Icebox Shelf: I made a wire grill for an outdoor grill and you should be able to use the same technique. Since I don't have soldering skills, I use zap-a-gap or other super glues. Using wire from the floral dept. of the hobby shop, cut the frame pieces. Lay them out on a bed of masking tape. Then cut all of the cross pieces and super glue them in place. When finished, just peel the masking tape off.

Fannye in TX

Chinese Musical instruments: My mother has some Christmas ornaments that are close to 1" scale. They are really beautiful, made from real wood and strung just like the real thing. I don't know the names of the instruments in English, but there is one that looks like a mandolin, one that looks like a banjo, a sort of fiddle with two long strings and the bow UNDER the strings, and a "Chinese Piano" (a kind of stringed instrument that lies on a table, with many strings). (I have often been tempted to take them for my own miniature uses, but have resisted successfully for the past 15 years.) She also has some wall decorations, with similar miniature instruments mounted on a small scroll in a frame for hanging.

Celeste in Boston

Musical Instruments: I don't know where you can get the instruments but a mini Chinese zither would be perfect for the accomplished lady!:)

Jaclyn, Singapore

Metal Miniatures: The metal miniatures you are thinking of is: Martha's Miniatures, 6440 McCullom Lake Rd., Wonder Lake, IL. 60097. e-mail them at Oscaler@aol.com for price of catalog.

Meldrum

Metal Miniatures: For Metal Miniatures - try Sharon Granicy (Hooked on Miniatures), 1519 E. Avenue K. Lancaster, CA 93535 661-942-0820 - (h) e-mail -hkdonmini@hotmail.com

Jean Lierman

Metal Miniatures: Someone on this list asked about resource for metal miniatures and since I thought others would be interested I decided to post it to the whole list. It is: Metal Miniatures, 1000 Central Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091, Phone--1-847-251-2455, I'm not sure if she sells retail, but she does give a nice discount to dealers. I'm sure your local Miniature store could contact them , if they don't carry them. There is a great variety of all sorts of things including some 1/2' and 1/4".

Jane Coffey

Baby Seat: I recall a NN tip from years ago that looked easy (always meant to try, still on the to-do list!) to make one from the curved section of a gallon milk container's handle cut to shape, with padded interior (felt would work for the sewing-challenged) and narrow grosgrain ribbon safety-belt. You would probably have to glue the ends of the ribbon in first, then slip the "mattress" over them to have a neat look, and maybe would need a bit of putty to weight the bottom so it would stand upright.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Dish rack: to make a dish rack I would use wire of the appropriate gauge and form the top, then the wire dish holder brackets making a jig to bend each one the same. Look at a full scale one and copy the lines. Best if you can solder it all together, then use tool handle coating over the whole thing. You can buy the coating in spray or dip/brush on at a hardware store. It comes in various colors.

Jacqui

Croquet sets: Gulliver's Emporium makes a wonderful croquet set. I love mine. http://www.ewol.com/~per/gulliver/

Anne Gerdes

Quarter Scale: If you do quarter-inch, next time you open a half gallon container of orange juice take a look at the little cone- shaped do-funny that is part of the seal. It makes a nice umbrella for a patio table, and can also be used as a satellite dish.

Dani, in Bradshaw, MD

Sewing Room items: At the end of a guitar string - bear with me, I'm going somewhere on this - is a tiny little round "spool" of metal. Usually gold coloured, sometimes, silver. When thread is wrapped around it, looks just like the real thing.

Vi in Hamilton

Sewing Room items: tiny grommets make great spools.

Lynn (No E) GSOLFOT, Cahokia IL

Sewing accessories:  check out http://www.btinternet.com/%7Ebertiesbazaar/jess/   then click on Printies in the left column and click on Haberdashery to find printable sewing accessories like button, ribbon, and elastic cards, needle cases.   For contemporary patterns, get on the mailing list for whatever is your local fabric shop (e.g., Hancocks, Joann's, Hobby Lobby), you'll get flyers and can clip out the ad illustrations and glue to a mini envelope (adapt stationery patterns on Jim's www.printmini.com site).  Should also be able to use ad clips as a pattern catalog cover -- glue over a section cut from the spine of an old magazine, cover with glossy clear nail polish or packing tape to get the laminated look of the real thing.   Don't forget a rack of crafts magazines/books -- find covers in book club ads   as well as in store flyers.

