Little Red Riding Hoodie..

Very little has changed in the Mame houses recently, as I've been concentrating on trying to improve & gain confidence in my sewing.

I started out trying to make an outfit for a larger (1:6) doll, who is a clone of a vintage doll, Mary-chan, made by Shiba.  I made her a t-shirt, knee socks & a dungaree dress (not pictured) & ended up also making her an A-line denim skirt with a box pleat & top stitching + matching denim messenger bag that can also be worn with the t-shirt & socks.

In a moment of madness, I also decided to try & use some of the red ribbed jersey scraps that were left over to try & make a sleeveless hoodie for the Mame Momokos (from a pattern in Dolly Dolly Coordinate Recipe #4), but I'm glad I tried because I think it turned out well for my first attempt sewing something so tiny.

I thought I'd have to sew it all by hand, but managed to do all but the armholes on my sewing machine, a big relief, because I hate hand sewing.

Mames make me laugh, they can look like such grumpy little thugs. Mame Hollis from the back reminded me of a gunslinger, all she needs now is a pair of Playmobil pistols, a cowgirl outfit & some Ennio Morricone music.

A thing of beauty..

Some quick photos of my beautiful mini wall-unit/room divider made by Mitchy Moo Miniatures.

It's based on a G-Plan Librenza 880.  I wanted a piece that was more similar in style to the 1950's version of the Librenza 880, but had the dimensions (slightly lower & wider) of the later 1960's version.

Pepper did a great job translating this into miniature & I feel really honored to own one of her pieces, it's beautifully made & just what I wanted.  The piece is made of spruce, stained in dark oak, with white formica fronts on some of the cupboard doors.

It arrived almost a week & a half ago, but after what must have been some rough handling by Royal Mail (grrr!) the top section of the Librenza had shaken loose in transit.  I ordered some of the same wood glue that Pepper uses, & with some helpful advice from Pepper, was able to re-attach it.  Hopefully it looks OK, I was very nervous about doing a poor job & spoiling it.

All the cupboard doors & drawers open & I'm looking forward to digging out more miniatures to display on it & taking some better photos of it (once my current bout of vertigo has passed & I stop feeling dizzy & disorientated every time I move).  The Re-Ment displayed on the Librenza so far are from the 2005 Table Ware Collection set.

Fresh Beans.

There haven't been any advancements in my doll houses lately, but there are some new faces.

+ another Mame I haven't got around to taking photos of yet.

As usual they've been welcomed with open paws by my cat, who nubs & fusses over the Mames at any given opportunity.

I'm sure the Mames won't be very impressed with me soon.  I was very lucky & thrilled to bits to be one of the 3 winners who will get a custom piece made by the ridiculously talented Pepper of Mitchy Moo Miniatures in her recent giveaway, but decided against getting a 1:16 item for the Mame houses.  In fear of retaliation all pins & needles have been secured in a locked cupboard. 

Congratulations to the other winners! I can't wait to see everyone's photos of their pieces - both the custom pieces for Pubdolls & Tam toum, & the lovely 1:12 sofas that Pepper made for an additional 3 winners.

The Summer House.

Now that the weather is getting better, Mame Imp decided to put the Playmobil Summer House to use.
Where better to put the Mame's new (to them) red Lundby dresser & take afternoon tea coffee (using some Re-Ment polka-dot teacups as oversized coffee cups).

Summer House - Playmobil Vacation Cottage 3771, table & chairs - Jean of Germany, dresser - Lundby, basket - Playmobil (in hindsight I wish I'd dug out a smaller, more detailed basket from my Re-Ment stash), miniatures - mostly Re-Ment.

More from Casa Vogue.

I'd been meaning to scan this article about Finnish illustrator & designer Janine Rewell's lovely dollhouse for a while.  I've seen it mentioned on other blogs & one of the photos from the article is on her site, but thought people might like to see the full article from the October 2010 Casa Vogue supplement.

Unfortunately, the article wasn't one of the ones with an English translation at the back of the magazine, but I've typed it out, that way I get to translate & finally read it too. Please excuse any typos & poor translation.

