Large scale Bespaq auctions on Ebay

I have some large scale Bespaq listed on my Ebay auctions many are good for 1:3 scales and 1:4 scales. Below are a few listed on auction as well as in the Ebay store The curios measure 19 1/2 inches high, 12 inches wide, 4 inches deep. Various prices differ on ebay auction according to how much damage they may have. As you can see, they are perfect for fashion dolls, American Girl- doesn't Felicity and Rebecca look wonderful next to them? I use mine for Felicity's tea set as well as other china items, makes a wonderful china cabinet for the large scale dolls.
The 1:4 scale armoire is 18 inches high 11 inches wide and 4 inches deep. I have shown it with Ellowyne but on a stretch it could be used with American Girl or MSD sized bjd's.
All for now, thank you for browsing my auctions !

New projects, New Directions...

I recently with the new year of 2014, looked at my to-do list, or 'goal' list of things I would like to do. I never make New Year's resolutions, but I do make a list of goals that I would like to actually accomplish. One of them, after all of my charitable organization obligations were over, was to learn to sew for not only my 1:6 scale dolls but my American Girl dolls as well. I have sewn for my Soulkid MSD bjd, Gracie, and my Sybarite, but never the American Girl dolls. Or the MY Twinn, Miss Ashton. 
This weekend I did some research in the AG Playthings Forum and especially paid attention to their Home Ec section, what patterns are easiest to learn by, etc. Everyone has raived about Liberty Jane Clothing and so I downloaded the free pattern from one of their sites called Pixiefaire. It was a cute little drawstring dress and I changed it up a bit by using ribbon instead of sewing the straps of the fabric. I have been browsing the patterns for 18 inch dolls in Hancock Fabrics and Joanns' and was a little intimated by the instructions. I have a sewing machine but have never learned to use it...I think I am backwards. I can take the doll, put her on the cloth, use a picture, take paper and 'create' a pattern from her arm, body, etc but using a regular pattern throws me, especially a commercial pattern. Sewing for the smaller dolls is easier for me than the big girls! I have downsized Gildebrief patterns from the french fashion doll size to Fashion Royalty/Barbie size but that is easy compared to sewing for the AG's...yes, I'm weird. All of my sewing is handsewn, no machine. 
But back to my project. I started downloading and getting items together and the fabric pressed, and cut out. I started it yesterday and finished this morning. It turned out better than I thought it would.

I think the dress turned out rather well. Kit looks bright and cheerful! I have missed playing with the AG's, I have three of them and they have been sadly neglected. I am hoping with more practice I can make more complicated outfits for them, as it was fun.

Spring is here!

Spring is here and after so much heavy ice, snow and rain, and freezing temperatures it is hard to believe how quickly the fields and trees can burst into bloom.

Above is view from our front yard & drive. The tree is a flowering Japanese pear tree.

The dolls are happy about it!

Here Felicity sits in the window surveying springtime blooms.

With spring has come a major project for hubby & I. The house has become so cluttered and disorganized it is difficult to get much done. Mostly due to frenetic pace I have had to keep last year with our two businesses and charity work as well as family life too. So I made a promise to myself- after all of the frenetic pace slowed down in March, we would take the house in hand. Some repairs need to be made and I have decided alot of the old furniture and carpets need to go-- so a major spring cleaning is taking place. (That's why there are no pics!) Yesterday I packed up my work space and craft supplies- put away myclay and crafting items so I could move furniture in and about. The best thing in this- out with the old, in with the new?? Bright sunlight, spacious room I didn't know we possessed, and less 'stuff'. It is by no means complete yet, we are just getting started. Hopefully, by the time it is all said and done, I will have a much larger room to have my doll room! 

So the reason for all of this is my creations in miniature food might not be forthcoming for a while. Though plenty of dolls are going to be incoming! I have been sorting my dolls and their clothing and fell prey to my old childhood collection of Liddle Kiddles, Skipper, Tutti and vintage dolls of my youth. Hence why some new vintage dolls are incoming soon! Right now I will leave with a pic of Skipper, Tutti and one of my little dolly darling klone kiddles.

I made her dress and added the silk ribbon bow in her hair. I also cleaned her up a bit and restyled her hair with slight touches of water. Isn't she adorable? This doll was originally sold as a lily ofthe valley corsage, you could wear her. She didn't have clothing on except a ruffled white hat. I think my mother bought her for me to wear one easter instead of the lily corsage I usually wore each Easter as a little girl- this way I got a dolly. Since my mother passed last year I have been more nostalgic in my doll collection and notice I am veering towards the vintage dolls I enjoyed so much as a child. 

all for now!

Fixing blog problems & new food items

Attempting to fix some problems on this blog...

I have no idea until I began looking at all three of my blogs that there were picture size problems on this blog, so am fixing that today and adding the Etsy shop to the left where some new items have been listed! First up is St. Patrick's day cake with 3 layers, shamrock cookie on top and white icing. It comes with that marvelous Celtic looking doily & free shipping. One in the Etsy shop and one on my Ebay auctions

Also just listed is my new Rainbow cakes and Rainbow individual cake slices, with a china plate. The rainbow cake and cut slice also come with a doily for display. The rainbow cakes have 6 layers of different colors of cake- red, orange, yellow, green, blue & violet.

