Exercise Room: Anyone interested in exercise equipment or game   rooms,  http://www.miniaturesandmore.com    may have what you're looking for.

Janet in N.J.

Alternative to Quick Grab: Awhile back it was rumored that Quick Grab would no longer be available.   This turned out not to be true.   I did find another glue which has the same properties but I think works as well and is easier to use.   It is called Magna-Tak 809 by Beacon.   It is carried by Dee's Delights and should be available at your miniature shop.   It comes in an 8 oz. squeeze bottle, is easier to use than the tube and is less stringy.

Ruth, Grass Valley

Dremel Cutter: I have found the best cutter for my Dremel in American Science and

Surplus.   It was advertised as a diamond cutter, and it only cost $2.95.  I got it several months ago, and I use it all the time, but it doesn't seem to be wearing out at all.  I think it is still offered in their catalogue, but if it isn't, you can get a diamond cutter from the dealer that carries Dremel for $13.00.  I have one of those, too, but I like the ASS cutter better, because it is bigger.  I recommend this company to everyone, as it has a lot of good stuff.   You can look them up on the Internet, and order their catalogue on line.

DeeDee in Carmel Valley

Curtain Brackets: I use clip-on earring backs (bulk packs available in jewelry section of Michaels, Joann's etc.) as curtain brackets.  Pull the rubber pad off (save for baby-bottle nipple) and paint or paper the round back to match your wallcovering,  and glue the back to the wall with the hinge toward the floor.  Once glue has dried, gently open the hinge and set the curtain rod into the bracket, then close.   Looks very like real-size decorative brass brackets and allows you to change curtains whenever you want.

Loretta

Scales: Once again I will mention that there is a lot of similarity between some of the model railroad scales and miniature scales, so drop by some of those "other" hobby shops and see what they have:

N scale is 1:160, close enough to 1:144 for some things to be useful

O scale is 1:48, exactly the same as the 1/4" mini scale

G scale is 1:22.5, again close enough to 1:24 for some things to be used

David

Barn Plans: A great place for plans for farm buildings is from U.F.A. (United Farmers Association in Canada) where they sell plans for full size barns ect.   The person was nice enough to shrink a copy for me maybe you have an association in the states similar?   Also Lee Valley Tools sells some great books full of old plans for buildings, equipment etc.  They have a site online http://www.leevalley.com

Joanne in Calgary

Bellingham Farmhouse:   I'm in the process of building a Bellingham now.   If you'd like to take a look at what I've done, this link should take you there.  http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=miniatureoma 

Marcia

Creating   a webpage: HTML stands for hyper text mark-up language...basically the idea that at its very simplest, you're just modifying whatever text you want on your webpage w/ a simple language. I tend to think that people make it seem more difficult than it really is by references to all sorts of things that may or may not actually be a part of webpage design and it can be simple to learn. At its simplest, you decide you want to make some text lead to another page, so you mark off that text w/ a tag or code that tells that text to be a link. If you still want to give it a shot, try http://www.htmlgoodies.com/    I really like their approach.  

In any case, using software is always a good option and can be faster. Which program do you have? Not all are easy to use! :) Also, try typing "web page templates" into a search engine and you can find basic, pre-designed templates that will have some sort of structure and probably some graphics. For this, try http://home.netscape.com/browsers/templates/index.html   and http://www.freewebsiteproviders.com/webpage- templates.htm    These will need modification (You may already have Netscape Composer, which can do this) and are very simple. You're welcome to privately email me w/ specific questions regarding your program, designing your page, or whatever you want.  

Regarding the cost of having someone else do it, it can totally vary. However, esp. if you want your webpage for business reasons, you can find companies that specialize in small businesses or people who aren't interested in a lot of bells and whistles, so can be cheaper.  

Anyway, I'm sorry for the length of this post. I even cut out some stuff! :)   Basically, I wanted to assure you that it's not as hard as it looks.

Heidi in Colorado

Creating   a webpage: If you go to http://www.htmlgoodies.com   and on the left it will say Primers, under that click on HTML. It will walk you through how to make a web site. It has everything you need in easy, step by step instructions. I've made 3 of my own personal web sites using information from that web site.

Jessica

Web design: For the question about Web Design and how much it costs etc.   I have to highly recommend the talents of Anne Gerdes, who is also one of the moderators of this Digest.   She not only is an expert at design but she knows many things that will help you be successful.   Her charges are very reasonable - she works very quickly and you will NOT be disappointed.   I learned more from her in my initial conference call with her than I ever could have on my own.   She is Wonderful !!   

