Finding Findings - discovering miniature supplies on a High Street near you

So, 9 months have passed since my last posting and it has, literally, been a "pregnant pause"! In April Ian and I welcomed our much longed-for third child, Harry, into the world. Life as a family of five has taken some getting used to; there is, as they say, Never A Dull Moment....and life was far from dull before! Here he is, my last real-life miniature (and I mean it this time):

Now that I can get out and about again I have been trundling up and down the High Street with the pram and I have discovered that miniature supplies can be found in the most surprising of places.

Now I have never had false nails and have never felt the urge to glue fake diamonds either to them, or any other part of my anatomy (THAT is a whole subject in itself, only to be discussed late at night with close friends in the local wine bar...) but it seems that plenty of people do. Which is why recently I have discovered a whole world of things to add to my stash of Things That Might One Day Be Useful.

So we start with Primark - where for just £1.00 you can buy a nail gem wheel containing hundreds of tiny jewellery findings. Mine contained no-hole silver and gold beads in the size that can no longer be obtained at dolls house fairs, tiny metal discs, stars and hearts that are perfect for use as buttons or for trimming shoes and handbags etc, plus a variety of gems that would make wonderful jewellery.

At the moment they also stock false nails which have been ready-painted with a cute penguin design - they would make fabulous Christmas ornaments if mounted onto a bead or scrap of dowel. Again, these are just £1.00.

Next comes B&M and Poundworld, where I discovered tiny no-hole beads in a plethora of colours being sold as nail art kits for just £1.00. For an outlay of only £2.00, look at what I got:

Even better, look at the empty bead containers I was left with after decanting the contents into these beading storage trays:

These tiny glass jars will be filled with various seeds and herbs and given a gingham lid for display on the country dresser in my current Mouse House project - they would also look fabulous filled with fimo sweeties for your sweet shop or with coloured solid water in your chemist shop. A friend of mine filled some with miniature eyeballs for her witchy house. I have some strange friends.

There was no stopping me now. Onwards I marched, this time to Poundworld. Here I discovered another phenomenon that is completely new to - and lost on - me: Hair Gems. Apparently, you can bond jewels to your hair with your straighteners (like I have time to straighten my hair!!) and they - boasted the instructions proudly - will "naturally fall out over a period of 3-14 days". Not sure that that is entirely a good thing when leaning over the baby's cot or pureeing his food. Anyway. These tiny findings come in gold and silver coloured hearts, stars, hexagons, squares and circles and although presented on an adhesive sheet, they can be easily picked off for use. Having picked all mine off,  I discovered that the textured paper they were stuck onto is itself unusual and it, too, found its way into my ever-growing stash. Here is the packaging in case you are inspired to sprint to your local branch of Poundworld:

The mirror card in the picture above was part of the packaging in one of the nail art sets I bought and will also find reincarnation in some scene or other.

Across the way was Claire's, an accessories shop popular with teenagers. Here I found nail art kits containing fimo shapes - fruits, animal faces etc - that could be used to decorate miniature gingerbread houses for the Christmas scene. Amongst the earring display I found tiny silver-coloured articulated robots that would look lovely under the Christmas tree, in a toy shop or on a shelf in the Nursery. These were rather more than a pound so I didn't buy them, although I was sorely tempted. Around Halloween there are earrings with tiny skeletons attached which would look fabulous in my strange friend's witchy house. They also sell packs of no-hole beads for decorating nails, although again they can be purchased more cheaply elsewhere. 

Back to Poundland. In the children's toys section I found cheap dolls house furniture in 1/12th scale. Painted white and badly finished it is less than inspiring. But with a bit of work involving emery boards (also available in pound shops) and a couple of coats of acrylic paint (ditto) the side table/sideboard came up nicely and doesn't look any different to the more expensive whitewood furniture I bought at a dolls house fair and subjected to the same treatment.

Also worth considering in Poundland are the various decals sold for nails - they currently stock Santa faces for £1.00 which, stuck onto cheap white plates would make wonderful Christmas crockery for your festive table.

