Elegant Desserts: I just wanted to let everyone who makes mini food know, that I just bought a fantastic cook book that is called "Elegant Desserts". It has about 185 gorgeous color pictures in it. The desserts are beautifully photographed and you'll love this book! I really don't think there's a better one for doing fancy foods. With step by step instructions, it's also a really nice book for making the real thing as well as the mini thing.

Susan in VA

½" Scale Furniture: I found a book for half scale furniture (A Cabinetmaker's Guide for Dollhouse Furniture Volume 8 ) Half Inch Scale Furniture Dorsett Publications, Inc. from Lainie at http://www.homestead.com/lainies/Lainies.html.

Bettie

DIY Book: If you can find "Miniature Room Settings" by Helen Ruthberg, published by Chilton Book Company, Radnor, PA, and Thomas Nelson & Sons, Ontario, Canada ISBN 0-8019-6679-5 and/or "The Dolls' House Do-it-Yourself Book" by Venus and Martin Dodge (originally published in Britain), Sterling Publishing, NY, NY, ISBN 0-8069-7710-0 in your local library, you will get some absolutely fantastic ideas for turning ordinary household things into minis plus patterns for furniture which you can do in cereal box cardboard and fabric.

Maureen in St. Albert, Canada

Books on Tudor style houses - there are a number of books out there on the subject which I found very informative because I knew nothing about the period except from movies which we all know are notoriously misinformed. Hope these will be of some help.

Tudor Dolls' Houses by Geoffrey West 1999 from Crowood Press

This one has LOTS of photos of Tudor buildings as well as info on their construction and materials AND has info on creating plans for your own Tudor. Very complete and informative.

Architecture for Dolls' Houses by Joyce Percival 1996 from Guild of Master Craftsman Publications Ltd.

In this book she delves into not only Tudor but up into Victorian time periods with little things like how walls of tiny stones (I think they were called flint walls which I was particularly interested in while doing an enclosed English garden and wanted something different) were built and decoration on facades, chimney styles, etc. Just tons of great stuff. Very cool!

The Colonial Dollhouse by Phyllis Gift Jellison, 1977 from Van Nostrand Reinhold Co. In here she gives complete directions for making the most adorable Colonial dollhouse out of cardboard boxes. The entire house, complete with furnishings was made at that time for under $50.00. Since most of the materials are free and could also be made from our "advanced technology" of using found objects, the cost would probably not be much more than that now.

Ana

New books (I have got three new ones this past couple of weeks to help me recover from surgery, ie to keep me in bed) THE DOLLS' HOUSE 1/24 SCALE by Jean Nisbett ISBN 1 86108 113 8 This is a 1/2 scale book and they seem to be rare.

THE COMPLETE MINIATURE QUILT BOOK - OVER 24 PROJECTS FOR QUILTERS AND DOLLHOUSE ENTHUSIASTS by Dinah Travis ISBN 0-87341-595-7 (This is a wonderful book for those who like to make the quilts, very clear and good advice).

MAKING MINIATURE GARDENS by Freida Gray ISBN 1 86108 058 1. This book has been mentioned and I believe it deserves a second mention, if you need to do a lot of landscaping (and I have been putting off outside scenes for years, i.e. greenhouse, gazebo etc) then this is for you. I started making the kits one flower at a time and they are lovely but expensive time consuming. I realized that I would never get a scene done. So I am going to mix the kits and this book. I got both the garden one and the quilt one from the library before I bought them. I bought all three at Amazon.com.

Kathleen in Colorado

Searching for a particular book: I am a bibliophile, a librarian and a bargain shopper. I want to recommend this site, http://www.bestbookbuys.com

It is excellent. I put in the isbn numbers for both books mentioned and they are available. Bestbookbuys isn't a bookstore. It does the work of searching all the online bookstores to find the best prices. It will give you a list of the online stores and the price they are selling the book for. Just click on the store you want and it will take you directly to their online site, and the book you want. Be sure to check out the section called "Hot Deals" because there are more savings there.

Tina Chrismore

Searching for a particular book: For those of you looking for a particular book, here's a site that searches for you: http://www.addall.com If you're looking for an out-of-print, add "/used" to the URL.

Rosemary Macedonio

BOOKS ON MEDIEVAL LIFE: I got so many emails about the Middle Ages that I will post a list of some good books on life during this period: They can be found on websites like Amazon.com:

- DAILY LIFE IN THE MIDDLE AGES by Paul B. Newman. Available soon. I did many of the illustrations and my husband help proof-read it, so I'm partial to this one even though I haven't read it yet!

- WOMEN'S LIVES IN MEDIEVAL EUROPE edited by Emilie Amt (my sister-in-law!)

- MEDIEVAL ENGLAND 1000-1500 edited by Emilie Amt (my sister-in-law again!)

- GROWING UP IN MEDIEVAL LONDON by Barbara A. Hanawalt

- MARRIAGE AND THE FAMILY IN THE MIDDLE AGES by Frances and Joseph Gies

Jane

1/24" scale book: I just received a Derek Rowbottom book called "Miniature Dolls' Houses in 1/24th Scale" Very nice book with some good tips. Bought it through Amazon. ISBN 0 7153 0836 X. (There are so few smaller scale books out there, that I thought this would be of interest to some of you.)

