I played around some more and I'm liking the results much better than my first attempt at creating lavender. I can see that flower soft has potential to make some pretty little flowers, but its not very good for making 1:12th scale lavender, at least not the way I'd done it.
I'd seen a tutorial online and the lady had used craft sand in the tutorial, she had bought it pre-coloured but I couldn't find any that was 'chunky' enough. I stumbled across a bottle of decorative sand in The Range for about £1.30, it looked like a milk bottle, but its full of sand and the grains looked perfect. So I brought it home and using alcohol inks: - Amethyst, Purple Twilight, Eggplant and a touch of Indigo I dyed it to a shade of lavender that I was happy with, then I made a small batch a little darker and mixed the two together to give some variation.
I created two kinds of lavender 'English Lavender' and 'French Lavender' aka Butterfly Lavender, the process for the French Lavender is simple, I die cut some small petals in lilac tissue paper and glued them to the end of some of my florist wire, then added glue to the top of the wire stem and sprinkled the purple craft sand on it, shook off the excess and left it to dry. The process for English Lavender was the same, without the 'butterfly' top part and I add some random blobs of glue on the stems to simulate smaller flower buds.
I left both lots of the flowers to dry overnight and this evening I put some air drying clay into the base of my pots. Having earlier painted the 3D printed pot that Si made for me with some Tonic Nuvo Acrylic Paint that's been in my paint box for a while, I love how it looks, although I seem to have got some finger marks on from either the clay or the 'soil' I made, but that can be covered up.
I mixed some Olive Green Nuvo paint and some White and dry brushed the leaves on the butterfly lavender and all the stems with it and left it to dry. I had ordered some craft sand off ebay, but when it arrived this morning it was so fine, no way would it be useful for making lavender.
I didn't want to waste it so I used alcohol ink again, this time: - Rust, Mushroom, Ginger and Pitch Black, to create a sort of soil for the top of the pots. Once I'd placed all the green matter in the pots I filled the gaps with PVA and then sprinkled my sand soil on top shaking off the excess. I would have liked it to look more earthy brown but what I have will do for now and I have made absolutely loads of it, so it will last a while.
I think if I get some Ground Expresso alcohol ink or another darker brown shade I can darken the soil colour, that's the beauty of using alcohol ink, you can add more. Make sure when you're using it though to ensure your room is well ventilated and leave the coloured sand to dry after colouring, this will allow the alcohol to evaporate. I'm going to make a small black of black chunky sand as an aside, I think it would brilliant sprinkled in to the centre of die cut and stamped poppies and flowers that have black centres.
FYI the craft sand has a shimmery effect that's not full on sparkle or glitter but the grains do catch the light, I did struggle with the greenery, I didn't get it to sit right in the pots but with time it will get easier, I'm not a flower arranger lol! then next flower to attempt will be calendula, I felt that the ones made at the weekend had petals that were too chunky, so I've bought some orange tissue paper and I'm going to try and see if that makes them look more delicate, I kind of like this gardening in minature lark, of and yes I did add a couple of drops of lavender oil to the air drying clay and they little lavender plants smell like lavender lol! 😉
Hello again from planet I'm quickly becoming obsessed with 1:12 scale miniatures lol! I'm just sharing what I've made today and yes I'm feeling pleased with my little self, although my ever self critical eye can see lots of room for improvement, still I'm thrilled with what I've achieved so far this week. Just one week ago I had the idea to create a 1:12 scale Apothecary Shop and I knew I wanted to add a "Wise Woman" room complete with crystal ball, tarot cards, cauldron, herb and spell books and a vast array of bottles and jars of potions and ingredients.
When I started looking for bottles and jars of ingredients I found them but the majority of them would make stocking the room cost much more than I could afford, the jars are impressive but at £13.50 for 6 made up bottles or almost £40 for 20 it could get very silly. I started to think maybe I should abandon the idea due to the cost, but then I started to think of ways I could make my own, initially I doubted my abilities, but then thought better of it and decided to just go for it.
So here are the first batch of 'ingredients' for the wise woman's room that will form part of the apothecary shop & garden. I've had so much fun concocting this little lot tonight and I used just what I found in my room. Some of the jars will change colour as the resin stuff dries out, so I'll take another photo when they change to their true colour and add the photo here. I already had a pack of mini bottles of varying sizes I bought from the works a few years ago and they've been sat in my stash doing nothing.