Items for hanging racks:  Tape measures (3 inch lengths of yellow paper, marked with black pen, folded up and tacked onto cards).   Scissors:   flattened hooks of hooks and eyes tacked onto cards -- use several sizes for shears and embroidery scissors; paint loops orange to make Fiskars.   Buttons:  seed beads glued on cards, or tiny blobs of dimensional fabric paint). Zippers:   two lengths of metallic thread glued down center of narrowest grosgrain ribbon you can find, tiny bar of metallic paint as stop on bottom and pull tab cut from bit of metallic card at top.  Quick strawberry pincushions and rust-removers:  Cut one medium and one small green star from craft felt, string on a bit of green floss and glue to medium and large pompons.  Cutting boards:  4 by 4 inch cardboard; cover both sides with graph paper (or back with decorative paper), add string ties at middle of two opposite sides, fold in fourths, tie, and stack or lean in display area.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Pillow tassels:   Have you tried silk? Cotton of embroidery thread is stiff by comparison. Even  if just the stem of the tassel is silk it will flop better. Silk comes in   spools. You are going to love the glow of the colors, nothing like it.

Laurie Sisson

Floppy tassels: Wendy asked how to make her tassels 'floppy'. I've had some success with that by adding in a few strands of very thin beading wire with my threads. Gravity just doesn't 'work' on miniatures they way it does in real life, and often needs the help of stiffener, wire, aluminum foil sandwiched between layers of fabric, or other tricks to simulate gravity. Recently, someone was asking about linens. I often glue beading wire into hems of table cloths, sheets and quilts for the same purpose of creating draping.

Alice Zinn

Floppy tassels:: The problem with tassels sticking out is typically not the size/weight of the tassel.   Stick to the size tassel that pleases your eye and sense of scale.  The problem is most likely the length of thread between the tassel and where it goes into the pillow.   Make sure the "head" of the tassel is not right next to the pillow corner.   You may need to allow as much as 1/16" of thread between the tassel and pillow.   This stiffness can occur in full scale when the tassel is pulled to tightly into the corner seam of the pillow.   My mother made custom window treatments for 25 years.  She made millions of beautiful pillows.   We would see all kinds of expensive pillows made by the snooty "Interior Designers" that had "stiff" tassels simply because they did not allow that little bit of slack in the tassel string for "flopping." 

For a tassel with finer "fringes" try regular sewing thread.  It is smaller and smoother than embroidery floss.  You can get more fringe in the same size tassel.  Best of luck.

Kathy

Hagatha accessories:   mortar and pestle for mixing dry ingredients for her cures and potions, jugs for the liquid infusions, sacks of potatoes and turnips, maybe an old-time dresser with a chicken coop in the base for fresh eggs year-round, a rustic pine-needle and twig broom. Gardening tools and trugs or baskets for harvesting herbs.  Wash-stand and chamber pot set, candlestick and stand upstairs.  If she is literate, a volume of receipts/ formulas for her herbal medications.   A secret floorboard or loose hearthstone beneath which to hide cash payments for her treatments.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Hagatha accessories: - about your wise woman - if she's getting ready for the winter, she really needs something to do - make candles, sew, knit, sketch her botanical finds in a book, read.......

Lynn (No E)

Hagatha's Hut; She should probably have a Drop Spindle and small basket of wool to spin.   One could be made from a button or small wooden round, and a toothpick. A Chamber pot would be good, if you can find one, and perhaps a fleece if you can find some appropriate material for a scale fleece. Of course, my dh says that she needs something appropriate to read tucked under her pillow... something like 'The Tao of Pooh' (or perhaps something by Shakespeare).

Gyelle

School scene:   I made a 4-room (modern) school roombox and it was a lot of fun! I got a lot of ideas from the school where I work in the library.   The four rooms are: a classroom, a library, a music room and a teachers' lounge. Most teachers and school offices get tons of catalogs for educational materials - a treasure trove of cut-outs, scannables and inspiration.   Take a look in my Epson photo site in the Modern School album. http://albums.photo.epson.com/j/AlbumList?u=1664953

Chris in Minnesota