Wednesday 24 April 2013

Unhinged......

My goodness, time whizzes past at an extraordinary rate.   All too soon we shall be opening to the public for the first time (May 11th - one day only, to coincide with the local Farmers' Market) and that same night we head back to England.

I return to Bavorov about ten days later but without the incomparable help of Butterfly who celebrates her birthday today by not going into Small Worlds.   Instead she is following her other profession at this very moment by recording a voice-over down in my former cowshed.

There is still so much going on at once in Small Worlds that this blogpost is as tricky to write as the last one.   We have nearly exhausted the list of tasks ready for our willing but "unskilled" helpers and are moving on to only having jobs requiring a high level of skill.  Luckily I number some "highly skilled" helpers amongst my friends and relatives.

For the past few days my sister-in-law Mette, who has an amazing collection of room boxes lining the whole of one wall, and who writes for the magazine Dolls House and Miniature Scene, has been here weaving her magic on tiny soft furnishings.   Neither Butterfly nor I can work with needle, thread or textiles so Mette's skill has been invaluable.   The beds in the big Walmer are now made, so too in the former orange bungalow, which is also replete with beautiful silk cushions.   You will see these when the houses are revealed in due course.












In the meantime here is a glimpse of her work in twenty-fourth scale for the tiny pink Fairfield (half the size of most of my houses)



In the picture on the left it is standing next to Mouse Mansion which has its new roof and is waiting for the outside paper to be applied. Once again, note the weeny teeny front door...all that will change shortly.   Well, from the outside at least.







Meanwhile, inside, the mice are having a wonderful time...








they're deciding on the interior decor...   
















So much choice, so little time to choose... 










because Mette needs to make the bedding and curtains before she leaves again for England.  



The post title came about because I have spent a couple of days trying to sort out hinges.   The department-store-to-be has suffered from a maker of great ambition but sadly lacking the practical skills to match.   If you have a large heavy piece of wood for example, it is no good at all trying to hold it in place just with two small hinges.....


Nor does it help to continue to try and fix a hinge to a piece of wood that is already riddled with holes and repeatedly glued together from abortive attempts to get a hinge to stay in place. 

So armed with some lovely long piano hinges (hands up whoever knows that's what long hinges are called - I didn't) I have been trying to remedy the situation on two of the houses.   However I am spatially challenged and cannot reverse patterns which means that I am capable of screwing the hinge on incorrectly, removing it because the doors won't close, turning it over, and screwing it on just as incorrectly again.    

Grrrrr......by the end of the second day I was ready to scream and chuck the lot out of the window in the best Czech style.   I have now abandoned the whole hinge horror to hand over to my highly skilled Dutch friend who arrives on Friday.   She can turn her hand to anything......little does she know it yet, but one of the things she will be tackling is the very large thatched roof on the English cottage.   There will be pictures in due course....

Thank you for following my journey so far.   I look forward to seeing you again soon.   In the meantime I am off to do some (full-size) gardening whilst the sun is shining.......








9 comments:

  1. *puts hand up, rather sheepishly*

    Please, Miss, I knew they were called piano hinges.

    But then I have an 'other half' who keeps all sorts of odd things 'in case they come in handy', and has made 'wall-tables' in both the houses we've lived in, one for a small 'breakfast-room' and here at one end of the kitchen; secured to a batten on the wall by just such a hinge in each case, with a strut hinged out to keep them up, similarly attached.

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    1. ...pressed 'publish' too soon! Meant to wish you good luck for the inaugural open day! - Ruth x

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    2. I would have expected nothing less from you, Abbeybufo! (I didn't know they were called piano hinges.) But what are they in Latin, please? ;-)
      Andrea

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    3. Can provide you with the German, courtesy of Inge yesterday: Klavierband. Klavier being piano and band presumably a strip or ribbon rather than a musical entity.

      The Czech is enchanting: "pianopanty"....

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    4. I shall adopt "pianopanty" immediately, although I have few, if any, opportunities to hold forth about them.

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  2. ooh some tantalising glimpses here! I'm sorry to have to tell you that those mice look very indecisive (and possibly drunk)- Mette might have to make some executive decisions.
    Sympathise with the spatial difficulty - I too am capable of reversing something so that it ends up exactly the same way round. I seem to remember spending a ridiculous amount of time failing to refit the little sieve thing at the spout of your kettle and thinking wildly "there must be a finite number of ways in which I could place this" and concluding that I could only manage one - the wrong way. Seem also to remember a certain person fixing it in the flap of a butterfly's wing...
    More mice! More mice!
    A xx

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    1. That flaming kettle! You will be pleased to hear that it has been replaced by a non-flap, non-silly-modern-lid one. Noisy though.

      No wonder it took us so long to put those bookshelves together....

      The mice have made their decisions. Sadly Mette has departed and I have been left with a couple of rooms to do the curtains in. However needles and thread are not involved, just material and glue so I am hopeful. And the mice are not fussy.

      Oh and I have just realised we have not yet assessed the skill set of one of the imminent Dutch contingent. I shall therefore leave the curtains for today.

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  3. Oh dear Cestina, I was trying to hold my hands up not know either but I had to hold my stomach I was laughing so much,that's how I fix things, I just not a tool girl,anywho, You lovely family are wonderful so creative, the houses, department stores sound fabulous, and the thatched cottage, oh I just love them, I'll be excited to see the reavinlin, It's a wonderful, magical journey and I'm so happy I could join you all. Good luck dear with rest of your creating...

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  4. Ah you sound just like us, we have no idea how to reverse patterns etc either and it can be so frustrating. Hope you didn't become fully unhinged in your hinging attempts!!

    The mouse family look pleased with their new home. Don't you wish all your day to day household chores were miniature too, imagine, the gardening would be a breeze!

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