Original text: 

Ho creato questa casa pensando a una storia di fantasmi, di cui si vedono le impronte sul divanetto e sulle sedie; poi c'è un gatto, per me simbolo di intimità, e gli schienali delle sedute con gli occhietti cattivi.  In fondo, i giochi che si animano di notte per vivere di vita propria sono una fantasia ricorrente nei bambini.

Chi pensa sia necessario sognare a colori rischia di restare bloccato nella realtà. La fantasia, infatti, può percorrere la via del bianco e nero senza nulla togliere all libera espressione di sé. Così almeno per Janine Rewell, giovane graphic designer Finlandese, tra i venti migliori designers sotto i trent'anni selezionati nel 2010 dal magazine "Print" e poi visti al Phaidon store di New York a primavera.

Per Capire quanto chiare siano le sue idee, alla stregua delle forme e delle linee dei suoi designi, basta ricordare come abbia definito sua prima personale alla galleria Vallery di Barcellona, "Beyond gravity", tenutasi in aprile: un tributo all'impossibile. <<Il mondo é stanco della realtà, con le sue leggi universali e causalità>>, dice. <<Il potere dell'arte sta nel rifuggire da tutte queste regole e rendere possibile l'impossibile>>. 

Pluridecorata, in patria e all'estero (Leone di bronzo nel 2009 al Festival internazionale della pubblicità di Cannes), e con un parco clienti che include Nokia, Qatar airways, Marimekko e il magazine "Wired", l'impossibile, forse l'impensabile, Janine l'ha reso possibile in un suo progetto tutto privato, creando una casa di bambola in bianco e nero. 

In Legno, tutta salotto, in parte arredato da piccoli mobili, in parte reso bidimensionalmente, caratteristica tipica del lavoro grafico di Rewell. La quale sfata cosi l'assunto secondo cui al sogno infantile della doll house debba corrispondere una ridondanza di rosa, fiori, ornamenti, colori e sorridenti bambole bionde.  Sfidando anche la nostra abitudine ottica di prediligere ne bianco e nero la linea nera sul fondo bianco, lei ha imposto il nero, sul quale si staglia la linea bianca del disegno. 

<<Da piccola, ricevevo dalle mie zie decine di Barbie. Non una scampò al ritrovarsi con gli occhi tinti d'inchiostro e dipinta come un uovo di Pasqua. Poi adattai al mio gusto anche i vestiti e i mobili, construendo l'arredamento con scatole di fiammiferi dipinte e gesso. Avevo due case di bambola: una molto tradizionale e realistica e una di Barbie, piena di sedie rosa e fiorate. Negli anni 80 non c'erano molte altre opzioni per le bambine>>. 

Contraria alla rigida divisione tra giocattoli maschili e femminili imposta dall'industria dei balocchi (irruenti e d'azione i primi, tendenti alla quiete domestica i secondi), Janine considera il gioco fondamentale per sviluppare nel bambino la capacità di astrazione e di elaborazione di metafore. Nella casa di bambola, soprattutto, <<i bambini tendono a ricreare non tanto il modo in cui vivono quanto quello in cui vorrebbero vivere>>. 

Figlia di genitori dal background hippie, si oppose al loro libero stile di vita, aspirando invece a un'esistenza regolare, <<del tipo impiego dalle nove alle diciassette>>. Come spesso accade, si è ritrovata, alla fine, a essere una freelance. <<Da bambina vivevo in una tipica casa finlandese nella zona residenziale di Helsinki, grande, in legno, dipinta di rosso e bianco, con un ampio giardino; ma l'interno era un miscuglio un po' folle di muri rosa, divani zebrati, tappeti orientali, tessuti psichedelici e armadi antichi. Mi vergognavo a invitare i miei amici: vivevano tutti in case "normali" e temevo di essere bollata come troppo diversa>>. 

