Making round Japanese Lanterns: I call this the "lost clay ball process" As with everything that appears so difficult, when the solution is found you can get a rubber leg to kick yourself in the backside for the simplicity of the solution. Here is what I did. Taking into consideration the size of the lantern I wanted, I made a ball out of air dry clay. Just rolled it between my palms until I liked what I had. I let it dry to hardness. NEEDED; Facial tissue. Bathroom tissue just as good. Elmers glue (white) String or thread (depends on your scale).

PROCEDURE;

I coated the hard ball of air dry clay with wax by rubbing with a handy candle. I cut the tissue paper into a lot of ellipses.(like in Mercator map projections) Each ellipse was soaked with the Elmers glue. I placed the glue soaked ellipse onto the waxed ball and smoothed out the wrinkles. The points of the ellipse went to north and south poles of the ball. I did this for a few layers. Then placed the string/thread on the ball from pole to pole. Covered this with more ellipses. Let the entire thing dry. With a very sharp blade I cut out a small hole at the North and south poles. A true lantern would have these openings also. I discarded the cut outs. I now had a dry clay ball covered with hard tissue paper that had string/thread sandwiched in between layers of hard tissue. Now to get rid of the ball of clay. I placed the "lantern cum ball" on a firm surface and with a hammer and nail I pulverized the dry clay ball thru the holes I cut at each of the poles. Eventually the entire clay ball was removed and I was left with a firm opaque paper lantern. The structure is called a Ryokan and is a Japanese guest house circa 1800s. Made it about 3 years ago. If I can be of any further assistance do not hesitate to ask. As a retiree I have plenty of time.

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Biblical Themed Minis for Children:  "Now a question, I lead a small group of grade 7 & 8 girls in a church youth group craft group, and have purchased some clear plastic treasure chests, about 3" by 5" ( yeah I still think US after 12 years) They have antique gold looking banding and trim. Any way I would like to do some kind of mini scene with a Biblical theme in them and I'm stumped for ideas."

Oh what a fun project!   Not sure when you are doing your project with the girls, but as Easter is fast approaching what about a tomb?  The size seems small, but what about doing a search on a good Bible program or concordance, for the word treasure...and picking a verse as the center of the treasure boxes.  Just now looking at my concordance there is a nice selection for treasure.   Maybe the girls could come together on a favorite story.   Use that story as the theme of the boxes.  For me I know my treasure is in heaven...how about a scene of heaven...that could be fun!   Our salvation lies in John 3:16, what a great witnessing tool for the girls to have.   If they wanted to do something more on a line of 'fantasy' look to Daniel or Revelation.  Oh the ideas could go on and on!!   Ooh, my favorite trivia question, where is the second rainbow in the bible?  Or what about the verse that tells us that we will receive a new name written on a stone.  The hairs of our head are numbered.  Oh I best quit now. You will have to share pictures and your ideas with us!

Theresa McCann

Prairie Wagon: Conestogas were far too heavy to make the trip across the Great Plains and the Rockies. Not only that, but they were ghastly expensive (they were professional freight vehicles, mind you, not family wagons). Well-to-do people settling land in upstate New York, Ohio, or other early wilderness areas might have used them, but the wagons that crossed to Oregon, or settled the Plains, were lighter and wider (the Conestoga had a deep, narrow body as the roads--such as they were--were narrow and the area heavily wooded). As far as the skills needed by pioneers, I'm not bragging when I say that my father (born in rural Pennsylvania in 1911) could do all of that: blacksmithing, hunting, butchering, vetting livestock, building everything from furniture to houses...he even knew how to put an iron tire on those wooden wheels!

