The Vivienne Greene book is awesome, but a little sad since last year she auctioned off much of her collection according to a Miniature Collector article, so the book is as close we can get to visiting her museum now. 

Loretta

Making Miniatures in Polymer Clay By Mary Kaliski is under $10.00 and has patterns and colored pictures ...very easy for a novice

Gisèle

Regarding a good price on the Dian Zillner/Patty Cooper book, "Antique and Collectible Dollhouses and Their Furnishings"--LW Books (www.lwbooks.com) has it for $35.97. The catch is you have to order a minimum of 6 books (can be six of one title or six different books.)  I've been getting antique / collectibles books from them for a few years-- a couple friends and I order together to get the number of books necessary for the special price.

Maria Lamb

Identifying Artisans: There is a book out called "A Reference Guide to Miniature Makers Marks" by Alice and Lee Frank.

Karin

Identifying Artisans: There is a $60.00 book by Allie and Lee Frank that has all the makers marks from 'way back' and is an excellent reference. Some libraries and NAME have the book now.

Mary Lou

Book by the Franks: You might be able to find the book at your library. State Reps of NAME have been distributing them all over the US.

Betty

Identifying Artisans: "A Guide to Miniature Makers' Marks" by Allie and Lee Frank is still available through their web site http://www.remotepoint.com/~leef/view-AL.htm

To get to their "regular" web site, go to http://www.alminiatures.com

To reach them by email, write to lsfrank@juno.com

Jenny

Miniature Collector Magazine: The editor's email is baardema@scottpublications.com advertising sales has an 800 #, it's 800-458-8237.

Jan

Doll House Magazines: I know of two magazines that are both from the UK. One is The Dolls' House Magazine, which I pick up at Chapters. It costs about $10.95. They don't seem to have a web site but do have e-mail. The other one is Dolls House and Miniature Scene. Their website is www.emfpublishing.co.uk

Rose Heys

Doll House Magazines: I always suggest a great magazine called Dolls & Miniatures when asked about magazines. This magazines focus is on miniature dolls and teddy bears but has lots of other hints and tips. The only thing that I dislike about the magazine is that it does not come out often enough, only Spring, Summer, Fall & Winter. Here is the site to find out more about it for yourself http://members.aol.com/DollsInMin/index.html

Marilyn

EMF Publishing: I recently sent a fax to DollTedEMF@aol.com in the U.K. for Doll House Projects. You can email them and order directly from the internet. I was looking for a magazine titled Dolls House projects, I called Chapters and they did not have any but when I contact emf publishing company they told me to email DollTedEMF@aol.com and sure enough Sandra Smith emailed me back and lo and behold I ordered my book by fax. If you want their telephone number it is 011 the area code is 44 and the number is 1903 506626, I have not heard back yet as there is a time difference regarding my fax I sent them. I was amazed when I got on the web page where you could do your shopping add it to your shopping cart then go to the cash out let.

Patti Kennedy

Poppies / Anemones / Chrysanthemums: I just used poppy seeds as the centers in some crepe paper poppies and anemones. Made a tiny loop at the end of a wire, hole-punched a bunch of petals, tacky-glued them around the loop, and filled in the loop with a tacky glue blob and sprinkled seeds on. Quick and simple but they look pretty good. Diff between poppies and anemones is mainly color and stem height; my mini anemones are purple. (The big flowers modeled for their minis.)

Freida Gray's Mini Gardening Book has instructions for chrysanthemums; haven't tried yet but will since it sounds fairly simple. For each flower, you need embroidery floss, 4" of covered wire and a round paintbrush handle about 1/4" diameter. Lay the wire alongside the handle and wrap the floss around and around the handle and wire (as if making a mini pompom) about 2/3 of the way down the wire. When the pom looks full enough, clip the end of the floss and wrap the short end of the wire very tightly down the longer wire, slide off the handle and clip the thread loops to make the poofy petals. She suggests rolling the petals around a round toothpick and setting them with clear spray acrylic to make different mum shapes -- could probably use hair spray in a pinch -- and says for variations you can wrap the short end of the wire up over the bottom part of the pom to make carnations, or flatten the pom and paint a yellow center to make asters. Photos looked very real.

Loretta

The NAME site has the old NN projects indexed. http://www.miniatures.org/

Anne Gerdes

Great book: A number of times I have seen posts asking for a good book on making dollhouse furniture. Most of the ones I have seen posted here are quite good, but the best one I have seen so far is The Art of Making Furniture in Miniature by Harry W. Smith, it has good sections on working with all tools, types of woods, and start to finish patterns and instructions for some sophisticated furniture. This is not for a complete beginner unless you have experience building other things.

Jacqui Marlin

Mini-Food Book: My favorite miniature book, Easy to Make Dollhouse Accessories by Andrea Barham, contains some really fancy confections. This book has instructions for the following foods: Box of Turkish Delights- instructions include how the make the box, Peach Melba, including the sundae glass, Orange and Lemon Segments with box, Box of chocolates (these are adorable), Iced Cake, Fruit in a bowl. This book has so many wonderful things to make in it.

Linda

Miniature Article on line: My article "Understanding the Allure of Miniatures" has been published at: http://www.cybersharing.com

For some reason he put it under 'Crafts' rather than 'Collectibles'. It was very simple (and fast) getting published at this site, some of the rest of you might be interested in sharing your ideas and wisdom here. There are a number of categories, and your website URL gets posted in your written piece.

Cyndi

There are some excellent reference books on the market which include most or all of the tin litho houses:

- American Dollhouses and Furniture from the 20th Century by Dian Zillner;

- Antique & Collectible Dollhouses and Their Furnishings by Dian Zillner and Patty Cooper;

- Tomart's Price Guide to Tin Litho Doll Houses and Plastic Doll House Furniture (soft cover) by Mary Brett.

Beverly Gallerani

"1/12 Scale Character Figures for the Dolls' House" by James Carrington - This book is printed in the U.K. and hasn't made it to the U.S. yet. But, as a miniaturist/book fanatic, did I wait for it to get here? No, I ordered it from Amazon in the UK This book is fabulous if you want to try sculpting your own dolls in polymer clay. There are great color photographs of dolls with real character to their faces. The instructions are well-written with very good illustrations. Not only that, it is written with wit and humor. Just to give you an idea of James' sense of humor..... He wrote about how, as you get older, gravity pulls the face downwards and with it, features such as the eyes and mouth. He says... "If you are of a certain age, and feel very brave, test this theory by placing a mirror flat on a table, and lean over it to look at yourself. (Remove all sharp objects out of the way before you do this!). The effect can be devastating, and you may find yourself not daring even to glance down in public for the rest of your life. Of course, if you are young, this will not happen - well, not today perhaps, but it will, so work on your sense of humor now; you'll need it!" For anyone who sculpts dolls or is thinking about giving it a try (like me), this book is a "must have".

Paula in NJ

There is help for a newbie to power tools, I am not an expert but have a book that helped me a lot at the start. The book is from Barns & Noble SBN:06-463413-2 by George Daniels, "How to use Hand and Power Tools. Your local Library, may have a copy on the shelf.

Lenora

Little Enough News: I publish Little Enough News, a bimonthly newsletter that focuses on 1/4" and 1/144" scales. There are instructions and patterns for making everything from furniture and accessories to entire houses in past issues, along with lots of original tips, photos, reader profiles, articles, etc. Anyone who may be interested in learning more will find full details on my website. http://members.aol.com/daisy21/pam/index.html

Pam