MY EGG DOLLS HOUSE
A Continuing Work in Progress
by Maureen Williams
This isn't to be considered to be a New
Year's resolution but I've decided it's time to put the pedal to the
metal and get some more done on my egg dolls house, which I started
back in 1999! Although I've done some work on it over the years
basically I haven't done much to it since I went looking for mini
stained glass windows, found PSP and the rest is history. Mind you,
in those intervening years I have also compiled, prepared various
eggs to display techniques and finally published two e-books on egg
artistry, so I haven't really been slack. LOL
Although this design
won't ever have a how-to done for it, now that I have my digital
camera I can take shots as I progress. After doing some more work on
the dolls house today I thought I'd share what I'm up to so far and
by putting the results up on this web page, make a commitment to
myself to get it finished.
The rooms part of the
house are made from two very large, 19" ostrich eggs which I cut the
top and bottom off and the cut the centre portion in half around the
girth and then cut each of these pieces into 4. These quarter pieces
of shell, which form the corner walls of each floor, were then
expanded where the windows and doorways are, using pieces of
cardboard the same thickness as the ostrich shell. The central entry
way on the bottom floor is made of cardboard, as are the
foundations and front balconies.
Click on tumbnails for a larger
view.
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May 1999
This was the stage the house was at when I put it to one side
as other things had a greater priority. |
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May 1999
This was taken as a size comparison. The plastic doll is 1
3/4" high and the walls measure 2 1/2" high. |
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The bay window on
the ground floor was constructed from 3 dolls house windows -
1:48 scale.
Single
windows of the same style will be used for the other front
facing windows. |
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The cardboard
inserts on either end were shaped to take these rounded
windows. |
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This pic shows how
the walls were put together with cardboard inserts glued into
place to expand the pieces of shell.
Although the top floor pieces of
shell had been joined together with the cardboard at some
stage in the past 4 years that was as far as they got. |
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January 1, 2004
Today I shaped the piece of cardboard to be used for the floor
on the first level and glued the top rooms into place. |
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The is how it now
looks and you can see where the shell corners sit.
The bottom balcony will have a
railing of some sort around the edge. |
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Also shaped the
piece of cardboard to be used on top. |
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January 2, 2004
I wanted to make a curved staircase for the entry. The "wall"
on the right of the staircase forms a curved wall visible from
the dining room on the right hand side. |
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Also reshaped the
floor area on the first floor. The "wall" on the staircase
butts to the opening to complete the curve. |
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January 3, 2004
Made up the central wall in the kitchen/dining area. The door
leads from the dining area to the kitchen at the back. |
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Looking back
towards the stairway you can just see the curved wall through
the entry to the dining room.
Also prepared the walls in this section ready to "hang" the
wallpaper. |
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Kitchen is located
on the right hand side of this pic. The alcove will house
cupboards and stove. Cupboards and sink under the window,
small round table down this end. Kitchen floor covering is in
place.
I have a small writing table to go along the bottom wall. |
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Although it
doesn't look like I've progressed very far I have actually
done quite a bit. Remembering I had a set of Avon dolls house
furniture, which I'd planned on using for this project,
required an extension to all walls before I could continue
with the construction. Fortunately I had only prepared the
walls in the kitchen so I didn't have to scrap too much.
The change of
direction required an additional 1/2" to the height of
the walls. This meant steaming strips of wood to bend to the
curve of the egg shell before gluing the pieces into place.
The walls in the central portion were extended using cardboard
strips.
Having the
furniture to model the rooms around also meant a change to the
wall between the kitchen & dining area |
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January 4, 2004
Floors are being created on removable cardboard inserts for
ease of constructing walls and adding wallpaper and floor
coverings.
This is the kitchen side - wallpaper and floor coverings were
made in PSP and then
printed out in the required size. |
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This is the dining
room side of the wall - stick-on felt has been used for the
carpet in this room. |
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This shows the
floor/wall unit in place but not yet glued into position as I
still have to paint the walls in the dining room. |
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January 6, 2004
With the enforced rethink on the scale being used, I decided to
re-do the staircase and I've now opted for a straight split
level one constructed from cardboard and strips of timber. |
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January 7, 2004
Staircase construction completed. |
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January 8, 2004
Looking at the stairs from the first floor. |
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In this one you
can see the extension on the bottom floor - top floor not yet
extended. Also changed the front door. |
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January 19, 2004
Started wallpapering the entry |
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Library
Walls prepared and first coat of paint applied. |
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January 26th, 2004
SpakFilla used to apply a stucco type finish to the bottom
floor exterior walls. |
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Printed "quarry
tiles" on the high gloss photo paper for the flooring in the
entry. |
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Library walls
painted and carpet cut for the floor. |
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Close-up of the
"stucco" effect of the exterior walls. Used a large dry brush
to achieve the textured look. |
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As there are no
formal "plans" for this dolls house, the end result will probably
change as I go along. The images stored in my over-active
imagination may not be as easy to do as I anticipate.
I will be adding
progress shots here as I do more work on the house. As the saying
goes in Australia "it won't happen overnight but it will happen"!
I hope you will return from time to
time to see where I'm up to.
Please help me keep this site up and
running....
ANYTHING is appreciated, thank you so much!
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