Molly

30s-40s Farmhouse: Someone else mentioned the water bucket and dipper - I remember our "camp" up in Maine, a cabin my great-grandfather (Pa) built early in the century. There was no running water until just a few years ago. Just the hand-pump outside, and that water bucket and dipper just inside the screen door. I have so many summer memories of running through that screen door (old wood one) and the sound of it banging, and the icy cold dippers of water. There was, of course, an outhouse. Electricity was actually installed back in the 60s or so, but there were still hurricane lamps everywhere. My mom has mentioned them as a big part of her memories from the 40s. There was also a woodpile about 6 feet from the porch (not against the house - fire hazard) for the big stone fireplace that was the center of the house. The main bedroom was on the backside of the fireplace, with the stone forming one wall of the room (bedroom door was next to the fireplace), and the brass bed (the only one in the cabin; the others were metal framed with no headboards) was against that wall.

Grace

30-40s Farmhouse: I made a replica of my great great grandparents' farmhouse back in the late 1970s with the help of family members for a family reunion. The house was given to the family at the reunion but reading Grace's comments I thought I'd add mine in case somebody is making a Southern TN farmhouse. This house was not made of brick but wood and stone by hand by my family. The original home has been gone for many years - but I worked from family photos and many family memories of the house. This house had 3 bedrooms and no bath (It had an outhouse where you checked for snakes first) The kitchen, the gathering room and one bedroom had electricity added in 1959. A big part of the family's memories from the 30s/40s/50s/60s. The house had a wrap around screen porch in the front and rear. A big stone fireplace was the center of the house in the gathering room. The main bedroom was 3 steps down behind the kitchen, with the stone forming one wall of the room (bedroom door was next to the stairwell), and a big featherbed was underneath a small window that looked out towards the cotton fields. The upstairs had three small bedrooms with one large closet in the hallway. Each bedroom window overlooked the front yard. Many relatives stated the rooms were so small if you fell out of bed in the middle of the night you would hit the wall on the other side of the room. ha! The kitchen had hardwood floors and the icebox was the last thing you saw when you exited the back porch. A huge cook stove was on the other side of the kitchen with the table and chairs in the center of the room. The trees on the lot were massive oaks that shaded the house all day. The windows were always open in the summertime (no ac) and in the winter the heat from the fireplace and the stove kept the house warm. Hurricane lamps were used in each room at night and the coverings on each bed had homemade quilts. The barn was 8 1/2 feet away from the main house which housed the cows, horses, ducks and where the dogs lived. A chicken coop was located 4 feet away from the barn on the south side and several feet away from the barn was the outhouse on the west.

Elizabeth Smith, DFW, TX

40s Farmhouse: More ideas for the 40s farmhouse, based on my grandparents' dairy farm: the big wood-burning stove often had big stoneware crocks of whole milk heating on it as my grandmother home-pasteurized for home use; also big stoneware bowls full of rising dough on the metal-topped table, covered with feed sack kitchen towels, and a glass churn for home-made butter (just like a 1:12 working model I've seen at Hobby Lobby). Wall decor: all the old Polish-American farmers I grew up around had religious pictures, usually a Madonna and a Sacred Heart they had brought from the old country, very colorful and pretty gory to a little kid, plus a cuckoo clock-like items that looked like a wall-hung Swiss chalet and had a pop-out man or woman figure -- the woman meant nice weather, the man, prepare for a storm - -- and a wall calendar, usually a freebie from the John Deere or Allis Chalmers dealership or the dairy coop.

