So Close to Finished ...

A miniature is hardly ever finished. There's always some tweaking that can be done. The quilt shop room box is at that stage. More can be done, but it can wait. I spent a good bit of today inhaling rubber cement fumes as I arranged the quilts and sample blocks on the walls. 

The photos are a bit dark on the outside, as daylight was fading as I took these. The LED lights make the interior bright and cheerful. The bricks on the outside are printed cotton fabric. The raw wood box was primed with gesso. The fabric was glued in place with diluted white glue (two parts glue, one part water). When that dried thoroughly, it got two coats of satin finish clear polyacrylic. Although the bricks are a bit large for 1:12 scale, it makes a satisfying finish to the outside.

Inside, the  shop is shaping up. I discovered a nice open spot in the middle of the shop that is crying out for a round table heaped with sale or seasonal items. The customer with the shopping bag is waiting patiently!

Back in the corner, I found room for a wastebasket. Check the scene out the window in this and other pictures. Notice the shadow of the window on the sky? Bad news. Am thinking about putting translucent plastic on the window, as I did on the door. It will indicate light outside, but it won't be possible to see through it. Hate to lose the view, but shadows on the sky are annoying.

There is a channel that runs across the bottom of the box and up the two sides to hold a piece of Plexiglas. A fourth piece of channel slips over the top to complete the frame. I have no plans to do much dusting in this cluttered scene!

Now for the big reveal -- the working fan! I used Casey's idea for the ornament twirler. It rotates slowly, just as one would want. Wouldn't care to have bits of fabric blowing all over! For some reason, the camera kept adding rolling black bars to the picture, only while filming the fan, but I think you'll get the idea. Update: See a better video here.

So, still tweaking to be done, but for now, all is well in the quilt shop.

Ceiling Fan

It's not a working fan, but still, I like what it adds to the room. I thought you might like to see the process. The first photo shows the jewelry finding that was cannibalized to make the hardware for the fan blades. As it was straightened, bits of the silver coating chipped off. That was okay, because I planned to paint it. Actually, it would have helped if all of the silver had chipped off, but it didn't.

Here's all it took. The five fan blades were cut from a piece of frosted mylar. The round beads are spacers. The big red bead is the motor assembly, and the star is a mirror fastener. The stick has a hole drilled cross-wise at the top end. The stick goes through a hole in the ceiling and a jewelry pin slips through the hole to keep it from falling back down.

It turned out I used only the flat black and gold paint. Saw no need for the shiny black.

I painted the motor bead and then scratched some lines around it. You can see the clear red bead inside in the photo, not so much in real life. I'm hoping that when the lights are on it, the scratched lines may look a bit like the copper windings that would be inside a real motor.

And here it is in place. The star is a bit showy, I think. I need to find a plain housing. In real life, it would be about 48" in diameter. It was hard to take a photo, but you get the idea. And remember, this is just temporary, until I figure out how to make one with a real motor.

Update: I did it! See the moving fan here.

A Mini Household Hint

No pictures today. I added the channel that will hold the Plexiglas on the front of the quilt shop room box. Not terribly photogenic. I stained the channels with the Minwax Early American to tie in with the floor. When I went to the sink to clean the brush, I totally forgot it was not a water based stain. What a mess when the water hit the brush.

I was near the laundry supplies, and a light bulb went on. I grabbed the Shout and gave the brush a few squirts. I figure if it dissolves spots of various natures, why not?

It worked! The Shout cut through the petroleum base, and that plus my favorite Lava soap got that brush as clean as nearly new with about three soapings.

So then I grabbed a brush that had been used for latex and accidentally left out to dry. It worked almost as well. Much of the paint came out with a little gentle massaging with my thumb, working in the soap and Shout. A few bristles were still stuck together, so I put some Shout in a small container and left the brush to soak in it overnight. I'm expecting come morning it will be easily cleaned.