An Evening in Ipswich

When Parnilla found out that Mortimer had invited Evangeline to dine with him at the restaurant in the Ipswich Grand Hotel, she immediately set a plan in motion to make sure that it was she who would dine with Mortimer.  She sat at her vanity, in front of her mirror, because she liked to look at herself as she wrote.

When she finished the letter she read it aloud to herself.  "Dear Evangeline, There is a change of plans for this evening.  I have something important to ask you.  I must ask you in private.  Please meet me by the lamp post at the farthest end of Ipswich Cemetery at dusk.  Affectionately Yours, Mortimer."

"That should keep her occupied," thought Parnilla as she laughed with glee.  "Now to send this by messenger and decide what I will wear when I meet Mortimer for dinner tonight!"

Meanwhile, at Barkley Manor, Evangeline was reading in the library, passing time before she was to meet Mortimer for dinner.  She was dressed for an evening in Ipswich with the man whom she was hopelessly in love with.

She heard a noise in the hall.  Was it the doorbell?  It had been so long since it had rung that she couldn't even remember what it sounded like.  Mouette came scurrying in with the letter from Parnilla.  Evangeline took the letter and said, "A letter from Mortimer?"

She finished reading the letter and her heart just about jumped out of her chest.  What could Mortimer have to ask her that he needed to meet in secret?  There was only one thing she could think of.  She was so happy she almost cried.  How romantic!  A proposal in the cemetery!

Evangeline got lost in a day dream.  She would finally have the cemetery wedding that she had been dreaming of for years...

"No time for day dreams Mouette, I have to change my clothes.  I must meet Mortimer by the lamp post at the far end of the cemetery.  That's too far to walk.  I will have to take Iago!"

She ran up to the attic and changed into her riding habit.  She re-read the letter and again her heart filled with joy, a feeling she seldom knew but was strangely pleasant to her.

It was getting dark but she rode Iago to the cemetery.  It was a very large cemetery, but she knew most of the residents.  In fact, she was the last one to see most of them!  The lamp post was in the oldest and loneliest, and farthest part of the cemetery.

At last she reached the lamp post and wondered who it was that came out here every night at dusk to light it.  Whomever it was was no where to be found.  She was totally alone.

Meanwhile, somewhere across town, Parnilla was sitting down to a dinner of partridge and peas at the Ipswich Grand.  Mortimer looked confused at the excuse Parnilla gave him but he said only, "She changed her mind?  Oh. I see."

Back in the cemetery, Evangeline got down from Iago to wait for Mortimer.

She should have heard his footseps by now but she heard only silence.

To Be Continued...

Project: Turning a Chair into a Vanity Bench

Here's a short little entry.  I have a 1:3 scale Bespaq Swan Vanity that really needs a vanity stool.  It's in the mahogany finish and I happen to have a Victorian side chair that I won cheaply because the upper part of the back of the chair had split.  The piece looked like this  when I started:

You can't tell from the picture that the chair was damaged but it was, right at the very top where the delicate woodwork is.  So, I got out my hand saw....

and I turned it into a stool.  In the pic above I added two round wooden beads to the area where I cut the frame.  The beads are in the same mahogany finish and are from a very damaged 1:3 rocking chair that I bought for it's parts.  Some men keep broken-down chevys on cinder blocks on the front lawn for parts, and some men keep broken Bespaq doll furniture for parts, to each his own.

I like the wooden beads, but I also tried out two brass knobs that I saved from a jewelry box that I had turned into an armoire:

Before I glue them down, I need to sand the area a bit so they are level, and touch it up a bit with a wood-stain marker, but I haven't decided which I like better.  Here's what the stool will look like from behind, remember, I still need to sand the point of contact down so the beads or knobs are attached correctly.  Wooden bead on the left, brass knob on the right:

I'd like some opinions if you care to offer them.  Brass knobs, or mahogany beads?  Life is full of tough choices.

DIORAMA SOURCES: PART I

I receive many emails and comments asking me where I find the props and furniture for my doll displays.  Well, to be honest, EVERYWHERE.  But there are two sources that have really supplied me with the best of the best in my dioramas.  I am calling this entry "Part I" because over time I will share more sources as I find them.  To me, a huge part of the fun of doll collecting is sharing ideas and sources and helping each other find that perfect item for our dolls. 

