Ron Hubble’s Jacobean Salon In the Miniature Museum of Taiwan

Beige Is Beautiful

Beige Is beautiful if you have more than one shade in the room. When working with a neutral as your primary color, go from light to dark hues on the walls, rug, and large pieces furniture. The walls could be the lightest shade; curtains, a filmy darker hue; the rug a much darker shade. Be careful to keep these secondary colors compatible, that the undertones are in the same family. Because of the compacted spaces, unfortunate choices in color are more obvious in a miniature than a real room. But it’s a lot easier and cheaper to correct the mistake.

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Elaine Diehl’s Astolat Castle Dollhouse, courtesy of Lois and Dr. Freeman

Elaine Diehl, Master Artisan

Most famous dollhouse miniatures were created at the behest of wealthy patrons or collectors. Colleen Moore’s Fairy Castle, Helena Rubinstein’s Room Boxes and The Catherine Palace commissioned by Carole Kaye, to name a few. The Astolat Castle was created by the artisan herself … with a little help from her friends.

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Tattoo Gun, 1:12 scale

Special Orders

I love the challenge making unusual accessories on demand. It started with a request from an enthusiast for a 1:12 scale miniature shopping bag from her favorite department store – Farid’s in Karachi, Pakistan. This is now a specialty. I now have 43 bags from all over the world, and I am branching into 1:24 scale. Shopping bags aren’t that unusual; tattoo guns are. Massage tables too. I’ve had enough orders of each to make two at a time to build an inventory. Read more about other unusual items in my Etsy shop. (more…)

Tudor Half Timber Dollhouse -“A River Runs Through It” is the caption on Gerry Welch Manorcraft Dolls Houses

The Tudor Period (1485-1603)

When thinking about Tudor home exteriors, keep in mind that Tudor architecture is an outgrowth of Medieval design, where the nobility and upper classes lived in fortified castles: crenelated battlements and moats. They were huge uncomfortable places in which to live. Peace settled on the land with the end of the Wars of the Roses in 1485. The Tudors came to power and castles became passé; the aristocracy “downsized” to manor houses. Even though many were as large as the fortresses they replaced, the manor house was built to comfort the gentry, not repel invaders.

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