A little bit of this and that. and a mini castle.

Hello my friends,

Last sunday I went to the dollshouse fair in Rijswijk. I bought some tools and craft materials, and some miniatures. 

The first is this rug. You may recognise it. It is a machine made piece and much too shiny. But it was so cheap that I still wanted to buy it. An ideal candidate for practicing distressing and/or ageing on. What method would you use? Soaking it in tea or diluted paint, or something else entirely?  Please let me know what you would use. Thank you!

If it does not work. I will have spoiled a cheap 13 in a dozen rug. If it works I end up with a rug for which I undoubtedly can find a room to lay it on the floor.

One of the last items I bought was this second hand desk with a leather inlay. The wood is stripped from its original finish which is a plus for me. Unfortunately one of the drawerpulls is torn off and another is out of shape. I have enough furniture hardware to replace them. That should be easy to remedy. It was however reason to barter about the price. We agreed on a lower price than was on the pricetag. I was pleased with the outcome.

This time I will not paint it and/or add painted decorations onto it. I want to stain this desk and wax it to look like mahogany. 

Together with some double weave embroidery.... I bought a piece of printed cotton. It has a dark blue (it almost looks like b) flowery print on a beige background. I want to use both for miniature upholstery. The evenweave can be used to simulate caning. Perhaps even combined in a single piece. For instance a chair with a caned back but with an upholstered seat. What do you think, dear friends?

And books. You may know that I love books and like to collect them (new or old) on the subject of Miniatures and dollshouses.

The two volumes of 'Collectively Speaking' by Kaye Savage Browning cost new (in the Netherlands) around 24 Euro's each. To my surprise and delight the seller wanted only 2 Euro per book. They may be second hand but the first owner seems to have never or hardly looked into them. Both books look totaly unused as if they are practically brand new. I am very happy to add these two to my small collection. 

And I can assure you that I have started reading the first book already. No book in this house will stay unread! At least not for long. 😄

And, as the title already mentions, there is also a castle... WM Houtkunst has a lot of items in smaller scales like toys, dollshouse furniture, (black forest) christmas decorations and more. Their designs are lasered into veneer. This castle set is a toy set. 

Now In Huis ter Swinnendael there is no nursery planned. Because in my story for the Zonneschuts, all the children of Carel Polyander and Belle are grown up and live on their own. Their eldest son lives in Paris on the fringes of the entourage around Louis Napoleon and is not yet maried. Their daughter lives in Rijswijk with her husband and their younger son is a protestant minister living in their smaller second estate near Delft.

But there still can be a few toys and childrens furniture scattered around the house and attics. Waiting for future grand children...

Because it is so small (1:450) I did not use paint but felt tip pens to colour the pieces. The walls have small indented stripes that give them a bit of relief. With using only very little pressure on the red felt tip pen the ink did not stain those horizontal indentations, leaving them bare. I like the effect it creates.

The castle walls are red and not gray because it is a Dutch castle. And most of my country has no bedrock where stone can be quaried. So, like almost every buildings around here it is made out of red brick. Sourced from the iron rich clay one can find en se eral places. 

Then it was time to assemble the pieces. They can be pressed out very easily and hardly need any sanding to remove visible joints. Because the fold lines are perforated bending them is quite easy. Although you have to act careful. The veneer is very thin after all. Because the floors and roofs all have a type of mortise and tenon (?) construction, every tower and wall section slots together easily has only one glued joint. 

More fiddly is getting the string through the holes in the wall and the drawbridge. I should have done the end that goes into the castle wall before glueing it shut. But for now it will be a fixed bridge instead of a drawbridge.

To customise it a little bit I plan on making a few roofs and spires out of printing paper for two of the towers. Topped with little flags. To finish it off I will varnish each piece with varnish coloured with a bit of raw umber to make the colours look less vibrant and new.

There it is an old brick castle with three valliant knights on horseback! Waiting patiently for the day that the sound of little feet can be heard running around the house again...

Huibrecht