Shamrock cookies still available in the Etsy shop!

What I have been working on....

Yikes! It seems incredible that it has been 2 months since I last posted to this blog. I have severely neglected this blog of late in the past year. 

I have put aside the Borrowers project simply because of space. I haven't left it entirely, but on a project of this magnitude, I like to have room and with the severe cold weather, snow, and Arctic winds that have plagued us all through January and now into February, many things I do on a project of this magnitude I cannot do inside, except sew their clothing and customize the dolls and sort through 'found' objects. My original plan was to use a lamp box to make it look like the borrower's home underneath the floor.I had even looked at some old plumbing fittings and figured out how to make the rickety flooring with red scrapbook paper to resemble 'blotting' paper that Homily liked. Those plans are still in place, but I will need warmer weather and a place to store this diorama that will have to be disassembled later. I also still need to acquire Homily and Pod.

What I have been working on is a French chateau diorama project. I have long been obsessed with French history, from the Sun King - Louis XlV, to his descandants Louis XV and Louis XVl as well as Marie Antoinette...up to Napoleon. I love Versailles, Petite Trianon, French decor, art, porcelaine- you name it. The history of French artistry is one that is fascinating in a study of both economics on a global level that goes back to the Sun King's genius minister- Colbert. The genius behind dominating the luxury fashion, art, decor and fabric and porcelaine industry made France the country everyone turned to for what was the latest in fashion and design. Every monarch in other countries sought to replicate their own Versailles. 
I have started a French Salon diorama first, as well as dolls that represent Marie Antoinette, Louis XVl, the Dauphin Louis Charles and their daughter, Madame Royale- Marie Therese. Though they had four children, the older Dauphin, Louis Joseph, died as did 
their infant, Sophie. I may still replicate them in the famous picture of Marie Antoinette in red beside an empty cradle after Sophie passed and the older Dauphin is pointing to it.

I have spoken of this project for a few posts on my other blog THe One Sixth Scale Dollhouse . The Chateau project right now consists of a room- which is intended to be a music salon where Marie Antoinette and her family and friends, courtiers can congregate. I am working now on her children. I chose Lilac Frost Poppy Parker to be a young Marie Antoinette and the doll who will be Louis will be ready by June as I am having him re-painted and re-rooted to look like Louis- this is an Emmett Twilight doll who has the features of the young Louis. 
I also just finished a tutorial on Foamcore French doors on my other blog, so please read it, they turned out very well for this diorama and are hinged and open and close. 
Right now here are some photos of the project-

The doors are made of regular thickness of foamcore, but the walls are 1/2 inch thick foamcore. All rough edges on the doors and walls were covered with white contact paper and the doorknobs and hinges came from my local miniature dollhouse shop. I made the lit du polannaise settee/divan myself with fabrics in my stash and odds and ends. I also made the tassels myself on this project- I may still add a few touches.

The walls will be treated with embellishments of course, when I can get my additional supplies I need. I have a fireplace, overmantel and brackets on order as well. The doors will open onto the veranda terrace , I just have not finished the items for outside as I am concentrating on the salon. I am attempting to score a Suzy Goose piano, but no such luck right now, that would so resemble the Louis style I need for a music room. I may still add a harp. 
The other characters I am attempting to replicate will be Madame Campan, Yolande (Gabrielle) de Polignac, and the Princesse de Lamballe, as well as Count Fersen. My inspiration for the characters are from history as well as the Kirsten Dunst Marie Antoinette movie. I have done alot of research on the portraits of these historical figures to get the clothing, hair, and face molds correct or as near as possible. Louis will be the ultimate in replicating him into doll form, so I hope I do this correctly. I am currently gathering fabrics for his coat, vest, shirt, and breeches. I found the most wonderful remnant at Joann's for a few bucks for the color of his breeches, wonderful material. I may use it on a gown for Gabrielle, who was the Queen's closest friend. 

Here I have shown pictures of Louis, Marie Therese and Louis Charles, the older Dauphin, Louis Joseph, Marie Antoinette herself, and Kirsten Dunst in costume, as well as Lilac Frost Poppy Parker as Marie Antoinette. Just by luck I had the bright pink and gold India fabric with the silk ribbon and miniature lace for her gown. It really laces up in the back. I washed and reset her hair- no easy task to get it tall and stay that way. I used a pattern for the gown that was originally for an MSD sized bjd in Haute Doll, but resized it and altered it to fit a 12 inch fashion doll. The bodice was the most complicated part. 
I hope you follow my other blog the One Sixth Scale dollhouse as I will be posting more on the Chateau Project. Hopefully during the summer I will be able to continue the Borrowers project, along the similar lines of when I did the Ingalls' dugout home from LIttle House on the Prairie. 

clothes for Arietty...