If you want your money's worth give her an opportunity.   (She doesn't pay me to say this either)   You can access her site http://Gerdesdesign.com  

Jean in Seattle

Web Site design: I also can recommend our own Anne Gerdes!   Even with my 'slowness' in getting data to her, she never griped at me (OK, there were a couple of teasers - LOL) and did a terrific job.   I consider her fee an investment in my business...and I take my business quite seriously :)   Anne can update and make changes in a flash...far, far faster than me buying software, then taking months to properly learn how to use it...again, worth the cost when compared to the time I'd spend not making my products, just to learn software.

Just wish she was a bit slower in sending the bills !   LOLOL!

Laura in OKC

Thread cutting on the go: For those who are concerned about how to get by without scissors/nippers when traveling: Clover Products makes a round cutter that hangs on a ribbon around your neck. You supply the ribbon. I used 1/8" satin ribbon. This little cutter is about 1 1/4" in diameter. It has little notches in the casing where the blade shows through. Just run your thread over it and it is nipped off. They have them at most stores that carry sewing notions,   or http://www.clotilde.com   or http://www.nancysnotions.com     They run about $5.00 here in MT at Joann Fabrics.

Marcie, Kalispell, MT

FABULOUS web site on Costumes, etc.!!!! I don't know if this has been mentioned before but I have found a web site that has EVERYTHING anyone would need to know about costumes and dress from Pre-Historic & Babylonian time through now.   The pages take a long time to load, in some cases, because there is SO much information but it is worth it!   There are also tons of links from these pages.

Information is there on everything from underwear to shoes and just about anything else you can imagine including listening to music of that time.   Just too much to mention here so get yourself a fresh cup of coffee and settle down for about 2 hours (at least) of browsing.

There has been a lot of discussion on "Egyptian" ... it is on this site.

My husband and I also deal in antique portrait miniatures and this site is excellent in helping us to better date the time period of sitters.   I can't think of anyone who wouldn't benefit or get ideas from "The Costume History at The Costumer's Manifesto".   Go to http://www.costu mes.org/pages/costhistpage.htm 

Bobbie

Needlework Supplies & Patterns:  Coats have a website, multilingual with links to USA as well as European, Fun site also    http://www.coatscrafts.co.uk/en/1/procro.html

Mary Jane Doyle sells on line at http://www.minknit.freeserve.co.uk/Default.htm   Also   http://www.crossstitch.org/  Links to www.sewandso.co.uk site with more.

Not forgetting the groups with information help like Jeanette's group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MiniKnittingandCrochet/  She has book marks to sites as well as advice.

There is a good site with fun free projects at http://www.kreinik.com/HTML/freebies/kreinik_freebies.html   lovely snowflake pattern amongst so many freebies

Pauline, Mansfield, UK

Miniature Knitting: Having just spent a number of days in bed nursing an annoying cold, I managed to get some miniature knitting done and I made an interesting discovery.

Sewing up seams in miniature knitting can be a problem because the seam can add to the bulky-ness of the garment which can also reduce the quality of the finished piece.   So, a lot of miniature knitting pattern makers have devised a way to knit these patterns, for the most part, all in one piece, thereby avoiding as many seams as possible.  Still, there will be sleeves to seam up and shoulders to attach, etc.

Well, my discovery came about in sewing up a knitting bonnet from a Joy Parker pattern.   There are 2 edges of the bonnet where a cast off is done and those edges are later sewn to two other edges which "form" the shape of the bonnet.  My discovery was in sewing up the seam on the right side of the garment as opposed to sewing it up on the inside.   Because the stitches are so small when sewing the seam, it turned out wonderful.   Previous to this I had tried sewing in the same manner on the inside of the garment, using small stitches and just catching the selvage edges of the piece with the yarn.   I still ended up with a somewhat bulky seam.   It was passable, but not as flat as I would like.

So, I tested this method again on another piece, knitted shorts, again from a Joy Parker pattern.   The shorts are knit in one piece and there is a seam up the back, then the crotch and legs are sewn.   I sewed the seam up the back the regular way, but the crotch and leg seams I sewed on the right side of the garment and again, it came out great.  It appears that cast off edges sew up the best for miniature knitted garments on the right side than for a selvage edge.   Mind you, this worked well for me, I can't say it will work well for you, but you might want to give it a try. Keep your stitches small and catch as little of the cast off edge as possible when sewing up.   And of course, always use the same yarn/thread you knit the garment with to do your sewing.   It's also possible, some of you may have already done this or know this, but for those of you who don't then it could be good news for you!

