Good Works

Hello dear friends! I hope all of you are well and that those celebrating Mother's Day had a lovely one to remember! Just getting to be the mom of my two amazing kids would have been enough for me, but Natasha (33 in July), and Ande (31 in July), went out of their way to make sure I felt loved and appreciated!

Ande came by for a hug (the first one I've gotten from him since social distancing started) and brought these beautiful roses, gourmet cinnamon bears from Tacoma Brothers (a wonderful local grocery store), and let me keep my grandpuppy Rosie overnight.

My daughter Natasha, who is known to spoil me rotten, got me a 3D printer! The learning curve is going to require a lot of trial and patience, but I am so excited to get started actually printing my own miniature designs in the future! What thoughtful people my incredible kids have become! There is no gift greater than that!

When I last posted about the vanities, I had found a silicone mold making kit in my "someday" stash. I had a lot of fun working with the stuff and got great results with almost everything I tried!

The process is simple enough: Mix equal parts of an "A" and "B" liquid substance, place your model into a container, pour the combined mixture over the piece you want to mold (pot life 50 mins). and wait about 4 hours to demold. I used a couple Unique and Falcon Miniatures pieces that I had to experiment with.

The mold will end up the size and shape of the container you used to hold the model, so it is good to have one close in size to the item you are molding. It is recommended that you fill the silicone about 1/2" above the piece you are molding so that it is strong enough to handle many future casts. I used cheap dollar store plastic storage tubs as my model holder and they were wonderful! I need a little practice on my level filling skills, but it was easy enough to clean up the opening with my Xacto knife after the mold had cured.

I cast many brackets using the leftover colored resin from the tiny product bottles I was making. This is great because one of these brackets alone costs around $5. If you need a lot of them in a build, molding and casting is the way to go! With a coat of gesso and then paint you'll never know there is colored resin beneath. The detail is amazing!

Speaking of product bottles, I made a mold for those, as well. The mold has 5 bottles in three sizes.

I experimented with different mediums to color the resin including alcohol ink, chalk and paint as I have always done. But just to broaden my horizons, I'll be ordering a set of mica powders to try the next time I do resin work. The chalk was pretty good, but the paint and alcohol ink were difficult to get the exact color I was after. In order to achieve lavender I had to mix red and blue inks. If I'd had a purple it would have been easier to achieve, The mottled ones below were a combo of chalk with a little white acrylic paint mixed in. It took a lot longer to cure and not all of the bubbles came out. If you're going for a scrubbing body wash or a bubble bath this can work in your favor!

One mold did not work well at all. In fact, I broke the model piece just trying to remove it from the mold. This type of intricate and thin model may require a mold release agent, which I did not try this time. I think I can still use the mold, however, if it is in a setting where I want the detail to look as though it is old and has seen many layers of paint over the years.

These are what I ended up with the first time through with the bottle mold and colored resin. Not perfect, but not bad. I have some ideas to try out which I believe will perfect the method, and I will keep you posted! I found and ordered better bottle tops from Bindle's, too, so that should help the overall appearance to be more authentic. I need to improve the scale of the labels, too. Maybe use slide decals instead.

While I had the resin out, I took the opportunity to use the excess resin in an Architectural Flourishes mold I picked up from AlphaStamps a while back. These came out beautifully, and it makes me want to do a small project just to use them!

Now let's get to the other accessories for the vanity sets. You remember the candles and pillars (tutorial here)...

I also made baskets based on Casey's Very Easy Basket Tutorial, only adding some 1/16" silk ribbon to the top and bottom and painting in coordinating colors.

And filled them with towels I made up and printed on fabric. Here are the towels and rugs for you to use if you like.

Then I was on to the arrangements for the vases that will sit on the vanity countertops. I made eucalyptus branches from an SDK kit and lavender based on the We Love Miniatures tutorial on YouTube. I had enough left over to make up some heart shaped grapevine wreath hangings, too.

Next I made some framed art with the eucalyptus and lavender theme using free art found on the internet. I used the Cricut to make matting and back covers, then painted 1-3/16" x 1-7/16" frames in coordinating colors. Here's the art if you'd like it, too.

In looking at the vessel sink height, I decided to raise up the faucet unit by adding a booster piece beneath. Now the faucets are at a much better height to function. I finally added the mirror material too!

The sink itself is a bisque bowl painted and then given a gloss coat. For the illusion of the drain, I use a flat washer topped with a round nail head stud. This is supposed to look like the more modern 'push to toggle open and closed' type of drain plug.

Now it's back to work on the product bottles to see if I can make them better. I'll be back soon with the perfected vanity and accessories for the giveaway! In the meantime, I encourage you to see what ways you can help those in your communities. Food banks are great, making masks is great, or even bringing a batch of homemade cookies down to your local fire station. It'll make a difference, I promise! And it'll make you feel so good!

xo xo,
Jodi

Happy Mother's Day!

