Acrylic Turning Material: Keith uses this technique for making some of our symmetrical originals. Some suggestions from Keith are:
- -check the ad sections in wood turning or lathe magazines for non-wood blank suppliers
- -get in touch with the Ornamental Turning Society, as they use plastics as ivory substitutes
- -search out button manufacturers as they machine plastics for their tooling-up and may be able to steer you in the right direction-unless you are going to make buttons!
- -solid Corian type counter top off cuts may be useful if you want marbled or obsidian effects
- -check Lee Valley Tool catalog. They have sold marbled pen making kits. Also jewelry suppliers, ditto.
- -other plastics to try are Teflon, Acetal, etc. Check Internet or yellow pages for plastic (rod) suppliers
- -Here in the UK there is a supplier " for alternative ivory, horn & tortoiseshell in rod, bar or sheet" called GPS Agencies Units 3 & 3A Hambrook Business Centre Cheesmans Lane, Hambrook, Chichester, West Sussex PO18 8XP Tel: +44 (O) 1243-574444 Fax: +44(O)1243-574313 The (O) is for England; you leave it out from America Mail order including postage should be bearable for small weights; one of the perks of minis!
I just phoned GPS and they also make an "alternative black grained ebony" (he experiences pain if you call it plastic) and said they usually deal with larger amounts than you might want BUT have just sent a shipment of 12" rods to CRAFT SUPPLIES Provost, Utah Tel: 801 3730919 ?? They also supply MASECRAFT SUPPLY Berlin, Connecticut Contact Bill Veley 203 2383049

Donna from Devon

Painted Chrysnbon plates: Lisa Engler of Lisa's Little Things has terrific painted Chrysnbon plates, cups and saucers. This is the link to her website. You should be able to get more ideas from there.
http://www.lisaslittlethings.com/

Priscilla

Fantastic Salt Water Fish: Marci Trimlett of Key Largo Florida makes the most realistic salt water fish I have ever seen. They look like they came straight from the sea ! I don't know if she still has a web site, but her e-mail addy is marci@weewish.com

Mark and Sharon Stockton

Dulling Paper Carpets: When I make rugs from glossy magazine cutouts, I coat the picture with a thin layer of Mod Podge, then lay a single ply of tissue across it, press into the glue, and let it dry. When dry you will be able to see the pattern through the tissue, and the carpet has a realistic fabric-like texture--"dull" like fabric, not shiny.

Celeste Ng

Miniature Book Sites:
A totally delightful stroll down mini book lane! http://www.mbs.org/
Tuttle Antequarian Books http://www.tuttlebooks.com/minibooks.htm
The Microbibiliophile http://www.microbibliophile.com/index.htm

Judie

Synthetic Turning Material: Here is another idea you might want to check out. I do jewelry inlay, and there is a "synthetic stone" made for this purpose. It is actually more plastic or some type of resin than stone, but looks very realistic. I know it can be turned, because it is turned into the most beautiful heishi strands and you'd have to really look close to tell that it isn't real turquoise, ivory, jet, etc. Some come with the veining you find in natural stone and some are more solid colors. It is usually sold at stores that sell jewelry making supplies. I suspect you could get it online from Rio Grande. It is usually sold by the pound, and you can probably order it cut to approximate sizes.

Bonnie Gibson - Tucson, Arizona

Nail Heads: I have used gold/brass colored paint before to simulate nail heads. Just get a bead on the tip of your brush and barely touch it to the spot, so that it leaves a raised bead rather than a flat brushstroke. Practice on some paper first. For non-brass you can use any color paint, brown, grey, black. For recessed nail heads, you can use a sharp-pointed tool to make a tiny indent, and then again use paint for a nail head (the tension of the paint droplet will cover over the hole and look like a barely-raised nail head). You can also simply use a fine marker to dot on nail heads (that's how I do floorboards, before staining). I just used this technique to attach the fancy doorknobs I got to dress up my super-cheap kit. The wood of the door is simply to thin to use real nails, but the doorknob plates have nail holes, which looked odd left unfilled once I glued the plates in place (I colored the area behind the keyholes with a marker first so they look like holes). So I used a brass color paint as described above, and it looks just like there are nails there.

Graceanne

Porcupine Quills: About using porcupine quills. I have been working with them for years in my beadwork and I read Graceanne's tip on removing the barbed end. She suggested sticking the tip through leather before cutting off the barb. GOOD Idea I have found something that works very well also. I put the tips into a piece of Styrofoam scrap and use that. It is a bit easier to poke into than leather and doesn't tend to bend the quills as the smaller quills can be quite fragile. Never try to cut off the barbs without anchoring them into something first. They will fly through the air and disappear to who knows where. These barbs are very dangerous and are not easily removed if one should find itself embedded in your skin. They are like a fishhook and don't want to come out the same direction as they went in. I like using the Styrofoam as the barb stays down inside the Styrofoam and can be disposed of safely.

