Things I've Made - 1

Firstly - a very warm welcome to all new followers. I'm very pleased to have you here and I hope you like what you see.    (Sadly, I didn't make the flowers).

I thought I'd interrupt the progress posts by showing you some of the little bits and pieces I've made for this property.    Ever since starting this hobby I was known for saying "I don't make, I buy!" but when I discovered I could make little tables from balsa and stair spindles, and enjoyed it, it wasn't long before I moved on to other things.

Some are kits but mostly I like fiddling with wood.

Firstly, a pump.   I'm not sure if I will use this item in Netherton.   I think I've had a better idea.

This is a little kit from Jane Harrop.   It was easy to make up and the instructions were very clear although one or two little bits of my own may be added to fill it up more.

The sink was purchased from Hearth & Home at a fair some time ago and I added a tiled back and side.   The draining board was also added to give it an extra little something.

These two items were made from bits and pieces.   The counter/unit was made to fit a specific space.   They have since been varnished and put in the Butler's Pantry.

The chair in this little scene was a whitewood item that was varnished and I made the cushion.   For some reason it took a while!   I think I kept changing my mind as to how it was to be created because it was originally meant to be a seat pad.   This chair and cushion now reside in the Butler's Pantry.   The Butler's Tray is made up from a Jane Harrop kit.

Here are a couple of my tables.   I like making tables.   They're so easy to make and you can get exactly the size and style you want/need.   The item on the right is a stove for heating flat irons.   The table at the back and the stove are now in the Laundry of Netherton although the stove has since been painted and polished using the Humbrol paint mentioned in an earlier post.

More to follow.............

The Basement staircase.

Now that they've got a spiffy new front door, I had to give the servants a means of access.   The stairs originally purchased with this property weren't really what I wanted after all so, and because there were stairs held over from another project, I had a go at putting together a couple of sets myself.

Then of course, they needed a handrail.   For some silly reason I got fixed on using spindles (obviously blinded by the fact that the picture I was using as reference had spindles) and I spent ages thinking about the best way to work that out until I had a light bulb moment when it dawned on me that I didn't have to religously copy the reference photo and that spindles were not absolutely necessary.  Therefore, with the help of some kebab sticks and skinny dowel, and only three spindles they now look like this although they're not permanently fixed in yet:

A view down into the area on the left:

A servant's eye view from inside:

and the right hand side.   I'm not sure if the coal bunker and log store will stay in that space but for the moment I'm happy to keep them there.

The Servant's Entrance

Remember this?   I showed this door first when talking about Humbrol Paint.     Well, that's the inside of this:

The Servant's entrance.   It sits beneath the main front door in the basement under the pavement walkway.

I've even given them their own door bell - how nice am I?

I'm Back!

I think I've managed to do justice to Netherton after this visit!   The majority of my purchases are for this property - it just worked out that way.   Despite taking a list I managed to find a lot of things that weren't on it (isn't that just the way?)

There's only one organiser who has fairs up here so I must admit to taking full advantage when I'm on my twice yearly trip to Miniatura - and I think it shows!   It was also smaller this time round (in my opinion) but the quality was as good as ever and there were some really wonderful minis to be seen.

Update:  Andy mentioned in his post that some of the items were difficult to see (I was obviously in too much of a hurry to get the pictures up!) so here are more detailed pics:   The little wooden item and yellow piece beside it is a butter pat from Pear Tree Miniatures, the two little black items are boot scrapers, the little box at the front of the second pic is a little watch case with a watch inside and there's a little pen and ink stand to the left on the meat safe in the first picture - that was another item from Danny Shotton.

The Basement

Although that's the exterior of the building dealt with, there's still the actual basement or the "area" as it was known, to decorate.   This is the servant's entrance.

As the basement is attached to the house, it opens in three sections with arches dividing each area.

The back walls were painted in the same finish as the house and a deep "skirting" with coving was added to give a bit detail and to match up with the outside of the basement. For the walkway fibre glass sheet flagstones were used.  

(I hasten to add, the raggedy edge shown is not there now - that was just a test piece put in to see the effect)

Once that was laid the walls had to be tackled.   To do this, and because of the arches leading through to each section, paper templates were cut and dealt with as individual pieces.    As luck would have it, I found an Edinburgh property on the market for sale with a picture of the basement area giving just the detail I needed.   This showed the walls as bare stone.   To do this I used Bromley Craft Products stencil and compound which I already had in my stash. That was the easy part!

This is the effect you get immediately after removing the stencil. It then had to be sanded and painted, using acrylic paint, to achieve what I hoped would be a realistic looking stone wall. This took some time, I may say, and heaven knows how many times this was repainted just to get the required effect but eventually I think I've achieved this and I'm happy with it.

There was just one little final touch - a pair of nesting housemartins.

The Exterior

This is Netherton as it stands at present.

Making a Grand Entrance.

The last sections of the main exterior to be dealt with were the front door, portico and pavement.   There's nothing fancy here and nothing has been altered or added.   The front door has been painted matt black with a door knocker and door knob added.   I'm pretty sure I'm going to leave the side lights clear but you never know, that might change in time.

I knew I wanted to use real stone on the steps and pavement and initially random flagstones from Richard Stacey were laid because they were already in my stash of bits.   The thinking behind this was that at the time the house was built the "random" style would be fitting and you can see how they looked further down.   It wasn't until they were laid that I had second thoughts so up they all came and down went grey flagstones (again from Richard Stacey) - much better!

Next job on the list was to add detail to the pillars at the foot of the stairs.   They were crying out for something quite imposing so after a fair bit of wrestling with the Dremel I fitted these lights.

Two topiary swans were also introduced to either side of the front door.   (You can also see the random flagstones in this pic).

I then needed to add some railings (just to prevent the servants and passers-by from toppling down into the "area"!).  A little railing detail to the top of the basement wall was also added to match in with the railings already fitted to the area windows.

I'm on the lookout now for a suitable finial of some description to add to the posts.

The final additions to the basement, as it stands at the moment,  are  some supports (for want of a better word) on the basement side of the railings.   I don't know what the correct architectural term is but I wanted them anyway!

.........and that's the exterior to date.    In the next post, I'll show the whole completed frontage.

Note - a few people have asked how my sister Valerie produced the leaded fanlights in the previous post about windows.   She used imitation lead relief available in a tube (I don't have it here otherwise I could have given a product name) on acetate and cut it to shape.   They're not properly fixed in yet but will just be glued in, the same as "window glass", and I've passed on your nice comments for which she says "thank you".