In my post Changing Gears... Again, I'd shared how I was losing track of time and suddenly realized that it was only a couple weeks until a very important event. Some of you guessed that it was Mother's Day (May 10th here in the U.S.), and you were right! I generally send flowers, candy, gift cards to my mom, but this year, I wanted to give her something to play with! And that is how the southwest/Spanish style patio came about.

It had humble beginnings, being made from foam core and cardstock. But that is why this hobby is so much fun! A little dreaming, determination and some scraps and viola! Something from practically nothing!

After that first post about the project, I added a string of lights and floral vine to the pergola, and added a wooden base and frame filled with mini railroad gravel. I had a palm tree in my stash which had been slated for a different project that I was going to make for my mom a few years ago. I was excited to finally be able to gift it to her in this one!

I made several pots of flowers, a potted cactus, a rocking chair from a kit, a stool and tray table and a bunch of other fun accessories. Mom is not a "mini person" and wonders how I don't get frustrated working with things that are so small. She adores burros and makes pilgrimages whenever possible to find and feed them, so I had to include one of those - a tiny one. See if you can spot him!

She marvels at my patience and dexterity and says she would never have the patience. I think she would have the patience once she experienced the fun and thrill of each little treasure. So, I left most all of the accessories loose and packaged separately. I wanted her to have the joy of unwrapping many small wonders and then getting to arrange them in any way she likes. I included a photo of a suggested layout, some fun tack, tips on placing items and instructions on the lighting and battery box.

Mom got her package yesterday and called me right away. She was THRILLED, and so excited to unwrap all of the accessories! She said I had made her year and that it was like Christmas! My dad was pretty excited about it, too, and told mom he wanted to play with her! I hope she ends up enjoying it so much that she asks for more roomboxes to play with in the future! You know I'll enjoy making her plenty of them!!!

What more can you ask than to give a gift where the recipient loves what you've made for them, especially when it lets them know how special they are to you!!!

To all the moms and everyone else who has loved another human or animal selflessly, Happy Mother's Day to all of you and may that love come back to you sevenfold! I hope you get to celebrate together, whether on a screen or in person!

xo xo,
Jodi

Never Boring At My House!

Here I am with another project that may seem out of the blue, and on top of that, it's one that I can't talk too much about for a few weeks! I know, I know! Then why even tease you?!? Well, because, when I don't post anything I get lonely for you! So indulge me for the next few weeks and then I promise I'll get back to the bakery and back to laying all of my cards on the table...

Without giving much explanation, I can say that I have been changing gears and working on a couple small side projects. Not the southwest/Spanish style patio project - it is finished and I'll have a post about that later this week. This is a whole other commitment I made around the beginning of the year.

For this one, I started off with vintage The Daisy House Hall Table w/Mirror kits, and, making a few minor modifications, turned them into bathroom vanity sink units. I added a full shelf to the bottom and made new deeper stained wooden countertops to accommodate a sink and faucet. Adding the mirrors will be one of the last things I do as it is safer that way!

Each will have a different overall theme, and so accordingly, the accessories will be made up of supporting color schemes. Think eucalyptus and lavender. Below are the candle sets for each, and the candle and pillar tutorial can be found on the tutorials page or in the March/April issue of American Miniaturist.

What am I going to do with them? Well... I can tell you part of the story...

A lot of you know that Russ is a contractor. That means that we experience a lot of Feast or Famine depending on the work situation. Our married life has been sprinkled with a few very scary times, especially in the younger years when we often did not have two dimes to rub together or much food in the cupboard. I remember a time when our kids were really little. Russ had to have surgery and so was out of work for about six weeks. We were struggling to make ends meet and our grocery budget was dismal. In our mail box one day was a grocery store gift certificate for $25 and the name of a local food bank. I did not know our tiny town even had a food bank! The angel who sent us that help touched us in such an amazing way. It was an anonymous gift, but we knew who it was from. They were a young couple, too, and they had three kids! And yet they shared what they could with us. That amazing gesture opened up our minds and hearts to the idea of giving whenever you are able to give. This is why Russ and I support our local food bank and I encourage you, if you are among the lucky in these times, to donate food or money to yours. A little can go a long way!

When the vanity sets are finished, I'll hold a drawing for one of them. All you have to do to enter is to donate to your local food bank. If you are among the folks relying on the food bank to help you through this time, all you have to do is agree to one day, when times are better, pay it forward. More details to follow...

In the meantime, I am going to continue to make accessories for the vanity sets until I run out of materials or ideas. In digging through drawers to come up with ideas, I came across these! Looks like no boredom is in the cards for me!

And just so you know that I am serious about getting back to the bakery, I have ordered three cake kits from Stewart Dollhouse Creations! I imagine the learning curve will be a sharp one, but hopefully, you'll be here to laugh (or cry) with me through the process!

Stay safe and get busy making!

xo xo,
Jodi