Just around the corner, in the stationery aisle, I discovered these packs of sequins:

Each weighing 84g- that is a LOT of sequins - the packs come in gold, silver, white and multi-coloured. I bought 3 of them for £1.00 each and am thrilled with the variety of shapes, sizes, textures and colours they contain. The photo doesn't do them justice. Mostly really tiny, there are sequins shaped like cogwheels (I'm thinking steampunk), flowers, fans and domes and the gold and silver embossed ones look like metal findings rather than the sequins that they are. Many of the square and round ones don't have holes in so would make perfect tiny mirrors etc. I have never seen sequins like these before and my mind is awash with ideas for ways in which I could use them - particularly in my 1/48th and 1/144th scale projects. I'm so easily pleased!

All in all I spent £10 on what is pretty much a lifetime's supply of findings. I also ended up with several bottles of nail polish from the nail art kits that can be used to varnish or seal things. Given that I cannot make it to dolls house fairs for the moment, I have nevertheless managed to satisfy the miniature itch whilst at the same time walking off my baby weight. What's not to like? The only mystery is why, when you go into a pound shop, you come out having spent rather more than £1.00 on things you didn't know you needed.

Happy shopping!

Kathryn x

Happy Miniature Christmas!

So I've finally got around to writing my Christmas-themed blog in mid-January...fashionably late as always! Truth is, December was so busy that it was only afterwards that I had time to start putting together a Christmas-themed bookend that I am making for our annual competition at the Dolls House Club. At least it will be ready in good time for Christmas 2014...if only I can by then remember where I have put it! We miniaturists tend to be adept at concealment, so as to hide the true extent of our miniature collection from those we share our lives with...it's a 'need to know' thing. And they don't really need to know, do they?

This is the book-end I am making, well on its way to completion. It is supposed to be a gift-shop type scene so that anything goes...well that's my explanation for a bed being in the same room as a kitchen dresser, and I'm sticking to it! 

The only rule of the Club competition is that members should try to make as many of the contents as possible, so almost everything you can see is either entirely home-made or built from a kit. The only exception is the bear in the stocking which I couldn't resist and bought from Shoebutton Bears. The trunk at the end of the bed is a 1/24 scale kit by Petite Properties. The cushions you can see were all needle-pointed by me using patterns published in the various dolls house magazines over the last few years; I particularly like the Christmas Tree one (middle shelf, centre) which was designed by Shelley Hawley-Yen.Behind the cushions are Christmas plates made using commercially bought paper plates trimmed with fine braid and embellished with paper shapes such as gold stars and punched snowflakes etc. They aren't, of course, terribly realistic up close but, from a distance, and as part of a cluttered scene like this, they add to the overall effect. The little wooden Christmas trees are from the card-making department of my local haberdashers (Samuel Taylor's in Leeds) and I fitted them into little square beads sold for jewellery making. The wooden silver-painted reindeer on the bottom shelf are also sold for cardmaking at Samuel Taylors and I mounted them on plinths made from miniature wooden quoin stones. The two taller Christmas angels on the dresser are made from raffia, folded over and tied with a length of silk ribbon, with a small wooden bead for the head. The smaller Christmas angel with the gold hair next to the Christmas Tree teapot is knitted, using a few repeats of a lace pattern and a tiny wooden bead for the head. The Christmas Tree tea-cosy was knitted using a pattern designed by Jan's Minis and the Santa and Mrs Santa on the top shelf are knitted up from full size patterns designed by Alan Dart and Jean Greenhowe, two of my favourite knitting designers. Hanging from the drawer knobs on the dresser are three of the Christmas Stockings I needle-pointed using Bobbie Schoonmaker's lovely patterns. Here are all the stockings that I have stitched over the years:

The bed cover and pillow were stitched very simply using a red floral fabric - not strictly Christmas but the right colour palette - and the lace coverlet was a lucky find in a charity shop. The knitted Santa on the bed was made using a pattern designed by Anneliese de Korts. You will also see a selection of gift boxes which I made from cut-outs in magazines but the green and blue gift boxes were scratch-made by me and have a tiny Christmas motif embroidered onto 40-count silk gauze in their centre; the motifs came from a cross stitch magazine. I made the wreath by covering a white acrylic curtain ring with evergreen pipecleaners and adding narrow tartan ribbon and some gold no-hole beads.

