General Course Nov2011

10/11/11 13:07

Sally is a regular at Tickhill usually bring a house she had made herself but this time was a great change for her.

She had bought some little shop kits - a Coffee Shop - Newsagent’s - and a Gallery and she set about doing these. Sally’s brother is building her a shelf to put them on so they will be lit by battery to sit on the shelf. The kits had everything needed to complete the shops but true to form, Sally set about decorating them but put in her own furniture which she had made previously. A great improvement. Starting with the Coffee Shop, she decorated it and set the furniture out making it look so inviting - you would really love to go in for a coffee and some of the lovely cakes on the shelves. The Newsagent’s and Gallery were decorated but Sally ran out of time to do the interiors - No doubt she will .furnish them with some of the furniture she makes so beautifully.

Pat S came with another ‘Petite Properties’ 1/48th kit - it was Toadstool Cottage.

The kit is very time consuming to do as it involves cutting out beams in card prior to sticking them on the walls. Pat spent hours doing the beams but how good it looks - it was certainly worth spending the time. Pat is undoubtedly very competent in dealing with the smaller scales even though she has problems with her sight. Having done the flooring and chimney with air-drying clay, she set about putting the structure together. It then meant tiling the roof in order to complete the building. How good it looks - just ready for Pat to furnish it with the pieces she had made previously from the books which are published to go with the kits.

The second Pat - Pat B - was booked in for Jane Harrop’s course but unfortunately she

could not attend then as sadly, she lost her mother just prior to the course. Jane had left all the pieces of the kit for Pat and as her instructions are always so good, and backed up by my memory of the details of Jane’s course Pat worked her way, stoically, through the project. She did far more on her Provençal house than I did when I attended Jane’s course - completing the courtyard as well as the beams inside the house and also some of the small items too. She just has part of her roof to do so she was very pleased not to have too much ‘homework’ to do before the next step of Jane’s project in March.

Alyth had a very novel project this time. S

he came with a cart with a view to building a barrel organ on top of it. She had a movement of a musical box which would sit inside. After painting and ageing the cart, Alyth used a little barrel organ I have as a pattern and built the body in card. The musical movement fitted perfectly inside and Alyth decorated the organ with pictures and water colour paintings. It looked such fun and was great when Alyth turned the handle to play the music and especially when she made a monkey - Jacko - so sit on top in his fez!

Mary came along with her Provençal house

in order to do her ‘homework’ in time for Jane’s course in March. She finished her roof and also worked on the courtyard. She was only attending the course for two days so she got through an amazing amount of work. Having completed the work on the house, she started on a 1/48th ‘Petite Properties’ kit. It was the new little ‘Cottage Stores’. She did such a lot in a very short time - decorating the interior with wallpaper downloaded from ‘Print Minis’. Pity she couldn’t stay for the final day - she would have finished the whole house. Knowing Mary, however, it will be finished by the time I see her next!

General Course Oct2011

10/11/11 04:36

I am a little late in updating after the General Course in October. We went on holiday to sunny (true) South Wales immediately after the course but here it is - hope you enjoy it.
What a good time we had in spite of the fact that this was an extra course put in because Diane Harfield was sick and unable to do her course. When I realised that Diane wouldn’t be coming I suggested that we could do a general course and I could maybe help with the basics for those who wished to do flowers although I obviously don’t have Diane’s expertise either with cold porcelain or with flowers. I made the cold porcelain from Diane’s recipe in readiness. Two people elected to try the flowers while everyone else did their own projects - it was great fun. My friend, Di , came too but no pic as yet - I’ll add them later.

Marlene has been on many courses at Tickhill
and ha

s turned her learned techniques into a very successful business - maybe you read about her in the Dollshouse Magazine recently. Marlene has built on her visits to Tickhill where she has learned techniques in ageing scenes and she now does wall hangings of (principally) doorways and house facias. This time she was doing the front of a friend’s house in France - a present for her friend for Christmas. I know her friend will be delighted - it was fantastic with her picture at the window which really brought the house to life. Marlene takes so much care with the minutia in her scenes and it certainly paid off in this project.

Lynette is a regular at Tickhill with Marlene.
She has recently retired so for this course, she brought a house which she had started many years ago but hadn’t got around to l

ighting. Lyn had some gorgeous lights - all candle lights. She had two chandeliers, one a lovely brass ornate chandelier which made the sitting room look so opulent. The other was a wonderful wheel with candles all around - amazing. Lynette took to the electrifying like a duck to water although she had been a little tentative at first when she started to test the lights. I’m sure she didn’t believe that we would have them switched on before the end of the course. Her soldering, from the word go, was really neat and I am sure that she is now confident about adding further lights as she gets them.

Hilary and Pauline are sisters and they were really looking forward to Diane Harfield’s course.

Like me, they were very disappointed when Diane could not do the course. I am so glad they decided to come on the course and they began to learn about making flowers though not with the superb tutor who should have been teaching them. Initially, both ladies felt they were fighting a losing battle, never having used cold porcelain before. However, before long they gained in confidence and tried several types of flowers which they put in the containers they made from Das - an air-dried clay. Both made troughs and benches which looked excellent when aged and full of flowers, and Hilary even made some gravestones to put in the graveyard of a church she has built. I think both sisters would love a course with Diane and I hope that if they do one, they will have a little more confidence in their abilities having tried working with cold porcelain this time.

Linda is my niece and I love it when she come on a course.
Lind

a was disappointed that Diane wasn’t with us this time but instead she brought with her a ‘Petite Properties’ 1/48th kit. It was Flowerpot Cottage which is a lovely ‘L’ shaped cottage. Linda has great thoughts about how she wants to do her projects and it’s strange that often her thoughts are the same as mine - it’s all about genes I think! Flowerpot Cottage has an exterior of air-dried clay which Linda painted in a lovely mustard shade slightly aged. it looked lovely with the dark ‘thatched’ roof. Inside she put a staircase which gave the impression of a stairs which would come up to the upstairs room where we put a false door. It looks very impressive and we are now thinking of putting in other lights - we’re both working on the best way to do this in 1/48th scale. Since lights are not available in this size, we will have to make them.. watch this space!

Adele came on this course to work on the project she started some months ago when she came on a general course.

It is a house with a garden for her little boy, Theo. Adele is putting so many little things in the house, all of which will have some meaning for Theo as he gets older. Some are copies of toys which Theo loves at the moment, together with some things which he may play with with his grandparents. His little paddling pool is there and cats which Adele has made which look like the cats they have now. Adele has even made cakes which he had for his birthday - a Paddington Bear cake and a lovely sponge cake, both make from sponge - not the edible type, and Adele has used sponge to make several of the items - a material which I would never have thought of using but it looks quite spectacular when painted in the lovely primary colour Adele has used throughout the project.

Tickhill Dollshouse Courses

.....where little things mean a lot

General Course Nov2011

General Course Oct2011

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