Il bianco e nero diventa per lei il segno dell'aspirazione a liberarsi dal decorativo, che può diventare facilmente <<caotico e ripetitivo. Nella storia del design e dell'architettura c'è sempre stata una tendenza alla semplificazione, basta paragonare una sedia del Settecento a una contemporanea. è difficile non riderirsi al passato quando si usa la decorazione. Ciò nonostante, io vi ricorro, creando però lavori moderni che non cadono mai nel rètro>>. 

La decorazione è infatti parte integrante della tradizione finnica, che combina la pulizia del design nordico alla cultura popolare slava, con la sua tendenza all'ornato e all'uso dei colori accesi. Per ricordare quanto le tradizioni popolari slave siano state fonte d'ispirazione per l'arte tendente all'astrattismo, basta citare Kazimir Malevich, che, dallo studio dell'icona, giunse alla massima astrazione del "suprematismo", con il suo "Quadrato nero" su fondo bianco del 1915. Se si pensa poi che il titolo dell'opera futurista del compositore Mikhail Matiushin per la quale, nel 1913, Malevich disegnò scene e costumi è "La vittoria sul sole", si può forse immaginare un'eco slava anche nella predilezione di Janine per il nero. Almeno in questa casa, un lavoro non condizionato da esigenze professionali. 

<<Il nero è usato di rado nei giochi infantili. è più spesso associato al buio, alla notte, alla morte, ai fantasmi. Ma la vita è ben altro che una love story fra Barbie e Ken, nè sono molti i bambini che vivono felici e contenti in un castello stile Disney. In questo senso, la mia casa di bambola potrebbe stimolare a esplorare il lato oscuro della vita, ad affontarlo, invece di soffocarlo. L'ho creata pensando a una storia di fantasmi: niente bambole, solo fantasmi, di cui si vedono le impronte sul divanetto e sulle sedie; ci sono poi un gatto, per me simbolo di intimità, e gli schienali delle sedute con gli occhietti cattivi. In fondo, i giocattoli che si animano di notte per vivere di vita propria sono una fantasia ricorrente nei bimbi>>. 

Fantasia che porta il soldatino di stagno di Andersen fra le fiamme dell'amore per la sua ballerina e sulla quale è costruita l'ormai decennale e fortunata cine-serie della Pixar "Toy story". Sogno o incubo, resta il fatto che la via della tentazione sembra avere radici e tradizioni a colori, tanto che Rewell dubita che <<Hansel e Gretel avrebbero avuto il coraggio di mangiare un pezzo della mia casa di bambola, anche se fosse stata di liquirizia e caramello>>. 

In questo caso, poi, gli eroi dei fratelli Grimm non avrebbero trovato una strega in veste di padrona di casa. Infatti , la collocazione che l'artista immagina per sè nel salottino di bambola non lascia dubbi a riguardo: <<Poserei nel ritratto, al posto del re>>. Una scelta significativa, se si accetta l'assunto secondo cui il gioco prepara alla vita vera o comunque la riflette: <<Per me, la parte migliore del gioco con le bambole era la preparazione: dal vestiario alla scena. Il gioco in sè mi ha sempre annoiato. è triste, ma è proprio come nella vita: la gente passa il tempo a costruirla, non a viverla>>. 

P.d.V. Tutte le foto e i disegni, courtesy l'artista (janinerewell.com). La doll house è un cubo di quaranta centimetri di lato; è stata realizzata in legno dipinto e carta da parati. Janine Rewell è rappresentata dall'agenzia Pekka (pekkafinland.fi).

Google translation (with a bit of tweaking):

I created this house thinking about a ghost story, which you can see the fingerprints on the sofa and chairs, then there is a cat, for me a symbol of intimacy, and the backs of the seats with bad eyes. After all, the games that come alive at night to live its own life are a recurrent fantasy in children.

Who do you think is necessary to dream in color is likely to remain stuck in reality. The fantasy, in fact, may go the way of black and white without taking anything away from all the free self-expression. So at least for Janine Rewell, a young Finnish graphic designer, among the twenty best designers under thirty in 2010 selected by the magazine "Print" and then having to Phaidon store in New York in the spring.