Here is a close-up of the Santa Weebly toy; he's made based on a pattern that appeared recently in a dolls house magazine; I think it was one of Marianne Colijn's designs -  but I did adapt it quite a lot to get the look I wanted. The 'fur' and beard are simply short lengths of white chenille knitting yarn, glued on rather than stitched as it is rather difficult to work with due to its tendency to fray away to nothing. The bobble on Santa's hat is actually a tiny polystyrene ball that I appropriated from my daughter's toy vaccuum cleaner - miniatures really can be found in the most mysterious places! Although he is merely stuffed, rather than filled with a bead, he does actually 'weeble' in a very satisfactory way and I am quite pleased with him. I can see a range of weebly toys on my stall one day....watch this space!

Still to add is some miseltoe, based on a project that appeared in the AIM imag a few months ago: I made this by twisting short lengths of green florists wire together and adding punched miseltoe leaves (Pinflair do a great multi-punch tool which includes a tiny miseltoe die) and pearly seed beads for the berries. I bound the stalks together with narrow braid and made a hanging loop so that the miseltoe can be hung up to encourage those miniature kisses...

Here also are two little knitted characters made using full size patterns from Sandra Polley's 'Knitted Toys' and scaled down to a suitable size:

The reindeer in the book has wonderful antlers made from fuzzy brown chenille pipecleaners, but this just didn't translate into twelfth scale, so I used tiny brown pompoms instead. The eyes and nose are made using the tiniest little paper fasteners that I, again, found in the scrapbooking section of the haberdashers. I also used them as buttons for the weebly Santa (above). The legs are thread-jointed so Rudolph can be posed if required. I intend to knit a selection of these using the full-size pattern one day - I can see them prancing along my mantelpiece at Christmas....

So there you have it, a little scene that won't take up much room but was lots of fun and inexpensive to make. In case my husband is reading this....

Until next time...happy knitting!

Miniature Needlepoint

Despite having been a miniaturist for more than 15 years, it is rare to meet a fellow enthusiast in the course of everyday life. Mostly, when I describe how I spend my spare time I am met with That Look. You know; the one which tells you that, despite your explanation, the recipient just Doesn't Get It and thinks you Might Be Slightly Mad. Meeting a fellow miniature stitcher is more rare still. Today, however, I was thrilled to meet a such a person and it inspired me to post a few pictures of the pieces I have stitched over the years.

This pattern was in Venus Dodge's Dollshouse Needlecrafts book which I discovered by chance when I was fresh out of University and which launched me on my miniature needlework journey. That sounds like I know where I'm going but couldn't be further from the truth! Until then I had never done any needlepoint in any scale, unless you count the tapestry kits which I did as a child and which were little more than painting by numbers but using a needle and thread in place of sticky oil paints. Being a complete novice, it came out somewhat on the chunky side but then, as they say, Art does have a tendency to imitate Life. Nonetheless, I am very proud of this carpet and to date it is still the only one I have had the patience to make. Anything larger than one square inch seems so daunting when you are short of time.

The two samplers below are from Janet Granger's lovely range of kits; ideal for those who are relatively new to stitching in miniature as they are inexpensive, straighforward and largely use 32-count linen which is easy on the eyes.

These were fun and simple to stitch. The kits include the frame so that you are ensured a result you can be proud of.  Inspired, I stitched some more of her kits:

Next, I discovered Nicola Mascall's wonderful needlepoint kits which introduced me to silk gauze; expensive but so much easier to stitch than I imagined. It is also wonderfully thin, so is a pleasure to make up into the finished item - as long as there are no curves involved (see below).

