WyckedWood

I glue things down with Alene’s tacky glue. There’s nothing worse than sticking your hand in the dollhouse to place something and everything goes flying. Tacky glue keeps it in place but I’ve never had a problem if you really want to move something just pop it off the glue. Keep a small contact point between item and surface. This also makes it easy to dust the dollhouse with a soft fluffy paintbrush. I also use tacky wax to hold some items until I’m really sure where I want things placed- sometimes it takes a year to figure that out. I’ve also moved my large collection of dollhouses several times across several states and having things glued down has helped me to keep my sanity while packing and unpacking. Karin

- If you were not planning on attending meetings, I’m not sure it would be worth bothering about. Unless you wanted to start a business or offer sales, being a member of NAME gives a good impression to customers. Although a mini business I am currently in the middle of a nightmarish sales experience with -long story- is a NAME member and that apparently means nothing as far as ethical business practices.

I personally am not, but I do plan to join. If you’re interested in going to local club meetings sometimes they require you to be a member. There is an active club in my new area and I can’t wait to try it out. I don’t have to join NAME to attend but it’s a NAME club so I will just to feel legit lol.

Yes but it’s a very cool process to learn about. I’m so happy Carrie took the leap and is making her own dolls now!

Sherry made some great Downton Abbey characters for kit sales.

ok that didn’t work lol but here is the whole album showing that scene with dolls added.

I know that some people are reading this and thinking they don’t like or want dolls in their dollhouses..I get it...I used to feel that way too, until I could see the little bit of extra magic that a doll can bring to our dollhouse rooms. They can be almost like an extra layer to bring interest to the scene. Just to try to give an example I’m going to (attempt) to add a few photos here of before a scene has a doll added and the same scene with a doll. I’ll have to do this in two separate posts or they won’t fit. So this is without doll-

And a great wigging video from Dana. Sherry Colvin also has some wigging videos.

Here is one of Dana’s painting diy videos, she has several other helpful videos as well.

Here is Sherry’s channel, she has a lot of great tutorials for beginners.

Holly, you would see a lot of familiar names at the CampOn group site. Groups.io is a good host, you can adjust your settings so that you go to the actual site to read all of the posts, rather than getting them sent by individual email or daily digest. Whenever there is mini news, like a publication leaving the business, etc. I always see it there first. Many active members. I prefer the Greenleaf format but I do pop in there from time to time to see what’s happening in the mini world. Carrie, yes totally agree. As a former cosmetologist, I love the hair and makeup/paint aspect of it but also I love to sew. BUT if someone doesn’t like sewing, Dana’s costumes and patterns are designed to allow for gluing rather than sewing, if desired. In fact most available patterns you can choose a glue option. Many of the top dollmakers actually recommend gluing to keep your work in scale, so no worries or excuses if you think you can’t sew lol. Sherry Colvin of minidollkits.com has developed quite a few YouTube videos showing how to use the glue method to create a costume. Sherrys doll kits are polymer clay rather than porcelain but her dolls are wonderful, full of character and she has monthly specials.

This is the info for Camelot Court along with free tutorials on the website (which is separate from the group) miniDollLIST.com http://www.minidolllist.com/Camelot/Castle/Online Classes/CC basics.pdf

https://groups.io/g/minidollLIST/topics

If anyone is interested in scale porcelain dollmaking but doesn’t know where to begin...join the group miniDollLIST which is hosted at groups.io, the same site that hosts CampOn (the old small stuff digest off shoot). As with the dollhouse hobby, doll making is a true rabbit hole of learning new skills and becoming an expert in areas you may have only had a passive interest in, such as historic costuming. For example, at the moment the miniDollLIST is focusing on a project called Camelot Court. We are studying medieval costumes, food and backgrounds,etc. We are creating medieval style dolls to live in the fictional world of Camelot Court. Some long time members here might remember Wanna in ElPaso, active with smallstuff digest. With her amazing imagination Wanna writes an ongoing story -like a town newspaper- that weaves through Camelot Court and includes all of the characters involved, fictional as well as actual character dolls people are making for the project. So this is a great time to jump in and join in on the fun or just observe to see if 1/12 dollmaking might interest you. The group is in an email list type format but you can arrange your settings so that you don’t get individual emails, and just go to the group site to read the daily contributions at leisure. There are classes (free) for 1/12 costuming, wig making, jewelry making, etc. and friendly people who are willing to answer any questions or help you get started. You can start with purchasing a porcelain “blank” which is an unpainted, unassembled doll “kit”, that is the least expensive option. Or you can purchase a painted kit, etc, or learn starting from scratch with your own home kiln and molds. It’s true porcelain dollmaking is becoming a bit of a lost art, I think the hey day was probably back in the 1990s, kits are getting harder to come by, but they can still be found. If you’re at all curious please check out the group (they are also on fb under the same name) and jump down the rabbit hole with us! Note: Dana Burton is our doll making guru and mentor. She provides instruction, free classes, patterns, painted kits and direction/inspiration. Look up her dolls in google images or Pinterest to see her work. I’ll find the link to the miniDollLIST and add it below.

The link to that blog is not the same Joann that wrote for nutshell news.

I found a mirror at Walmart today I’m going to try. It looks really thin. They had them in the section for removable wallpaper. It’s about a 10 inch circle shape but looks like it can be cut. It was only around $5 so I’ll come back and say if it worked or not

She finally did return one of my emails today, nothing to do with covid, an item was unavailable even tho website said it was in stock. As a consumer with many choices on where to buy, communication is a big deal for me. Now my project and my spending money is held up for an unknown time because info on their website was not accurate. Which is all beside the point that I repeatedly asked for an update and didn’t get any response.