Brinca Gaga (or how it took three grown woman plus one Electrician/ Engineer far too long to build a house) Part 1

Once upon a time (well, actually, last November) in a Kingdom far far away City just up the freeway...

OK, so the fairy tale doesn't work. Which is just as well, as this story isn't a fairy tale (although it does have a happy ending)

Last November the wonderfully talented M1K1 treated herself to a Brinca Dada Emerson dolls house and matching furniture. The putting together of the house did not go well and I suggested she could drive south with the half built house, I could drive north and we could rendezvous at the also wonderfully talented Div's house for a weekend of building.

Like all good things, this took time but, finally we managed to get together this weekend just past. Saturday was filled with op shopping, dolls house shop visiting and lunching by the sea but Sunday morning we set to work to sort the house out...

(WARNING: Picture heavy posts ahead)

The half-built house as it arrived with M1K1:
After a fabulous multi-course breakfast, we started work at 10am.Our first plan of action was to dismantle what M1K1 had already done so as to be able to start from scratch.We laid all the pieces out in the order that the instructions said we would need them. The house comes in two parts so we tucked the "2" pieces aside and concentrated on the "1"s... Step One and so far, so good:Because side one of the house had already been put together we needed to work out what had been done to the electrics. The shoe lace is in case the wires slip back inside the chimney.
We add the mezzanine floor:And parts 1G and H (I think) (Yep, we're still having fun) A few more bits of perspex. And wood. And we're feeling confident.On a high, we stop for Elevenses(And check what's next) (Do you think there was too much sugar involved in Elevenses?) This is about when things start to go a little screwy. A millimetre out here, a millimetre out there adds up to a bit of an issue right about now. It's OK: we were expecting this as this is about the point that M1K1 (building on her own, mind) became derailed. We push on through (literally, on some steps), feeling lucky that there are three of us and a table which means we can turn the house this way and that...
OK, the frustration is starting to show, but we did just manage to put Part One together. Wee hee!

We lay out the parts needed for the second half of the house:The instructions warn us that this is the harder part of the structure. We think we're prepared. But it would seem that the notches for the chimney have been cut in the wrong place. And we finally admit defeat and bring in Mr Div (Engineer and Electrician) Show him what the problem is, and, after we practice looking suitably pathetic, he decides to head down to his shed and sort our chimney problem out for us.While he's gone we take the opportunity to try out some of the furniture in the half-house we've put together:and then decide the only thing to do is have lunch while we wait his return...(to be continued...)

How very odd

I'm 45.

Last week I was having a moan to myself about what a crap year I've had. Then the sensible part of me demanded I prove it by writing down what I've achieved since my last birthday:

Finished my What I wore today challenge
Started Tea towel Tuesday
Curated Call of the Small at Craft ACT
Interviewed on ABC Central West radio
Featured in the September issue of Collectors magazine
Completed an internship at Te Papa
Where I attended National Digital Forum
Featured on the Frankie magazine blog
Credited on Greg Johnson's latest CD
Changed my blog subtitle and started a) working in 1/12th scale again b) making miniatures again
Started 2011 Inch by Inch (which only lasted three months as life got crazy)
Started a new contract which gives me full time hours (and money to pay the rent)
Invited to be part of the ANCA twentieth anniversary celebrations
Wrote an article for Uppercase magazine
Reached the final audition stage for Top Design
Interviewed for a job with Weta
Made a book
Created a window display at Little Sprout

Hmm... Maybe it wasn't a crap year after all. Maybe I'm just exhausted.

(Credits: Flooring and skirting, Victorian Dollhouses. Rug, made by me. Desk, a recent experiment at the plastics place. Chair, Reac. Storage drawers, 1/24th dresser from Fairy Meadow Miniatures with legs removed (bought this weekend). Large vintage numbers, part of a bag of goodies found for 50 cents at Vinnies this weekend.)

A long weekend away: the pictorial preview

Not small at all...

(But rather fun)

While adding my latest read to Library Thing I noticed a message telling me about some new services.