Then when I went out to The Range today to pick up some tissue paper and craft sand, I found some miniature gems both figuratively and literally. These jars of mini gems cost £1.99 for 8, which is brilliant value when you think that 4 empty jars will set you back £3.19 at the Dolls House Emporium. I wasn't sure what I was going to fill them with this afternoon, but I bought them anyway. Picked up a table and some picture frames as well for £1 each, both of which can be experimented with.
I've seen a Pharmacist Table by Reutters on the DHE website, its lovely but at £71.99 for a table not much different to the one in my photo above and some accessories it seems rather excessive and I'm pretty sure I could make one myself for a lot less. I've seen the same table for sale at another online dolls house place for £99.99 which considering what is in and on it unbelieveable. It can be a rather costly business like anything I suppose, which is why I'm going to try and make as much of the contents for my dolls house myself.
To fill my little jars I let my imagination run riot, pieces of lavender leaves became 'Rats Tails', left over Lycopodium was chopped in to another jar and became 'Centipede Legs', red alcohol ink became 'Dragons Blood', lavender buds became 'Cockroach Parts', and a little white craft sand became 'Powdered Unicorn Horn'. I've created 'Fish Scales', 'Eye of Newt', 'Toe of Frog', 'Slug Slime' and a few other gruesome sounding ingredients, 11 jars of joy. I didn't have any resin for the jars so I've improvised and used Tonic Nuvo Drops, time will tell if it dries out and becomes clear, for future ingredient bottles I may invest in some resin, but I just wanted to play today.
My head is full of ideas for other ingredient jars to make and I've got a couple of mini bell jars, moss, tiny toadstools and skulls winging their way to me, as well as about 60 mini bottles to play with. So by the time I've finished the apothecary shop will be well stocked as will the wise woman's room, that realisation makes me incredibly happy, this time last week I was about to throw the towel in thinking my idea wouldn't get off the ground because it would be too expensive. It makes me wonder just what else I can create, years ago I made a 1:12th scale wingback chair, a sofa and I even made a padded quilt and pillow, they weren't prefect but I'm certain I could make the same kind of things, only better because this time round I have more skills, tools and supplies. Here's to the next miniature adventure :)
Hello fellow bloggers and blog visitors, tonight I'm sharing my very first attempts at making 1:12 scale herbs ready for the herb garden that will eventually be part of the Dolls House Apothecary Shop that I've begun making.
So far I've dabbled with lavender, calendula and thyme, I'm not 100% happy with any of them, the thyme is so naff that I'm not even going to share a photo of it on my blog. It was a last minute effort with some bits of Lycopodium left on the desk after the lavender making ended for the day all I did was dab on some glue to the trimmed greenery and then added a shake of flower soft and the results are rather lame.
The lavender flowers are too "fluffy" I used flower soft and its not the right colour, but I couldn't find a darker purple, I'm also not sure that the texture is right. Lavender isn't as fully, you get occasional bits when the buds open out towards the end of the flowering cycle, but the buds are more closed and more solid in texture and form than fluffy.
So I'm going to try craft sand dyed with alcohol ink next, that way I can get the colour that I'm happy with because I can create it myself.
I do like the little butterfly twists I added to the lavender, those will stay for the next attempt because I can then make French or Butterfly Lavender and some English Lavender minus the butterfly tops. The tops are just some small petals cut from tissue paper and stuck to the end, but they are effective, I didn't add any shading to the stems or the 'leaves' yet, I need to play with mediums to get the effect I like the most.
Of the three herbs I made tonight I'm chuffed to pieces with the way that the calendulas have turned out, although they aren't perfect and still need some perfecting. I die cut lots of tiny petals and used a tiny embossing tool to shape each layer before layering them together with glue.
There are no leaves on them yet and I forgot to add the shading and edging with some 'Spiced Marmalade' distress ink on one, in my excitement to get a few flowers finished. You can tell the difference between the two, the one with the white edges to the petals on the left is the one I forgot to edge and I do think it looks better to add some shading and highlights.
As I said above, none of the flowers are properly fixed in to their pots yet, no point in wasting pots because I won't be using the ones I created tonight because I'm not happy with them, I also don't have any dolls house plant 'potting compost', I need to pick up something soil like to use. As soon as I am happy with the results I'll share another photo with my progress and the finished articles.
