Half Inch Scale: I have upholstered furniture, bassinets, slippers, plants and woven baskets in half scale which I will be premiering at the St. Louis Show. Some of the things can be seen on my web site under Small Scale. I will be working on more items after the show and eventually everything will be on my web page http://MrsArt.homestead.com.

Jennie in San Antonio TX.

¼ Scale: I have just completed a new catalog for 1/4" scale only. I now have available items from Suzanne Andrews, Grandt Line, Model Builders Supply, Dee's Delights, Northeastern, Scale Card, Mustard Seed and Robin Betterley. If interested in this FREE catalog, please contact me directly Dollhousecorner@cs.com.

Marlene

¼ Scale: I meant to tell you about Pam Scott's Little Enough News also, Pam's URL, where you can see what her newsletter is all about, and find some free projects: http://members.aol.com/daisy21/pam/index.html

Kaye in LA

Book Bashing: To make your book into a box, take the cover off the book and make a cardboard box to fit the book. I have found second hand some Reader's digest books that are hollow for keeping things in secretly, they have regular book jackets on them. I currently have 2 of those not used yet as I have one book/box commercially made about the same, I got it at a Rite Aide Drug Store that I am preparing as a vignette for one of my children.

Rhoda from Whidbey Island WA

1/144th Shingles:

What I did for the 1/144th. log cabin shingles (thanks to suggestions from this group) was cut fine grain tan sandpaper in 1/4" strips. Then I cut it like fringe and glued it on in strips overlapping each strip. They can be a little longer than your roof. Once the glue was dried (overnight), trim the strips that hang over to make the roof edge neat. I used a Min-Wax stain pen to color it like I wanted. The stain will color the edges of your cuts darker and it gives you the effect of separate shingles. There are also some shingle strips and sheets made for N and HO railroads that will work well for 1/144th. My sandpaper ones were actually a bit big when all was said and done. If I had cut the fringes smaller, it would have been closer to scale.

John Medeiros

Glue Micro-Scale Pieces: Building micro scale (1:144) minis, I frequently don't use "glue" at all. I bond most of the tiniest parts where strength is not crucial with clear lacquer. It penetrates wood deeply, allows a little bit of shifting into place, and doesn't "fatten" the joint. Some sort of light clamping is suggested but only to maintain alignment. I good trick is to press the parts into a pad of soft clay. When you have an impression that will hold the parts in alignment, glue with lacquer and set in place. Lacquer IS NOT STRONG! For tiny, single-point connections such as a Kachina head dress to a head, drill a pair of #80 holes and insert a piece of fine wire (with lacquer) to connect the parts. If the parts are too small to drill, see if you can razor cut very shallow grooves that will be out of sight (In the back?). Lay a fine piece of wire or thread into these grooves to reinforce the joint. For very fine wire, cut the insulation off of a bit of "lamp cord". Very fine stuff. If you still can't fix the Kachina, put the pieces on a piece of miniature newspaper with a bottle of miniature glue and some miniature toothpicks and set the whole display on the kitchen table.

Mel Koplin

Cigar boxes: I see a brick wall in the background with 3 little boys sitting against it passing around a cigar. . . all looking a little "green around the gills". Maybe a window with an adult face peering out. (

I also seem to recall a picture somewhere of a cigar roombox showing some tough looking youngsters "smoking in the boys room". . . . graffiti on the walls.

Jude in ND

Cigar Boxes: Well Bizet's CARMEN does work in a Cigar factory. . . hmmmm. . how about a Carmen doll or scene?

John Medeiros

Cigar Boxes: If you want windows in your scene, but don't want to cut the box, Glue a "scene" behind your window , a curtain to the top of the window and glue the window inside your box. This will give the illusion you want, when the box is open.

Stand one cigar box on one of the short sides and open the lid. It projects out from the box. If you want more "space" than the depth of the box allows, make an extra floor like they do in break-away boxes. Attach a piece of cardboard to the front of the "floor" of the cigar box. Be sure it is the same thickness of the cigar box, to avoid a bump in your floor.

Attach this cardboard with a piece of fabric as a hinge. This will let the added floor bend up & sit on the edge of the existing floor, so you can close the lid of the box to put it away. When you display your box, the added floor will lay down and the lid of the box will be a wall alongside this floor. Carpeting the floor will hide the hinge & still be flexible for bending. Extra furniture can be moved out onto the added floor area for display.

Ann in AZ

Mini Levels: Betty Dann of Designs by Dann sells a mini level that is about 1 1/2" long and about 1/2" high. Works great, especially in quarter scale. I have had one a long time and my club was wanting them, so I know Betty has them. Her email is DesignbyDan@aol.com

Betty in Ky.

