Hey hey hello! I hope you’re doing well.
Checking in with my 2023 Creative Challenge results for last week.
If we go back to the first week of this year, I was joining Instagram for the first time. As the algorithm went about trying to figure out what type of content I enjoyed, it served up some images of ways people were decorating miniature doll houses. I was enchanted with what I saw and hearted (yes, hearting is now a verb) the posts, so was given more. And so on. Fast forward to now and a day doesn’t go by without some sort of pondering over how tiny things are made. Since my “main” craft is crochet, fine cotton threads and a very small hook have been purchased and many teeny tiny stitches have been made.
I also binge watched all the two seasons of the reality competition series “Best in Miniatures” which I found steaming on CBCs Gem App, thanks to my friend Chris. Now, I’m working my way through all the back copies of “Dolls House & Miniature Scene” magazines found on the reading app offered by the Toronto Library.
It is safe to say that before this year, I had no appreciation for the vibrant world of miniatures that has been going on without my knowledge! It has been a lot of fun to explore, for sure.
Based on this new found interest, this week I made two pieces of furniture from scratch. The first is a chair based on the design of a couple of vintage mid-century chairs, in the teak Danish style, that we have in our lounge area. The most common miniature size is 1:12 scale, meaning 1 inch for every 12 inches in real life, so I measured our big chairs to get the dimensions for the little one. I used some vintage cotton velvet that I’ve had in my stash since I was a teenager (no kidding, I find it hard to get rid of things!). The second is a tiered table roughly based on one I saw online. I also crocheted a small cushion for the chair and a doily for the table.
↑ Pieces to make the table — wood stained with Minwax ↑
The lamp is something that came with a little set of plastic bedroom furniture I got from Amazon back when I was trying to get a hang of accurate scaling. It was plastic and cheap looking so I painted it and am now quite happy with it. I gave it a coat of Mod Podge first, so the paint would stick to the plastic and it seemed to have worked. It certainly wouldn’t hold up to being played with by a child but it’s fine for display.
↑ Some Calico Critters enter the scene – I now know these are slightly smaller than 1:12 scale but can be displayed with that size with cute effect. The cabinet in the back is the first miniature item I worked on, written about here, when I modified a premade piece I found at Dollarama. The rug was made during Week 28 of my creative challenge. ↑
Thanks very much for being here. xo loulou