Something else to share, when you're making miniatures for your dolls house, having a hubby with a 3D printer is a real bonus and tonight I was so grateful that Si supports my hobbies like I do his. The white pot is from a set of 4 different sized pots that Si 3D printed for me tonight, and he's going to make me more and also make some different shaped pots. They need a little sanding and I'm going to paint them terracotta and try to weather them, but they are brilliant and I'll be making up displays for some room boxes I want to make.
Not all the herbs I'm making will go in to pots because I want to create a garden scene, but some things will be in pots. I have ideas for creating some Chamomile and Poppies next and maybe some Hollyhocks and before anyone says that hollyhocks don't belong in a herb garden... the flowers were used medicinally for their emollient and demulcent properties, which made them useful for treating chest complaints, they have a similar action to Marshmallow, which is another herb I could add now I think about it.
I've seen kits for making Mullein, Sweet Violets, Madonna Lily and Foxgloves some of which I'll buy, although I want to make as many of the herbs as I can myself, but more practice and a magnifying lamp is called for, but I think I that I'll be able to do it with patience and time. I also seen some wonderful pots of basil and chives that are made from fimo and something called cold porcelian, neither of which I have any experience of. I do have some fimo though so maybe I could try playing with some of that soon.
Finally for this post a quick update, I doscovered that there is a small dolls house shop not far away from me, they don't have a huge range, but I visited today and picked up 2 dorma windows for the attic rooms and some skirting boards. Still waiting for the copper tape and lights to emerge from the loft before I can make a start but progress is being made 😀
This week I've excitedly begun a new chapter in my crafting endeavours, I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but for a long time now I've wanted to own a period dolls house, not just any period though, I love the Victorian era, in that era herbs and remedies made from them - which is another of my passions - were widely available to help cure what ailed you, from either the local apothecary shop or from the local medical botanist.
Years ago Simon bought me a fully made up 1/12th Arkwright's Shop which is fashioned in the Victorian style, its a standing joke that he didn't want me to work with the dolls house because when we got it home, he promptly declared that it was put together all wrong and would have to be taken apart and put back together. That was in 2008 and until the other day, that 1/12th scale shop was still flat packed in the loft, on many occassions I've asked for it to be brought out and excuses were made, no space to house it was the usual and the shop stayed in the loft.
We visited the Museum of Childhood at Sudbury at the weekend and once again my nose was metaphorically stuck to the glass of the display case they have housing a large doll house in there. As I moved away from the display I repeated my request for my shop to be brought out of the loft, and sighed, expecting my request to once again fall on deaf ears. But when we got home, Si disappeared into the loft and he emerged a little later with the flat pack shop AND the Springwood Cottage flat pack he bought me for my 40th (I'm 54 now!!!). We have a sideboard that is perfect to display the shop on (I got that for my 50th lol) and space to create it.
To do the job properly it will take a while, first I have to install electrics then decorate the exterior and interior before I can begin furnishing the inside of the apothecary. If you followed the link to the shop details on the Dollshouse Emporium website you'll see that the shop is split into two areas on the ground floor, there are two rooms above and two in the attic.
In my head the main shop area will be the apothecary that Mr Slack, one of the Victorian medical botanists that I'm writing about who lived in Derby as an aside and he will be the minature proprietor of my little miniature apothecary shop. The side room will be a surprise that pays homage to my love of gothic mysteries, Harry Potter, witchy and wizardy and those shows that give us potions and spells to change the world and not always for the better 😉.
I want to add a herb garden to my apothecary shop, back in the Victorian era most apothecaries grew their own herbs in the gardens of their shop premises to make their remedies. Or if they lived in the inner city and their shop didn't have a garden, they went out into the local woods, meadows and hedgerows to gather herbs and plants to make remedies with locally sourced ingredients. This era of herbal medicine is very close to my heart, I'm researching and writing about two practitioners of herbal medicine from the Victorian era and have written several articles on the era with my herbal hat on. The photo below was taken when I visited the Black Country Museum a couple of years ago now.