Ouch. It has been a while since I posted here- almost a week. I had finished a test or prototype of dress I created with fabrics and mateerials on hand from the pictures of the covers of the books. 
On research, Arietty's dress with the long torso, somewhat baggy/tucked and a short skirt and sash appeared to be from the 1880's- to the turn of the century- more around the late 1890's to the early 1900's. I have an American Girl doll, Rebecca Rubin with this type of dress and she wears the little black and white spat boots. I used a pink gingham cotton I had on hand with some ruching I had. I think for a first try this dress turned out pretty good. I used the cover pic of The Borrowers Afloat to go by, as Arietty's dress in the first book is more beruffled than the later ones. 

I used a very thin piece of silk ribbon for her hairbow and I think this turned out so very period. The dress pattern (I did this by eye, just looking at the pictures and putting the doll on the fabric and measuring what her bodice, skirt length and sleeve length should be). I used a piece of muslin for her square collar, which did not turn out exact but looks like it works in the pics. Young Sophisticate has such an innocent young teen look that she is perfect for Arietty- who was fourteen when the storyline in the books start. Many people forget that young girls did not put up their hair and skirts until 15-17 depending on what mothers decided back then. (Sort of like when I was growing up- you did not begin to wear pantyhose until you could wear heels) 
I did a test shot or two of her in front of our front door like last time, and putting a ornament on the tree. The only thing is the colors will have to be a tad darker on the fabric, light pastels will reflect/shine back on the camera and she will look like an inkblot so the fabrics will have to be a bit darker. 
Hope you enjoy my progress- Lisa

The Borrowers- new project

 The Borrowers series of children's books by Mary Norton enthralled me as a child, especially as a child with dollhouses. I loved to read the books and then 'pretend' the dolls were borrowers. I think I thought of so many scenerios that Mary Norton did not when playing. I adored Arietty...she was so fearless and fun at the same time. 
I have had it on my projects or doll dioramas 'to do' list and thought that it should come about. This project will be somewhat special to me as I have not been posting a great deal on my blogs- my mother had been very ill in the hospital with a stroke and bypass surgery for over a month in November. To my sorrow, she passed away on December 3rd. With sitting by her bedside in ICU and helping my father, dolls in my spare time consisted of taking a few 'fun' pics and I have not had the heart to do much more than create some miniature foods..which helped me to keep my sanity in the midst of this sadness. As an artist I can tell when I am affected by my emotions and the more I sculpt/sew/design/ build or work, the more able I am to deal with my emotions. During this time I decided to focus on this project for the upcoming year as it would be a tribute to my mother - who was the original 'miniaturist' and loved little things. She herself was a creative person- always creating sewing- yo-yos for miniature yo yo quilts, and collecting her dolls- she loved child and bride dolls. Scale did not really matter to her, and in going thru some of her dolls and items I realized she was a true collector- she paid absolutely no attention to scale, just if the whimsy hit her and she liked the items together. Thus, the Borrowers is a perfect diorama project for me to work on, in tribute to my mother's sense of fun and whimsy. 
I decided the best way to start was to acquire the dolls for the main characters in the 1st book- Arietty, Homily and Pod Clock. Here are some illustrations of them from the first book, which is set in the late Victorian era- my favorite!

I have thought that Young Sophisticate Poppy Parker has a wonderful innocence about her especially her hair. Arietty's young girl Victorian era style dress with the little Victorian boots would be adorable on her. 
For Homily, I thought Grandma Barbie with a wig would be a good choice. I have a friend on Flicker whose work I greatly admire, whose doll Euro Auntie inspired me. Euro Auntie is a caucasian Grandma Barbie who she altered with a Felted wig that has fascinated me. Click HERE to see the photo in OddMod's photostream that makes/creates the look for Homily I am going to attempt. I have located a synthetic Monique wig that will work for Homily on OddMod's advice. I am looking forward to this alot as I am hoping this will help me work thru my grief and sadness. 
Pod will be an action figure that I am hoping to acquire soon, funds are low right now. 
As to scale to photograph the dioramas, I will be working in 1:6 scale. I have many reasons for this. Though in the books the Borrowers are about 6 inches high, dollhouse scale 1:12 scale, that size will be too incredibly small to do visible and artistic shots of a diorama. 
I decided to use Young Sophisticcate Poppy, aka Arietty, to do some test shots of her with a 'borrowing bag' to see if it would be believeable in real, full size surroundings. Here are some of my test photos which pleased me.

I did these test photos since many large scale 'found' items will have to be full size or doll size since the Borrowers have to invent and create their home and furniture from found items. 
I thought Arietty looked cute with the spools of cotton, a silver fork, and clothespins, paperclips, safety pins and a doll size teacup and saucer like Pod had to get for Homily. I recreated their drawing room wallpaper from the descriptions of how Homily papered their parlor with letters and the writing going in vertical lines up and down by using scrapbook paper that looked like someone had written a letter. 
My first task will be to get and acquire the dolls and replicate their clothing as well. I have looked at some movie images but did not like the  most recent images of the Borrowers movie, it did not keep to the books' Victorian era look. I thinki the actual building of the dioramas I will need will take place in the spring/summer when it will be convenient to work outdoors on this large project. 
Enjoy the photos-
Lisa