FURNITURE SOURCE:

pumpkinhillstudios is a reputable seller on Ebay selling doll miniatures in several scales.  One of her specialties is large-scale Bespaq.  Many of you may know Bespaq already as a high-end dealer in dollhouse (1:12) scale miniatures.  Back in the late 1990's Bespaq made a line of larger-scale doll miniatures and managed to keep their impeccable quality and detail.  The line of large-scale Bespaq has long been discontinued and pumpkinhillstudios is one of the only dealers that has it available for sale and she certainly has the best selection out there.  For Evangeline, stick to the 1:3 scale.  For your 16" dolls you will find the 1:4 scale perfect.  Many of you have written asking me about the vanity I use for Evangeline.  It is exquisite and is the crown jewel of my doll furniture collection for sure!  That vanity is the "1:3 scale Bespaq Hat Vanity".  The 1:4 scale Bespaq Hat Vanity does NOT work for Evangeline but it DOES work really well for all 16" Tonner dolls.  It is so highly detailed you will be blown away by it.  Please be sure to read her descriptions.  She takes great pain to describe each piece and any flaws it may have in detail.  Many of the items are first quality but for the items that have flaws, most can be fixed with glue and patience.  I highly recommend her doll furniture, it has made my dioramas come alive!  You can contact the seller directly through E-bay or by e-mail at pumpkinhillstudios@msn.com

Here is a picture of Parnilla Ghastly in front of the 1:3 scale Hat Vanity.  On the left of the picture is the 1:3 Curio.  I have the curio stuffed with hat boxes I made in a previous blog entry and several velvet necklace display busts (source to come in a later blog post)  All items in this picture are in the walnut finish:

Here is Cemetery Wedding preparing for her wedding-day-sans-groom at the same vanity:

Here is another vanity available from pumpkinhillstudios.  This one is the 1:3 Swan Vanity.  I am using it here with the 1:3 piano chair, both are in the mahogany finish.  On top of the vanity from left to right are as follows: (1) plastic cake candelabra that has had some of it's arms trimmed off to make it a more traditional candelabra (source to come later),  primed black, and dry-brushed with Golden brand sterling silver paint. (2) assorted vanity bottles I made in a previous blog entry, (3) black velvet necklace display bust, (4) two Durham bowls discussed below:

Here is Mortimer in the 1:3 Bespaq Rocking Chair:

And this pic of Mouette and Valentine taking it for a spin in the attic shows you more of the amazing detail in the chair:

Here is the 1:4 Bespaq armoire that I use for Agnes Dreary's wardrobe:

Here is Lady Dreary (aka The Queen of Hearts), with daughter Agnes, at her 1:4 Hat Vanity.  The lamp and the radio will be discussed below:

One last photo.  In this photo I am using the 1:4 Swan Vanity without the mirror (the mirrors are removable) as a tea table in Mort's parlor.  So as you can see some of the 1:4 scale Bespaq can be adapted to use with Evangeline.   In the back is a large scale Bespaq room screen (I don't know if it's 1:3 or 1:4 to be honest) and the Bespaq fireplace which I altered in a previous blog entry to add a simulated fire:

.

PROPS SOURCE:

The question I get most often is where did I find the little phone that Evangeline uses in my dioramas.  The phone is by Durham Industries.  Durham made a line of die cast miniatures in the 70's.  They are lovely.  The only problem is the scale in the line is ALL OVER the place.  So some pieces work beautifully and some don't work at all.  At this time I can confirm the following miniatures work in the following scales:

1:3 (Evangeline) scale: telephone, mixing bowl (with and without lid - makes an excellent bowl for a floral arrangement to go on top of the 1:3 vanities, see photo above), egg beaters, old-fashioned clothes iron (see photo), miner's lantern (I have 3 of these and LOVE LOVE LOVE them, they are pictured somewhere in a previous blog entry), coffee grinder, the typewriter (see pic), and the kitchen scale.

Here is Evangeline lounging in the 1:3 Bespaq Bergere chair, talking on the Durham phone:

Here is Evangeline using the Durham old-fashioned steam iron getting ready to go out:

Here is Mort's desk (the desk is a jewelry armoire I found at a junk shop) with (from left to right) the Durham globe pencil sharpener , the typewriter, and the phone:

For your 1:4 (Tonner 16") scale dolls the following Durham miniatures work well: hurricane lanterns, lamp, radio, and typewriter.  The lamp and radio are perfect on the 1:4 hat vanity (see above)

1:6 (Barbie) scale: the gramophone and the old fashioned wall phone

IMPORTANT: There are 3 ways that these miniatures were marketed and sold.  1) They were sold as lovely die-cast metal miniatures for collectors.  2) They were packaged and branded under the "Holly Hobby" name.  3) They were made with a built-in pencil sharpener and sold as collectible pencil sharpeners.  They are available in mass quantities on ebay in all 3 formats.  Whenever possible I try to avoid the pencil sharpener versions because they have a big hole in them somewhere for the pencil. That said, the pencil sharpener line has some pieces that I have not seen in the two non-pencil sharpener lines, for example, the desk globe that I use for Mort's desk, and the radio on Lady Dreary's vanity.  Usually, the pencil hole can be easily hidden but if you can avoid it why wouldn't you?