Brooke, Wa

Acrylic Turning Material: contact Nicole Walton-Marble concerning a source for the acrylic turning material. She uses that material for some of her work. Their address is: nmarble@sprynet.com

Jackie

Baking Pans: I got my set of tin baking pans from http://www.cottonridge.com. They didn't come in a set but came separately, like pie tins, bread pans etc.

Linda in GA

Jackie

Candles: I don't know who is inquiring about candles but here's what I've done for my "gift shop". After having spent countless frustrating hours fiddling with Fimo and thread, I purchased a package of party candles...those long, slender ones used to decorate cakes. They're about 6-1/2" long and about 1/16" in diameter and come in a variety of colors in a package of 24. I cut them to just under an inch in length to fit into individual open boxes holding twelve, just as you'd see them displayed in a store. Ready-made candles, wicks and all, with no hassles! Don't know why it took me so long to have thought of this! Hope this helps.

Helen

Snow Globe: years back Nutshell had snow globe directions; don't know if the NAME project finder would still find the exact issue or not. It required a tiny round glass globe with a stopper (maybe from JAF). As I recall, directions were to use silicon (silicone?) adhesive to cement a tiny charm or figure inside the stopper, sprinkle some ultra-fine glitter into the globe, fill it with distilled water, seal the stopper in place with more silicon, and turn the whole thing upside down so the stopper became the base. Apparently silicon is more watertight than other glues. However, I tried making one, and despite the silicon, the tiny amount of water managed to evaporate pretty quickly, leaving behind a clump of glitter and a lime deposit ring. If I attempted this again I would probably use glycerin instead of water. The snow might not fly well, but it would last longer.

Loretta Sniarowski

Snow Globe: To fill a snow globe, I was told to use mineral oil. Reasons: wouldn't evaporate and thicker liquid would make the snow fall slower. I never got around to trying that, so I don't have more details.

Dean Jenson

Snow Globe: I made snow globes as gifts for my mini club about 1 1/2 years ago and so far they are in good condition, no leaks. I used the very tiny round Christmas glass ornaments (from Wal-Mart). The silver colored ones are best as the glass is clear once you remove the interior metallic coating. (The gold balls had amber glass). First, remove the metal cap and hanger from ornament. Then soak globes in a bleach/water solution in a bowl, gently stirring so that you get the air bubbles out of the ornament. (Please use gloves and good ventilation and remember that the glass edge is sharp!) In a few minutes you will see the interior coating start to darken and peel. Using a Q-tip or cotton and bent-style tweezers clean out the globe of any bits and smears of silvering. Rinse and leave to dry. I used extra fine glitter as my "snow" and clean, clear distilled water - - you don't want to start a mold garden. You can use any waterproof object that fits through the opening - I made a rose and a snowman of Fimo. As another poster did, silicone was my choice of a sealant. After all was set and dry I could turn the snow globe over and decorate. I used the little plastic rings that are usually seen as knitting markers, and some fine ribbon to encircle the base.

Pat

Glue Bowls: funny you should ask about glue bowls. Judie from Daytona recently wrote to me to ask if I knew anything about them and I had never heard of them. Then she wrote back to tell me she had found the web site about them:
http://members.tripod.com/~PhyllisJoy/me/project6.html

Alice Zinn

Wire Hangers: I don't remember who asked about wire for clothes hangers. Paper clips (the colored ones) seem to work OK. Floral wire seems to be about the same thickness -- would that work for you?

Kay in Ottawa

Padded Clothes Hangers: the latest Dolls House World had a simple idea for modern padded coat hangers that might work for you. For each one, you need a chenille stem (pipe cleaner), preferably a decorative color, and a pierced earring finding, the kind with an open wire hook-type hanger. Remove the jump ring intended to attach pendants to the hook and slip the chenille stem through the wire loop where the jump ring was. Center the loop in the middle of the stem and fold the ends to meet in the center -- trim ends to shorten if the stem is too long. Glue the ends to the center, and you have a padded hanger. Decorate with lace rosette, flower, etc., where hook and hanger meet if you want.

Loretta Sniarowski

Wire Hangers: Hardware stores aren't the only places to hunt for good wire. Try Michael's/Total Crafts/Pearl bead section and look for wonderful coated wires on thread sized spools in beautiful colors. They will also have traditional wires in small scale. Since I bought hangers in pink, blue and green for my own clothes the little folks are free to have them too. Trac Auto also has various wires you could try out.

Laurie Sisson

Wire Hangers: I use 28 gauge black wire, found in many craft stores to make wire hangers. If you are going to make a lot of them, it pays to make yourself some kind of a jig to bend them. I cut a piece of hard wood (not balsa) the shape of the interior of the hanger. Bend wire around it with ends overlapping at the top, twist ends with a pliers, pop off of jig, cut one twisted end close to the twist and bend the other into the proper curve with a jeweler's pliers (or around a small dowel) so they will be uniform.

Alice Zinn