Fueled up with coffee & ready for action.

My spare room is a mess of Mames, dollhouses & miniature furniture, & it's really holding me up from getting anything more done on the Form Group mock-up in basswood.  Time to stop procrastinating & get organised!

Apples & Unikko & Spectrum, Oh, my!

It's been lovely & sunny over the last few days, so yesterday I took advantage of the light & took lots of photos of the living room in the Mame's first house.

It's been a work in progress since September 2009 & still isn't quite finished (mostly little things & finishing touches), but it's getting there slowly..

The furniture is a mixture of Playmobil, Lego, Mattel & Vero (well.. a Vero copy as far as I know), & the smaller accessories are mostly Re-Ment, Megahouse, Playmobil, Marx & Jean of Germany. It's a bit of a hodge podge of scales, but it works for the Mames & looks kind of right together (I hope).
The picture frame is from Ikea, with Ellsworth Kelly's Spectrum 1, from 1953, in it, though I rotated it because I preferred the bands of colour going horizontally rather than vertically.

The living room is one of the first small rooms I started putting together for the Mames. The "wallpaper" is a Japanese fabric (the green with apples & branches) & some white handmade paper I had in my stash, both spray mounted onto thick paper.  The wallpaper is one of the things that still needs work - I'm thinking of attaching it with strips of flexible magnetic sheet, as even though I don't plan on changing the room, I don't want to glue it permanently into place.  For now it's just lodged into place & held on with a little white tack.

Replacement & different parts.

A little progress for the Gothenburg. Yesterdays arrival - 4 doors, 4 windows, stairs, banister & step (from a 1980's Gothenburg?) should resolve some of the issues - the missing windows, & the broken door handles.  All the pieces smelled very musty, but the musty smell seems to have gone since giving it all a good clean.

One of the door handles dropped off on its own while the pieces were soaking & I was able to get the handle from the other side of the same door off easily, & without any breakages. Hurrah!  However the door handles are a different colour than the door handles in my Gothenburg.  The "new" ones are gold, the ones in my Gothenburg are a darker coppery colour (& less shiny), I'm not sure if I should try spraying or painting them to match.  Something to consider..

It was interesting to see the difference in the banisters from the top of the stairs. 

At the top is the banister from the Småland, below is the banister from the 80's (?) Gothenburg. 

I don't understand why the Småland banister has the extra bit at the end (top left in the upper photo, top right in the lower).  

I've been frustrated with the extra bit since I put the Småland together, the banister doesn't fit properly because of it, & I've been wondering if I should try shaving some of the plastic off to make it fit properly.

Unlike the older Gothenburg banister (which appears to have been glued into place), the Småland one attaches with a screw at one end & a small round plastic piece which fits into the floor at the other end.  Because of the extra bit the banister ends up bending & not standing straight, which looks awful.

No progress with the Form Group in basswood yet, though I did finally dig out some stain & clear matt varnish, so hopefully I can get that done this weekend.  The next step will be gluing everything together.  

The stain I had in storage was rosewood, which isn't perfect (I think teak would be more appropriate), but I'm treating the 2 section I'm working on as another test piece anyway, as the wood I used isn't quite the right size.  What I already had, & have used, is 1.5mm thick, for a "proper" version I want to use 2mm thick, which I think is more to scale.

Forget Me Not

I didn't want to dissect my May 2011 issue of UK Vogue, but here's a much larger version of the double page with miniatures (not the full pages, but as much as i could scan) from the "Forget Me Not" editorial.

photographed by Tim Gutt, with set design by Shona Heath.

related links:
Shona Heath, set designer at AnOther
Shona Heath CLM. portfolio

Reprint & Interplan.

I was very pleased to find out that Lesley Jackson's Robin & Lucienne Day: Pioneers of Contemporary Design is being reprinted & will be out in August.  Definitely a must to pre-order.

Meanwhile I've been making a folder of other Robin Day items I'd like to attempt in 1:16, which includes the following:

• Interplan storage unit 
• Slatted bench/coffee table 
• Interplan sideboard

The Slatted bench/coffee table is listed as being by Brianco in the style of Robin Day here, but as a rare Hille piece designed by Day here.  My guess is the latter, either way, I love it. It's similar to George Nelson's Platform Bench, but with the lovely metal legs as seen on the Interplan storage unit that Christie's sold.

The sofa behind the bench at the twentyfirstcenturyretro link is also by Day - a daybed he designed for Hille.  It reminds me a lot of the sectional daybeds from the lovely 1958 Mattel Modern studio set.

I have about half of the Mattel Modern items produced, but only 1 of the sectional daybeds - which isn't in the best shape. It came in a cheap lot (which all my Mattel Modern items are from) that I bought over 5 years ago, most of the items were in good shape, but the daybed had lost its back & the seat cushion.

The Mame's don't care anyway, it's far too big for them.

Minis in magazines.

I love it when I occasionally come across miniatures in magazines. I probably have a bunch more to scan (if I could remember what issues they were in).  I'll scan & post them as & when I find more.

I found this one whilst going through an old issue of UK Elle Decoration (March 2009) the other night, the photograph (the only using miniatures in the 6 page palette piece, with photographs by Andrea Garuti) continues slightly onto the following page, where it reads:

From the tiny version of the Le Corbusier/Jeanneret/Perriand chaise longue to the perfectly scaled-down artwork, we're totally inspired by the red hues of this mini masterpiece.

Another I saw recently was in the May 2011 issue of UK Vogue, in the editorial "Forget Me Not" photographed by Tim Gutt.  It's a shame the whole editorial didn't feature miniatures.

Form Group in 1:16, Part 4

No progress yesterday, but I did take a photo of where I'm up to (with some Re-Ment miniatures).

All the pieces for a 2 section Form Group are cut & sanded.  I'll probably re-check the measurements on all the pieces again before I glue them.

I'm not sure what glue I already have or what will be best to use.  I made some kitchen, etc, counter tops for some Ikea Lillabo furniture from basswood a few years ago, & whatever glue I used worked well, I just wish I could remember what exactly I used.

Also, the Mame family will be expanding (again).  Two more will be travelling from Japan soon upping the number to 19. At least they have 3 dollhouses to inhabit now.