Loretta Sniarowski

Farmhouse: The first time I saw my GP'S farm was in 1946, right after the war. They lived about 40 mi. N of Minot, ND and I remember it being HOT!!!! They were one of the more well to do farms in the area and actually had tree groves planted on 2 sides of the house so it was fairly well protected both in the winter and summer but because they were old and couldn't keep it clear, it became a breeding ground for mosquitoes which ate my little brother alive (I was smart enough to stay at my cousin's farm about 2 miles away (they didn't have trees but they didn't have mosquitoes either). Neither house had indoor plumbing of any kind orelectricity and they did their farming with horses (which was great fun for me because I was a horse nut even then). My mother had to do our wash by hand with a washboard and tub outside the house. A well with drinkable icy water just outside the kitchen supplied water for both my GPs and uncle who had to bring milk cans over to fill for his house (do you know how bad hard water tastes when it is warm? - yehckkkkk!). There was always a pail with a dipper next to the door. In the kitchen was a BIG black wood stove and a table where you prepared food and baking was done one day a week for the entire week (I can still smell the aroma of home baked rolls and bread) -they also did all the pies, etc. hence the need for a pie safe. Also in the kitchen was a table for eating - since the farm hands were fed by the family I can remember them coming in in their overalls to have lunch. Dinner was held in the dining room at a big Oak round table. Mostly the floors in my GP's house were hardwood but my uncle had linoleum throughout the house (easy to clean). They had old furniture mixed with odds & ends which contrasted greatly with the GP's who had what looked like Stickley to me and a carpet and nice lace curtains in the living room. The front porch was covered with a nice railing and porch swing and honeysuckle to shade it - by contrast my uncle had sort of a porch with no railing, in the full glare of the sun and no plants of any kind. It was a real contrast in farm life styles. One of my most pleasant memories was of spending hours with my cousin cutting out paper dolls and making clothes from pages in the Sears catalog. I returned 8 yrs later and they had gotten a tractor and electricity brought in the refrigerator (before that they used a root cellar in the basement to keep vegetables and pickles, etc.) They had found oil in ND and it brought in a little prosperity for everyone (at least for a little while).

Ana

70s: http://www.lileks.com/institute/interiors/index.html

I stumbled over this site quite by accident, and then spent considerable time there (crying with laughter, mostly). It is a compendium of 70s taste and style, and would be very useful for people who are thinking of decorating their dollhouse in 70s fashion. Or maybe putting them off the whole idea, I am not sure. I am not even sure some of the decorating effects could be replicated in mini.

Fran in Melbourne

Regency Period: OK, I don't remember all the details, as I'm not much of an English history buff, but as far as I know, the Regency period was during the later years of the reign of King George III. The king, who lost the American colonies, had gone mad, and was not fit to rule the kingdom. His son was not old enough to take over, and since George III was still alive, couldn't have become king anyway. So, a "regent" was appointed to act as ruler, until George passed away. Hence the Regency period. However, the Regency period was in the early 1800s, not 1880-1890 as suggested above. I believe that the Regency style goes hand-in-hand with the Neo-classical style, which was popular in France at about the same time, during the Napoleon era.

Jonathan in Israel

Regency Period: The term "Regency" refers to the period of British history (1811 to 1820) when George, Prince of Wales, later known as George IV, was regent.

Judy in Missouri

Regency Period: the Regency Period in Britain was so called because, as Jonathan described, King George III became ill (it has been revealed by modern medicine that he suffered from an unusual illness that made it appear that he was off his rocker but I forget the name of it) and could not keep up his duties as King so a Regent was appointed to act for him. Where Jonathan's explanation went off track is in saying his son was too young. Some of his sons may have been (there were many of them) but the eldest became the Prince Regent and when his father died he became King George IV. During the time of his Regency in the early 19th century a distinctive style in design evolved and so it was dubbed The Regency Style. A similar style in France was called Directoire and in the US it was the Federal. The Prince Regent's only child was Princess Charlotte and when she died in childbirth he had no heir so his brother became king as William IV when George IV died. William IV and Queen Adelaide had no children together so when he died he was succeeded by the child of the next youngest son of King George III who became Queen Victoria. That's probably more than anyone wanted to know.

June in London Ontario Canada

30's-40's Farmhouse: It wouldn't hurt to have some Victorian furnishings in it because people were far more frugal back then and if something was still in good condition there was no reason to replace it. Consider using rag rugs, a linoleum floor in the kitchen, a water pump on the porch, a cabbage rose print fabric for living room carpet, speckled enamel pots and pans, and a Victrola. (No, I wasn't around then, but my grandmother sure saved a lot of stuff and had a lot of pictures.)

