For kitchen miniatures:  http://www.jlmcountrycorner.com/  or http://www.jlbminiatures.co.uk/  or http://www.kaufmannag.ch/  or http://www.rainydayminiatures.com/  or http://smallerandbetterthings.com/  or http://www.stockton-miniatures.com/

Nursemini

Feathers: Looking for feathers ?   Try...... http://www.angelfire.com/biz2/plumesnfeathers/homepage.html

Barb

GLASS PAPERWEIGHTS: I am finally making mini glass paperweights again and once again have fish/aquarium paperweights available.  I want to move out my old stock to make way for the new paperweights, so I'm having a sale on the millefiori and swirls. I also have a group of packaged minis on sale. Please take a look if you are interested--my link is below:

ART BY JANE WALKER http://www.walkerillustration.com/~janewalker/mini.htm

Jane

Feathers: For excellent feathers of all sizes and colors, contact.....

This Bird Feather,  Sharon Webb
1750 Thuja
Anchorage, AK 99507
907-344-6147
WWebb10299@aol.com
http://hometown.aol.com/wwebb10299/myhomepage/index.html

I've had some of these feathers and they are great. Check out the website for pictures of some of them.

Grace Shaw,  Millers, MD

Non-Working Fan:   Use a chess piece or small wood candleholder for the stand (glue a bead or marble into the cup if using candleholder), a flattened bead cap for the arms that hold the blades, and popsicle-stick ends cut and sanded into paddles for the blades. Cut the center part out of a plastic flower frog for the blade shield to fit over the blades.   Glue the parts together and spray black.   Also check on line and in the magazines' classifieds for cast-metal mini dealers; you can probably find one there and just paint it to suit.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Feathers in the UK: I have bought small feathers in single colour packs from Fred Aldous.   They sell wholesale and retail craft products, a fun site too and often  have projects. I was lucky to visit their shop in Manchester last year.  An Aladdin's cave ! You often see their goods in other craft stores. http://www.fredaldous.co.uk/aboutus.htm

Pauline, UK

Sea glass: I was intrigued by the description of the house with all the sea glass - being a sea glass nut myself, I had to do a google search - this is the least   expensive site I found: http://crystalrivergems.com/products/glass/beachseaglass/frames/FrameSet.htm  I found sites charging as much as $16 per lb.!

Sue in NC

Hobby horse heads: How about felt? you could stuff them a little, add a fringey yarn mane, French knot or bead eyes and leather reins-the kind kids string beads on for bracelets. Or look for a bead or carved wood thingy (or carve your own?. Or look for those magnets in animal heads. Maybe buttons?

Peggy in Madison, WI

Gold Dipping: l don't know if this will help or not but the first thing l thought of when l read your post was an item I've seen in catalogs, such as Miles Kimball, etc. It's a dipping solution for renewing your jewelry. either gold or silver. It sells for about $20.00 a jar. I've never used it so can't say if it works or not, just a thought.

Aloha, Jerre

Gold Dipping: I have used the gold paint from the Ceramics Shop. It is called Mega Metals by Gare. Check your ceramic people. It is #MM6301. I used this on my golden Merman.

Carol Griffith

Gold Dipping: Avon cosmetics (no relation! ;o) ) here in England, have a very small bottle of nail polish in a pretty rich gold. It has a tiny brush and is meant for drawing dots, wavy lines, stars, etc. on your base nail polish. It looks like "real" gold to me. It's called Luxe Life Gold Nail Art and costs three quid here. More than I usually spend on nail polishes, but I immediately thought it would be great for minis. Not sure if you have the same in Indiana but could be worth a try if you experiment on a similar scrap piece of plastic first to see if you like it. I never wear nail polish but have a nice collection of asst. colours for paints. Love the cheap and cheerful and gaudy -especially the black! (I'm going to use my gold to paint the weathered skeleton of a physalis cape gooseberry globe to make a lamp shade. Would be great for gilding fairy wings from leaves, etc. too.) Has anyone else used this stuff?

