Coal: For what it is worth: I have smashed the black fish tank gravel and have learned two things. 1 - it has very sharp edges when smashed that cut sock, floor, etc. And, 2 - it is not black inside.

Peggy

faux briquets: I made some mini coals for my barbeque in a very easy way. Strike a match, blow it out right away and when the hot end cools, cut off the "briquet". If you go through a book of matches, there'll be enough for a summer feast. Hope this helps.

Lee from Melville, NY

Coal for a coal scuttle: If you have access to hard, old Fimo clay, the grey or black crumbles into great looking coal, before it is primed. I would think you would simply bake it in its crumbly state, and put it right into the scuttle.

DeeDee in Carmel Valley

Coal: Maybe you could use a charcoal briquette for the coal. Just crumble it into small pieces and it should work.

Mary

Coal: I would get some artist's charcoal from an art supply store. It comes in different widths and colors but the basic is black. Break it into the size & shape you want.

Karyn

Coal: To simulate coal you can bake bits of black polymer clay, or if you are as wacky as I am, use the charcoal meant to sweeten the soil in potted plants! Just the right size...and it's real! P.S., I use it in my BBQs too!

Alice Zinn

Plastic price tag connectors: Quinn wrote about cutting off price tags: "I turned the plastic hook thingy upside down and realized it is a perfect tiny flower pot."

If you look at it closely, you will also see that it looks like a miniature scoop. For a laundry workshop I did with our mini club once I dipped them in glass stain and they looked like the clear green plastic scoop in detergent boxes. They make good scoops next to flour or sugar canisters, etc., too.

Wanna in El Paso

How to end off when stringing tiny beads...How NOT to end is by tying a knot. It will show. It will come undone. You are better off just running your needle and thread a little farther through several more beads. Add a tiny drop of clear nail polish (NOT super glue, it will cause the thread to become brittle and break) to the thread, then go through a couple more beads. Do this with BOTH ends of thread. I use two gold or silver seed beads to indicate a clasp. I know there is someone who uses wire to fashion tiny hook/eye findings.

Kathy in wisconsin

Ceiling Fan Sites:
http://greengablesdollhouse.com/mhlight7.htm

http://cir-kitconcepts.com/Products.html#standard

that should get you started.

Nursemini

Working ceiling fan: In the past, I have made working ceiling fans in rooms and houses by installing an appliance timer motor (4 to 8 RPM) in the space above and providing 110Volt AC power. Your application presents another problem. Where to hide such a large motor in a green house, glass ceiling. I haven't yet fully researched the idea to build a prototype but a helpful computer nerd (hardware type - not software) may be able to help you set up a tiny stepping motor to run at a convincing, steady, slow speed.

OLDER VINTAGE: You could possibly make your fan(s?) to be belt driven (actually) with an appliance timer motor hidden below the base and operating a dummy motor/shaft assembly in a remote corner. This could be very fantastic.

Mel K.

Harry Potter: I now have a Harry Potter home in our living room. It is an old t.v case, wooden with a large plexi glass front. One room is Professor Snape with his potions, the middle is the castle, and the end is Hermione and Ron and Harry doing mischief in a cauldron! I got a large mirror like a secret door into another world for my birthday from Julia, on this list, and it has steps up into the mirror and Harry and Hermione and Ron may be led off into there after working up their potion by the looks of it! Things keep moving around in there and there is plexi glass, as I said, so it isn’t the cats and dogs moving them. Just magic!!!!!

Robbie Roo Pink Cyberfaery

Draping Fabric:   I am finishing out a Willow Crest as an interior designer's studio/display/sales shop, and hope that someone (or many someones) may have a hint or two to help me solve a minor problem.  I kit-bashed the house to remove all the walls in the first floor, except for two walls with big archways cut in them between the "foyer" and the rest of the first floor, which I have furnished with groupings of related types of furnishings and accessories (country, traditional/contemporary, Victorian influence, etc.), but my daughter, who is in the know about these things, says that I need more "clutter" in that room.  I had planned to add to each "style" vignette a selection of fabric and wallpaper samples from which the customer could choose.  My problem is, I am notoriously awkward with fabric, and can't seem to get my "samples" to drape in anything like a realistic way.   I have a big leather chair in one vignette and I thought I'd just drape several fabric samples over the back and let them drape down onto the floor, for example -- but my "drapes" all look like stiff little bunches of mini fabric -- not very convincing.  Over the years I have read about different methods of "draping" fabric -- wetting, forming into natural looking drapes and letting dry, spraying with hair spray, dipping in modge podge, wetting and forming a draped look over Saran Wrap, etc. -- but none of these seems to work.   I have lots of "fat squares" to choose my samples from, and really want them to look natural -- does anyone out there have a fool proof method of getting the effect I want?