Rosemary in Cleveland

60s Décor: First of all, are you doing a 'mainstream' 60s house or a 'hippie/trendy' 60s house? Early 60s (think 'Space Age', Jetsons, ultra-mod) or mid-to-late 60s (think macramé, earthy stuff)? I would scour your library, thrift stores, and used bookstores for decorating books or magazines from the 60s. Once you stop laughing, take notes.

1) Mainstream early 60s decor you can see probably the easiest on reruns of the 'Dick Van Dyke Show'. Think simple lines and upholstered furniture (sofas, chairs) on spindly peg legs. Color schemes would probably be in pastels with highly contrasting accent colors, like pale yellow with medium blue or chartreuse green with cherry red.
2) Space age or trendy early 60s used a lot of white with red, purple, or orange accents. Piet Mondrian was a big influence on this group, as was the film 'Clockwork Orange'. Reruns of the original Star Trek, especially scenes shot in the crew's quarters, will give you the look. One thing I like about this era is the 'breaking the space' concept; that is, often a section of a room's floor would be raised and lowered and then the whole room would be carpeted the same. Beds would be mattresses sunk or raised in these carpeted area; I've also seen an entire dining area sunk in a carpeted pit where the chairs were a step-like level and only the table was a separate piece of furniture. The tulip chair was big.
3) Hippie look: Different rooms painted different bold colors, with lots of rock posters (particularly the ones from the San Francisco artists, like Mouse); bead curtains, ethnic artifacts.
4) Late 60s 'earthy' look (bleeds over into the early 70s): orange, avocado, leaf green and mustard yellow were the big colors, furniture was heavy, floor pillows were hot, macramé and house plants were all over the place.

Molly

60s Décor: What kind of 60s look are you after? There were so many! Clean-cut Doris Day or her "cousins" English mod and Marlo Thomas's "That Girl"? If so, rent some Doris & Rock movies or That Girl videos and look at the scenery instead of the characters. Later hippie stuff? The 60s included just about every style imaginable; it's when the concept of eclectic decor really took off, so practically anything will work, preferably tied together with a garish color scheme and lots of paisley and/or daisies. The social rank of the people inhabiting your house or scene would play a part, too. Older, wealthier people would have been into traditional furniture and art (think classic English or French country) or "tasteful", modern, neutral upholstery and carpeting (think nubbly and beige), and chrome/leather furniture, chrome/glass coffee tables, accents of boldly colored ethnic or abstract art. College kids improvised with bean bags, Goodwill household goods, and Goodwill furniture painted wildly, stacked mattress seating covered in cheap Indian bedspreads, giant floor pillows, and an ever-changing art gallery of music and political posters mixed with DIY collages tacked to the walls. Blue-collar middle-class folks like my parents and neighbors decorated with sort of light, bright (lemon, turquoise) or "colonial" (milky blue, cranberry, hunter green colors in the early 60s - think Marimekko Scandinavian fabrics), and veered toward the familiar gold/avocado/burnt orange as the 70s approached; "early American" maple furniture was popular with them.
The size and placement of the TV and stereo also changed over the decade, assuming more and more prominence, and the TV got bigger and more likely to be in color by the end of the decade. Older folks sometimes had "consoles" which combined the TV, stereo, and radio in a huge piece of furniture the size of a sideboard.

Loretta.Sniarowski

60s House: I saw a (painted lady) San Franciscan dollhouse that was decorated in a 1960s theme at a mini show 3 years ago The outside was decorated in typical sixties colors -the interior decor had beanbag chairs, huge lounge pillows on the floor, sheer fabric strung about the place - beaded doors, green shag carpet - the apple green chairs and macramé, plus tie dyes! The place was a trip - something right out of Woodstock. All it needed was a VW bus to be parked outside!! Hope this tidbit of info helps.

