ATTENTION SPORTS FANS!: This alert is for Cincinnati Reds fans but may apply to others. Today's Cincinnnati Enquirer included a catalog of Reds merchandise with lots of mini potential. The autographed photo of the Big Red Machine, including Pete Rose in less notorious days, will find a place in my house. Posters, banners, photos, logos sized to decoupage on mugs. If the Reds have a catalog like this, I'm sure the other teams and sports do too, so if you need such items for a shop or kids' room, it may pay to contact them. This one was published the the Reds' "Merchandise Dept." at the stadium.

Loretta.Sniarowski

Bruce Steinke's Quarter Scale Furniture:
http://www.bjminis.com

144 scale Lodge/cabins: - I made the two-story "lodge" form a Northeastern Scale Models kit, then decided to design the rest myself. On the ones I designed, the roofs lift off and they are divided into rooms that copy the floor plans of various cabins I have vacationed in over the years. This was the very first mini scene I ever made, then I moved up to 1" scale! A good railroad hobby store was indispensable in providing the small scale milled siding, windows & doors, landscaping materials, etc. I used N-Scale things, as they seemed closest to the 1/144 that I needed. The lodge, the people and the car are the only things in the scene that were not my own design.

Chris in Minnesota

Fur Coat Directions and Fabric: http://www.excel.net/~fsippel/MASupplies/Books/Creation.html

Towards the bottom of the page, there is a book advertised to teach making a fur coat with directions and three samples of "fur". This doll artist does a nice job. Her fabrics are wonderful.

Laurie Sisson

Faeries & Elves: I have a step by step how-to on making a sleeping baby fairy on my site. http://gerdesdesign.com/northwest.htm It was also in Dolls in Miniature a few years ago, and Viola may have a back issue available. I also made some elves following the basic methods of Maureen Carlson from her excellent book, recently mentioned here, "How to Make Clay Characters". Just made the ears pointy, skin green, and gave him an acorn top cap: no longer human, now an elf! There are pictures of my elves too, if you go to the URL above.

Anne

Polymer fairy instructions: Sue Heaser has a great little fairy to make step by step:
http://www0.delphi.com/polymerclay/PCC/suefairy.html

Marilyn, Mini-ing in RV

Article Index: How did I find this information so fast? Well, I bought the "E-Z Search Index to How-To Projects" by Sylvia Hansen. This is one of the handiest books I have ever bought. Sylvia prints an index to all the miniature magazines ever printed and you can buy just the ones you want, for the magazines you have. I just LOVE mine, no more searching for hours for projects you KNOW you have seen somewhere, just go to the index. Her email is: sylhansen@cs.com.

Patty Adamson

Magazine Indexes: I posted a while back regarding magazine indexes. I recommended Sylvia Hansen, 12 Scott Drive North, Broomfield, Colorado, 80020. Phone: (303) 404-0054. Email: Sylhansen@cs.com. She has E-Z Search covering all the miniature magazines. With 25 years plus of miniature magazines, it's the only way I can find what I want. I highly recommend them.

Ruth Grass Valley, CA

Dollhouse Projects Magazine: Projects is available on my web site. http://www.dollhouse-miniatures.com It is published by EMF in England. They have an address of http://www.dolltedemf.com

Tom & Kari

South Western Accessories: I made my annual pilgrimage to Santa Fe, N.M., Indian Market (usually the third weekend in August) and thought I'd pass on a couple of contacts for anyone who is working on an adobe/southwest project. I'm not connected with any of these resources other than as a customer:

Terry Tapia of Teseque Pueblo (say THAT five times fast!) does very fine miniature pottery - buff with black and brown designs. The pot I bought is delicately painted in an abstract "turkey wing" design and is a "seed pot" the size of a 3/4 inch bead. Her address is Rt.11 Box 20, Santa Fe, N.M. 87501. Phone is (505)983-7075.

Koinva's Hopi Ornaments at P.O. Box 2785, Apache Junction, AZ 85217 phone (480)982-1577 sells Christmas ornaments. But one of their ornaments is a wood, leather and rawhide drum 2inches high. The drums come painted or unpainted - I preferred the unpainted. It also has a drumstick.