Having mastered 40-count silk gauze, I got smug and figured that stitching on 48-count couldn't be THAT much harder, so threw myself in at the deep-end with one of Annelle Ferguson's lovely sampler kits.

Lovely though the finished result is, this was a demon to stitch! It only got finished through sheer bloody-mindedness (the Rowlings have THAT in spades, at least) and I shall never stitch another one...not on 48-count, anyway. The fact it got done without the magnifier I now use is something that makes me think that perhaps my eyes are already on that slippery slope to middle age. Crikey, I never saw that coming. (No pun intended).

Honestly, this could have been the last thing I stitched. I shed blood, sweat and not a few tears over it. But then along came Bobbie Schoonmaker (God bless the internet, to quote a favourite film of mine) and her kits were just sufficiently different and exciting - not to mention stitched on 40-count gauze - to entice me to try again. Who says it can't be Christmas everyday?

These slippers are super-cute but very fiddly to make up. I'm not terribly good at executing curved seams, especially when you have to cut the gauze so so close to your precious stitching...but given that my feet resemble nothing so much as square trotters (saves me a fortune in a shoe habit and leaves me more to spend on handbags) the finished result is not inappropriate. Art imitating Life, once again. Bobbie also does a wonderful kit for a pair of children's slippers but they are even smaller. Maybe one day.

After that I got adventurous and started stitching cushion designs from some of the books in my collection. Whilst I was waiting for my daughter to arrive I did nothing but stitch to take my mind off what was to come, and, at one point, churned out a cushion a day - wonderful what fear can do to one's fingers!! Here are a selection of my favourites:

I discovered Blackwork through this lovely kit by Sandra Knight and can't wait to do more; it is strangely addictive and so much easier than trying to stitch a complex, coloured design. Simple, but extremely effective.

Finally, I recently found the time to stitch some little pictures and harbour ambitions to one day make a miniature Art Gallery in which all the pictures are stitched. Given that it took over a year (on and off, but mostly off) to stitch the swan design, that ambition might be some time in coming.

This is a simple picture that I designed myself. I have to say that designing needlepoint is not as easy as it might first appear. The teddies were supposed to be cute but ended up having a slightly satanic look about them. Enough to make your miniature babies cry!

This is a Nicola Mascall design which is sold as a firescreen kit, but which I chose to make into a picture. I made the frame myself, painted gold and distressed with an emery board.

This was a kit that I picked up at a dolls house fair for a mere £1. I made the frame myself..

I found this design in a cross stitch magazine; I picked up (with help) a whole pile of these magazines at a car boot sale for £3.00 and have piles of designs waiting to be stitched. One day.

Mostly I make my own frames out of scrap wood but the frame in the picture above was sold in a scrap-booking shop and was just the right size. Smaller ones are sold as ribbon charms and make lovely photograph frames.

I hope you've enjoyed seeing some of my work and hope that you might now be inspired to pick up your needle and do a little stitching of your own. We're a small bunch. But we are miniaturists, after all.

Until next time, happy stitching!
Kathryn x

Miniatures shouldn't take up much space. So why do they?

I make miniatures. Miniatures, by definition, are small. That is why I like them. So why, and how, have they taken over my (real-life) house? Not to mention my life. Last month, we at Huddersfield Miniatures Club staged our annual exhibition for Kirklees Council as part of its Allotment Society Show. Quite how our dolls and houses came to be linked so closely with prize-winning vegetables is lost in the annals of time, but every year our members go round their houses blowing the dust off their miniatures and hauling them over to Huddersfield for our large - and by now legendary - display.

The Dolls House Room (may you Rest In Peace)

Every year we are amazed by how much Stuff we have between us. None more so than me. Now I am a tidy, organised person who likes a place for everything and everything in its place. Doesn't always happen, but then the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Once upon a time, before children, I had such a place. One room in the house that was All Mine and where I lived, worked and dreamed miniatures whenever I got the chance. Everything miniature, and everything I needed to make them, was in that room and, when I was through, I simply shut the door. Simple.