Elizabeth Smith

I was so inspired by their work that it convinced me to make my own beds for the 70s sorority house I'm working on. Got out the strip wood and glue and made a set of bunkbeds and two platform beds. I covered household sponges with tie-dye flannel for groovy mattresses and now they are ready to dress. I stained the platform beds violet and painted the bunks white and decoupaged a heart pattern on them. I was really pleased with the results and it freed up mini money to let me splurge on the modern living room set I wanted from HBS. Here are some pics:
http://www.wishbooktoys.com/dollhouse/sales/platform.jpg
http://www.wishbooktoys.com/dollhouse/sales/bunks.jpg
Thanks to a lot of SS friends, this sorority house will have a number of "house mothers". The macramé hangers, beads for the curtains, fabric for bedspreads all came from the great gang on this list. Here is a photo of the macramé hangers from Jacquie with pots and plants I made. (Thanks to the recent plant making talk here. I also made the rolled bamboo window shades. I carefully cut the shades from large straw mats from the dollar store. I lightly dotted the edges with tacky glue to keep from fraying, then rolled and glued the bottoms to look like they were rolled up. Then I glued a piece of thin, stained stripwood at the top. I added brown thread to look like the cords. The plant hooks are the "hook" end of a hook & eye. I cemented it to the wall with Household GOOP and let set overnight before hanging:
http://www.wishbooktoys.com/dollhouse/sorority/hang2.jpg
Here is one of the doorways with a beaded curtain I made from beads I got from several SSers. I used the idea someone mentioned here for the curtain rod - a slit plastic drinking straw, then just slide the lead bead of each strand into the "rod". I reinforced with some magnatack to keep the bead strands from pulling out. Let set overnight. Then I hung the rod in the doorway with contact cement.
http://www.wishbooktoys.com/dollhouse/sorority/bead1.jpg

John Medeiros

70’s Beaded Curtain: I made a beaded curtain in my Coventry Cottage - very easily. I found (at Wal-Mart, CVS, anywhere really...) a beaded stretch headband (about $1.00-$2.00), very popular right now. Measure the top of the door jam and the floor, and put glue at the two places on the headband where you need to cut; actually cutting it in half should work fine; but cut through the glue so it won't unravel. I glued mine two pieces to a tooth pick, which I then glued into the top of the door frame; instant 60's-70's!

Loretta Sniarowski

Windows & Window Treatments:

GREASED PAPER FOR WINDOWS: Log Cabin Windows For greased paper windows like the pioneers used, I would suggest you use mineral oil for "grease". Salad oil, lard or bacon fat would attract mice and bugs. Mineral oil has no food value and will not decompose and turn rancid. It is also great for oiling wood cutting boards or anything that is used for cutting or preparing food. I don't know what paper would be best to use, but your suggestion for using paper with high rag content would probably be the best.

Caroline Bradley

Modern houses: The kitchen is what sets the date of your house and possibly the bathroom too. Aside from my Victorian, which is pure vintage, my other two 1/12th scale houses have up to date kitchens but have period furniture in the other rooms - just like we do in "real" life. One house has fairly modern furniture throughout, which I made, but my Town House has period furniture in almost all of the rooms. They happen to be Colonial, Federal or Queen Anne, simply because I like those elegant styles. Dee's catalog shows lots of kitchens and living rooms with up-to-date furniture - even the chrome kitchen sets of the 1950's.

Jeanette in Wisconsin

Baba Yaga's House -- I find that well illustrated Children’s books are often just the inspiration I need for a house. To compliment your family's memories of Baba Yaga, check out:

Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave by Marianna Mayer ISBN: 0688085008 wonderful illustrations of the house, inside and out, as well as period Russian clothing.

There's also a Baba Yaga book by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Vladimir Vasilevich Vagin. I haven't read this one, but I like his other illustrations so this one should be well done.

Ghia