Kemper Clay Gun: Never used one but the problem is familiar. A few things totry.
Before use spray inside of gun with Pam kitchen spray. If you run into problemswith that, after use of the clay gun
1. Dip into very hot water to loosen the residual clay or
2. Put the gun in the freezer and when clay is rock hard pick it out with a "nut' picker

Dr. Bob, Delray Beach, FL.

Glue for wigging: "How difficult is it to remove hair that doesn't work? What kind of glue should I use?"
It's not too hard. When I want to remove a wig, I usually put the doll in a 250 to 300 degree oven for a short time to soften the glue... then I yank it off. I use Aileen's tacky glue and it seems to work just fine.

Viola

Pumice powder: Pumice is a very fine rouge. Try: stores that sell gem polishing kits or an old time dentist as it was used to polish teeth which leads me to say try dental powder (the kind that is used in place of tooth paste) Some carpentry shops will use rouge sticks to polish and finish wood. (check a wood workers magazine) Silver polish and metal polish is a fine (very) rouge. Try automobile compound or even tooth paste (as a last resort)

DrBob...Delray Beach, FL.

Pumice powder: is available at any paint store which sells wood finishing supplies. Try Woodcraft, Constantine's or just a plain local hardware store which sells paint supplies.
For an even finer finish use Rottenstone. In a pinch i use rubbing compounds for polishing out auto bodies. Do not get any with a wax base in them.

Bill Hudson, Eugene, Oregon.

Pumice powder: If you can't find pumice powder, see if you can find Lava brand *dry* soap. Not sure if they make it anymore, but it's loaded with pumice. Alternately, if you can find small pieces of pumice in a rock shop or even a New Age shop, they're very easy to crush.

Molly/StormBorn

1" sponge Brushes: Not only are these great for painting and staining, once you are done with them, you can remove the foam brush part and you have a great little plastic piece that is just perfect for spackling and caulking. Once you are done with using them to apply filler, you can use the nice wooden handle for making bed posts, table legs and, in my case, railings for my log cabin loft

Reva Losiewicz

Gloop: There is a product called Gloop which is good for attaching plastic to ceilings and floors. It does not eat away or rumple plastic coated flooring. For ceilings I try to put the building upside down and put a weight on it overnight or you can clamp it. I've use Quick Grab also, but you have to watch that it is not in puddles. Otherwise it eats through the plastic.

Deanna

Mini Iron: Check out http://www.patchworks.com/notions.htm?clkd=iwm if you can't find them near you.

Beth

Pattern reduction: if you are always looking at patterns that need to be reduced or enlarged. Get a pantograph. It is a fantastic little instrument that permits one to copy at just about any percentage of reduction or enlargement. Its is a pure mechanical device. Start looking at sites that offer drafting supplies.

DrBob

TWELFTHS OF AN INCH - ARCHITECTS SCALE: A "scale" is a fancy name for specialized ruler. Calling it a "scale" rather than a ruler allows a higher price but also allows rather higher expectations for the user. An "architects scale" as sold in the United Sates and other non-metric realms is made especial for converting inch and foot measurements common scale sizes. There are several different sizes, shapes, and materials but the most common are slightly more than a foot long and has three faces (triangle shape rather than flat) with color bands on each face. Mine has a red, green, and black banded face. The red banded face is used to measure in 1/8" per foot, 1/4 inch per foot, 1/2 inch per foot and 1 inch per foot scales depending upon which edge and from which end you measure. The last number at very end of each edge indicates which scale you measure from that end and edge. Following from here, it will be easiest with such a scale in your hand. They can be purchased at art, drafting, and most office supply stores.
Be sure you get the architects variety of scale since it will have feet divided into inches and fractions of inches. An engineers scale looks very similar but everything is divided into tenths rather than twelfths - we don't want the engineers type.

Color of band and which end has the 1 inch per foot markings may vary from manufacturer to manufacturer so study your scale and find the number "one" at the very end of one face/edge There will be an inch of very fine marks right next to the "1" with 0, 3, 6, and 9 inch indicators. With the scale held so these numbers/marks right side up and along the upper edge, I would say that MY SCALE has the 1 inch scale at the left end of the red band face. Be prepared to say right where I say left and/or green or sky-blue-pink as is appropriate for your own scale as we continue.

Presuming that most of these scales are divided up pretty much the same, That first inch of the 1" scale is divided into inches (marked at 0, 3, 6, and 9 inches -12 inches is the very last mark by the "1") Mine is furthersubdivided into halves and quarters of each inch. Now you are ready for quickconversion to scale for those things smaller than a foot. Measure the full sizeitem you want to miniaturize using an ordinary ruler. Is the item 7 and 1/2 inches across? You can now switch to your scale (Top, left, red for 1") and mark your material at the scale markings at"0" and at 7 1/2. 7-1/2 would be the first long line beyond "6" and then two of the smaller marks for two quarters (or one half) I sincerely hope that this is very clear. Find 3 inches (0 and 3), Find 6-1/4 scale inches. Use your scale to measure the 1/16" divisions on an ordinary ruler.1/16 of a full sized inch should prove to be 3/4 of a scale inch. A real 1/8" will prove to be 1 ½ scale inches. Form a habit of differentiating. Real rulers and yardsticks measure inches and feet - A thing may be one foot six inches but NOT 18 inches. With your scale, you measure or indicate "SCALE" inches and feet". For measurements from a foot to 10 feet, use the numbers that increase as you move along the edge of the scale away from that sub-divided scale foot at the end. Along that edge you may see (in order) 20, 1, 18, 2, 16, 3- - -etc. Ignore the descending 20, 18, etc. as these do not apply for 1/12 size. If you will never use this scale for half scale miniaturing, paint them away with whiteout or such. Keep the 1, 2, 3 etc.