Donna from Devon

Gold dipping: Maybe someone will have a realistic gold dip but I haven't seen a realistic one yet. Take faith THERE IS HOPE.

Contact your local lapidary (rock hounds) club and find if they have a member equipped to do "electro-forming" This is a poor man's version (relatively speaking) of electro plating. By painting any non-metallic object with a copper conductive coating, they make it possible to plate rocks, wood, and -yes- even plastics. Once coated with the copper conductive paint, they can then plate with real 18 or 24k gold. It may not be exactly cheap but you did say your tiara has special meaning to you.

Mel K. Las Vegas

Gold paint: I swear by Testors Enamel paints - I buy the silver and gold two at a time to be sure I always have them. They work on everything BUT fimo (they never "dry" completely on fimo) They turn plastic into silver and gold! I had a Chrysnbon (sp) pots and pans set and used the silver on them and had an relatively inexpensive array of pots and pans (roaster too) that looked fabulous! Consider that for your tiara.

Patty Johnson

Gold tiara: I have used so many gold paints and I also noticed that they get that brassy look instead of gold. I have found a spray paint that really comes out gold, it was called 14k gold , I have to look for the can to find the manufacturer (my craft room is a mess because I am trying to organize everything. I bought the spray in fabric bonanza.

Kathy in NYC

Gold tiara: In an art supply store or probably even Michaels, AC Moore, etc. there is a product that comes in a little squatty pot about 1-1/2 inches in diameter. It is like paste and you rub it on with your finger. It comes in gold, silver, bronze, brass and maybe more colors. I have used this stuff on any number of things from picture frames on up. I'm not sure of the name and I can't find mine at the moment but I think it is called Rub and Buff.

Bobbie

Spa gripmasters: For the spa, could you make those gripmaster squeezers out of the back end of a safety pin? Cut off (wearing eye goggles), the pointed end and the safety end, then add tiny handles of dowels. Various sized pins for different strengths.

Peggy In Madison, Wi

Splitting Wood stirrers; I asked my husband about the problem of splitting wood stirrers. His suggestion is first make sure your drill bits are sharp and not dull. Second of all start the hole with a smaller drill bit and then go with a larger one. I would imagine for blinds you would need a very small hole. Therefore make sure your drill bit is very small and sharp.

Bonnie in Montana

MiniQult: YOU DON"T HAVE TO SEW! In the world of mini's, you can glue it! Just cut out that fabric with the tiny, tiny squares on it, on any really tiny print to the size you want, plus 1/4 inch, then press the edges under that 1/4, (make two sides the same or different). Cut a piece of flannel, or fleece or any other soft fabric about 1/8" smaller than outside fabrics. Make a sandwich with the fleece in-between the 2 outside fabrics with the right side of the fabrics facing outside (* that makes sense *) Put fabric glue on the turned under fabric. this will close the sandwich together. If you can you might want to take occasional in-out stitch with floss or even regular thread just to make a knot. Leave the knot with about a 1/8" "tail". You can make these knots across the quilt wherever you want and it will make the quilt puffy, or just leave as is. I find that if you press the edges so that it hangs down on the sides, you can have it hang nicely. The lighter weight the fabric is, the better it will drape. A "handkerchief" batiste, for example,, hangs better than one of the cheaper fabrics that have a lot of sizing in it. I also, find that if you wash your fabric first before you work with it at all, it removes all that sizing that stiffens the fabric and then afterwards if you need to stiffen it at all, you can just use fabric sizing or starch to make it smooth. If you want it to permanently be set on a bed. just a bit of glue underneath will hold it down. I hate to see quilts sticking out like a board from the bed, so sometimes I use a bit of tacky gum to hold them down too. good luck.

Ruthanne in sunny, hot, (86), FT.MYERS, FL

Tapered Candles. To make mini ones try taking a piece of thread and dipping it into a small amount of melted candle wax (about 1"deep). Dip & blow on your string, dip and blow again & again until you have the right diameter. You will end up with a REAL hand dipped mini candle!

Brooke,Wa

Candle flame: Try using Tulip Paint ve-e-ery carefully for the flame.

Carol