*Important note on Durham pricing:  DO NOT OVERPAY for Durham Miniatures.  The pricing on ebay is all over the place.  Generally speaking, never pay more than $12-$15 for a single piece and then only if it is in mint condition and you just HAVE to have it.  I have had amazing luck buying "lots" of them on ebay.  For $20 or so I have routinely scored lots of 8-10 pieces, some of which I want, some I don't, but it's still usually cheaper to buy or win lots. 

Have fun shopping, there will be more sources in later blog posts.

PROJECT: Miniature Art

Victorians really didn't like to have any vacant wall space so today I made miniature art to hang on the walls of the library.  The two that are the subject of this blog entry are the small ones hanging just to the left of Evangeline.  The picture on the far left, in the very dramatic frame, was purchased at an antique store.  The miniature tapestry is one of a pair that I won on Ebay (keywords search: "small French tapestry") and they are actually real tapestries that were meant to be sewn in to throw pillows, or, a perfect size for Barkley manor!  I still need to make a hanging rod for it to make it look better.  The picture on the far right in the oval gold frame is actually a postcard that came with the Tonner Metrodolls Gothic Romance doll (google it if you aren't familiar with it, it's awesome, and they still have some for sale on the metrodolls blog).  It's a postcard of the original sketch of the doll.  That outfit fits the plastic Evangeline, which is why I bought the doll, and I framed the postcard and hung it in he library.  Surely when Evangeline stumbled on the outfit in an armoire in the attic she recognized it from the portrait in the library!

Anyway, let's get started.  To begin with, I needed some frames.  Ebay keywords search was "miniature victorian frame" and I won this cool set for only $5.

I have plenty of oval frames already so I decided to work with the rectangular ones.  To begin with I spray-painted them with a black primer and then got out my Krylon gold-leafing marker:

Shake the pen, remove the cap, press the nib down on to a piece of wax paper, freezer paper, or some type of disposable plastic until you get a little pool of ink.  Then dip the tip of your index finger in the ink and rub it over and into the raised surfaces of the frame:

This gives the frame a tarnished gold look.  Next, I used little Dover art stickers:

This little book of stickers is only $1.50 and Gainsborough is a perfect match for Barkley Manor! I  applied the stickers directly to the cardboard that comes with the frame.  In this case, the stickers were the exact size needed for the frame so I didn't even need to trim anything!

The finished art work:

Barkley Manor library now has two Gainsboroughs in it's collection:

A Queen's Library!

Evangeline and I are getting bored of playing in the same space over and over again so plans are underway to construct my vision of what the library at Barkley Manor would look like.  I've been thinking about doing this for a long time but have been dragging my feet because I know that the space needed to do this would require major reorganization of my doll/craft room, not a task that I was looking forward to but it's finally done, and now I'm ready.

The first step was to look for inspiration.  If you google image search "gothic library" you will see some amazing eye candy.  There were many that inspired me but ultimately this is the one that really spoke to me and really embodied what I think the library at Barkley would look like.  It somehow manages to be cozy in it's creepiness, just like Evangeline herself:

Evangeline lives in the attic of the manor but I imagine she does sometimes wander through the deserted house, looking at relics from long-passed relatives, none of whom she ever knew, wondering what they were like.  So my goal is to create a room of elegance, gothic and creepy, but also cozy.  It needs to be a cozy room where Evangeline will go when there is a storm outside and she needs a comfortable chair to sit in and listen to the wind-driven rain but at the same time elegant enough to host Mortimer and his uncle for a glass of wine after midnight services at the local cemetery. 

I want this project to be a real room, not just a cross-section of one so it needs to be significantly larger than the attic I built.  As a result, I will not be able to build it entirely out of wood like I did the attic. That would require wood-working and architectural skills that I don't have.  But, I did remember that in a corner of my own attic there is a table top to an old victorian dining table.  I don't know whose it was or how it got there but it was there when we moved in.  I tried to move it once when I was cleaning the attic and it is extremely heavy.  I have decided that it will be the base that I build the library on.  I hauled the table out of the attic and set it up in the room where it will now live.  It was missing two of it's legs so I used a card table for it's base:

Once I had the floorprint of the room it was time to overcome one major obstacle: the books.  You might think that's a small detail to be worried about once the room is built but have you ever looked into buying small books as props?  It turns out you can spend as much as your heart desires, and then some, but it's not easy to find them cheaply.  I have been looking for months for a cheap supplier of small finished books and I have come up with nothing.  I went to the Brimfield antique show and found a dealer with a complete set of miniature Shakespeares that I thought would be perfect…they were $2,000!  I decided Evangeline didn't like Shakespeare anyway.   Del Prado has a line of miniature books in the $7-$10 range but they are too thick to be the correct scale. The cheapest ones I found that worked were $5 each - still way too much for me to stock a library with.  I decided there was no point in pursuing this project if I couldn't come up with a source of books.  This brings me to my first project: book making.  And LOTS of it!