My second floor boasts one big room holding a wallpaper and carpeting display unit that covers one entire wall, rolled carpets leaned up against the wall, and a table and chair where the customer can sit and pore over wallpaper and fabric sample books or books on interior decor.   There also is a foyer with an elevator door (I took out all the staircases and "installed" an elevator wall on all three floors), and a smaller room with another full-wall unit displaying coordinating wallpapers and a big piece of furniture stuffed with bolts and bolts of different kinds of fabric.   I also made lots of fabric and wallpaper sample books that are laying about the place.  The top floor is a big office with computer desk and chair, a sitting area, and a small "storage" room cluttered with odd bits and bobs of furniture and accessories.   My "designer" is a gorgeous Caco doll in a smart red "wool" dress, and her "customer" is a second Caco lady dressed in a wonderful corduroy pants suit with a lovely shoulder bag.   I'm very pleased with the overall effect -- but DO think I need a bit more "mess."

Any hints you can give me on the fabric issue will be greatly appreciated!

Dayle in MD

Balloons: I have read that plastic grapes could be used as balloons. Either paint or cover with real balloons.

Karen In Dubai

Balloon Animals: what about that stuff you put on tools to give them a rubber grip? Could you not coat polymer clay to give them a rubber exterior?

Bob Francis, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Draping   fabric.   The best method I've found for draping if I didn't want to go thru the hours of stiffening, pinning, and shaping is to sew or glue fine copper wire into the hem of the fabric. Then shape the wire around a small dowel.   It works best on dust ruffles. It also works to drape bed coverings and keep the corners down.   and I bet if I go to the archives this will already be there....VBG.....    Pillows filled with salt.......I've never tried that either, but the little canisters that are shipped to your pharmacists to keep medication dry, contain tiny crystals of silica gel, and this makes a nice pliable filler for your DH pillows, and keeps the moisture out of the DH too as a bonus.  

Carol Wagner, Joshua Tree Calif

Balloons: animal or the round kind. You can't make the balloons out of polymer clay and cover with real balloons because the polymer clay eats through the rubber of the balloon. Guess how I know?

Cake decorations have great balloon bunches and they can be taken off the white plastic "tree" they are on and rewired with fine wire.

Gail in Orlando

Balloon sculptures: how about making poly clay forms and then covering them with a real balloon that has been blown up to stretch it out. It can be tied at the "joints" with sewing thread of a matching color or invisible thread to simulate the twists in the balloon.

Mary Lou in Portage, IN

Balloons: I made balloons in a workshop from Crayola Model Magic and when dry, dipped in glossy paints by Liquitex. They looked great. Some of the students in class just painted them with regular craft paints and then spray gloss! The balloons are in the Holidays-ME Birthday scene on the picture trail site. http://www.picturetrail.com/fannye

Fannye in TX

Aging brass items: Someone in a jewelry site had mentioned to use an ammonia product, like Windex, and that this would "age" the brass. I have not tried it. Have you tried taking wood stain and brushing it on and then lightly wiping it off leaving some of it behind to color the finish? In Jewelry making they use Brunt Umber/ Dark brown for brass and gold items and Black for Silver items to give aging.

I have used acrylic burnt umber paint on pieces and then lightly wipe of the paint, until I have left some behind to look aged. Must place a finish coat to keep the paint on the piece.

Kerrie

Draping: I made all the curtains for my dollhouse.   I have found that only the softest lace or silk work the best.   It has to be really flimsy material.   Then it hangs.   In my silk curtains in the LR, I didn't hem them.   I guess I could have used the selvage edge but just pulled threads to get a straight edge then trimmed.   The hem causes bulk and then they wouldn't hang right.   I still have to make my cornice or valance.   I think I'm going to do a cornice.   For the little girl's room I used the softest lace I could find.   A lot of times if you wash fabric good and get the sizing out, that helps a lot.

Linda In CT