15 May 2011
Happenings | 03 July 2011 | 17 April 2011

General Course May2011

20/05/11 08:38

What a good time we had - 6 of the Billlericay Dollshouse Club were here again and 3 regular students made up the group. We had great fun but a lot of work was done too.


Heath
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er, who is a regular at Tickhill, worked on some of Jane Happrop’s kits which she had missed, having been ill last year. She finished her antiques shop and made some fruit, veg and bread with Fimo which she had never used before - they were super too. A great start to doing the General Store which is her next kit. I am feeling very guilty about Heather after this course as I do think I neglected her. She knew exactly what she was doing and get on and worked with hardly any advice from me. I am just hoping that when she comes in August, she will bring a project with which I can help and appease my guilt!

Ann is a member of the Billericay club. She
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hasn’t been here before but tells me she will be coming again. I was so glad to hear that - they are a great crowd. Ann had brought along some pictures of beach huts and immediately set about making one in card. Once the structure was compete, she added strips of wood along the outside and it looked very authentic. On one picture, the hut was set on a sloping sand dune so she built up some pieces of foam core and set about bashing it with a hammer. I shall certainly use that technique again - not one that easily springs to mind but how good it looked! We really needed more time for Ann to distress her hut a little but I’m sure she picked up enough from the other group members to do it successfully at home.

It was Fran’s first time with us and she certainly did a great project. She took a picture from a magazine of a small 1 storey country cottage and made
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it out of my favourite - foamcore and spackle. How good it looked too - you could move in there happily. Fran put in a lovely rustic slate floor which she made from card - perfect for her cottage and made a planked door which she painted a fabulous turquoise along with the windows. It looked so inviting when the outside was complete. Fran used the bandsaw to cut a base on which she constructed a garden using Modrock to break up the flatness of the board. She didn’t have time to finish the garden, but what she did looked a great start - I’m just sorry that I won’t be able to see the finished project. Thinks....what about a longer course????

Along
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side Fran was Eileen - such a laugh and great company. All Eileen did for the first day1/2 was paint. Poor thing. I thought she was going to go home with just pieces of her kit painted but nothing else. When it all come together, however, it looked wonderful. It was a kit in which Eileen will make a tea shop - posh it will be! The front of the room is open with 3 arches which are repeated at the back and behind the back arches she put a trompe l’oeil. It looked amazing. With the wood floor and some lovely wicker-type furniture this is going to be a tea house we would all love to visit.

Sheila, also a member of the Billericay group and a regular at Tickhill, made a fairy house which was lovely. Whenever she comes on a course
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she is always part way through her project, having done a great deal of preparation. This time she had prepared a tree stump with branches on which to stand her fairy house, using Modrock which looked fantastic - almost real. Sheila’s first house, she felt was too big so she made a smaller one and was more pleased with it. It fitted really well on her tree trunk, the outside walls textured to look just like the bark of a tree and she added an extension for a conservatory - what lucky fairies eh? The roofs of the house and conservatory looked just like upturned flower heads - gorgeous - a real fantasy house. My husband has been sacked as Staff Photographer for not getting a photograph of Sheila (maybe something to do with the fact that she hid from the camera?) so I have used this one which was taken on a previous course. Since the course, Sheila has finished her fairy house. Just take a look in the Gallery. It’s beautiful .

There were 3 Pat’s on this course but they all did very different things. One Pat was part of the Billlericay group and it was her first time at Tic
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khill. Pat had taken a picture from a magazine, of a little croft which you would expect to see in the highlands of Scotland. Like Fran’s, the building was only 1 storey but was very different in many ways from the little country cottage. The original project in the magazine was made in 1/12th scale and in fact would have been huge so Pat decided to do it in 1/24th. A croft has very thick walls so Pat made her structure from double thickness foamcore. The thickness was just perfect for a 1/24th building and when the door and windows were put in, they were indented to accentuate the thick walls. Pat’s croft had a thatched roof which she did from Das and it looked really good with a heavier patterned ridge. She used the bandsaw to cut her base with a flat area to the side of the house which will be the vegetable garden.

Wendy ha
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s been at Tickhill several times along with the rest of the group. This time, she had been going to do one of the Petite Properties kits but decided to do that after finishing the ruined doorway which she had been wanting to do for some time. This project is a great one to do as it used some very different techniques which can be used again and again in other projects. Wendy was very quick in doing what is usually a 2 day project - so she had about a day and a half to start her kits. She did all the preparation for the kits to be put together at home. She is very good with colour and her doorway looked really ruined and authentic. Some greenery and a bare tree added to the effect - I’m sure everyone will be impressed with a very different miniature project.

Pat B is a regular at Tickhill and a lace mak
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er. I know that because for my 70th birthday she sent me a beautiful piece of lace which is now in my dollshouse. How she does it so fine I don’t know but that’s another story.................
For this course she brought a lace maker doll and a box to put her in. Initially she wasn’t sure about what she was going to do but in the event her box turned out to be just perfect for her lady. Pat put in a diagonal wall with a fireplace over which she put a light and at the back put in a window. Outside the window, she made a box with a Perspex back and out in a lovely cottage garden scene. Having out in some shelves and other little bits and pieces, Pat’s lady looked really happy with her lot. As you can see from the picture, Pat received her bottle of champagne for her 10th course. Unfortunately, I had miscounted and this was Pat’s 11th course but she has just been made a Grandmother again so the bottle will be perfect to toast her new Grandson. Cheers, Pat.

Pat No 3 has been on a course pr
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eviously and this time she brought her dollshouse to electrify. She had built the house at her club some years ago and it had not been touched since then. What a difference when she took it home. Pat took to electrifying like a duck to water. She had brought some lights but bought some from my supply which looked really good when lit. In order to put the wall lights in, Pat decorated the sitting room in a lovely green paper and it looked fantastic. Even Steve, when photographing it, said it looked good enough to live in. Pay made a good start with her roof. She had bought Richard Stacey’s roof tiles which I had not seen before - quite chunky and red. The look great when on the roof and Pat managed to get the front completed so is left with only the back to finish off.