to loosen up a bit, but I just bang them in gently and they're fine. Wiring tip for outdoor lighting. I have installed outdoor lighting. My dollhouses are on plywood because 1) it will make them easier to move if we ever decide to move, and 2) I landscape directly on the plywood. The plywood is larger than the dollhouses and is covered with "grass paper". For outdoor lighting I ran tape wire on the underside of the plywood, ran the wires from the outdoor lights under the grass paper, and then connected it to the tape wire under the plywood. I have a separate transformer for theselights.

Carol

DC Adapter vs. Transformer: A DC adapter consists of a transformer (to lower the voltage to 12 volts) and a rectifier (to convert from AC to DC). It may also have a regulator in it to help control the voltage level. For light bulbs, it really doesn't matter which you use. Your 1 amp adapter is about 12 watts, which means you can light about 18 light bulbs before you overpower the device. Read the adapter careful, and see if it says anything about "circuit breaker protected" or "thermal (overload) protected". If it doesn't say one of these things, then make sure you place a 1 amp fuse in your lead-in wire, to help prevent fires.

Tom Berkner

Egg Art: For Helen whose inquiring mind wants to know what to do with her eggs: http://miniatures.about.com/hobbies/miniatures/cs/eggart/index.htm

Jude in ND

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, Tucson, Arizona

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.comunder "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 - Tucson, Arizona

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

Egg House: We did a great little project in our club. We made little bunny houses. First pierce the end of the egg with a needle on both ends, and blow the egg. Helps if you can pierce the yoke. (you can make the hole a bit bigger than just the pin prick, or you will blow yourself silly). Don't worry too much about the size of the hole as you will be covering it with tissue anyway. But do keep it as small as possible. After blowing out all the egg, rinse well and let dry. Paint the egg any color desired w/acrylic paint. Set the egg on the table and see which way it wants to lay. Pierce the front edge of the egg with 2-3 holes to make a small enough opening to get your cuticle scissors into the space and cut an opening. Or you can just use your tweezers to break off small pieces in the shape you want. We made oval openings. (Make the opening fairly close to the bottom edge and this will be the floor space for your little home.) (I think the chipped opening is more effective/natural but you choose the effect you want.) Cut a piece of card stock for the floor and cover with paper flooring or paint as desired decorate as desired (we used 144th metal mini's) 2 or 3pieces is about all that will fit. We cut a piece of poster board andlandscaped a garden w/stream, hill, trees, and mine has a tiny veggie garden with lettuce and fimo carrots. We used the tiny Easter Bunnies (used for Easter trees) cut the loops off, and placed them about the garden. We placed the whole scene in a clear plastic box. (Size you garden to fit into your box.) A fun quick project and the children love looking at them. Have fun!

Diane SFBA

Eggs: This tip came from an egger friend of mine. The paper thin shells of chicken eggs can be strengthened by using corn starch mixed in Elmer's glue. Just mix some cornstarch in the glue and using your fingers, spread it inside the egg shell and let it dry. I can't tell you how much cornstarch to mix in, but you need enough that it is not runny. You have to use very sharp scissors to cut the opening to keep the shell from cracking. She also used cuticle scissors to cut openings in finch eggs. I usually ended up crushing the very fragile finch eggs, but they are the right size to make decorated eggs for you mini scenes.

Wanda