To understand what her ideas are clear, like the shapes and lines of her designs, just remember how he described her first solo exhibition at Vallery gallery in Barcelona, ​​"Beyond Gravity" held in April: a tribute to the impossible. <<The world is tired of reality, with its universal laws and causality>> says. <<The power of art is to shun all these rules and to allow the impossible>>.

Highly decorated, at home and abroad (Bronze Lion in 2009 at the Cannes International Advertising Festival), and a customer base that includes Nokia, Qatar Airways, Marimekko, and the magazine "Wired", the impossible, maybe ' unthinkable, Janine has made possible a plan for all private, creating a doll house in black and white. 

In Wood, the whole living room, furnished in part by small pieces of furniture, some made it two-dimensionally, a feature of graphical Rewell. So that debunks the assumption that the childhood dream of doll house should pay a redundancy of pink flowers, ornaments, colors and smiling blond dolls. Defying also our custom optical prefer it black and white the black line on white background, she has ordered a black, on which stands the white line drawing.

<<As a child, I received from my aunts dozens of Barbie. Not one escaped to end up with ink-stained eyes and painted like an Easter egg. Then I adapted to my taste even the clothes and furniture, the furniture built with plaster and painted matchboxes. I had two doll houses, a very traditional and realistic and a Barbie, full of chairs and pink flowers. In the 80s there were not many other options for girls>>. 

Contrary to the strict division between male and female toy industry sets of toys (and impetuous action first, tending to the quiet second home), Janine considers to be key to developing the child's capacity for abstraction and elaboration of metaphors . In the doll house, above all, <<children tend to recreate not so much the way they live as what they would like to live>>. 

The daughter of hippie parents from the background, opposed to their free lifestyle, aiming instead to an ordered existence <<type of use from nine to seventeen>>. As often happens, she found herself in the end to be a freelancer. <<As a child I lived in a typical residential area of Helsinki in Finland, a large, wood, painted red and white, with a large garden, but the inside was a mixture a bit 'crazy pink walls, zebra-striped sofas, oriental carpets, textiles and psychedelic antique wardrobes. I was ashamed to invite my friends all lived in homes "normal" and I was afraid of being branded as too different >>. 

The black and white becomes the sign for her aspiration to be free from decoration, which can easily become <<chaotic and repetitive. In the history of design and architecture has always been a tendency to simplification, a chair is enough to compare the eighteenth century to contemporary. it is hard not to laugh at the past when using the decoration. Nevertheless, I used them, however, creating modern works that never fall into the back>>. 

The decoration is an integral part of the Finnish tradition, which combines the clean design of the northern Slavic folk culture, with its tendency to ornament and the use of bright colors. To commemorate the slave folk traditions have been an inspiration for art tends to abstraction, Kazimir Malevich just mention that, from the study of the icon, came to the highest abstraction of "Suprematism", with his "Black Square "on a white background 1915. If one thinks that the title of futurist composer Mikhail Matiushin for which, in 1913, Malevich designed the sets and costumes is "Victory over the sun," can you imagine an echo also in the Slavic fondness for Janine black. At least in this house, a job is not constrained by professional requirements. 

<<Black is rarely used in children's games. is more often associated with darkness, at night, death, ghosts. But life is much more than a love story between Ken and Barbie, nor are many children who live happily in a Disney-style castle. In this sense, my dollhouse could encourage to explore the dark side of life, for men faced, rather than stifle it. I've created thinking about a ghost story: no dolls, only ghosts, which you can see fingerprints on the sofa and chairs, there are also a cat, for me a symbol of intimacy, and the backs of the seats with bad eyes . After all, the toys come alive at night to live its own life are a recurrent fantasy in children>>. 

Fancy leading the Tin Soldier by Andersen in the flames of love for her as a dancer and is built on the decade-long and successful series of cine-Pixar "Toy Story". Dream or nightmare, the fact remains that the way of temptation seems to have roots and traditions in color, so much so that doubts that Rewell <<Hansel and Gretel would have had the courage to eat a piece of my doll house, even if it was liquorice and caramel>>. 

