Anyone here interested in miniatures?

I've now been clean from gambling for five months. My gambling counselor suggested that I find a fun hobby that would help me get through the next little while, as I adjust from being a gambler to my regular self again. I've decided to build a dollhouse out of an old cabinet, and make my own furnishings, curtains, rugs, etc.

I've never been one to play with dolls, but miniatures have always fascinated me. I have gotten some inspiration from Pinterest on how people have repurposed old furniture into the most unique, interesting dollhouses.

I've already decided to make it look like a creepy old hospital from the outside, and do the interior like a really cool Victorian house. I know it sounds a bit silly, but my husband and I are both into miniatures and upcycling old things into funky, interesting pieces of art, so it's something that we can do together as a team.

I'm going to be putting it in my office, which is kind of an odd space. I think it will fill the one empty wall I have with something unique and interesting.

Oh yes, when I've mentioned it to a couple of people, I've been asked if I'm making it for kids. I just laugh and tell them it's for me. It's going to be a work of art when I'm done, and definitely not a toy.

Yes, I may be a cold-hearted CF woman, but I still love indulging my inner child with a number of different things. Just because I'm an adult doesn't mean I can't enjoy a few simple pleasures.

I like miniatures.

(Does anybody who seriously gets into dollhouses EVER do it for children? The ones I've seen aren't really playthings. They're very much a "look but don't you fucking DARE touch!!" sort of thing.)

I know what you mean! Some of the miniatures that I've looked at are extremely pricey and delicate. Definitely NOT toys. I've found a lady who is also into miniatures and dollhouses, and she's local to me. I'm going to email her today and see what ideas she can come up with for me.

The ODD thing about the kids comment, is that people KNOW I don't have kids. Why would I put my hard work and effort into building something for someone else's brats? It just doesn't make sense to me.

I don't know anything about miniatures, but what you're doing sounds cool.

Some people think whatever talents or interests a person has should be used in service of "the children". I've encountered this attitude more than once myself. I think it's disgusting.

It's been hell week in the house, but I've finally managed to shoot an email off to the lady who specializes in miniatures and dollhouses. Hopefully, I'll hear back. I tried emailing her before, but I had accidentally put the wrong email address in the computer, and things were getting sent back.

ITA with you, ondinette. I'm so tired of feeling like if I don't do something for loaves, it's either selfish or not worth doing. I personally don't feel that way, but it's usually shoved in my face at random times.

"Oh, are you building the dollhouse for kids?"
"Oh, did you buy a house so you can have kids?"
"Would you like to donate to this cause? It's for the KIDS"

It never ends. If I wanted to dedicate my life to loaves, I would have done so many years ago. The fact that I have NO interest or desire to do things for people just because they are much younger than me is nobody's business.

It's the "It takes a village" mentality that drives me crazy. I didn't volunteer to be part of that particular village, and I have no intentions of starting now.

The only place I can get solace away from that bit of idiocy is here on this board.

I was checking out at a store one day and saw a boxed set of Pokemon cards that I wanted. I asked the cashier how much they were because they weren't marked; they were a little pricey for me at the moment, but I said yeah, I'd get them. Then while she was ringing me up she asked if I wanted to donate to some kids' charity. I automatically said no, then realized how it must look that I was splurging on 'mon cards and refusing to donate to the kiddies. So I said, "To hell with the kids, I want Pokemon cards." The cashier laughed and said, "Hey, you want what you want."

I didn't ask, but it made me wonder if she was CF.

Haha, that's great! I usually just say, "I've already given." That makes them leave us alone. The only charities I give to are hospices and animal charities.

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mumofsixbirds
Haha, that's great! I usually just say, "I've already given." That makes them leave us alone. The only charities I give to are hospices and animal charities.

Glad you like. I only give to animal and environmental causes, though there are some global-scale causes I will give to when I have more discretionary income.

NONE of them will be child-oriented.

I know almost zero about miniatures, but your new hobby/art sounds great! I think your counselor is smart. Everyone needs some kind of art or other mode of self-expression, and people who're kicking addictions/compulsions need a way to channel energy as they adjust to their new life. Building miniatures and dollhouses and the like could be something that could take up as much time as you wanna give.

Upload some pictures when you can. I'd like to see it progress.

As for doing things "for the children", I've gotten similar questions for buying games, Lego, camping equipment, and other hobby materials. If they ask if it's for a kid or something I'm going to do with my kid, I grin and say, "Nah, I just like it. No excuse needed". The cashiers usually smile back or make a positive comment.

And as for charities...I give money to Planned Parenthood, public broadcasting, and a couple animal rescue groups. I am not opposed to the existence of children's charities, but I figure that they've already got a lot of public goodwill and support already.