But then I discovered I was expecting my second baby and, small though he might be (at first, anyway, despite giving me a 50 inch waist for a short while) he would need somewhere to sleep. And so, with a bump in my stomach and a lump in my throat, I set about clearing my beloved Dolls House Room.

I reduced my stash of Things That Might One Day Be Useful from five boxes to one. I gave generous gifts of wood and fimo to like-minded friends who had done things the right way round and had finished Bringing Up Baby BEFORE embarking on the whole miniature debacle. I sold things and dismantled things and packed up the entire contents of my beloved dolls house before discovering that the house itself would not fit through the loft-hatch. So in came the builder to make the opening big enough to allow safe passage of my baby. (Distressing parallels with the delivery room there, in my experience). In doing so, half the landing ceiling fell down and was not put back up before I'd decided that if That Man and I were in the same house for a moment longer then I would be giving birth shackled to a prison guard. Luckily, before he left (shutting the door rather more firmly than necessary behind him), he had boarded out the loft so that once through the hole in the ceiling the whole thing didn't end up back on the first floor via a new hole in a different ceiling. The whole exercise ended up costing rather more than the dolls house did. And not a little of my sanity.

My baby. Before I had any real ones.

But, finally, everything was packed up and stored in the loft to await the day when the child I had not yet given birth to had left home.

So why, now, only 4 years later, do I find that somehow - despite having no time, no money and even less energy to pursue this most beloved hobby - my collection has grown? And, what is more, spread into almost every room in the house? It's like the most insidious of viruses. Far from going to one small room and selecting the pieces I wished to exhibit, I found myself trawling the house to FIND where they might have been cunningly concealed. Six roomboxes in the lounge. Eight in my bedroom. Another six in the dining room. Not that I am counting...And still, two huge crates in the loft, untouched since I put them there. Not to mention my tools, my stash (back up to 5 boxes and cunningly concealed in my wardrobe; who needs clothes anyway) and the three boxes of stock with which I will one day launch Little Threads Miniatures for real. How is this possible? Am I making things without my own knowledge? Am I in denial? Am I going (or, more likely, already gone) mad?

But I am not alone! Every year, without fail, I and my mini-friends are amazed at what we have discovered in our own homes.  There shall surely come a point when our homes simply cannot hold another thing. When we've moved down the scale from 1/12th to 1\24th, to 1\48th and 1/144th (cunning foxes, we miniaturists!) in an effort to satisfy the continuing need inside us to Carry On Crafting even after we know it is madness to continue. Happily for us, our homes continue to be somehow larger than the sum of all their parts and so there will always be room for Just One More Thing. And ours is not, as they say, to reason why.

Until next time
Kathryn x

Making Peg Dolls

And now, as they say, for something completely different!

I'm a member of Huddersfield Miniatures Club and every August we exhibit at the Council-run produce and handicrafts show in the town. As a Club, we produce a new display piece every year - more on that in a later blog - but this year, as a means of encouraging more involvement by children, I was asked to prepare and teach a Peg Doll workshop to children visiting the Show.

Now it must be 30 years if it's a day since I last made a peg doll and I have to say that the patterns I found were rather less than inspiring. So I made my own and it was lots of fun! The only downside was having to limit myself to a simple design which was straightforward to make but which still gave a pleasing result.

In case any of you are in a similar position I will share my design with you. All you need is a small amount of cotton fabric (patterned fabric is a little more forgiving than plain when it comes to glueing etc), about 6" of narrow lace (1.5-2 cms wide is fine), a traditional 6" pipecleaner (not chenille), wooden dolly peg and a length of knitting yarn in a suitable hair colour. I used Tacky Glue throughout as it 'grabs' instantly and dries clear and flexible without marking your fabric.

