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Back after a long hiatus

So I had to take a break from mini-ing to use my workspace for another project, and it ended up being longer than I'd thought it was going to be. It's only been in the last week or so that I've gotten back into gear, but I feel like I'm at least making good progress again.

I did get the front glued on to the first Butterwick House, and the second is now not far behind. The room that's had the most progress since my last, though, is the dining room, the second floor of that Butterwick House. Not only are the wallpaper (Mini Minutia), wainscoting (Desert Minis) and the (incredibly difficult) ruched curtains in, but I've also got the table and sideboard dressed, and those were crazy complicated because I wanted to do a proper feast.

Strangely, finding plates has been the most difficult bit for all of this, and sadly I can't recall where I got many of them! I could not find the right size for some of them and actually ended up taking the cardboard backing + doilly that some petit fours I purchased from Stewart Dollhouse came from, and spray painting them silver, which actually ended up working out pretty well. The three-tier stands are also from Stewart.




As for the food, most of it is from Medieval Miniatures, although I made the lobster myself from a metal lobster I got at Virtual Dollhouse, and the pineapples and petit fours are from Stewart Dollhouse, some made by her and some I made from a mold I got there. 




The candelabra is from Petworth Miniatures (with some Stewart Dollhouse roses and bits of green embroidery thread), as are the fireplace, sideboard, dining table and chairs. I want to do something for those window ledges but I'm not entirely decided yet. Right now I am leaning towards putting candles in the window. I also want to put a Georgian style wine cooler somewhere, probably by the fireplace as that's where there's room. 

It was painstaking to get those tables dressed but I'm very happy with how the dining room turned out, all dressed with its ball supper for the ball happening in the other second floor of Butterwick House, for that is the ballroom.

I'm making some progress on that as well, including getting my refreshment tables dressed.



The punch bowls are from Stewart, as are the lemon slices within. To make the punch, as I didn't want to mess with resin for such a small thing, I wet it with a glass marker and then dripped nail polish in along with the lemon slices. As the nail polish shrinks when it dries it took about three rounds of this, but it ended up working out.

The pineapple "ices" I'm quite proud of as I did them myself, using a raspberry mold for a larger scale and Pluffy clay. Then they needed a brown wash and dry brushing with a pearl effect paint, and toothpick ends with more embroidery thread bits formed the greenery.

The tables are lovely pieces from Petworth Miniatures, with the tops painted in a faux marble effect. That involves using a needle (I've also found a hair to be quite effective, which I first learned about by accident!) to apply the different marble colors and then painting over it with clear nail polish. One thing I've noticed is that when doing faux marble there's a point where it looks like you're never going to get it to look like marble, and you have to just push past that. Eventually it starts forming up.

Because of the nature of the wallpaper for this room, I need to install the ceiling before I put that or the trim in. So I'm also progressing on that. For this one I decided to try an Itsy Bitsy Mini custom printed ceiling. The sizing came out perfectly but the quality isn't as good as the Mini Minutia wallpapers. The chandeliers are from Stewart Dollhouse.






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