Behind the scenes

Yesterday's christmas-themed scene started while I was editing the February issue of The tiny Times, which is themed 'For the love of miniatures'.

Although the submission deadline isn't until February 10, I know that it's always a bit of a struggle filling the February issue as people are more focused on end-of-year festivities that on writing about what their club and they have been working on recently.

So I figured it might be a good idea to have a couple of scenes ready to fill space, just in case (and besides, it's been two years since any of my miniature work has been published in the magazine!)

At this stage of the editing process I often have a temporary picture for the front cover of the issue: one that would be perfectly adequate if nothing is submitted that would work better, For this issue I decided that my Lucky Dip scene from April would do the job nicely: and if it ended up being the final cover, I could include a DIY project for making the dipped vases.

I remembered last year's never-completed lounge for Seaside Shack, with its wall of heart art, and made a note to finish it off and photograph it just in case.

But before I got to that I noticed the pile of Lundby dolls' house furniture sets I'd been given, sitting on my spare office chair waiting for me to use them. Including the Småland Red LivingRoom Set (60.2081).

And it seemed like the perfect time to finally work some of the (3/4" scale) Lundby pieces into my usual (1/12" scale) scenes.

From this set I chose the picture (of course) and the books (I always need more books). I want to try using the tables in a future scene as wall display shelves, so I put them aside. The sofa and cushion were also put aside as I'm not sure how I'll use them yet...

Also in the pile was a Småland White Bed (60.2062), given to me by a friend and set aside until I had a scene to use the heart-shaped cushions in.

I shopped the stash for other items that might work, including a christmas tree that's been loitering for ages and that I have no memory of acquiring, some scrapbooking paper given to me in a swap from my friend Sandra, and a Tiffany & Co bag from a swap with Phillip Nuveen, which picked up the teal in the love picture.

By this stage I was feeling quite uncomfortable, partly because it's been almost two months since I've made a scene and partly because the whole feel of what I'm putting together is so not my usual style...

Then, just to add the discomfort, I decided that this would be the perfect scene to finally try and make a bath sofa for. I've only been wanting to make one in miniature for 20 years, since I used to sit in one at our local after-work drinking spot in Wellington.

Luckily, I have a couple of Chrysnbon bathroom kits set aside for just such an occasion.

Initially, I was trying to work out how to cut a curved line out of the front of it, but after some googling of pictures of bath sofas, I decided that it would be easier all round if I just cut straight across the front.

So, secure in the knowledge that I had a spare if I completely wrecked my first attempt, I attached a length of masking tape where I wanted to make the cut, drew a guide line onto it, help my breath and turned on the scroll saw.

And all was well!

In the end I was a bit over the whole thing. There are a couple of things I should have tweaked, but all in all I'm happy with the results of my experiments: I discovered that Lundby works well in 1/12 scale (there are actually five Lundby items in the final scene), and I now have a miniature bath sofa, which crosses one more thing off my mini wish list!