Also, within the next couple of weeks, I will be launching a new site on Miniature Net.   The site will be about miniature knitting.   It will provide an extensive Resource section telling you where and how you can find miniature knitting supplies.  There will also be write-ups about knitting patterns, tips for miniature knitting and hopefully as I continue to build the site, I'll also add knitting patterns of my own.  Once the site is launched, I'll write the list to let you know.

Joy in Pointe Claire

Beacon Adhesives: Folks have been asking about where to find Beacon Adhesives. I ran a Google search and came up with this URL. http://beaconcreates.com/   Apparently they make a wide variety of specialty adhesives for home and industrial use.

Brian

Reducing the thickness of wood: The Preac thickness sander is made to reduce wood in thickness.   It has the advantage of leaving none of the chip out experienced with planers on very thin lumber.  It is very easy to use and the abrasive sleeves last a long time.  Works on any thickness or type of wood up to 3" width. I just put it up on the you-asked page of http://smallerthanlife.com . http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~smallife/you_asked.htm Planing mini lumber can be done using a full size planer and a backing board. It works pretty well down to 1/8".   Thinner than that, I get lots of tear out and lose too much lumber up the dust collector.  This is especially true with the quarter sawn cherry we prefer to use.

The Carbatec miniature lathe and duplicator are also up on the web site. http://www.nh.ultranet.com/~smallife/carbatec.htm

Pete Boorum

Miniature woodworking tools: I have been interested in miniature woodworking for some time, and have been using a scroll saw, delta 1" belt sander, full-size table saw and chop saw, along with the Dremel drill press and shaper table. My Christmas present from my DH was a Preac table saw and thickness sander. What a wonderful addition to my workshop.

The thickness sander enables me to create all my mini-lumber at the exact thickness I need. No more waiting for an order of "close to but not exact" thickness lumber to build scale furniture and cabinets. I can create any thickness I need from what I have in the shop. Now I can use any of the hardwoods, such as cherry or walnut, and get away from using basswood (with its greater range of available thicknesses). If I need 1/32 inch cherry, I just put a 1/8 inch piece in the sander and make my own. The sander is easy to work and not intimidating ( I still grit my teeth in fear and intimidation when I use my full size table saw).

The new Preac table saw is wonderful for straight cuts for moulding or furniture pieces. I can make dados for shelves and sand the shelf lumber down to the exact thickness to fit in the dado.   I have been busy making store counters, shelving units, and plant tables for my street of shops. Even my husband is impressed with the results.

I bought my tools from Pam and Pete Boorum at http://www.smallerthanlife.com.

Preac also has a website, where you can get more information.

It just proves the old adage " get the right tool for the job". If anyone would like to see pictures, or have questions, please email me.

Sharon Blake, Wasilla, Alaska

Judaic Symbols:  A dreidle is a perfect ornament to use in the Jewish version. You can fashion a basic four-sided top, and if you want to add a special detail, you can add the Hebrew letters on each side of the dreidle.   Another common Hanukkah symbol is an oil pitcher, which looks much like a ewer.  I believe that the "lamp that the story revolves around" is the candelabra, or menorah.   It has eight branches of the same height, with a central candleholder slightly higher.

Robed figures holding the Torah wouldn’t be appropriate for this type of scene, as the Torah doesn’t mention this story.

I found some sites on the Net for clipart, and these should help you:
http://www.cstone.net/~bry- back/holidayfun/hanukahclips.html
http://www.graphics-by- celeste.com/holiday_graphics/chanukah.html
http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/chanukah/clip.html

These should get you going...   If you are looking for a mini menorah, dreidle or other mini Hanukah or Judaic supplies, you can go to http://www.fay-vourite.com    On page two of the site, there are two Hanukkah sets.  Clicking on each picture shows individual prices for items, so thatif you just want one or two things, you don’t have to buy the whole set. There are really no protocols for using the menorah or Star of David.  Since the Hanukah story includes a victorious battle, incorporating a shield with a Star of David in the center would be very appropriate, but not necessary.

Jonathan from Israel

Mini-links: Check out my site, newly updated with hundreds more mini links. Updating is ongoing for the next couple of weeks, so be sure to hit your refresh button. http://www.miniaturereality.com/ 

Karolyn