One of them compares the height of the books in my library against the heights of various other things: (I feel the sudden urge to run off and find the thickest books I have waiting in my reading piles and add them to see if I can reach Cleopatra's Needle. Except I suspect that way madness lies...)

Gone to pieces, out to lunch

Google Alerts are great.

Recently they let me know that some of my photos are being used to make online jigsaw puzzles: I had no idea such a thing existed (and was a little surprised how difficult it was to put them together even though I knew the image really really well...)

Alas, not The Big Reveal I'd planned

After Thursday's teaser I'd planned to build a Eurovision themed scene* with the contents of my swap parcel from Ann. And post it here yesterday.

Except I came down with something first thing in the morning and have spent a very miserable two days either becoming reacquainted with my black and white hankie collection or asleep in bed. I did watch Eurovision. In my PJs. Wrapped in a blanket. On the sofa. Feeling very sorry for myself.

So there is no cool Eurovision themed scene. Or superlatives. Instead there are simple shots of my new treasures, taken in a race against the failing light when I woke up late this afternoon:
First up is one of Ann's new Locke series coffee tables. Custom painted for the swap, I suspect. The vase and bottle are from my collection but the teeny origami crane was part of the swap parcel:Also included were two round acrylic stools/ low tables (which also look great stacked into one higher side table):And, my favourite, a custom framed Keith Haring print. (Unlike me, Ann does her matting properly)

(*I had the red and black already as part of the swap. and just needed to round up and create some yellow touches. And find my mini disco ball)

Before and after (A Setting the scene post)

Take:Four old fashioned, rather nasty frames and a lamp with good bones but an insipid shade from a recent eBay lot.

Remove:(Pictures, lamp shade and wiring.)

Add:Candy coloured scrapbooking frames picked up from Lincraft last week (whoops: forgot to mention them) and black paint (of course)

Mix well with:Fabric from an earlier aborted scene (still banging around on the worktable), the last of the repainted cafe chairs, a little something I'll tell you a bit more about later and a previous purchase

While experimenting with:
Building the scene sideways after you get the shits with trying to attach itty bitty frames to fabric with blutack (without it showing or the frames all falling off while you turn the camera on!)

A right royal pain in the arse (Setting the scene: Part Six)

So I rebuilt the Royal wedding scene (10 minutes including bunting making and tea cup finding: you were right, Pepper). Took 26 photos (10 minutes), pulled them off the camera and sent 17 straight to the bin because of focus issues, bits overlapping other bits and things chopped off that I hadn't noticed.

I sorted through the rest, found the best photo and used Office Picture Manager to tweak the contrast and saturation on it (15 minutes for uploading sorting and 2 for tweaking).

And, just as I thought I was done I looked again and saw:a giant ball of blutack under the paper hat, holding it in place.

Argh! You weren't supposed to see that and, since I don't have Photoshop at the moment (not even Elements), it was back to the proverbial drawing board rather than off to electronically erase the blob. (9 more photos in the bin: 30 seconds)

By this stage the sight of bunting makes me want to hurl, and I'm getting more and more frustrated trying to make sure all the various bits I do (and, more importantly, don't) want included are in (or out) of frame.
I finally decide, 12 photos (and 10 minutes) later that close enough is good enough. Load them to the computer, go straight to the last one (usually the best), and tweak it (2 minutes).

Then write and edit this post (20 minutes).

Finally I'll load the chosen image to my FLICKR photostream, tag it and add it to the Modern Miniatures pool (5 minutes, but I'll probably do my weekly check and clean up in there as well: another 10 minutes) before clearing the actual scene away (several weeks*).

(*Just kidding. I think)

Scene been? (Setting the scene: Part Five)

I'd planned to return to the Royal Wedding scene this weekend, finish it off and photograph it properly.

But this is what it looks like this morning:It's very tempting to just tidy it away and play with something new. Especially as I've received some inspiring mail this week plus found my mini disco ball* last night...

