Intermediate Work: Lighting the Dollshouse Part 1

November 7th - 8th 2014

Ok, again, taking a little break from tiling.... I decided to light my dollshouse.

I was adding so many nice little things in the rooms but since the lighting hadn’t been completely installed yet, I decided to do something about it.  I purchased some LEDs from Evan Designs a long time ago as well as shrink tube and hook up wiring so I was pretty well stocked with materials.  I pulled out my soldering gun and even watched the LED installation video the Evan Design site for the best way to hook up groups of lights.  So...on with it!!
The first thing I had to do was to shorten some wires and strip them (using the soldering iron) then connect them.  I tried to connect the wires in groups as close as possible.  The left back middle and top room, the left back first floor room with the spa and entrance way.  I also found a hole in the Music room wall - I mast have planned to add another LED there but didn’t in the end.  Anyway, the back of the house is pretty messy with wires but I have a few ideas how to hide them (altho I am not sure they will work just yet...).  Anyway, having connected the wires into two groups, I then connected some lead wires to each group and brought both down to the bottom floor.  All the while double checking to be sure everything lit.  It did.  Once I got to the bottom, I connected the switch again and checked.....WOW!! With a fresh battery the house looks freaking great!!!  I was so astonished how cool it looked!  Now...on to the other side.

Wires cut, connected and held in place with a bit of tape, for now.

WOW! Hard to get a good picture but the effect was surpising!

The lamp that needed replacing...

I attached the top and bottom in the same manner I had already done to the left back.  I double checked the lights worked and then had to tackle the outside light in the external kitchen area.  My virtual friend Antonio(who by the way is doing a bird cage giveaway on his FaceBook page - all you have to do is like his page to be included!) who had given me an extra lamp but since it was set up for a different voltage, I had to replace that bulb with one of my LEDs (last one actually).  Thing was I had already glued it into place so I had to kind of rip it out. That went fairly quickly and I replaced the bulb with one of my own LEDs, then attached a longer wire to connect with the other lights for the right side of the house. 
I painted this wire black as there would be no where to really hide it (although I can carry it along the bottom of the house and hide the longest part with grass etc. later) but the wire that travels down the side of the pergola will remain exposed.  Whatever.  It is a kind of messy back of the house (of which the decoration of the back will be explained in a later chapter :-)).  I also added lots of tacky wax to the pergola top to reattach the roof.  I had been glueing it in place but now I decided to just wax it into place.  The wax holds up pretty well - almost as well as glue!  Next I connected the two wires from the right back side and the one hook up wire from the pergola lamp to the switch and voila! Let there be light!!  I did the same to the left back and gathered all the wires and batteries together to the back.  The tape is provisory till I get cracking on a way to hide all the damn wires.... But that will be coming later....

Top of the pergola - you can see where I tacky waxed the wire in place.

The back of the house somewhat cleaned up.

And here are a few preliminary pics of the house with its glorious lighting! I’m so pleased! It’s all just missing the damn roof.....sigh.

The house open.

Fire Pit room second floor.

Second Floor landing with Bathroom.

Buddha Room second floor.

Music Room first floor.

First Floor landing with phone booth.

The Bamboo Room first floor.

Onsen ground floor.

Entrance Hall ground floor.

Kitchen ground floor.

Storage area outside the kitchen - ground floor.

Outside of the house with lighting installed.

Chapter 87 - The Sliding Windows to the Left Side Second Floor Porch, Two Chairs, A TV

July 26th - 30th 2014

This chapter just has a few objects to provide a little distraction before embarking upon the railings and awnings of the porch.  The windows were straight forward as was the TV (having already made a few) but this time there were two new chairs to construct.

So, first thing I did was to paint the sliding window pieces and the two support pieces the usual brown.  Then to glue up the windows and add the panes.  Last step was to aggressively sand down the piece where the windows get slotted into place.  Then the final two windows were inserted.  Then, I realized this was the last porch window set I would be doing.  Hurrah!!

You can see the space where I had to sand down for fitting the sliding windows.

