Gypsy Peddler cart: lots of pots and pans sounds right. I remember reading somewhere that repairing pots and pans was a traditional gypsy occupation -- supposedly that's why in Ireland the terms gypsy and tinker are virtually interchangeable. Maybe someone from the UK knows the tools a tinker would use, perhaps something on the order of a soldering iron, wrenches and bolts or screwdriver and screws to replace handles and knobs? At any rate, a tool box would be appropriate.

The gypsy ladies need a trade, too. Perhaps they are traditional fortune tellers, in which case a mini Tarot deck, crystal ball, and/or palmistry chart will set the mood for customers even if they really use "the sight" to read the future. Perhaps one is a wise woman who sells gathered wild herbs and hangs her inventory of dried plant material among the cookware in the cart. Another may have branched out into jewelry making, and sells exotic beaded necklaces and earrings. She would need a box of supplies and a lap cushion or tray on which to work.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Gypsy Peddler cart: I think that you should have (besides the pots and pans)rolled fabric, bandanas and scarves as this is what some gypsies wore. You might also try beaded necklaces or beaded jewelry as they wore that as well. If they are sleeping outside instead of in the cart, you will also need to get them bedding. Plus they should have a little dog following them as well.

Laura Jevtich

Rustic floor ideas: Early cabins often had dirt floors.   The dirt would get pounded down pretty hard over time, and the floor could be swept.  Slightly more affluent might be rough boards laid atop the dirt or on poles.  Knots and gaps might give this floor character.  Nicer cabins would have smoother boards well fastened down. You could just say your cabin was built "chinkless"; a technique where each log is gouged out to fit atop the previous one.  They are chinked, but it's hidden between the well-fitted logs.  If you want the chinking to show, how about some heavy thread or string soaked in glue and shoved between the logs.  You could paint or dye the string and let it dry before gluing.

Lee Steiconi

Rustic floors for log cabins.   It is little known that many log cabins had dirt floors covered with (get this!) a layer of animal blood.  The blood from butchering a large animal would be coated on the pounded dirt as if it was paint.   This, amazingly, created a smooth, almost rubbery coating on the dirt that was much easier to sweep and keep clean.   (Obviously it had to be a very thick layer and flies had to be kept away until it was completely dry).    I am not suggesting that anyone open a vein for the sake of realism, but perhaps a maroon (or oxblood) colored paint on a layer of fine dirt would do the trick.  I wonder if the term 'oxblood' as a color comes from this practice.

Evelyn in Canada

Log cabin floor:  you could put paper clay on the floor of your log cabin, after sealing the wood floor, and paint the paper clay brown once it has dried.  Then you have a dirt floor, which would be very in keeping with a rustic log cabin.

Mary in MS

Puncheon floors for cabins: If anyone wants more information on puncheon floors, they are mentioned in one of the "Little House" books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.  I believe it may be Little House on the Prairie, but am not sure. Laura describes in great detail how her Pa built their cabin, including the chimney (mud-and-stick above the stone base) and the puncheon floor, which was logs cut in half and set in the dirt floor round side down. It was smoothed down w/his axe for splinters, but otherwise had no finish. Also describes how he roofed the cabin with lengths of wood. Very interesting--there are drawings of the cabin and outside in the books at well.

Laurie from N. Calif

Books on Victorian Era: I have collected several books on the Victorian era. The ones worth mentioning are:

Victorian Splendor by Allison Kyle Leopold: Excellent photos of interiors, fairly good description as to how Victorians lived. Focused on Victorian revival, recreating this style in modern interiors.

Painted Ladies Revisited by Elizabeth Pomada & Michael Larsen: Excellent photos of exteriors, helpful to distinguish Edwardian, Eastlake, Queen Anne, etc. styles.

Hints on Household Taste by Charles Eastlake: A few sketches only. Helpful to understand the Eastlake movement (however furniture manufacturers did not interpret his ideas correctly, so I have read). I actually wanted this book to scan the cover, scale it down it Photoshop and make a mini book of it to put it in the dollhouse. Unfortunately, the cover is not the original design!

Kathy from Tustin

Servant Bells: Our current home (built 1824) still has the servants' bells, most of which work. It is Beloved's aim to make them all work (just who the hell he thinks is going to scamper to his call, she snarled..), it is my aim to needlepoint them all bell pulls. How they work is devastatingly simple. One pulls the bell pull in the relevant room, which is connected to wires, which pull on the bells that are in a row in the kitchen. The wires disappear into walls and run under floorboards - it is most neat, and dainty in its structure. Each wire is attached to a large flat metal coil, on which reposes the bell, when the wire is pulled, the coil jiggles (hence ringing the bell). Although we can tell by the tone of the bell which bell pull is being yanked, one assumes there were labels of some sort, as in a busy kitchen, trying to ascertain which bell was which by sound alone would be tough. Maybe it was a visual thing, checking which bell was moving? This brings me neatly onto an electrified system which dated from 1900 in my MIL's London house. This had been very new and swanky when installed. The rooms had buzzers. Pushing the buzzer activated discs of card set in a glass panel in the kitchen, all neatly labeled. So say the Man of the House in his Study pressed his bell when he wanted his evening cocoa, in the kitchen a buzzer would sound, and the disc of card behind the porthole of clear glass above the word 'Study' would jiggle. Thus the servant had both an aural call of being wanted, then a visual stimulation of where she was wanted. Hop to it!

