Roll-A-Way Bed Project: Have loaded some pictures, of a roll a way bed that I made for my attic room box, with the miniprojects group. the albums names are; roll away bed, roll away bed2, and mattress. http://photos.yahoo.com/mommat423

Pat

Medieval Loom: If the person needs one for *early* medieval (500 AD-ish), especially N. Europe, they need a warp weighted loom.

http://www.smith.edu/hsc/museum/ancient_inventions/hsc00b.htm

also see Barber, Ancient Textiles, p. 105, 178

Nancy

Medieval Loom: how about a 13th century horizontal loom?

http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/~tekpages/loom.html

Tom Berkner

Hot Tub: I plan to put a hot tub on the redwood deck of the dh I am constructing. I found a black bowl....actually a "Rice Bowl" meal from the frozen food section. This bowl had "seats" around the bottom of the bowl and looks to be the perfect size to set in a wood frame for my hot tub. I can't beat the price either! It's a micro wave dish and using a hot ice pick and some rivets like "eyelet rivets for sewing", I can easily install the jets.

Katherine

Mini sofas: I made a lovely modern sofa with squares/rectangles of foamcore, fabric and doweling of various sizes, padding, ruler and a very sharp utility knife.

First thing I always do is make a quick sketch of what I am about to build. I then figure out the dimensions of what I want and put those on a more diagrammatical sketch of the furniture. You can use your own furniture to measure for seat height/back height, width, arm length, etc. Modern tends to lean towards squares and rectangles, and is the easiest furniture to make because it relies on the simple art of cutting in a straight line. I would suggest trying a modern sofa first, just to get the feel of the design and the mechanics of how it is put together. Then when you feel frisky, go for curves et al:).

When I build furniture, I upholster as each step progresses. Upholstering takes some practice, but will go well if you always remember to hide raw edges, don't use so much glue that it leaks through the material, trim when you need to reduce bulk, and use a pattern that will allow it to be glued. Choose a fabric pattern that won't look "out of scale".

My first step is to build a box. This is the seat support. To the sides I add the arm rectangles (remembering to make them high enough so the level is above not only the box, but the impending seat cushion). If I want to make the arms a bit "rounded", I add dowels to the sides.

The arms/seat assembly is glued to a base of foamcore that is as wide as the front of the chair, but longer in the side width by a foamcore width. This is to accommodate the back of the chair, which is glued to the base and back of the box (so it forms an "L", with the top leg of the L balanced on the base of the L).

The seat cushions go on next, which are a back cushion (a rectangle with chunks cut out to accommodate the arms -- probably the only really tricky part of the chair assembly) and a seat cushion. The back cushion goes in first, then the seat cushion is fitted in up against it. You can put padding on these for a softer look, or for a more firm look you can always go without -- depends on where you intend to use them.

For legs, I have been known to use simple round dowels, but there are other things such as beads, square wood stock (peace, man), commercial legs, ends of commercial bedposts, fimo creations, etc., depending on what you are going for. I have also put an extra base on the bottom and put a ruffle around to hide it.

I have made this type of sofa in 1/4" scale, 3/4" scale and 1/2" scale, and all looked very nice, and have gotten many kudos on them. The original idea came from my grandmother-in-law who made a similar chair in her dollhouse (my first mini tip:)), and part of which also came from an old nutshell news article (ideas for the dowels as arms). If you don't like the thought of foamcore furniture, there is always the wood option too. I like the foamcore because if I really mess up, I don't feel as bad tossing it as I do when I have gone out of my way to find hobby wood.

Kim From Canada

Wall-hung lavatories: We own a 1912 Maine inn which still has two original lavatories. (It only had two baths in 1912, for 26 rooms! Of course it had white ironstone washbowls/pitchers & slop jars in the bedrooms, & plenty of help to empty them.) The others were installed as additional baths were added. The original ones have backsplashes 15" or so high. Others have the 6-8" splash like the Chrysnbon kit; and I'd guess they're approx.1915-1930 vintage. The most recent ones have no backsplash at all. (I'm guessing again that it was in the 40's that they began to lose the backsplash.)

I've see the same high backed lavatoriess in English B&B's I've stayed in, all of which were late Victorian or Edwardian.

I don't know how much earlier than 1900 they were manufactured. I have just a hunch they pre-date pedestals, at least in America. That hunch is based on something I learned while touring Galveston, TX. historic district. (I won't go into it unless you're interested.) Some I've seen are enchanting: beautifully shaped corner lavatories, tiny ones w/extravagant relief patterns on the outside .

MBS makes one w/no splash--simple, utilitarian, type. Hammer-n-Smith make at least one wonderful, deep, high-splash one (The one I mentioned I saw in Miniature Collector.) Of the major manufacturers. Only Chrysnbon, to my knowledge, makes one w/any kind of vintage charm, & I can't understand why this should be.