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randomcfchick
I am not opposed to the existence of children's charities, but I figure that they've already got a lot of public goodwill and support already.

That's exactly it. People fall over themselves for children's charities. Try getting the same response to protect less appealing animals (or the freaking air we breathe) and it's a different story.

I am going to be a bad man and play devil's advocate: I don't see the point of miniatures or the horticultural version, bonsai. Why not improve the house or garden you actually live in rather than a place not even Barbie could live in?

But then, if it is a hobby that replaces breeding as a hobby, I am all for it, especially on today, Earth day.

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mr. neptune
I am going to be a bad man and play devil's advocate: I don't see the point of miniatures or the horticultural version, bonsai. Why not improve the house or garden you actually live in rather than a place not even Barbie could live in?

But then, if it is a hobby that replaces breeding as a hobby, I am all for it, especially on today, Earth day.

Hey Mr. Neptune,

The thing is, I love the idea of creating and decorating. My house already looks like a dollhouse. It's really nice on the inside, in fact, I was planning on doing a miniature version of my own house as a display. The weather here has been pretty lousy, definitely not gardening weather. Once the weather gets better, I plan on gardening and planting.

I think that the idea for me is that I love creating things that are original. I have two beautiful porcelain dolls and a vintage doll, and I'd love to make a little home for them. I guess I see it as kind of therapeutic and artistic.

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mr. neptune
I am going to be a bad man and play devil's advocate: I don't see the point of miniatures or the horticultural version, bonsai. Why not improve the house or garden you actually live in rather than a place not even Barbie could live in?

Why does it have to be "instead of"? Why can't it be "in addition to"?

You can have a hobby and a nice life, too.

I haven't heard of this before but it sounds fun and creative. Glad you've got a hobby you're enjoying and hope you're coping well with the gambling addiction.

I've just started working on the house itself. I grabbed a wooden box that my husband built for some of his records ( he wasn't using it ) and added some flooring, wallpaper with wainscoting, and put some of my doll furniture into it. So far, I have the kitchen and dining room started.

It actually looks pretty good so far! I used woodgrain mactac for the flooring and put it partially up the walls, using a cutout border and printable wallpaper I got for free off of the net, and voila! The box doesn't have a back on it, so I wasn't able to do anything with that yet, but I'm going to have a back made for it, and I'll continue the theme from one side to the other.

On nice days, I go out and work on the garden, but our weather here has been touch-and-go. I find the dollhouse project to be quite soothing and relaxing as a hobby. Once I have it looking a bit better, I will post some pics. It's starting to look like a little Victorian house. I'm going to add some macabre touches to it, to make it a little bit spooky inside. When it's done, it should be pretty neat.

My husband is giving me a bookcase out of the garage for me to use as a large dollhouse. I've decided to turn it into a 'Mystery Hotel' of sorts, with weird shit going on in each room. I've got a small prototype started, and it looks amazeballs. I can't wait to start the big one now!

I have a couple of photos I took of the dollhouse in its beginning phases. I'm just playing around with it right now, trying to inspire myself for interesting ideas. Here's what I've got so far.




The images don't work properly, but you can click on the "Open Image Url" and it will work. Sorry about the lousy quality of the pics, but I kinda took these pics in a hurry.

http://s1378.photobucket.com/user/flappergirl35/library/?sort=3&page=1

That link works to get to the album. I quite like the kitchen. Have you got anything that shows the entire box/house?

Sorry about that, I've just opened a PhotoBucket account, and didn't know it would show all the pics at once.

Thanks, Yurble! I don't have a pic of that yet, but those are the only two floors I've done so far. Once I get dividers for the rooms, it'll be a bit different again.

I have quite a bit of work to do on the rest of the case, but I'll be adding more photos to the album as I get them done.

ETA: I just removed the extra links, so it would make it smaller. Editing once again, just to let you guys know I've added some photos of my freaky doll collection in there, too. Two are spirit vessel dolls, and the other three, I'm not sure.

I also just added a full photo of the old bookcase I'm converting. It needs a LOT of work. Husband dragged it out of the garage last Saturday, and it was full of dead spiders and shit. I'm going to be painting it and adding dividers in once I figure out how I want it to look. I'm also debating removing the bottom doors, although I'm not quite sure yet. I'm going to paint the outside to look a bit dilapidated, using a distressed finish.

Maybe it is just how my mind works, but I'd keep the doors on...and then put some creepy stuff in the basement, borrowing from fictional horror (as in stuff that doesn't really exist) to go with the mystery hotel theme.