From Peg to Peggy in 6 easy stages

1. Cut a bodice from cotton fabric measuring 2" x 1.5" and glue around the peg so that the seam is at the back (ie in line with the divide in the doll's "legs"). Concentrate on making the front neck edge as neat as you can as most of the rest will be hidden. See PICTURE 1.

PICTURE 1

2. Cut a scrap of lace measuring 1.5" and trim off the straight edge if your lace has one. Place between the doll's "legs" and glue the front and back in place. Cut a further length of lace measuring 2" and glue around the body with the seam at the back to simulate knickers. See PICTURE 2.

PICTURE 2

3. Cut a 3.25" diameter circle (I drew around a mug from my kitchen) from your fabric using pinking shears, if you have them, for a decorative edge without the bother of having to glue or stitch on a trim. If you want a really full skirt, fold the circle in half and then half again before snipping off the point to make a hole just big enough to ease onto your doll's body. I preferred a more conservative effect so, after snipping off the point as previously described, I also removed about a quarter of the circle. Fit around the waist of your doll and glue the overlap in place at the back. See PICTURE 3.

PICTURE 3

4. Cut a scrap of lace sufficient to fit around your doll and glue in place with the seam to the back, so as to hide the join between the bodice and the skirt and hold it all firmly in place.  See PICTURE 4.

PICTURE 4

5. Cut 2 sleeves from cotton fabric; they need to be a kind of cone shape: 1.75" long with one side measuring 1.75" wide (the cuff edge) and the other 0.75" wide (the shoulder edge). Again, cut the cuff edge with pinking shears, if you have them. Spread glue over the 1-1.5 cms nearest the shoulder edge and down one side (the latter only needs a thin line of glue). Take a 2" length of pipecleaner and fold over a small piece at one end to make a hand. Lay along the centre of the sleeve with the hand protruding from the cuff edge. Fold over the sleeve so that the two long edges meet neatly and press together. The other end of the pipecleaner should be held in place inside the sleeve by the glue you spread at the shoulder edge of the sleeve.  Bend the arms into a pleasing shape (with the sleeve seam facing downwards!) and then glue the shoulder edges of the sleeves to the back of the bodice, just below the head. Leave to dry for a few minutes before proceeding - I used a bulldog clip to hold them firmly. See PICTURE 5.

PICTURE 5

6. Cut about a dozen 4" lengths of yarn. Spread glue over the whole of the area you want the hair to cover. Starting at the front hairline, lay a length of yarn over the head, working from shoulder to shoulder. Continue, until you have reached the neckline. Allow to dry for a few minutes then draw the yarn gently back into a ponytail and secure with a length of matching yarn. Add a tiny silk ribbon bow and trim the ponytail to the desired length. I chose this hairstyle because the ponytail cleverly hides where you glued on the sleeves, but you could do bunches or plaits if you prefer. Add 2 tiny beads for earrings (if desired) and draw in the facial features using a fine tipped marker pen. See PICTURE 6.

PICTURE 6

I'm quite pleased with the results; not quite so pleased with the unbelievable amount of time it has taken to cut 50 of everything (or 100 in the case of arms and sleeves) and make up little packs to give to each child who takes part in the workshop. Am trying to remember exactly who thought that 50 was "a nice round number" when I agreed to do this 6 months ago.

I can think of lots of variations on the peg doll theme and particularly like the idea of making my own Christmas peg dolls to hang on my tree such as angels, elves, santa etc. Well it is only 4 and a half months until the big day, people! In fact I drove past a hotel only last week displaying a huge banner asking if I'd booked my Christmas party yet....No I haven't; and now I can add Party Pooper to the burgeoning list of my inadequacies, so thanks for that.

So until next time, when I must warn you that - despite the best efforts of my children, pets and garden hedgehog (that's a whole other story!) -  I have Finished Some More Projects. I have also started some more to take their place. But we'll gloss over that.