Do you suppose it's precisely because they've been so common that no one wants one in a dollhouse? Or maybe because the delightful old sinks have faded from memory, & all people think of now is the utilitarian, public-toilet, flat kind?

HMH

Wall-hung lavatories: We used to rent an apt. every summer at the beach. These large 4 story buildings with an apt. on each floor were built specifically to house tourists in the early 1900's. We especially loved to rent here because, #1 I was much younger and didn't mind the stairs and #2 There was an "old world" charm about the apts. Every bedroom had it's own sink. They were strictly utilitarian. There may have been other places that had ornate ones, but ours weren't. There was only one bathroom per apt., 4 bedrooms, large living room, large dining room and real large old fashioned kitchens. As the years went on most owners added a toilet in a shed at the end of each back porch. Imagine today, as spoiled as most of us are with our numerous bathrooms, to rent a beach house to share with other family groups and only having one shower and one or two toilets! But the sinks in the bedrooms made it easier...and actually fun.

Now that I think of it I would enjoy making a miniature of one of those apt. houses. I'd have to find a hodge podge of worn furniture from the late 1800's to the early 1950's

Kathy Henry (South Florida)

Heart Shaped Bathtub: You might try a Canadian company named Model Builders Supply. They carry all kinds of items like this, modern tubs and such. Their web site is at http://www.modelbuilderssupply.com

Karen

Heart Shaped Bathtub: If you are interested in crafting one, look through the Valentine clearance shelves. I've seen items covered with a plastic heart shape. Cut off the excess, leaving a small lip, paint it on the OUTSIDE with red or pink paint, and set it inside a box-type framework. Viewed through the plastic, the painted item looks like porcelain. I've made tubs like this, although not a heart-shaped one. Now I wish I'd bought that item with the heart-shaped plastic cover!

Wanna in El Paso

Heart Shaped Bathtub: Sorry my heart bathtub suggestions weren't clear. Let me see if I can clarify what I was trying to convey. You know how in the olden days we went to the hardware store and bought a paper bag full of screws, and now they come in a package with a cardboard back with clear stiff plastic encasing the front of it? So much of what we buy nowadays comes in this type of packaging, and the shapes are infinite. Well, the plastic I was referring to was that type, used to encase Valentine somethings - I think either erasers or candy - and it was in a heart shape. I was suggesting looking for something similar in a heart-shaped packaging to make a tub. You with me so far?

If you look at a real bathtub, you will see that it has a lip, or rim around it. When we rip one of those packages apart, the plastic usually comes away with a fairly wide edging on it, used to glue it to the cardboard. When I said "Cut off the excess, leaving a small lip," this was what I was referring to; cutting away that wider edge, leaving a "rim." Also, there are freestanding bathtubs (more traditional), and there are those that are built-in (more modern). The area of the box that surrounds the built-in tub often provides enough space to set bubble bath, soap dishes, stacks of towels, plants, etc., as you will notice in pictures of modern bathrooms. I have a friend who cut a hole in the top of an old carved dresser and dropped a round sink into it for a very elegant look.

Basically, the built-in tubs are just a box with a hole in it for the tub to be dropped into. This was the box framework I referred to. When I've made these, I just made a box out of matte board and painted or finished it to match the walls or the tile in my bathroom. Whatever shape plastic I was using for my tub (oval for traditional, square or round for a more modern spa-type), I just set the plastic on the finished box, traced around the bottom, then cut out within that tracing and dropped the "tub" down into it. If one were lucky enough to find one of these pieces of heart-shaped stiff plastic, one would have to cut the hole in the heart shape, of course.

When I said "paint it on the OUTSIDE with red or pink paint," I was referring to what becomes the bottom side (outer part) of the tub when you drop it into its framework. "Viewed through the plastic, the painted item looks like porcelain," means when your tub is in place in its framework and one looks down into it, as one would look down into a full-sized bathtub, one sees the paint through the slick unpainted side of the plastic, which gives it a glossy, porcelain look. Of course, one could just make a free-standing bathtub, in which case the painted outside of the tub would look matte; the inside (unpainted side) would look glossy.

To get an idea of what I'm talking about, take a couple of clear plastic drinking cups or those clear plastic tops off a hair spray or similar bottle. Paint one on the OUTSIDE and look down into it, and the INTERIOR looks glossy. On the other hand, if you paint one on the INSIDE and look at the EXTERIOR, the paint shows through the plastic and looks glossy on the OUTSIDE. You have a choice as to which effect you want depending on which side you paint, but of course we generally prefer to sit down in a glossy bathtub, not a matte-finish one.