Helen, York, England

Mini hanging: Well, if grandad is making a nice hanging place.... One of the first mini's I made was a guillotine, I didn't make a book report in the freshman year on the "Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens, as I had read it 4 or 5 times, so dad got me some small dolls, (2) and I appropriately dressed one, got help from dad on the pulley arrangement and the KNIFE I made the structure of walnut, cut off the doll's head and painted nailpolish for blood. It was the hit of the year! I also had a grandfather who was hung during our Civil War, in Texas which voted to go for the south. The army discovered a subversive organization favoring the north, they got a spy inside who got the list of members, there was a trial.... my ancestor was over 70 and so arthritic he couldn't get on a horse to go to jail. 42 men were hung and two more shot later....... There is a picture of the hanging tree... lots of anger about that war on both sides, some still hanging on...... People don't want to talk about the hangings...... or other involvement of relatives in that terrible war.

Rhoda

Historical hat patterns: Just returned a fascinating book to the library. It is called "From The Neck Up", by Denise Dreher, published in 1981 by Madhatter Press. It teaches full size hat construction but also has 60 patterns for headwear ranging in time from Ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman, through medieval to mid 20th century berets. It even has the baseball cap that someone was looking for a while back, plus ones like a mortar board, skullcap, bishop's mitre and witch's hat. The patterns are all drafted on a grid so should be easy to re-scale. It's in my local library, so is accessible by inter-library loan.

Wendy in Clinton, NJ

Victorian Web Site: Just wanted to share a wonderful site I happened upon for any of you researching the Victorian era. Loaded with all kinds of wonderful information. www.victorianweb.org

Bobbie Schoonmaker - NY

17th C Dutch stuff: Currently in London is a show that has just been on in New York for months - Jan Vermeer & colleagues working in Delft. What a visual feast - and I learned some new things about 17thC Dutch houses.
- The houses appear not to have had chimney pots.
- Swan pies were eaten, which I associate with medieval times in GB, these pies set on a large pewter platter.
- A wine cooler would be a very large, deep flat based oval bowl made from brass, with rotund bottles (not modern wine bottles) set in water - left sitting on the floor.
- Tablecloths HA! after all those efforts to make a drape-able rug, well good old hand woven cloth was also used, usually with stripes, so give yourself a break
- SHAPES of things - this is the most important thing to emulate. The British professional miniaturist Andrea Barnham says copy the shape rather than try for an exact replica, and by George she's right.
- A deer's head, hung on a wall
- Cheeses on a tray suspended from the rafters
- A coat rack made from fat, round ebonised knobs set into cherry wood - see these in paintings by 2 different artists
Probably other stuff, if anyone is interested. This whole odyssey has been so shocking, so wonderful - and it must be true of every period, just scan the pictures of every day life, and be prepared to be amazed.

Helen from York, England

Retro-1940's style: I found this link you all might enjoy. It has a lot of ideas from the 1940's, (20's and 30's also) if anyone is looking for info on that time period. Even has a link to Colleen Moore's dollhouse. http://www.retroactive.com/tiptray.html

Kim R Lee

Regency Era: I was playing around on the net today and found this site about the
regency era, great reference for clothing and accessories and tons of links to other like minded sites. http://austentation.tripod.com/webrings.html

And as an added bonus the lady has some dollhouses! Her name is Laura Sauer - is she on this list? Very enjoyable site and very readable. Thought some of you other history buffs may enjoy it.

Yvonne - NZ

Renaissance Era or Medieval Time Period: Check out this site!
http://www.miniworld.com/cgi-bin/catalog-h.pl?action=dl&cat=Chivalry&sec=&

Marsha, Newark, CA

Dutch Interiors: I found a new book on Dutch interiors at Cosco yesterday. It is called "Country Houses of Holland" by Barbara & Rene Stoeltie. Taschen publishers. A very good book for those of you wanting to do a Dutch house. I also found it on Amazon, for those of you without a Cosco.

Kaye in L.A.

Period furniture: I did some research some time ago and found the following to be the correct periods for the different movements:
Hepplewhite....lots of inlaid wood d-1786
Queen Anne 1702-1713
Victorian 1837-1901
Arts and Crafts 1890-1930
Tudor 1491-1547
Elizabethan period 1558-1602
Renaissance 1420-1600
Most of these periods are during the reign of the families (Tudor, Hepplewhite, Elizabethan) while others are for the sovereign herself (Queen Anne, Victoria). Arts and Crafts and Renaissance are named for the period in which the design(s) were in the making/creating. While some Victorian furniture was made after Queen Victoria's death, it is considered post Victorian. As some of the periods ran at the same time there was much influence from one to another. That is why the subtle difference between some designers furniture. Hope this helps.

Rhonda in Fl

Historical Fashion Site: Tracey requested a URL for Historical Fashion. I have The Costume Page bookmarked because it is a wonderful source for all kinds of things related to costuming on the web: books, supplies, museums, etc. I think that I probably learned about the site from a posting her on Small Stuff. Anyone interested in costuming, clothing, sewing, etc., full size or mini, will appreciate this site. http://members.aol.com/nebula5/costume.html

Rachelle Spiegel

Biltmore Estate: If you want to see how the "other half" used to live, go to http://www.biltmore.com and take a gander. Wow!

Dani

Tapestry: Outstanding site for Tapestry research..... lovely pictures etc. http://www.fix.net/~rwhaley/ This is an old friend from Arroyo Grande Ca. We're in Florida now and haven't keep in touch like we should. Good people, ask and I'm sure you can copy some of his images for mini work. No problem with copyright from Ron. . . he's cool.

Judie