Kaye Meldrum

Books: We've added some super books on miniatures to our website, that you may find interesting. West Sussex Woodencraft http://www.woodencraft.co.uk/

Peter Cook

Craftsman and Deco: Someone had asked a bit ago about Craftsman and Deco items. Has anyone seen the wonderful booklets put out by Peter Westcott (an architect) in Arizona? He has Mission, Shaker, SW, Deco, Colonial etc. Dollhouse Miniatures did an article giving some of his plans about 2 years ago I think...very nice detail and well thought out ...definitely worth securing. His address is:6256 N. 85th Street, Scottsdale, Az. 85250

Another great source of furniture ideas (for the DIY) was the Scale Cabinetmaker now defunct, but the last I knew he still puts out some collections, such as Kitchens (which, by the way has plans for a 30's kitchen), Toys, different time periods, etc. This magazine even had a sleigh which I'm making for my customized Morgan "Jack" and a wonderful buggy. There is even a Victorian grand piano! They could be purchased from Dorsett Publications, 630 Depot Street, P O Box 2038 Christianburg, VA 24073

Ana Gerard

Dolls in Miniature: There is a book named "Dollhouse Dolls" by Joann McCracken. Published 1980 by the Chilton Book Company, it describes how to make dolls from clay and instructions for dressing them. I have found it very useful. It may be in your local library.

Elaine Foster

Trompe l'oeil: In a posting in SSD vol2, # 142, Ana Gerard mentioned a book called "The Painted House", by Graham Rust. I have seen this book and like it a lot. I also own several Brit authors on decorative painting including the subject of Trompe l'oeil. My favorite is Jocasta Innes and I have several of her books. I have "Paint Magic" and "The New Paint Magic" and one other that I can’t put my hands on at the moment. John Sutcliffe's "Decorating Magic" has a lot of sleek ideas. And I like Jessica Ridley's "Finishing Touches" because she includes a lot of formulas for treatments. The Brits have been years ahead of us in Trompe l'oeil and decorative treatments IMHO. But I do use Isabel O'Neil's "The Art of the Painted Finish for Furniture & Decoration". But I find this a little difficult to transfer into practice. It might be just me but I find it a little less user friendly. And she does explain all about gold leaf in the last book.

Gary in NH

Miniature Collector Magazine’s Web Site: I discovered that Miniature Collector finally have their website up and running !! (Finally)

http://www.scottpublications.com - select Miniature Collector from the list of options, or go direct to the subscription page at

http://miniaturecollectormag.com/subscribe.shtml

Lesley, Johannesburg, South Africa

Character doll scale. I have the book you mentioned (and like it), but found another that is much more helpful because it contains several scales for adults, teens, young children, & infants. It also teaches an easy armature method for the dolls. Get "How to Make Perfect Dollhouse Figures" by Kitty Mackey and I'm sure you'll love it as much as I. Inside the book are charts of the above mentioned scales.

Also, just want to mention to you and all the newbies who need/want to learn about how to do various things, check out

http://www.mindstorm-inc.com/

This company (I'm just a satisfied customer) has videos on so many subjects that you can view in your own home...replay as many times as needed to learn the techniques. I highly recommend all their videos. I wouldn't take for mine! For your use, I recommend: by Margene Crossan: "Sculpting Whimsical Faces" and "Sculpting Characters"...both showing how to make funny as opposed to "pretty" people; by Evelyn Lentz Flook: "Sculpting Miniature Dolls 1" & "2"...both teaching the actual sculpting (with armature) of the dolls, with an enclosed paper chart for sizing them; and last but not least, by our own Viola Williams: "Wigging Miniature Women" and "Wigging Miniature Men, Children & Babies"...wonderful demonstrations of the how-tos of that job.

Rita Pierce

Exterior paint schemes: I love "America's Painted Ladies", The ultimate celebration of our Victorians. The authors are Elizabeth Pomada and Michael Larsen, published by Penguin Books in 1992. The ISBN: 0-525-93440-5. The Library of Congress Catalog Card number is 92-71070.

This book is About $40.00, but I have seen it in even small town libraries, or they can find it for you as an interlibrary loan. It is one of a series of 5 or 6 books on Victorian house restorations and is full of wonderful full page pictures of exterior and interior shots that will give you many choices to paint your Newport dollhouse. Let me know how it turns out.

Karen from Wisconsin

Animation - The animation book is "Animated Scale Models Handbook" by Adolph F. Frank. The publisher is Arco Publishing in New York, the book is copyright 1981. It used to be difficult to get a small motor that turned slowly enough to do animation. I would talk liquor stores out of the Hankscraft motors in their moving displays when they were through with them. However, Micro Mark now carries a motor that turns slowly, just for this kind of use.

Great book: The book is " The Cottage At The End Of The Lane". It is a story about a wooden doll who needs a home, and has fold-out pictures of 3 different houses she visits along the way. Some of you may know this book, since Debbie Young has modeled two 1/4" house kits after the dollhouses shown in the book. I am pretty sure she is no longer making this kit.

Amy in Kansas

Anyone with messed up Mott's workshop manuals, Contact the publisher, info follows. They will get it out to you. They were  very nice to me on the phone, but I still find it hard to believe they let  that many get out without fixing the problem sooner.

Fox Chapel Publishing
1970 Broad St
East Petersburg, PA 17520-1102

Phone: (717)560-4703 

Kathy in E. TN

I just wanted everyone to know that there's a new web page for Dolls & Miniatures magazines listing all back issues. http://www.dollsminiatures.bigstep.com/

Viola