Japanese Dolls' House (Ryokan in Stile Giapponese): Intermediate Work - Bamboo Shades for Right Side First Floor Porch, Pavement Research

April 26th - May 3rd 2013

I had already done a pretty extensive chapter and tutorial on the bamboo shades here, but since I wanted shades on every porch, I had some more to make. I figured I’d make these since they are pretty easy and then start to think about how I was going to stabilize the dollhouse. It’s getting big and heavy.

Anyway, bamboo shades were made from a cheapy placemat I found at Ikea. I had to abandon the bugle beads since the holes were much too small to pass the DMC thread for the pull. I opted for some triangular beads and glued those in place to line up the pull string. I attached the shades onto the porch by putting a glob of tacky wax adhesive and glue. That way I didn’t have to come up with a way to clamp the shades in place while the glue dried. Done.

Trimming the bamboo to size

Fitting in the beads which will hold the pull string.

Glue the back support (bottom edge of the placemat cut to size)

Glue and tacky stuff for easier attachment.

Ready to roll.

While I was working on these, I got to thinking seriously about the final disposition of the dollhouse. I had bought a table at Ikea (for like €20.00) and had some plywood cut to size at my local hobby place (€5.00). I decided I would fix the house to the plywood and the plywood to the table. That way if I wanted to ever change the actual table I could do that. Plus, I wanted to decorate the plywood with some kind of stone pattern to simulate a street or garden path.

My original idea was to use some paper with stone decoration on it. But it just seemed so flat to me. Plus I had to keep in mind that the ground floor has two sliding rooms so the this may cause too much friction every time I would open the rooms. I thought I could use stencils but even here was very time consuming considering the amount of space I was going to have to fill (60cm by 90cm). Then I came across a blog that has some excellent suggestions for flooring. I used a scrap piece of plywood and made some cutting tests with my dremel machine. I figured out the speed had to be pretty high otherwise a straight cut into the wood is impossible. Also, once I started screwing around with color, the cut areas were not so visible and I really did not like the final effect. I also made a cutting test using my stencil to make some stone pavement. I used some of my smelly vinegar wood aging (copper and steel) to age the wood and see what kind of result came out. Didn’t like that either. Altho the steel one made a nice effect by darkening on top of the “stone” and not on the inside. Since I’m debating on adding grass inside the cracks, this could be doable. Anyway, I have a lot more testing I need to do.

Paper stone pattern

Transferring the stone pattern from MitchyMoo's blog

After "carving" the pattern.

Painted a bit...do not like. The detail is lost.

Cutting out the stencils.

Penciling in the stencil for "carving".

Cooper wash on the left, steel wash on the right.

In the meantime, here are some pics that got me thinking. I love the food pic in particular (ok, I HAVE to try fimo!!!) and the perfectly shiny waxed floor of a ryokan hotel entrance. That is what I should have done from the beginning ! Live and learn.