Seed Beads: They make great flower centers, bottle tops, candy for jars in a pinch (I don't like the holes, but most folks don't notice them), necklaces, wheels on toy cars. Beaded curtains, eyes and noses on stuffed animals, for making in-scale Indian corn. They are great for the wood beads that use to be strung on baby cribs and playpens, and strung together for wooden bead baby toys. In 1/4 scale they are good lamp parts, tea cups (add beading wire handle), and lots of stuff.

Bev

Half scale furniture: SCALE DESIGNS http://www.scaledesigns.com has furniture and kits for your house.

Fannye

Half scale furniture: Mott's and Oakridge Hobbies have a great variety of 1/2" scale furniture, both finished and in kits. http://www.minishop.com/ MOTT'S MINIATURES & DOLLHOUSE SHOP

http://www.oakridgehobbies.com/ OAKRIDGE HOBBIES

Nertha

Quarter-scale kits. A delightful source is The Quarter Source. KBMini@aol.com They do have a mail order catalogue.

Dawn Weaver

Wicker on even number of wires: Needed a small table for half scale, wanted 4 legs, the top a 3/4 inch circle. Seems like the smaller my projects get, the more that odd number of wires shows up.

This is what I did, working on a total of 20 wires, cut a piece of cord 2 yards long, folded it in half, put the loop over one of the table legs, Starting with the looped cord end in front of the wire, wove one round back to starting leg, dropped this cord end, picked up the cord end that started behind the beginning leg, wove around, alternated the two cord ends to finish my table. Has anyone else tried this. It worked for me.

Pat

Contact Paper: I once used contact paper that looked like the old linoleum and was really happy with it. Unfortunately it was one of the things I lost in the fire and can't find the same. I don't know if the new stuff that is repostional would work, I looked at it once and didn't think it would stick. I also used paper (bought not printed from computer) in a 144 house and just covered it with nail polish because I wanted it shiny. It is still looks nice some 20 years later.

Kathleen in Colorado

MagicBrik/MagicSton: Years ago, I used MagicBrik on the outside of a smallish two story colonial. I love the way it turned out--and it's so simple. I did dip a sponge lightly in gray and black and tan paint to sponge on some "age". I was thrilled. Just recently I used MagicSlat on the floor or a potting shed room box that I've been working on. I think it turned out great too. Again I used a sponge to color some places of the slate. In both instances, I used the paint to color the texture before I peeled the stencil off. I contemplated many other bricking/slating mediums before choosing this one but it seemed to me that other ways were just too time consuming (and expensive). Keep in mind that I am one of those people much more interested in the inside of the dollhouse than the actual construction!

Magic Brik & Magic Stone, Block, Etc: I have used both the brick and stone products. The entire outside of my very large dollhouse is covered with the brick and I used the stone for the foundation and the inside of the basement walls. If you go over to my site http://fayzerplace.homestead.com/ and follow the link to "My Minis" and 'Dollhouse' -- for a good close-up of the brick, look at the "yards" pictures and you can see clearly what it looks like. For the stone, go to the "basement" pictures. I recommend it. We have used it for smaller projects also for chimneys, etc-- it comes in 1" and 1/2" scale.

Fay in St. Louis

1/4" scale animals: If you are interested in 1/4" scale animals try my friend Bill Roy at timberbeast@softhome.net

He is starting a series of animals in O gauge for RR. he also now has my oxen and horses to sell. He has birds, a dog, i think and several others. He probably would be interested in knowing what other types needed.

Bill Hudson

1/4 scale houses: I am new to the scale and loving it.  Sue Herber makes wonderful 1/4 scale  house kits, but I am having trouble locating her mailing address.

Other sites include:

http://members.tripod.com/SallysPage/    (Sally's Originals)

http://www.andrewsmini.com/     (Suzanne Andrew's)

      Debbie Young has been doing a series of articles on ¼ scale shops in Dollhouse Miniatures.  Her address is listed in the articles ("Young at Heart").  The Quarter Source also carries her shops (6290 Longleaf Pine Drive, Jupiter, FL  33458 –(888) 232-1890).

      For ready built cabins, I have one from Dollhouse and Such (Scarlett and  Gary Frayser) at: http://hometown.aol.com/gfrays/index.html/log_cabins.htm

Annie W

1/2" or 1:24 scale people: Don't forget to check out the plastic car/model railway sources. Preiser is a German company that do a lot of railway accessories, they have two kits 58000 "Adam" and 58001 "Eve" that I like. They are kitset people, anatomically correct, nude. Each kit is made up of heads, arms, torsos, legs - lots of them, enough to make about 7 people and have a few left over bits.

They also do fully assembled and dressed figures, there are also some accessory "people" for car kits available ("Campus friends" is one, I can't remember who makes it) - but they tend to be modern. The joy of the Preiser kit is being nude you can dress them for any era you want.

Sandra in New Zealand