Dollhouse Miniatures… A Bit of a Break from Beads [Spotlight]

Hi Cindy,

Here are some close up pics of my doll furniture and accessories. I wish I had more to show but I have been side tracked into making beads lately! (I wonder who’s fault that is! :)  It’s been a great detour, don’t get me wrong!

My little bathtub babies were fun to make and the bubbles were made out of glass beads for scrapbooking embellishments. Very tiny and with no holes but very effective. The rug and towels were made out of old beach towels.  The rug has a polymer clay backing. I rolled a piece of clay with the material through the pasta machine to embed the clay and then baked it.  The brush and soap were fun to make.  Adding a little bit of glass beads really makes the soap look wet and bubbly. The clay bow that ties the towels up is my favorite.

The little table was hard at first. I didn’t have the knowledge on the proper way to join baked clay and made this the hard way. The “wood” grain is done very similar to your way described in the Faux Bone and Ivory video. To make the spindle legs I just used a needle and rolled the leg until the line met. I wanted to make sure the legs were the same so I marked a piece of tape on my table and marked lines were I wanted the design to be. The legs were uneven when I put the table together so I had to sand the legs with sandpaper. After I got it done I realized it was too small! I haven’t found a better way to make it so I have yet to make another one.

The fruit basket was fun. But, I was not familiar enough at the time, with polymer clay, to really do a good job on these. I guess when I try something I have to start with the most difficult things. I can’t remember what I used to make the texture on the oranges. I think I used sandpaper. I just rolled the little ball of sandpaper lightly to dimple the clay. The grapes were tedious but came out pretty good.

The cherry pie was my dad’s favorite. I thought he was going to eat it at first! It is the size of a US quarter. (Sorry, I didn’t use a quarter when photographing these – I forgot.) I rolled very tiny balls of red clay for the cherries (I made a thin log of clay and cut the log into the same size pieces so they would be close to the same size.) I glazed the cherries with liquid sculpty and laid the lattice like a real pie. It helps if you are a baker in real life to do this. Actually, I tell everyone that my real pies come out so well because I play with clay a lot! LOL!

The cups were fairly easy to make. Just a small ball of clay and I used a pencil to make the inside of the cup. Just slowly press the pencil into the clay until you get to the depth you want. The little plate was a slice of an attempt to make a flower cane. The petals were done in translucent clay and would be better for making a sun-catcher since light go right through them. Your video on how to make the Gerbera Flower Cane was so much easier to make than this one!

The scale to most of these are not too good. I was just trying different techniques. But, were cute enough for my own collection. Plus, these were my first attempts with polymer clay. Thank God, I found The Polymer Clay Tutor and learned the easy way to play with clay!

Thanks, Cindy, for showcasing my first attempts at polymer clay and my little collection of miniature doll furniture and accessories. It’s been two years now and I have learned more here than anywhere. Keep up the good work!

~Catalina