Hi Yurble,
It's so ironic you mention that, because I was thinking of turning my Hotel into something kind of spooky, like a Mystery Hotel where I put a little blood spatter on a shower curtain, some tiny pill bottles on a nightstand in another room...etc. I was also going to add things from literature, such as reference to some of my favorite books written by Stephen King. I was going to include copies of the books into the Hotel as an idea for a funky bookcase.

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mumofsixbirds
Hi Yurble,
It's so ironic you mention that, because I was thinking of turning my Hotel into something kind of spooky, like a Mystery Hotel where I put a little blood spatter on a shower curtain, some tiny pill bottles on a nightstand in another room...etc. I was also going to add things from literature, such as reference to some of my favorite books written by Stephen King. I was going to include copies of the books into the Hotel as an idea for a funky bookcase.

I think that is going to be a cool dollhouse. There are so many things you could do, like write 'redrum' on a mirror, or have a little balloon emerging from a drain (that's what I can remember from Stephen King books, I haven't read that many). Or a hairy arm or tentacle emerging from under a bed...

Then in the basement you could go all out and forget being subtle. I can't remember what book it was, but I remember a bleeding wall with a bunch of screaming heads bulging out from behind the wallpaper. Stuff like that.

Hey MumOfSixBirds, glad you overcame the addiction. Your work and the dolls look really nice, and the gothic/spooky ideas sound really creative and interesting, am looking forward to the final product. Its intriguing that you even own spirit dolls, I was always interested about those.
Making Miniatures is an awesome hobby, I love it myself, because it’s easy to be artistic, relax, and actually build something in scale that would be either impossible or extremely costly in real life.
In my home in southern Saxony, there has been a long tradition of wood carving, especially for Christmas decoration. There were some exceptional artists who would carve figurines from the sticks of matches, or carve pictures into cherry cores, or build tiny wooden dioramas into halves of a cracked walnut. It always fascinated me.
Apart from trying to make a scaled model of a cathedral from a victorian-themed PC game (Thief 3), I’ve myself been making or coloring figurines, houses, trees and other décor for model railway dioramas, one of them in an old railway museum. Along with the animated scenes and all the electrical work for the trains, it’s a really nice and calming work to create scenes from the past, or replicas of really existing landscapes, factories or railway stations with people posed to be working there, along with the painting of backdrops, that would be hanged behind the diorama to simulate far away landscapes and varieties of different skies.
I'm planning to make a model railway for myself that is inspired by victorian and gothic vibes, taking influences from Sherlock Holmes, Jack the ripper, haunted themes and other horror elements. Another idea I had, was making a railway based on a Zombie apocalypse

Luckily, here in Germany, model railway making is commonly seen as “grownup art”, so I myself haven’t so far been bullshit-asked about doing it “for chyyyldruun”. Also the fact I’ve been working on these dioramas as a volunteer for museums rendered this question obsolete.
But if such a thing would have been asked, I surely would have gotten offended. Everyone in my circle knows that I cannot stand kyydzz, and why the heck would anyone invest tons of time and resources into a fragile artwork such as a model railway or model houses, just to have it ruined and messed up by the grimy, destructive and uncherishing paws of snot-gollums?? This is beyond me.
Same goes for kid charities. They are such a nuisance. After all, so many people are kid-crazy here and would give them cash, why wouldn't they take no for an answer from people like me?
I occasionally was blabbed at by such charity people on the streets, and after they were telling me how heartless I am, I would respond that I am willing to donate ONLY to charities that are about cancer research (for ALL ages, NOT brats ONLY), animal rescue, nature preservation, and museum perservation (technical, historical and classical art museums in my case). These kid-centric assholes are such hypocrites!

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Freedom & Art & Music >>>>>>>>>> human spawn

"Music is immortal. People are not."
-William Anger, "King's Story" - Thief2 FM by Zontik

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bastet-the-bass-cat
Same goes for kid charities. They are such a nuisance. After all, so many people are kid-crazy here and would give them cash, why wouldn't they take no for an answer from people like me?
I occasionally was blabbed at by such charity people on the streets, and after they were telling me how heartless I am, I would respond that I am willing to donate ONLY to charities that are about cancer research (for ALL ages, NOT brats ONLY), animal rescue, nature preservation, and museum perservation (technical, historical and classical art museums in my case). These kid-centric assholes are such hypocrites!

This time of year there are always kid charities collecting. You'd think the fact that I walk past without paying them any attention would give them the hint, but one time some guy started following me to say his pitch. I then told him "I don't like children." He seemed utterly flabbergasted that anyone could hold that opinion.

Look, people have been trying for decades to eradicate child poverty, and none of the attempts have been remotely effective except for one: contraception. Only antinatalism addresses the root cause of all humanity's problems.