Felt tip pens

As I have been boning on about the gold leaf pen I thought I might share the sum total of my 'painting' pens with you - this is all I have - no colours or anything fancy.

seven in total

As you can see I did a sample of each of the Min-wax wood finish pens on coffee stirrers.  I need to get a few more for the other pens: meanwhile they are on a piece of scrap wood.  These are just a quick reference when deciding what to use for what.  Their colours will change from material to material but this is a rough reminder of how they look.  In addition I satin varnished half of each of the wood ones so I could see the difference that would make.

new gold v. old gold

Sorry this is so out of focus but it will do well enough to show you the difference between the gold leaf pen (left edge) and the gold pen I was using before.  Incidentally there is a down side to the gold leaf pen it has a rather chunky nib for our purposes;  don't despair, if you pump it a few times to get it wet you can pick up the gold from it with a fine paintbrush and go from there if you want to do any detailing.  Your brush will need to be cleaned with spirits though as I discovered too late to save my sweet little brush.  

You will now get a week's respite from me as I am off to the (four day!) Philadelphia show tomorrow and then a bit of a road trip down the coast to end up flying back out of Richmond, Virginia.  What japes, Pip!

Ott light

I told you about buying the Ott light and said I would get back to you; well here I am.

This photograph is taken around mid-afternoon in my dining area of the condo.  As you can see it does look pretty dark in the room around the lamp.  Our apartment is long and thin and so it is well lit at each end; anything in the middle is always a bit 'shady'.  That said working with good daylight in my room in the UK is still less than great on a dull day or past the peak hours.  This Ott lamp fills those spots.

To explain why it is better than an ordinary lamp takes more little grey cells than I possess.  I am told it is a full spectrum light which acts as daylight and that will do for me.  Does it work any better than any other table lamp - certainly does!

It gives a very clear crisp light without 'hurting' your eyes and the colours and the definition of a piece show up really well and accurately.  I am very, very impressed.

For anyone who wants to consider it and has a Jo-Ann's near them, when I bought this they had a ton of different sorts.  This was midprice at $50 but had 50% off!  I considered a lovely (less expensive) little one which folded neatly and even had a carrying strap so you could take it to clubs and workshops (?).  As I don't really do that it made more sense to get one more suited for lighting a larger area.

When I get back to the UK I am going to take a look for full spectrum light bulbs for the main centre light in my room - seems the easiest solution if they exist - with fittings for a normal ceiling rose.

Trip to Jo-Ann's

Just had a jaunt to Jo-Ann's - yes, I know they managed to be the only vendor who has ever broken my don't moan about a vendor rule recently......  but, this is why...

Half price offer - $25

I have wanted an Ott Light since forever but I am too cheap to break down and buy myself one.  I certainly don't want one here in Naples because it will be of no conceivable use in the UK.  There is a fair chance we are giving up our peripatetic life at the end of next March and I am already shedding stuff left right and centre in both homes because I know I will have to get two homes squeezed into one. A further reason for not buying one here and now (should a further reason be needed) is that I won't have much mini making time over here.  We are on our own until the beginning of December with a week taken out of that for the Philly trip - so in effect I have less than four weeks playtime here before going home for Christmas.  When we return we have back to back visitors almost up until we leave for the summer in the UK. All solid reasons not to buy an Ott Light at this late stage.

So I bought an Ott light.  I won't take you through the perverse logic that allows me to do stuff like this, but I will report back on whether it is worth getting one.

two free samples

This is a much smaller weave than you see here and is in perfect scale for making baskets - it will need various stains or paints of course but I am so pleased to have found it.

free samples again

The other pair of samples is of a lovely fine and thin mock suede.  In fact I had to check and check that it wasn't suede as the other side is equally convincing.  Not sure how you will perceive the colour here; it is a soft, greyish, olive green.  Not sure what to use it for yet (?)

Suggestions welcome.

children's section $1.79

I need something like air clay to go in plant pots to put my plants in but don't want to pay the $9 I am seeing for it.  I know this stuff doesn't go hard but that's OK I think - we'll see(?)

My six foot companion

This is my - don't do as I do, do as I say - for today.

Always, always have something in your handbag (or whatever you always carry round with you) to check scale, even if you aren't going mini shopping.  I saw several things today I could re-use in various ways but wasn't sure enough to buy them because of scale.