By the way, those small clear plastic tops make great wastebaskets. You can paint a simple Mary Engelbreit-style rose or similar design on the INSIDE, or place a small decal on the INSIDE, then paint over it, and get a glossy wastebasket (painted matte-finish inside).If one paints the OUTSIDE, then does the rose on the outside, too, one gets a matte finish wastebasket that looks glossy inside. And of course, you can leave off the flowers or other design entirely and just have a solid color one!

Wanna in El Paso

Heart Shaped Bathtub: I have been following this for the last few days and am amazed no one has suggested a porcelain heart trinket box.I have seen them with various designs on the side and they are from 2 to 4 inches across. Nothing to do but fill and if needed sand down the edges where the lid would fit.

Carol (jody)

Sunken Tub: For a sunken tub, you might find a small candy box with a plastic, bubble-shaped lid. Turn it upside down, paint it glossy white, add a hole in the bottom with a grommet for the drain.

Lynette

Sink: I saw the posting on the digest and just wanted to let you know that I sell a brick pillared butler sink via my web site: http://www.littlebylittle.co.uk

Karon

Chairs for Colonials: You will be thrilled to know that ordinary colonial people didn't have a house full of chairs. The head of the household might have a chair at meals, but the rest of the family either stood or sat at benches. The lady of the house most likely never got to sit down at all. The table they ate on was used for many other things beside meals and was probably shoved up against a wall most of the time. If you have benches, you have all you need.

Linda Peterson in TN

Big Screen TV: Pick up a clear plastic jewel case for a zip disk. If you look at it on the side where the ridges are, (hold it so the ridges are at your left and right) you can envision those ridges painted black, as speakers. Paint the rest of the jewel case black or gray/silver matte then glue a TV picture in the middle. Place your TV on a slender wood or another base and you've got a large, slim and flat TV screen. It's very believable.

Leslie Ann, CA

Bolsters: Another idea for bolsters is the sponge hair rollers.  They come in a variety of sizes and I liked them because after wrapping the fabric around them, you can tuck the gathered ends into the hole that is at each end of the rollers. (Of course you remove the plastic "clips" first)  Then cut a circle from pellon-backed fabric, and glue it over the ends of the rollers.

Viola Williams

Repainting wire wicker furniture: You could try sponge painting your wire wicker with acrylic paints. I didn't want the white-white, so used a couple different shades of ivory. I was really pleased with the results . . . gave it more of an antiquey look with no globs or shine. Practice, practice. . .

Jude

Modern Bathroom Fixtures & Kitchen appliances: There is a Canadian company (even better eh? Canadian dollars!) that makes just what you wanted. Brooke uses their work. It's called Model Builders Supply. Their address is 40 Engelhard Dr., Unit 11, Aurora, Ontario L4G 6X6 They have modern bathrooms (check out Brooke's Luxurious bath) and kitchen pieces. At a great price. Phone is: (905)841-8392 fax is (905) 841 - 8399. I've used their modern bathroom pieces with my wicker and just lately have done some wicker microwave stands using their microwave kit on them. They also have some ¼ scale items. I'm sure Noella could fill you in more on them. She's the one who introduced me to them.

http://www.modelbuilderssupply.com/

Debi in Quesnel

Rocking Horses:   I would like to share a club project.  We used a plastic horse (cheap barnyard horse)  removed the tail and sanded  or cut off the mane. Drill hole where tail was for future tail. Based coated with desired horse color. (some of the horses were yellow, green etc.)Apply a coat of watered down white tacky glue and apply flocking of desired color.  Set aside to dry.  Meanwhile make the saddle and bridle from Soft glove leather or felt. When horse is dry put glue into tail hole.  Take a small clump of "wigging" tie a thread around one end and insert in "tail hole". Take some more "wigging" to glue onto mane and forelock area.  Trim as needed.  Cut 2 rockers 1/2 inch longer than horse.  Add a support piece (floor) between rockers for horse to sit on. Woops almost forgot his (her) eyes and ears.  Black felt pen dots or tiny movable eyes. We had a big variety. Pintos, Palominos, Blacks, Roans, grays, etc.  The rockers can be embellished with trims or paints.  Really effective. How about a variety of animals?

Diane in SF Bay Area

Decals: I have been making decals for years using cheap clear nail polish.....finding pictures in magazines, etc., and coating the front with about 4 or 5 layers of polish. Leave to dry a while then cut out and drop in a glass of  water......after a while take out and GENTLY rub off the white backing.  I  then apply a small amount of glue to a paper plate and put my decal  on.......I have done this for cupboards as well as several other pieces of  furniture so just play around with a few pictures first to get the hang of it.

Sandra in Houston, TX