Hinges on Wicker: I made a wicker picnic basket that turned out really cute. The inside is lined with red & white gingham material. The "hinge" is made of the same fabric and glued underneath the lining of the basket as well as the lid.

Anita Myers

Wicker basket hinges: Quite a few furniture kits are too small for hinges, so they use ribbon (I think 1/4") for the hinges. Fernwood kits have you cut a little out of both the frame and door to the depth of the ribbon, so not much, then glue the ribbon inside for hinges. You'd need two tiny pieces, but it's not difficult.

Patricia LeBeau

Sewing Basket: The cloth hinge sounds like the best one, but you could also use a needle with the waxed linen and run through the lid and basket about 3 times for each hinge.

MaryLou in Middleburg Hts., OH

Straw Hat Instructions: The straw is woven with cotton threads on either side...Pick one thread out and pull, this will curve into a circle. this starts the process.. You will need a small round object to work the hat on, a wine cork is perfect :) , or the top off a glue stick. You can either glue...or..sew..the choice is yours. Gluing, overlap slightly and iron when finished.

Instructions for sewing - Butt up the edges and sew with a tiny overstitch. Sew the top of the crown section to form a small flat circle just big enough to cover the cork. Hold the cork in your left hand.. hold the circle of straw ..and continue to sew down and around the sides of the cork for about two widths of the straw. Overlap the straw to make a straight edge...secure and cut off If making a 'picture hat' you now need to make a flat brim. Draw a circle on card, place the cork in the centre and draw around. This gives you the area to work. Gently pull the straw to form the circle....join the edges by overlapping and sew in place and continue to sew edge to edge until it measures your brim size, again overlap slightly to finish with a straight edge, secure with thread and cut off. Attach your brim to the crown with glue. Ribbons and flowers are all that's needed to finish.

Instructions for gluing - The same principle is followed for gluing but you will need to overlap slightly To work the brim, cover the card with cling film (saran wrap?) and glue the straw into a circle.

For a bonnet, you will have to work a brim with the crown on the cork, working from one position around the crown bottom, leaving a gap of about 1/2 inch turn the straw back on itself and sew around to the other side. Turn back the straw again, doing this four times. Each time gently pulling the straw into a 'curved upright shape' The straw can literally be pulled into any shape when it is sewn.... The fifth row, turn back and finish the ends at one side. Now iron the hat, this seals the glue. Add ribbons, flowers, feathers to finish.

Hazel Dowd

Grunge Mops: A wise lady. Mary Wrenn.. once told me, "When I make something I have it in front of me", and that is what I now try to do with everything I recreate. So for my mops, Cut a 1/8" round wooden dowel into 4 1/2" pieces. Sand the end that will show. Slightly round it. Make a thin, thin wash (like ink) of Raw Umber acrylic paint and brush on the wood. Let it dry, or hasten the drying process by drying in and oven or (as I did) with a heat gun. For the mop head I used a crochet thread. Size?..well the label says..50g (?) It's a bit thicker than darning thread. But I bet darning thread, or white cotton string would be good too. Cut a piece of thin cardboard to 1 1/4". Wrap the string loosely around it 50 times. Take string and keeping the loops together glue them around the unfinished end of the dowel. Cover about 1/4". I used hot glue. Now just under the loops you have attached to the dowel, and about 1/8" from the top of the loops, wrap a string around the mop strings. Go around about three times and tie. It should really be looking "mop like Now cut the loops open on the unattached end. Now for the mop head grunge. I use a very watered down India ink and a touch of the raw umber. Test your color on another piece of string before you dip your mop head. o.k. you have your color (now the fun!) dip the mop in your grunge mixture! Now dry this. After it dried I gently rubbed the mop head on some sand paper to really give it a "used" look.