Credit goes to Leo for suggesting I use "fun foam" as the pages.  Fun Foam can be found in sheets at craft stores like Michael's or online.  I bought both white and tan fun foam sheets and found the tan ones looks most like an antique book in the finished product.  If you want to make faux mini books en masse, here's what I used to do it:

fun foam sheets
paper trimmer
bone folder
staples
old books

1) First, decide on the trim size of your book.  For my first series of books I chose 2.25" x 1.5".  Using the paper trimmer first cut strips of 2.25" and then cut those strips into 1.5" pages.  My paper trimmer did not cut all the way through the foam but it "scored" it well enough so I was able to just pull it apart:

once you cut your strips into pages, stack as many as you want to get the book as thick as you would like. I used 4 pieces for all of my books.  Tap one long end on the table to get it perfectly lined up and put a staple in the other end to secure it:

To make a cover for the book, you could use most any kind of paper: construction paper, wallpaper, scrapbook paper, etc.  I really want to get the look of old books for Evangeline's library so I have chosen to use the book cloth that lines antique books.  You can find old books anywhere; yard sales, books sales, antique stores, etc, usually very inexpensively.  I have chosen several books that have very dusty looking covers.  Begin by running an exacto knife or straight edge razor down the inside spine of the front and back of the book:

This will separate the pages of the book from the cover.  It will also make it easy for you to remove the book cloth from the cardboard of the cover.  With antique books the glue that binds the book cloth to the cardboard cover is usually so dry that you can peel the book cloth right off.  In the case of The Life of Aaron Burr Volume 1, here is what I was left with:

Using my paper trimmer (you could use an exacto knife and ruler if you don't have one) I trimmed the book cloth into 2.25" strips to match the height of my books.  Cut pieces of the strips and staple them to the "book".  It doesn't matter if you cover the book entirely with the book cloth unless you want to display the books on a table or in the doll's hands.  These books that I am making are just filler so they just need to fool the eye.  Here is a close up of a finished book:

and here is what a bunch of them look like on the book shelf:

As you can see, I have mixed in some of the manufactured books I bought to give it variety but using these "books" as filler will stretch my dollar much further and enable me to fill three of these shelving units.  The shelving units, by the way, are golf ball display cabinets with the glass doors removed, the unit turned upside down so the golf ball indentations are on the bottom of the shelves and not visible, and with a few coats of American Masters Walnut Spray Paint to make them darker.

Well, now I have books and book shelves.  Now on to building the room, just as soon as I make about   600 more of these little books....

A Tale of Two Critters

Later that week, Evangeline was getting ready to go out to the annual Mortician's Assistant's Gala Dinner, which was conveniently being held at Ipswich Grand Hotel that year.  She was, of course, going alone.  Still, as she did every year, she made herself a smashing new gown.

As she finished getting ready, Valentine and Mouette watched from an old rocking chair, holding hands and looking very innocent.

"I know that look, you two.  I've seen that innocent look on your faces before and the last time I did I came home to find half the skunks in Ipswich Wood and seventeen stray cats dancing in the rafters of my attic!  It took nearly three weeks to get the smell out.  Tonight I'm going out to the Mortician's Assistant's Gala Dinner and I don't want any trouble."

As Evangeline turned to leave, Valentine jumped off the rocking chair and climbed up a stack of shoe boxes so she would be tall enough to get Evangeline's attention.  She presented Evangeline with a corsage that she and Mouette had made for her earlier that day with the last rose of summer from the gardens at Barkley Manor.

It almost made Evangeline cry.  Who needed Mortimer when she had friends like Mouette and Valentine?  Evangeline showed off her corsage before heading off to the gala.

As soon as the door closed Valentine was walking the rafters:

and Mouette was going through Evangeline's desk:

At last!  The keys to the curio!

They immediately set about stacking up hat boxes and shoe boxes and storage boxes from all over the attic until they had a stack tall enough for Mouette to climb and unlock the curio door:

Valentine stood on the sidelines, cheering him on!  At last the curio was open but Mouette lost his balance and...

...all you could see was his tail and his tiny hand.  Once they had cleaned up the mess they stood in awe of Evangeline's hats and jewelry:

and then the fun began...

But for every hat and pair of shoes they tried on, there was another even more beautiful:

and another:

until finally, exhausted, they fell asleep in a most impressive mountain of borrowed hats, shoes, and jewelry:

Just before dawn Evangeline returned from the gala:

and stifled a laugh:

and realized she better hide her curio keys in a better place.  The End.


Making this entry was seriously fun.  What we all wouldn't give to go into Evangeline's attic, find the keys to her curio, and try on her hats and jewelry.  And if you don't have the critters yet, let me just say they are so unbelievably cute I don't know how or why I thought I could do without them.