Galeria Ortega can be located at www.ortegasdechimayo.com and 1-800-743-5921. They have petroglyph refrigerator magnets that look as if the petroglyphs are carved from weathered sandstone of irregular shapes - too cool! If you aren't into that, they also have kokopelli and other petroglyph-type designs on glazed 2inch square tiles (refrigerator magnets), suitable for imbedding in the outer wall of your adobe hacienda. Ortega also has southwest mini scenes for sale, and Mimbres art stickers in both black and white or sand and brown in case you want to do your own polymer clay pottery and stick on authentic designs. In Taos I found 1 inch square tiles with tiny recipes for southwest cooking printed on them - again, refer magnets. Didn't get the store name, but it's the gourmet cook shop on Bent Street.

Susan's Christmas Shop, 115 E. Palace Ave., Santa Fe. I always find wonderful minis at Susan's. This year it was mini floral arrangements, mini porcelain tea sets (I got one painted in the blue Russian "net" design), mini fruits and veggies, and leather moccasins. These moccasins aren't the beaded kind. They have hard leather bottoms and soft leather tops that tie around the ankles. Looks like they'd fit a Ken doll, so might be too big for most SS'ers unless you have them peeking out from under a bed or flopped near the door.

One of the artists on the Plaza, a Comanche named Gordon Tonips did the most stunning mini settings. He carves Pueblos, kivas and Anasazi ruins in stone. His work is to be gasped at! He is trying to get a website together and post some of his art. His websites are www.tonips.com and www.comancheartist.com He said he had been too busy getting ready for market to post his work, but would get to it following market. So keep checking those sites if you would be interested in seeing some wonderful and unusual mini work.

Ava in the Great American Desert,

Working Clocks Inserts: Check Klockit at http://www.Klockit.com. For a catalog, call 1-800-KLOCKIT. They carry mini inserts that are 15/16 wide that do not have a stem. They have regular numerals and Roman numerals. A suggestion . . . . I always buy ones with a second hand. That way when a person looks at it, they know it's a working clock. I've used these and have been very pleased. Also, they sell the batteries for them much less than a retail store.

Ruth, Grass Valley, CA

Japanese Miniatures: Here's a working link for Japanese Miniatures:
http://www.japaneseminiatures.com/online-store/scstore/

Here's a link to another site:
http://japaneseminis.homestead.com/FirstPg.html

Marty in SC

Halloween Wallpapers: J.Hermes has it in all scales. I love the skeleton wallpaper. I bought some to cover the walls in my closet. They have a great catalog $4 (I think) J. Hermes, PO box 4023 El Monte, Ca. 91734 818-287-3141

Judy K

Rice Paper: You can get rice paper through http://JapaneseGifts.com/ Comes in a roll and is not very expensive at all.

Mike in Pompano Beach

rice-silk-linen paper: Go to:
http://www.dickblick.com/categories/papers/

They have silk and rice paper and maybe linen paper too. You can order on line or they will send you a catalog. Dick Blick soooo many fine supplies!

Lyn T.

Rice Paper; To the person looking for Rice Paper, Michael's sells it in a roll for about 5.00 for a life time supply.

Helen, San Diego

Specialty papers. Here is a great site for papers, as well as lots of other, paper related things:
http://www.fascinating-folds.com/welcome.htm

Kaye in L.A.

Fashion doll furniture: Here's a site for a source of custom made furniture for fashion doll or other size dolls. His prices are reasonable.
http://members.aol.com/johnnyswoodwork/johnnys/index.htm

Jackie

Videos: National Assoc. of Miniature Enthusiasts - NAME - has a lending library of 80 videotapes on every miniature topic available. These may be borrowed by members for $3.00 each to cover mailing. Just to be able to get the videos is worth the cost of a membership. Their web site is: http://www.miniatures.org

Jackie in MD

Kits: For those of you looking for kits don't forget about own member Debbie Jones in Phoenix with the business Kitz. Her whole business is selling kits of different types many roundtable type kits also. You won't be disappointed with her service and selection. http://minikitz.com/

Deb (the Dragonlady)

typeset letters: I came on board SS a few months ago talking about doing a miniature display in an old typeset drawer and incorporating actual typeset letters. I came across a seller on Ebay who has thousands of sets of typeset items for sale in all shapes and sizes, and sells grab bag miscellaneous typeset letters very inexpensively by the pound directly. He won't pick and choose specific letters, but he was kind enough to give me an assortment in the 1/2"-3/4" range. I ordered 10 lbs. and received approx. 225 letters, numbers and symbols in various sizes, fonts, upper and lower case, all within my specified sizes. If you're ever in the market for typeset letters, the email address is: homerlea@aol.com

Char in San Diego