Lyn Trenary

Ribbon Roses: You can find instructions for ribbon roses (with pictures)here

http://swallowhilldolls.com/projects.htm - or here - http://www.csolve.net/~minidoll/silkrose.htm

How to make a bow: http://swallowhilldolls.com/bowmaker.htm

Sheena

Scissors - Using the curly end of a 'eye' from a hook and eye (as in sewing) in a black metal, cut off the un-curly end and glue it to a silver metal straight part from the 'hook'. If it is in a sewing box it doesn’t need to be picked up, so it stays glued and together.

Diana in NZ

Making Glass Items - I make glass items using bead making techniques (also called lampworking or torchworking). I taught myself out of a book., and work at an old kitchen table. My original goal was marble making, but once I got that figured out I began experimenting to see what I could do to use up the little bits of leftover glass and dregs of fuel. My vases and inkwells aren't blown glass, they are "core vessels" made by winding glass around a removable core (in my case, the core is the end of the clay-coated mandrel (metal rod) that beads are made on). I use a similar method for my paperweights (hence the little depression in the bottom of each one). I have instructions and equipment list on my website for making marbles--I use the same equipment for my miniatures. The kiln is not strictly necessary for the miniatures, but they will be more fragile if they are not annealed. I do not anneal my mini marbles--they are so small I would lose them in the kiln!

Jane Walker

Dental Accessories: We met a young lady at CIMTA who was selling a dentist set. She might be able to help you. They are called: Favorite Crafts - email: idesign@pathcom.com (they are in Canada).

Susan and Warren Flaks

Pacifier Nipples: When I was working in 1" scale I made pacifiers by cutting the smallest eye pins to pacifier length (the eye became a ready-made handle) and then dipped the end into thick Tacky glue. If you sort of hang them to dry glue side down the glue forms a teardrop, or nipple shape. When they've dried they can be painted pacifier nipple color. I always used acrylics but I'll bet glass stain paints would really make them look realistic.

Pam

1/2" Scale Cars and Trucks: I just received a catalog from the Danbury Mint called Classics of the Open Road, featuring 1:24 scale ( I think that equates to 1/2" scale?) die-cast metal car and truck replicas. Models start with 1925 Ford Model T and go up to 1970 Oldsmobile 442's. Some specialty vehicles are also offered, such as James Bond's Aston Martin. Prices range from $100 - 200. And they offer installment buying. V-e-r-y realistic, really beautiful. Their phone number is 1-800-493-2934 I have no affiliation, just wanted to pass along this source to the group.

Jo in the Poconos

Typewriter: Hobby Builders Supply has a black metal one. I have it in my 1930's house and am pleased with it. Their web site is http://www.miniatures.com. You can find the typewriter by entering "typewriter" in theproduct keyword box in Search.

Linda in Colorado

Nipples, and rubber stuff: I've made nipples and condoms and even a sad looking rubber glove from liquid latex rubber. It's totally wonderful stuff. You can get it from MicroMark. I think a jar is around $10.00 and lasts forever. It's white when wet, and dries to the yellow that's the color of a nipple. It can also be tinted with a very small amount of acrylic paint, although it might lose some stretchablilty. You can brush it on or dip things in it. To make a balloon or condom, just dip a wire in the rubber. When it's dry, baby powder it and roll it off. To make the nipple, you can use a smoothed wire or rod inserted into a tube. Most craft stores sell the rods and tubes in the model section. Buy a tube that fits snugly over the rod. You can use the rubber to make flexible molds, too. I've even baked polymer clay in rubber molds, but I'm not sure how long they'll last if I keep it up.

Bonnie Lavish

Orrery: An orrery is a three dimensional map of the planets. To make your own;

1. Get a picture, as in library book about astronomy

2. get some solid copper wire around 14 gauge. Bare is better. If not remove the insulation. The wire should be "bendable" and retain the shape up put it into.

3. air drying clay.