You don't have to carry a 'person' around with you - though that is the very best because it is three dimensional and has hands and feet to give lots more clues - "Would this bit of plastic look like a beer glass in his hand?'' for example.

The next alternative is a photograph of self-same man (or Brad Pitt if you like) printed to scale and stuck on card or glued into your shopping notebook or whatever suits.

Thirdly just a piece of card or lines drawn on paper measuring 1.5 inches for your six foot person does nicely.

Last of all, how long is your thumb?  You always have that with you.

My man is lying on the corrugated card I bought ($1.39) because I thought it might make a pantile roof if ever I wanted one....  not so sure now Jim is there..... looks a bit big. (?) 

Sorry James, you are now about to spend the rest of your days stuffed in a handbag.  Every man's worst nightmare.

Goodies from Micro-Mark

If you detect a distinct lack of whoopee-do about today's purchases that is entirely of my making not Micro-Mark's.  They turned up trumps as always - fast delivery and items at a good price.  Basically, because I have mini money right now, I have gone bonkers and not really given things my usual days and days of consideration before parting with a cent.

Here's what arrived followed by what I think...

click to enlarge photo

At the top are some clip-on lenses for magnification.  At the bottom left: a handle for the surgical blades which are lying next to it in the photo.  Finally, bottom right a spiral hand drill (or Archimedean drill).

The drill should be perfect for drilling holes for lighting.  When I did my first quarter scale lighting here in the Gate House, I hadn't thought about how thin the wires were and what small holes I would need.  I had the perfect drill bit but had no means of holding it as the swivel pin vise I used (and others) didn't have a collet small enough for the bit.  I ended up drilling slightly bigger holes than I would have liked and even that was a struggle with a pin vise.  

This one claims to range from zero upwards - perfect.  I won't know for sure until I get home - the drill is here and the bits are in the UK!!!  Peripatetic lifestyle strikes again.

I owned the scalpel blades and handle about two minutes before I was wearing a band-aide.  I find the blades a pig to put on and take off.  You might notice I bought a slightly upgraded handle to the usual one as it was described as more comfortable....  mmmmm.... don't think so.  The plain old every day one would have been fine.  After eventually fitting it with a blade it is now standing in an empty plastic container away from everything else.  These knives are lovely at the moment when only they will do BUT the rest of the time I am terrorised by them.

click to enlarge

Now to the clip on lenses.  They are just as described and do clip on my specs and lift up and down and do magnify a picked up object about half way between table and my face.  So they are exactly what I ordered.  Now I think I don't want them.  Right now I use my reading glasses and occasionally a magnifier on a stand.  I am not sure I gain a lot using the clip-ons.  I get slightly more magnification and the ability to move me and the object around where I like, unconstrained by something stationary on my desk so I can see some advantage.  If I had another pair of readers I might just keep them and these lenses together in my mini kit stuff and wear them when needed.  As it is, I am incredibly lazy and I don't think I will bother to put them on my specs when fiddling around with minis and then take them off again.  I do use my only pair of readers for other stuff.  Yes, I know I can just flip up the lenses but I doubt I will want to read a book in the park with glasses perched on my nose and lenses flipped up!

So out of sheer laziness I think I will have to sell them on.  They cost $9, I can send them back probably costing $4 or $5 or so in postage and packing so I can sell them on to someone for $5 and come out no worse off and do someone else a favour.  If they wanted them from Micro-Mark they would be paying $8.95 on top in postage.  If you want them let me know or I will EBay them eventually.

Apologies for boring

You may have gathered by now that since decamping to this side of the pond not much is actually going to happen.  Both my builds and all my kit and clobber are on the other side of the pond so I am left with shopping and the very occasional make to share with you.

Please do not to give up on me, I will try and do some building when we go home in December to pep this up a little but that's about all I can do until Spring.  So, in case anyone else is scouting basic stuff, here are today's goodies:

click to enlarge

The two Krylon pens on the left are what I ordered and didn't get from Jo-Ann's: here they are in a couple of days from Amazon.  They are new to me but, I have heard such good things about them, I am really looking forward to using them.  The Gold is supposed to look like gold leaf (as is the silver) - we'll soon see.

My other treasures became 'must-haves' from good old Wal-Mart.  I wanted to try Aleene's fast grab tacky glue - again, having heard good things about it.  For pretty much the price of one pot of glue ($2.97) I got five little bottles to try out.  As always, working in this scale I should get quite a bit of use out of them even at this size.