In this case, then, the heroes of the Brothers Grimm would not have found a witch as a hostess. In fact, the position that the artist imagines for himself in the parlor doll leaves no doubt about it: <<Poses in the portrait, instead of the king>>. A significant decision, if one accepts the argument that the game prepares for real life or otherwise reflects: <<For me, the best part of playing with dolls was the preparation, from clothing to the scene. The game itself has always bored me. it is sad, but it's just like in life that people spend the time to build, not to live>>. 

P.d.V. All photos and drawings, courtesy of the artist (janinerewell.com). The doll house is a cube of forty inches square, was made of painted wood and wallpaper. Janine Rewell is represented by the agency Pekka (pekkafinland.fi).

Into the Real British Mood.

"The Avengers: Into the Real British mood" article by Angela Maria Piga, from the April 2010 No.716 Casa Vogue supplement. 

Regarding the previously mentioned chair that appeared in You Have Just Been Murdered, I feel I really should have known before that one (with a modified base) also featured in You Only Live Twice (Ernst Blofeld's chair).  In my defence it's been a very long time since I've watched You Only Live Twice. I also should have guessed that the chairs were made by G-Plan

The chair is a model no.6250 a.k.a "The World's Most Comfortable Chair", & according to the The High Wycombe Electronic Furniture Archive it was part of the Mainstream range, & designed around 1962 by Paul Conti.  (I'm going to have lots of fun looking through the HW archive).  The chairs seem as if they often sell on eBay for between £350 & 400 each (I got my 2 + a matching stool for £20 about 5 years ago).

Now if only I could get a mini one for the Mames! (they might have to settle for a non-swiveling & rocking Triang Spot-On wing chair instead!).

Black suns, neutron storms, radiation & the like.

I'm under the weather today, so it looks like I'll be curling up on the sofa with the new (June) issue of UK Elle Decoration, & the Casa Vogue supplement that came with the April issue of Vogue Italia.

I literally squealed when I saw the article on Space 1999.

 above - left, article in Italian / right, article in English

It's no wonder I love 1970's plastic furniture - full size & miniature. Clearly I was brainwashed from early childhood by Space 1999, which I watched avidly between the ages of 3 & 5 years old.

Catherine Bujold's site Sorellarium13 is wonderful & well worth taking a look at.

At some point I should also scan "The Avengers: Into the real British mood" article that was in last April's Casa Vogue (yes, I am a huge geek & squealed over that too!). Sadly the article didn't include a photograph of the black leather swivel chair (designer unknown) from the 1967 episode You Have Just Been Murdered (which I have 2 of).  I wish I knew who made/designed them.

& just in case anyone would like to make mini-issues for their rooms/doll houses:

Victorian!? what the Dickens?

Even though Victorian dolls houses aren't my cuppa, I thought this Wimpole Street house backdrop (made for, I'm assuming, the 2008 BBC production of Little Dorrit) looked wonderful mounted on the wall of this room.

 

found in an old June 2007 issue of House & Garden in a waiting room the other day, that I subsequently "liberated"

A little progress.

I finally got a round to painting & staining the Form Group pieces the other day.  I painted the pieces for the base (base, 4 legs & leg supports) in black, & stained the pieces for the table top & seat.

Next step, gluing everything together, varnishing, then onto making cushions for the seat.

Some photos of the mock-ups in the living room. Both a 2 + 3 section combination (first photograph), or a 2 + 4 section combination (2nd photograph) seem to work well in this room.

Later this week I should be receiving V&A Pattern - The Fifties by Sue Prichard, which I'm very much looking forward to, I've also been looking at the 1940's & 50's wallpaper in the V&A's online archives recently for ideas & inspiration for the Gothenburg (+ I'm just a sucker for textile & surface design).

Links to some favourites in the V&A's archives:

Aagaard Anderson - Diana Armfield - Preben Dahlstrom - Lucienne Day - Jacqueline Groag - Roger Nicholson - Folke Sundberg - Shinkichi Tajiri - Mary White