Concept:

Cut the wire into individual pieces. Long enough so that when formed into a circle each circle will stay as a circle and each circle will be larger then the preceding circle. I.E. Mercury is the closest planet to our sun so it will have the circle with the smallest diameter. Next is Venus with a larger diameter Then comes us (Earth) with even larger diameter. and so on. Be watchful of the scale because if not when you get to Jupiter, Uranus and Pluto and Neptune you may be in you neighbors back yard. Back to basics. As if scale is not a basic. Take some of the air drying clay and roll an amount between your palms to make a ball, (planet) Keeping scale in mind. You get that info from the astronomy book. Make all the wire loops (circles) for each planet. Make the clay ball for a planet. Since the wire circle is open (as in not soldered shut) slip the wire through the clay ball about half way through the ball and the other end of the wire is slipped into the soft clay orb also half way through as if the 2 ends are to meet inside the clay ball. This hides the open part of the wire circle. Set aside to cure. Do this with all the planets and their orbits (wire circles). 9 in all. Going from the sun out. Mercury; Venus; Earth; Mars; Jupiter; Saturn; Uranus; Neptune; Pluto. Now; this is a three dimensional "mobile" and the rings are not as the ripples in a pond. On the same plane. Your astronomy text will demonstrate this.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Pacifiers: A thought on baby pacifiers - Those round porcupine balls with the rubber spokes all around could be used. Cut off the very tip, dip the square or cut end into glue to give it a larger shape, punch out a 1/4" circle from plastic, punch a hole in it and bend a staple into a tiny circle, push through the punched plastic circle into the enlarged end. If you can't find the correct color of the balls, this could be painted to look like a nipple. I haven't done this, but it sounds possible? The staple could be painted to give it a thicker appearance.

Carol (jody)

Orrery: Geoffrey Bishop's link is on Small Stuff (he is a subscriber) at http://miniature.net/smallstuff/links2.htm under Woodworks of Geoffrey Bishop. Don't let that title fool you: he works in metals and ivory too.

Anne Gerdes

Victorian Kitchen Clock: You will need: a "Past Times" catalogue that features the clock, a piece of nice hardwood sanded smooth, a clock face either the size of the one in the catalogue, or smaller, but not bigger (Look under watchmakers) and clock hands to suit.

Instructions: Cut out the whole picture of the clock. Draw an outline of the clock onto your wood. Cut out the shape using a scroll saw. Sand edges and shape curves if needed. Cut out the face of the clock without damaging the surround. Stick the surround and the picture beneath it onto the wood. Crackle the picture. When dry, rub gently with some raw sienna or other dark brown pigment to bring up the crackles. Stick the clock face in place and use 2 part epoxy to stick the hands in position.

Barbara B, South Africa

Statues & Figures: My tip is obvious to those of you who have been doing this for a while, but thought some newbies would appreciate this.  I found some fabulous figures for my house at the Dungeons & Dragons Dept. of my local hobby store.  They're lead and hold paint well.  I used primer then used acrylic to paint them, then 2 coats of water-based varnish to give them a porcelain look.  I found a couple of Medieval women, a Cavalier playing a lute, St. George & Dragon, etc.  They're very fiddly to paint, but that's half the fun, right?

Susan

Bulky Presents/Clothing: If your mini presents, or anything else you make, are too "bulky", it is probably because, no matter how hard we try for accuracy, paper (and fabric)only "look" in scale! They never are truly thin enough. (For example, we need to use denim to make blue jeans so that our "big" eyes know it is denim, but if you reduced the actual weave and thickness of it, it would look like the thinnest silk to us!) So, my answer is (yes, Regis, my FINAL answer) reduce the bulk by cutting away parts of the paper (or fabric) that do not show. In the case of making presents, don't make the traditional folds on the ends. Cut away the under pieces, cut the part that wraps around into the appropriate "V" shape, and glue or tape to the back or bottom.

Alice Zinn

Metal Minis: Someone wanted to know where to buy metal pewter minis:  I like dealing with a company who gives very good, quick service:  Reynolds Metal Miniatures, 1000 Central Ave., Wilmette, IL 60091  Phone:  (847)251-2455.  I have no connection with this company but love their stuff.

Marjorie in CA