Windows in and functional!

The next step was the TV.  I did some searches on the net and found that the TV’s in the kit are very closely modeled after actual 1960’s Japanese television sets.  Which is pretty neat that they would be so attentive to such a detail.  But since I already had two TV’s in the house and honestly I didn’t know where to put this one, I decided to make a portable TV.  So I had to look for some pics and I did find quite a few from that time. 

Cheesy 60's portable TV - inspiration.

I liked the color combinations especially (powder blue and beige) but I had to bash the kit a bit to make the TV portable. I cut back the side pieces and rounded the edges.  I then painted the TV a sort of blue (I don’t have any blue! So had to use some light Williamsburg Blue) and the buttermilk.  I then painted the front of the TV grey (it’ll be turned off) and the dials gold.  I also used a 0.05 fine point marker to ink in the black stripe in the front.  After letting the paint dry, I glued the TV into it’s cabinet and painted the whole thing with a bit of varnish.  I then added the antenna to the back and a handle to the top (which was a metal collar clip from my son’s new dress shirt).  I think the TV is pretty funky!  It’ll look better once it’s positioned downstairs in the kitchen.

The TV cabinet before shaping.

After shaping and a little color.

Finished cabinet and TV ready for insertion.

Finished portable TV.

TV ready to entertain the busy cooks.

Next were the two low chairs.  There were quite a few small pieces but went together quickly.  Once glued, I just had to sand the straight edges a bit then paint them black then varnish.  Next were the seat cushions.  I was undecided on these since I was unsure if leather was actually used on these types of chairs.  I really wanted to use the leather even if I couldn’t find many examples of leather cushions so I cut out some pieces on the bias, trimmed them and used double sided tape to attach the leather to the cushion piece.  I am really glad I did use the leather since the final result is quite nice and the leather fabric, being a coated fabric and faux leather, didn’t unravel during the cutting and fitting.  Very clean final look.

The low chairs before sanding and smoothing the edges.

Cutting the second leather piece.

Finished low chairs with leather cusions.

While I was working on these pieces, I had come across an artisan on FaceBook named Antonio Malacario who makes miniatures for manger scenes.  His work, especially the bird cages and iron work, are very detailed and special.  I came across a cage that would look great in the outside kitchen area and seemed small enough to fit.  Unfortunately, by the time I contacted him, it had been used in a manger bell dome scene and he didn’t have any others immediately available.  But he did have some other cages.  After a few sessions of messaging, he came  up with a cage that satisfied me so I purchased it.  (He accepts PayPal).  He was so nice I figured I’d risk it.  Who knew.  Maybe I just threw away €40.00 but at least if it did arrive it would be nice (I hoped).  All my doubts were erased when the package arrived from Naples today less than a week after the purchase.  The cage is absolutely gorgeous!  It’s the beat up look, stained and dirtied, the little door opens and it even has a removable tray under the birds (which he included) and a feed trough which removes as well.  The only thing I changed was that I put some Japanese newspapers in the bottom tray and dirtied it up with some bird poo.  I think it looks great!  I obviously had to figure out a way to hang it from the pergola so I used some leftover pieces from the TV set and made a hook and glued it to the upper pergola.  Fantastic!

Antonio's super bird cage. Door opens and bottom tray slides out.

I added some poo poo'd Japanese newspaper in the tray.

Sliding feed tray for my hefty birds.

Bird cage in place!

And the kicker is he included a few little extra surprises.  A little fork (which will go outside in the outside kitchen cabinet with the hibachi), a small soup container and lid and the best was a LED lamp with a tack like way of attaching to the house.  Basically, I had been thinking of putting a LED outside in the pergola area but I couldn’t find anything that I liked.  I knew it had to be rustic - like a naked bulb or something.  Well, Antonio must have read my mind because this lamp is super perfect!  The only small problem is that the LED is a 12v but I’ll try and figure out a way to light it up! 

Extra little surprises in the package.

"Un caro saluto da Antonio"

What a treat! Like Christmas in July!!
Excellent.