The all-purpose white paint on the right was just 50 cents (Plaid/Apple Barrel).  The other Plaid paint, this time their Folk-Art range, is a satin acrylic in a colour called parchment which looks promising for French painted/gilded furniture.  This was $1.37.  Having not spent very much, I broke down and bought the most expensive item of the day - a knife.  I cannot manage without it ($3.97).  This is one I have in the UK and like a lot as it has a great safety cap.  I keep my knives just handy, dropped among other stuff, it is good to know I can just rummage around in the tray on my desk without finger slicing.

This was my thrill of the day.  Aren't we easy to please in this game!  Last year I bought these boxes and they have proved to be just brilliant for storing made up furniture and accessories.  They have fixed sections - not like the boxes that have those slide things that let little things escape underneath all the time.  They are also great value at $2.97.  I was especially pleased as we had already looked in one Wal-Mart store for them, without success.  We weren't surprised as we remembered they were on sale ($2.50) last year because they were 'finishing'.  I was so tempted to buy up this branch's stock but stopped myself at four.  I think I have six already in the UK, so a total of ten seems to be a nice number.  There again I am collecting for two projects???????  Ten times 18 sections only equals 180 objects - that's not a lot when you think I had a stash of over 600 items when I quit on 1/12ths.  I feel a shopping trip coming on.

If you want to see them in use: 

Some of you will have seen this photo already in a post I did on 15th September.  This makes for a neat finish; I can end as I began with an apology for being boring.

Wal-Mart finds

Here are things I bought at Walmart which I thought were a good price and might be useful for someone else besides me.

$3.27

This is about the same price as from other places - maybe a bit cheaper.  Two ounces at this scale should last me forever.

$2.97

All my paints are in the UK as I wasn't going to be doing any mini stuff over here.....  but..... here I am ready to start on all sorts.  So, to save me buying a ton more acrylics, I am hoping this kid's set might allow me to mix the occasional needed colours.  They all look a bit 'sharp' I can see the brown coming into play a lot.

$8.97

Pleased with this - although I was very nearly too skinny 'treat' myself.  I was wondering how to store all those little petals and leaves once I opened them and here is the perfect answer.  Twenty-four little pots with screw-tops, all in one box with a lid.  Made in clear plastic so you can select easily - what's not to like....  the price?

Tools and stonework - Micro-Mark

Here are my buys from Micro-Mark.

The first is a much heftier piece of kit than I was expecting - a jeweler's saw ($10).  It is the only way I can think of to cut out extra windows or doors in quarter scale buildings, should I want to.  After the investment - here's hoping I will want to.

I also ordered two sets of blades - the fine and finest ...

I am certain the next piece of kit will get a lot of use - they are de-spruing tweezers.  I have struggled with getting the bits off the back of things like plastic cups.  Having tried scissors,knives and sandpaper I thought I should invest $10 in a tool.

I have previously bought brick sheets and roof sheets from micro-mark and was pleased with them so I thought I would take a look at a couple more in the same series.

This is the random stone.  I wanted this for inside the gate house archway where the walls hadn't been rendered and/or the tower and chimneys.  The stones do seem rather large but it is their O-scale and the others are spot on so it should be OK.  Hard to judge without my kit here.

The other is their cobblestone - for the ground inside the archway.  This looks promising.  They are nicely textured, not shiny and the colours are great - no having to paint white stuff.

I also bought some figures but you'll have to go to Les Roches to see those as I will be using them there.

It might be worth a mention - I heard from two different people that they don't know when I write in one place or the other and are forever playing catch up.  If you want to know when I do a new post for any blog you can just sign up to be notified by email (right hand column).  No-one sees your email address (including me) it is just an automatic link to the blog so that when something changes it emails you to say so.  You don't get stuck on some advertiser's list and, when you get fed up, every email has an unsubscribe click place on it so you can leave when you like. 

Tools - Painting small things

This is how I paint small objects.  Blu tack in the top of golf tees.  In this case some White tack (?) and tees both from the Dollar Shop.  I stick them in any old piece of foam packing I can lay my hands on.  The packing lasts donkey's years so it is just a case of grabbing a couple of likely pieces when the opportunity arises and stop 'someone' from throwing it away (you know who you are!).

Can use it any time you need a 'third hand' - gluing, assembling, whatever.