They have a 'Chemist & Druggist' shop there that is a recreation of a 1920's chemist shop, although many of the items date back to the 19th century, as the business was a father to son affair, handed down with knowledge shared. I was amazed at how few people actually paid attention to the garden laid out at the back of the shop, I spent ages looking at the herbs and enjoying the way the beds were laid out for respiratory medicine, digestive problems etc. It would have been nice if more information was made available to the general public that connected the chemist shop to the garden and maybe a little booklet of recipes, but hey ho! Apparently the chemist whose name was Mr Doo used to make many of the remedies he sold himself, and had a considerable reputation locally for his home made medicines and pills.
I'm looking forward to making a trip to Blist Hill in the not too distant future to see the pharmacy that featured in the BBC series Victorian Pharmacy, if you haven't seen the series, below is the first of the 4 parts, you can find the rest on You Tube. I have the DVD and the book, and a few other books on Victorian herbal medicines, patented medicines of the era and strange cures based upon very scary ingredients, I may even add some articles on that subject to this blog as I share my apothecary makes and progress if people would be interested? Let me know in the comments in that sort of thing would interest you?
I've been watching Youtube tutorials on making medicine bottles and herb jars, lotions and potions too, and I've ordered a pack of 50 mini glass bottles to begin making the medicines and herbs that Mr Slack is going to stock in his shop. Although I fear that 50 will be nowhere near enough, I've ordered some different shapes of bottles and already have a few others on my radar and I've drawn up a list of items that can be used from other sources, e.g. the Tim Holtz Idea-ology domes will make perfect "specimen" jars as will the Ideo-Ology skulls.
As I delve more in to the world of miniatures, I'm seeing projects that others have made where I realise that I have tiny flower dies that I can use to help me to make 1/12th scale flowers, and small fern and leaf shape dies that can be used to make potted plants. Si has offered to 3D print some pots and things that I can decorate and I've realised that the array of paints, distress inks, alcohol markers and things like gilding wax and embossing powders that I have can all be used to make miniatures, which makes my heart sing 😍
Something else on my list of things to make are 1/12th scale books, there are a few printables out there for making herb books, but I want more, any good apothecary should have a well stocked library full of herbal information, as well as medicines, and as another of my passions in life is collecting herb books, making miniature ones for my apothecary shop is a must! I have a large collection of herb books including a 17th century copy of Culpeper's Herbal, so its only right that for my little apothecary I'm going to make some 1/12th scale herbals and receipt books for the resident medical botanist to use to treat and supply remedies to his customers and patients. Yes I could just put paper covered wood blocks in as pseudo books, but I want my books to open and be readable, its all in the details right?
I love how I'll be able to marry all my hobbies in one, I've started creating some plants for inside the living areas of the shop and I'm researching how to make miniature herbs like dandelions and lavender. I'm also working on stitching a 1/12th scale rug, although my eyes aren't what they used to be so it could take me a lot longer than I think. I'll be sharing my miniature endeavours as and when I have progress or something that I've created that I think will be of interest to others. At the moment I'm waiting for things to arrive like moss, bottles and an assortment of other tiny components to make my creative dreams a reality.
I've already got some 1/12th scale furniture from the era, it surfaced from the loft yesterday (Si is still trying to find all my accessories, wallpapers etc), sadly when I unboxed the items they hadn't been stored very well, and some of the delicate bits had been broken, as can be seen in the main photo above. So I set to with wood glue and painters tape and I've repaired the broken bed and table, cleaned up the other pieces of dust and debris and even managed to trim down some brass panel pins to make new door handles for the wardrobe, which had apparently lost the ones it originally had but I have no idea how?
All fixed now though by my own fair hand 😁, when the glue has fully cured I'll remove the painters tape and will use some wax crayons to hide a few scratches that have appeared on the surface of some of the pieces. I have to say that there was a minor set back to my repairs, I fixed the bed last night, left it to dry but couldn't resist looking at my work late last night before I went to bed. My tired clumsy fingers fumbled and I dropped the bed on the glass mat and the bottom broke off again lol! Luckily it was an easy fix and I am keeping my fingers off for a while until its dry and I'm not too tired to remove the tape, carefully lol!
In other crafty news, my Tim Holtz glass media mat has finally arrived, I pre-ordered it back in April and I've been impatiently waiting ever since lol! I've also acquired a tin to store my alcohol inks in, but I need another one because guess what? That's right I have more alcohol inks than the tin holds lol! That's all for now, I have to go and sort out a way to store the miniature stuff until I can use it and try to find the copper tape for the electric installation, I may be some time lol!
