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Iron Beds


Anne

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Does anyone know how to make iron beds? I'm not sure if I will ever try to make my own mini iron beds - but would love to know how to make them theoretical... I have found this beautiful bedroom pics on the net. How did this lady make these beautiful antique beds? They are awesome! (And so her whole dollhouse collection is! :blink: )

Here are the examples:

dollhouse11027.jpg

dollhouse11019.jpg

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Patricia King used old dinner forks and Helen Ruthberg used wooden dowels & blocks carved for the corners & painted white, and I've seen instructions for using the jumbo paper clips. These awesome beds look like someone has access to metal tubing and a jeweler's lathe, although with a nice metallic spray paint I see how using dowels & polystyrene & beads someone could come close...

I love the bed dressings and the rug.

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I think I read somewhere on the page that the person used old, cheap jewelry for her mini creations. So I fear I won't be able to make something similar. These beds are really amazing. Her dollhouses are too. She's a real artist. I shouln't start comparing my dollhouse with hers! :blink: :blink: But does anyone know an online mini shop that sells nice iron beds?

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Thanks for posting the pixs. Those are beautiful bed. I wonder if you could use old coat hangers? Paint them and then glue beads on. (humm still doesnt solve the problem of how to curve them into shapes) But might work for the corner posts.

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I know Hobby Lobby used to stock iron beds WITH a matress for only $3.99 They came in white & they had a black one too. If I had known they were gonna stop offering them I would have bought them when I saw them. I have not seen them there for about 1 year now. :blink: Hopefully when they restock they'll have them.

I don't know anyone who made iron beds but I have seen the ones from Hobby Lobby redressed.

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HBS carries a metal-look bed made of wood.

I wonder if you could use old coat hangers?

That was my first thought, it's a bugger to cut with wire cutters, but you can bend it with pliers (I used coathanger wire to make the Murphy beds); use the unpainted hanger wire, the paint flakes off when you work with it. There's also small diameter brass tubing and you can get a tube-bender from Micro-Mark. You can solder the bits & bobs of jewelry pieces on for decoration. Hmmm.

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ROTFLMBO!!! I type "Hmmm" & you assume I'm gonna make one! Although it might be a fun way to learn how to solder..

Now all I have to do is find some suitable old jewelry (and I've been looking for over 10 years, ever since I read my first book by Patricia King!).

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That top bed is definitely brass, and the lower one likely too since brass is sooooooooo easy to work with. And you can get brass rod, tube, sheet etc at just about any decent hobby supply joint. If not, then a model train store will almost certainly have it. And there is a humungous range of sizes, tubes that fit over rods etc. Square and round tubes as well.

I've been playng with brass recently working on a model of The Time Machine, here's a pic of the full sized prop from the film, the pic is from Starship Modeler:

http://www.starshipmodeler.com/tech/time_m.../cb_tm_eaaf.jpg

Been using brass for some of the flimsy stuff that needs strength, like the landing gear. It's a blast to work with, I just got a cheap tubing bender, though the lazy curves on the bed rails may require something a bit more advanced, I hand bent the grab rail around the TM's deck since there are so many curves going in different directions. Come to think of it you could simply bend the brass around something like a can or jar.

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Where do you get brass to use for soldering or making this stuff Andrew?

Are there certain types you can't use? Just wondering

I've not tried soldering it, though if I did I'd use a torch, not an iron, you can get mini butane torches at just about any hardware store, that's what I'd go with for minis. I got my brass from a hobby shop, I don't see why it couldn't be soldered, brass is brass as far as I know, though I'm not an engineer. I think the really thin sheets would have issues with the heat, but the tubing and rod should work fine. And it's CHEAP!

As for soldering, I'd be careful, brass is soft, and easy to deform. As I mentioned I'm not an engineer, however the guy that taught me to solder IS. He taught me to hold the solder rod behind the joint, then heat the joint from the front by passing the iron or torch back and forth over the joint, keep the torch at an angle so you don't get the solder rod in the flame. The idea is to heat the material to the point that IT melts the solder. This will actually suck the solder into the joint. Since brass is soft you may need special solder rod though, there are different types.

I didn't solder because my model's mixed media, which is a pain in the bumpy to be honest, consisting of brass and styrene, so I used super glue. BTW, it also works well, and unless you're planning on throwing the item around it should last a long time, and it's quick and easy. I like LocTite. Hate Krazy Glue, assembled my Sandman gun with that junk, it fell apart in less than a year.

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I used to have one when I was a little girl.

Tracy, you had a mini iron bed or a real one as a child ? I love iron beds - in 1:12 and 1:1! B) They are so beautiful and romantique. Especially the ones with a canopy. I already have a few iron beds in my "dollhouse" but they are not close as beautiful as the beds above. In real life I have a white iron day bed I use as a sofa and guest bed. If I have a bigger bedroom (not sure when this will be happen! :blink: ) I will buy me a black iron canopy bed with brass ornaments! :blink:

Doogster, if you ever decide to make mini iron beds - please, let me know! :p

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Andrew, you're great! I "discovered" superglue gel this past year & except for trying to glue wooden seate & wheel axles to plastic swan wedding favors it has been lovely!

Micro-Mark carries brass tubing in different diameters, so does our local Hobby Town USA.

One of my best friends got a marvelous iron canopy bed for here DGD for when she visits and the trim around the top was a rose garland, so she made a HUGE swag of silk roses in her DGD's favorite colors (shades of pink!) and it looks like a fairy princess' room. The only iron bed I ever slept in was an institutional-looking white job with peeling paint and saggy ticking mattress. Chicken feathers make horrid mattress fill, the little "pins" stick through the ticking & poke in all your tender spots, and little kids have LOTS of tender spots.

How about that GORGEOUS bed on the cover of this month's DHM? The carving made my jaw drop, but the cloisonee beads on top of the bedposts blew me away!

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Tracy, you had a mini iron bed or a real one as a child ? I love iron beds - in 1:12 and 1:1!

I had a real one as a child growing up :blink: I had a wooden canopy bed too once upon a time. I want one of those again :blink:

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I've also been wondering about Ed. I think the last time I saw he was on board was when we were about to have the flower border class.

Darrell may be able to help us though.

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I just told DH everyone is asking about iron beds. He's a soldering wizard. He said they would be easy to do, and he'll think about it. So maybe I'll be able to convince him to whip up one or two. I think a trip to the hobbyshop to buy brass tubing is in my future. If I try and do it, he will take it from me and "show" me the right way it needs to be done. Ha! :lol: :lol:

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