Measure the height of your chair seat with a standard yardstick. Suppose it proves to be 1 foot 6 inches high. In 1/12 scale this distance would be the space from the "1" for one foot to the subdivision "6" for 6 inches. Note that measuring a miniature with a scale there is a big difference from normal tape measures and rulers. We do not start our scale measurements from an end of the scale. Rather, we start exactly at the mark indicating how many full feet. For 5 foot 3 we start from the five mark and measure to the 3-inch mark. For 4 foot 8 we would start from the 4-foot mark and on to the 8-inch mark.

Mel K in Las Vegas

1/12th rule in UK: You can get 1/12th rulers in the UK at Squires Model and Craft Tools, 100 London Road, Bognor Regis, PO21 1DD, tel 01243 842424 fax 01243 842525. They say a web page is "coming". If you have ever seen their catalogue, you would realize why this could be slow, they supply just about everything you can think of. As well as the standard 12" long metal 1/12th ruler, cost about £3, they now also do a three sided architect type ruler with various scales on it including 1/12th. They are at some of the Dollshouse fairs and also at most toy train fairs.

Colette

Stripping Wallpaper: I have found *warm* water with vinegar, sprayed on the walls/wallpaper and allowed to soak in for about 10 minutes, then scraped off with one of those metal plaster spreaders works best for removing wallpaper and paste.

Anne Gerdes

Holding teeny things, I spread a very thin coat of Aleene's TackIt dry tack adhesive on the end of a short piece of dowel. After it dries, it stays tacky and will hold a lot of unruly bits in place while you paint, etc. The first time you use it, you might want to de-tack it slightly because the tack can be a bit intense -- I do this by just touching the adhesive a couple times with my finger. TackIt is also a good adhesive for holding things in place in your dh -- you can unstuck and re stick it 6 or 8 times, and I've never known it to leave any residue on surfaces.

Vicki Horiuchi

Babywipes: Even if you don't do fimo, one should really keep these things on the workbench anyway -- they really take the paint and glue off one's hands really nicely.:)

Kim From Canada

Glue Metal to Metal: The new Patio & Garden Outdoor Glue by Aleene's works very well.

Becky Holliday

Porcupine Quills: first you get a porcupine - more seriously I have gotten them three ways.
1) Straight from the porcupine. This one happened to be down the hole in the outhouse on a regular basis eating it so I'd kick the side of the outhouse to get him out (you have to do that anyway to use the outhouse for its intended purpose) and toss a blanket on him as he'd make his exit. Then once he escaped from the blanket and scrambled up a tree (after a while he'd only back off and glare at me) I'd pick the quills off the blanket.
2) From Native American friends - quills are used a lot in native dress with tribes just east of you and north of you - they often get them from road kill
3) Native American craft supply places also sell quills. They can be very thick to very thin, long to short so you need to have some idea of what you need. The ends are always brown and so you can get interesting patterns between the off white and brown parts.

By the way when you get them wet they get soft so you can bend them and then when they dry out they retain their shape more or less. The problem is 20 years later they tend to dry out and break at any bends.

Carolyn

Mini Vacuum: For those looking for the mini vacuum to clean dollhouses with. I came home from reading small stuff and there it was on the cover of a curios magazine. here is the information:
FAVORITES Catalogue
http://www.catalogfavorites.com toll free number 1-800 221-1133
It is called a super mini vacuum item number V60-026 It operates on 2 AA batteries and costs $9.95.

Char Lee Kibler

Understickum: One of my favorite things is a little plastic jar of Understickum. It's a soft wax so will not harm wood. Look for a small plastic, round, yellow tub. Quake Wax is similar. Recently, our club displayed at NAME and one lady had a teashop full of porcelain. She used Silicone to hold everything in place...and it stayed there. Takes some work pealing it off. It's for things you want to stay there almost forever.

Laurie Sisson

Porcupine Quills: It took a minute, but I found the resource for quills. It's Fire Mountain Gems -- 28195 Redwood Highway -- Cave Junction, OR, 97523-9304 -- USA -- phone 800-423-2319. Sorry I don't have a web address for them, my catalogue is an old one.

Vicki Horiuchi

Porcupine Quills: You can easily purchase porcupine quills from your local fly-tying materials dealer. Just check out a fly-fishing shop near you, or if you are without one go to http://www.llbean.com/customerService/aboutLLBean/index.html. They will be able to help you.

LL Bean has a large fly fishing dept and I'm 99.9% sure that they will carry porcupine quills. They are used to imitate the abdomens of large mayflies.

Brian