I built the White Orchid six years ago and promised to post finished pictures. Well, it is about to be packed up for a move and won't see daylight until about Thanksgiving, so I took some photos to update you. (Click this link to see the building progress. Click on the images to see larger views.)
For those unacquainted with what I did here, I used the 1:12 scale house and fitted it out for its 1:24 scale occupants.
This is how she looks today. The opening above the door is meant to house a cuckoo. His polyclay body is baked but his feathers have not been applied.
I did not install the front door as it would have taken up too much room inside. I wanted it open so as to be able to see in. None of the folks who have viewed the house have mentioned the lack of a door. The settee was scratch built. The two thin dowels (plus a U-channel along the back edge) are sufficient to keep the ceiling from sagging, since I also left out the ground floor interior wall.
The landscaping is a mix of natural materials, plastic flowers and polyclay mushrooms. The base is contractor's foam covered with gesso and painted to look like sandy soil. The little men on the step are salt and pepper shakers.
The large mushroom is a Christmas tree ornament, just like the ones that decorated our tree as I was growing up. That, plus the creamy whiteness of the White Orchid's plastic, provided the inspiration for this house in the Bohemian forest.
The right side is a bit more complex with the bay window, so the landscaping has less detail.
The back reveals three rooms. A combination workshop and kitchen on the ground floor with a trundle bed for the one girl elf and a bunk room for the four boy elves and a shared sitting/dining area for all of them. (By the way, three of the elves were out when the photos were taken.)
The workshop is on the ground floor. The guys have been busy, with lots of toys already finished. The room divider holds some of the sugary goodies baked in the kitchen. Under the divider is a trundle bed for the female elf. It would not do for her to bunk with the boys.
You can see from the workbench that they're still at it. Look at the plastic stars on the walls. They are each wired with a tiny light. The stars themselves are real life mirror fasteners.
The stairway is constructed from contractor's foam painted with gesso. The bricks are ceramic. The little mouse band on the stairs was a set of miniature Christmas ornaments. With the bottom steps pulled away you can see the lever that activates the batter pack to turn on the lights. The channels for the wiring are carved into the backside of the fireplace wall, which can be moved away from the wall for maintenance.
The common area upstairs has a dining area and some comfy chairs.
There are books in the shelves built into the center gable. The lamps on the hutch light up,
The doorway leads to the bunk room.
The lady elf keeps her sewing machine upstairs, away from the sawdust and paint splatters of the downstairs workshop. The lamps on the end tables light up.
The wooden floor is a sample of window blind from Lowe's. It covers the lamp wires that feed up to this floor from the battery pack below.
The bunk room is fitted with hammocks. With the sloping ceiling, they worked better than bunk beds.
The closeup of the roof seen here shows what a nice covering the Krylon spray paint provided. It's in keeping with the satiny sheen of the raw plastic. The white spots are cut from craft foam sheets.