Bye for now
Kx

Miniature Lingerie Shop: "Knicker-Knocker Glory"

Little Threads has been a bit quiet lately...real life has been getting in the way and miniature life has been on the back-burner. However, I've had a rather productive couple of weeks and - wait for it - I have actually Finished Some Projects!! Or one, anyway....

Looking back through previous posts, I was struck by the number of references to things I had started but not yet finished; things that I Meant To Do One Day but hadn't yet got around to. I resolved that something had to be done about this, otherwise the road to Hell would remain paved only with intentions.

Some time ago now my long-suffering other half bought me a shop box for my birthday (I'm not telling you which one). The shop was painted black and gold and it screamed out to be turned into a Lingerie Shop. I'm not talking M&S utility knickers and bras here; but rather tasteless combos suitable for those "romantic" occasions that affect us all from time to time. Or, maybe not. Anyway, with the interior of the shop painted red and the floor tiled with homemade black PVC (what else?!) tiles, I set to work to fill it with peep-hole push-ups and tiny tangos.

The first thing I needed was some willing participants. Busts (pardon the pun) were obtained from the United States via eBay. Bosoms, I found, were much cheaper over there. However, my busts fell foul of the import rules of Revenue & Customs and I found myself at the local Delivery Office arguing the toss with Damon, my friendly postman. The long and short of it was that he wouldn't release my bosoms until I paid the going rate. And the going rate was anything but cheap at the price. I shall buy local bosoms next time.

The next task was to dress the busts. For this I needed lace. My local haberdasher sells lace off-cuts for mere pennies, so I spent a happy half hour rummaging for suitably nasty nylon in the most garish colours I could find. The trim needed a bit of "give" in it so that it would accommodate the contours of my mannequins.

Then, armed with tacky glue and small sharp scissors, I set to work. It took an age but was lots of fun. I'd like to say that the lingerie sets were based on my own collection...but most are in fact are based on a particular ex-work colleague who had a penchant for animal print and neon colours and had apparently been born free of any qualms about dressing suitably for the office.

Next, I needed some further accessories to fill the shop. I came across a bag of plastic Sindy shoes at the local carboot sale for 10p. Some of them, even if not completely true to scale, could, with a little paint, be turned into quite acceptable stilletoes. Two pairs of them are shown below before the addition of trimmings. Most of the shoes were vibrant colours already, but for those that weren't, I painted them with ordinary acrylic paints. This works just fine if the shoes are simply to be placed into a display - the painted finish won't stand much handling, however, before it flakes off. Perhaps adding a little PVA glue to the paint would make the finish more durable but I didn't try this myself. I did experiment with enamel paints so as to get a glossy finish, but it didn't work at all and took ages to dry. The acrylics, on the other hand, dried within minutes.

Of course, every shop needs a keeper. The lady in my shop was sitting provocatively on the edge of a shelf in The Miniature Scene of York wearing no knickers...as soon as I saw her I knew she was just perfect for my shop. She was (I think) a bargain at just £25. I don't know who made her but the shop stocks lots of unusual sculpted dolls by the same artist and would, I'm sure, be able to help with any queries.

The furniture was just cheap whitewood pieces painted in black acrylic and highlighted with painted gold accents. The display cabinet has its back wall papered in black and white patterned paper to add interest. I added some legs to the centre display unit using some old spindles, cut down as appropriate. The small display plinths are rectangular MDF quoin stones left over from my dollshouse and mounted on off-cuts of wood.

 I used a selection of beads to make the perfume/massage oil bottles in the display cabinet. I buy the Panduro catalogue from WH Smith every autumn and cut out any tiny pictures or patterns that would be useful for the projects I have in mind; this way I can get multiple identical labels for things like perfume bottles or tins of paint etc.

The wall-mounted displays on the back wall were purchased from York Dollshouse Fair; I think they came from Katty Korner. I made the one displaying the green basque myself using an old plastic picture frame painted gold. The basques themselves (and the hanging red & black negligee) came from Jan's Miniatures.

So there it is, finished at last. Now for the rest of the Unfinished Projects...

Bye for now
Kathryn x