About a year ago, Kim became interested in Miniatures. Lately, (for both of us and others) it has developed into a growing hobby. Challenging and Creative.

This page is all about Kim's journey (and a little of mine) with lots of pictures to follow and explanations to accompany them.

Use the link below to comment or inquire. ENJOY!

Green House Finished

GREEN HOUSE Beginnings

Kim finally got energized to tackle this Green House. First, though, as with all her projects she determined that the instructions were not suitable and she slowly reconfigured the plans to her liking. Above you see some plants that she constructed and the planting bench for them to sit.

You can see how small things are by the Loonie in front and the tweezers that are a must where fingers can't go. Above we have some shelves made from scratch.

The back wall and front door are now positioned on a raised floor and a few from items added to the back wall (and above the door). The next posting in a few days will have a surprising amount of detail added so be sure to watch for it!

Here is a table full of the tools and some supplies used at start up. In the back right you can see a couple of walls and a stairway beginning to be worked on.

Kim figures out how to shape clay into things

Fit for the market

Everything has to be made, the little boxes and the finished products - Ready to go to market - or into the kitchen. Who knows at this point.

off to the store

Customization

As the plan became organized. (No; let's say, as the idea grew) there were features wanted not in the kits.

Up top left are 2 containers of stones and one of sand.

Popsicle sticks, coffee sticks, little square wooden cubes, stick and peel marble patterns, and stick and peel wood patterns (off to the right).

Top centre is something I thought would make great shrubbery and the roll of green felt - perhaps grass?

You'll see how each of these got used in the following images.

Putting it together

Beginning Construction

Here you can see two kits in the early stages of being put together. The windows have been painted and glued in. The top floor, (ceiling) also installed. Kim is gluing the small stones for the outside of the building. On the towel in the front is an end piece with the window covered and the stones poured on to the wall that has been heavily covered with white glue.

Adding the Floor

Not sure if the boards being laid would show cracks underneath so the it was painted brown first. If you look closely you can see the lengths of the boards are staggered and glued in place again with white glue.

The boards are made from coffee stir sticks by the way and were slightly sanded before being varnished.

Isee I saw

This little buzzer became absolutely necessary. It the beginning I was trying to cut the boards (coffee sticks) with a matt knife. BLAH!

It was used for so many things besides the flooring. Baseboards, Walls to make up the centre section joining the two halves that you have seen above. Railings and posts, a refrigerator and stove and more.

Here is the almost finished chandelier. For those of you who would like to see it actually light up, there is a small battery that powers it up by connecting wires at the inside of the gold ceiling plate. We didn't choose to connect the battery because it would hang outside the building marring the magnificence of Kim's Inspiration. (well, that's what we decided LOL)

Looking Inside

and up on the rooftop

Inside the Miniature House

Following are pics of the inside of Kim’s finished Miniature house.
It measures 28” wide, 16.5” height and 6” deep.
There is a lot of detail here from individual pieces of furniture to floor coverings to roof top items.
Working form the top down
One of the coolest features is the outdoor fire place, made from a battery powered tea light to twigs from the great outdoors.

You can see an inset in the top right corner.

Up on the Roof

Not sure exactly what to do this is the first working construction. Again the posts are made from cut down popsicle sticks and laminated together.

And the square wooden cubes were eventually glued and stained to form a support wall for the shrubbery. The green felt was discarded.

The cardboard shape is a place holder for the future elevator.

First Floor

the marble floor is installed, the stairway and pillars finalized.

Fiinished Two floors

View taken from the Left

See next and last picture for details

All about the inside

View taken from the right

First floor and Second
Here you see numerous pieces of furniture and most of these come from the kits mentioned earlier. They come in a sheet and you pop out the various pieces to assemble. Sounds easy but some are incredibly tiny. Guaranteed fumble fingers. Everything has to be painted or stained too
Some floors have marble or wooden looking sticky sheets that are cut and put into place.
The windows can become covered with threads of the clear glue and end looking like spider webs. It takes a while to master the trick of assembling.
Much of the kitchen items, the stove, fridge and cupboards, Kim made from scratch. Again they all have to be painted or stained.
On the 2nd floor the bathroom has half walls because we didn’t want to hide the stair bannister and the elevator.
From not having tried anything like this before. The completed miniature was satisfying, fun and gave both of us some experience.
Rumours are hinting of landscaping grounds outside and a guest house too.