Tools - silicone sheet and pick-up pencil

The first useful piece of kit is the cheapest of cheap - a silicone sheet.  You can get them in places like Aldi to go in the bottom of the oven (usually black) or just as non-stick sheets for baking - like this one - cost? about a pound I think.  I use one side to paint and stain things on and the other side for gluing.  You could go mad and have two!  Why is it brilliant? - because, as they say, nothing sticks to it; so when your glue or paint is dry you can pick up your object and go.  This is made easier if you don't leave it sitting in a puddle of glue or paint - just nudge it away from that when leaving it to dry.  It would still detach perfectly easily but you'd have to trim off the nice paint or glue base your object had acquired.

Even cheaper is this 'pencil'. It came free with Dolls House & Miniature Scene magazine last year and it just the MOST useful tool ever. Google 'pick up pencil' if you want to buy one. It has a very slightly tacky centre so you can easily and instantly pick up very small things.  In this case it is picking up one no hole bead, always in one go with no fiddling about, so I can stick it in place - again, in one go.  The tack of the glue is stronger than the tack of the pencil so no competition - instant release.  Just marvellous.

Incidentally the 'spoon' is a dessert spoon size measuring spoon - love it - I use if for glue, mix paint in it, scoop paint from larger containers with it and park endless teeny stuff in that I don't want rolling around and, guess what, it has a really useful handle too.

This is what I was using the pick up pencil for - knobs on cupboards.

The right hand piece is painted much better than the left because I painted it before assembling.  I know Petite properties instructions are build it and then paint it, but this works better for me.

Tools - Deluxe glue

This is the glue I am always singing praises about.  Thought a picture would help you locate it easier than just writing down its name.

So far, after four years of using it, it has managed to stick any material I wanted to any other material.  It is strong, slightly flexy for a while but gets stronger and stronger.  It will stick painted or varnished pieces together.  Can be varnished or lacquered, is waterproof when dry and is so clear I have always used it to put in clear acetate for windows etc.

Tools - The tile

In an earlier photo there was a shot of my handiest tool - a small glass tile.  I put small amounts of glue on it to pick up with a cocktail stick or whatever, I use it in the same way for small amounts of paint.  I even mix paint colours on it.  When it doesn't have an inch to spare I put it in some warm warm in my bathroom sink and let it soak for a couple of minutes.  I then scrape it with the plastic yellow scraper - or anything similar and almost everything comes off really easily.  I think what stays behind is probably super glue, but I just attack that with my small ruler or something similar and hey presto - brand new tile ready to go again.

I know a lot of people save bottle caps and stuff for these jobs so they can just throw them away when done, but I don't want the trouble of cleaning them up to use and finding a space to store them, so this is my solution to being lazy and strapped for space.

Shows - Orlando Miniatures Festival, Orlando, Florida, USA

Apologies - trying to replace the photos in this drove me crazy - I am sure the objects will turn up as I go along with the project.






For the third year running I 'did' the Orlando show and had a great three days learning and shopping and working.  If you want to know more go and visit my Dolls House Show blog.  Meanwhile here are the things I bought for The Gate House:

These little gems came from Stewart Doll House Creations 

No idea why I wanted this but looks as though it might be useful.  Almost as thin as a CD width, gold sticky tape

Tiny bottles of no-hole beads

Sweet little freebie added to my bag

From the Quarter Source/Sally Manwell stands I gathered up the following items.  I am not sure which is Karen's and which is Sally's.  The hugely practical wood and turntable are decidedly Karen's as she very kindly brought them to the show for me to pick up.  I think that is very generous when it is all of a $7.50 order and you have to remember to do it, sort it out and pack an awkward shape in the rest of your stuff.  

Lovely realistic Christmas tree.

So sweet and one of those serendipity purchases.

Double bead trim just 3/64ths" wide.

What I hope will be my bathroom bead board. 1/32th thick.

Mmmm, thinking about this........

I also bought some lovely daffs from Clara's Cuties but they are over in my Chocolat blog.

I will share the practical stuff I bought here as I actually don't have a blog to cover that - hard to believe, I know.

These all came from Pam's Supply Source:

Wanted one of these for ages - magnetic jig.

This was recommended to me - instead of tacky wax - a re-stickable glue.

I know these will be useful for holding small stuff.

I have some in the UK but none over here.  Sanding sticks.

Not a lot of shopping by some people's standard but every one a wanted gem!