(*This link might have spoilers for Australian readers: I ensured my eyes were firmly averted as I harvested it)

Small at the mall

So, finally and belatedly (thanks to Blogger's enforce blogging free zone the past 36 hours), here are photos of the real window display at Little Sprout's city store:

I arrived to help about an hour after the official window dresser started, just as she was struggling with the puzzle of what went where (I'd left large pictures and labeled boxes and all the accessories sorted in room order in egg cartons: which made sense to me but not to someone meeting my houses for the very first time, in a confined, very public, space and under time pressure)
Working on putting the 1957 Lundby house to rights:The window's almost done:How much is that dolly in the window?(Where I'm sitting should, by now, be taken up with the newest Smaland house, now stocked by Little Sprout and the reason for the whole display, which is up until the end of the month, if you happen to be in, or passing through, Canberra...)Have you seen the animation on the international Lundby homepage?

Thursday teaser

I got a lovely parcel in the post yesterday but haven't had time to do more than (slowly and maturely*) rip take the wrapping paper off the contents...

Watch this space!

(*One or two of these words might, just possibly, be a tad deluded)

How to make ugly interesting

(Without using black paint)

Tonight after work, the Manager of the local toy shop picked up the houses they're going to use in their Lundby window display. But the window dresser isn't coming until late tomorrow afternoon.

What to do? Leave a pile of ugly looking boxes and empty houses in the window or whip together a "work in progress watch this space" pop-up display?

We chose the latter, of course. It was great fun and we think it looks fabulous...
(Before you ask, the Union Jack is left over from their last display)

My red swap arrived at its destination

And Ann has displayed the contents beautifully. Pop over for a look!

Yesterday I cleaned three houses

(None of them, alas, full sized...)

Tuesday temptations...

Back in April I stumbled across this project on Kickstarter and was excited and intrigued by the offer of a mini chair for every $25 that you pledged. Hell, it doesn't matter what I though of the project, a mini designer chair for $25 is a good deal, right? So I contacted SketchChair and enquired about scale. Their reply, that they were 1/7th had me replying quick smart, saying:

"What a very odd scale to chose, and alas far too big for my needs as I work in 1/12th (and, at a push, 1/10th.)

You do know that if you make them 1/6th you’ll have a lot of interest from the Blythe and Barbie community and, at 1/12th, from the dolls house miniature community? I know you haven’t set out to be dolls house furniture manufacturers but, as a way to make money, it may well be worth exploring. At $25 a chair I know I was considering buying all three if they were the right scale!"

And I sent them a link to the New York Times article.

As I'd hoped, they took the bait, and replied early last month:

"We really appreciate you passing along your insights and links, your (sic) right dolls house scale miniatures is something we hadn't thought about but we're certainly not apposed (sic) to this at all. I love the Times article you sent and how much passion people have for design at all scales!

At the moment we're testing out chairs at a 1:12 scale to make sure that they're going to be strong enough and look right when built. But so far everything looking really good so we might be offering two scales on the minis. We'll let you know soon."

And so the wait began...

This morning this was sitting in my inbox:

"Hello again, sorry for the delay! It's taken us a long time to finalise these designs and decide on an appropriate scale. We finally updated the campaign with the final designs on Saturday: http://sketchchair.cc/minis.php

They are at 1:9 scale, as this was the most practical scale for us at this stage. However, we hope to offer some designs at 1:6 and 1:12 scale for order from SketchChair.cc sometime in the not too distant future, after the campaign has finished."

And, on their webpage, were not only the three original chairs:
(The Antler Chair)(The Edge Chair)(The Stroke Chair)

But some new arrivals:(Tiggy and Rocksteady)(The Tote Lounger)

It looks like the Kickstarter campaign finishes in three days but I'm sure if you email SketchChair direct after that I'm sure they'll be pleased to hear from you.

(As you can imagine, I've not seen the real things yet so am unable to comment on their ease of assembly or appropriateness of size within a 1/12th scale environment... Just saying)