Ceilings

The next question I read in the newspaper this morning. Because this question, accompanied by the answer, also include the Bickersgracht I placed him here.

Why are the ceilings of the Dutch Canal Houses so high?
The high ceilings are a result of the high windows. The higher the windows, the more light could enter in order to provide the houses of light.
The tax on houses was then determined by the width of the facade. Many houses were relatively narrow, but very deep. Except daylight it was dependent on candles.
Glass making was a costly, high windows were a sign of status. Many old houses have windows partitions, because it was not possible to make large areas continuous glass.
source: de Telgraaf, zaterdag 5 oktober 2013

Krin

Wine table

I can not show any progress on the building it self. The magnets arrived. Now it's waiting for .......... me. I must gather some courage to drill the holes.

In the mean time I did make a wine table with wood veneer inlay work. It has a pull-out shelf suitable for placing a beverage, and a lower display shelf for books or other objects.
Some measurements: the length is 3 cm., the width 2,4 cm. and the height of the table is 3,4 cm.

Krin

I am bouncing

Many things cannot be done instantly, and require time and patience. As well as finding a way to make the panels of the Bickersgracht removable in an easy way.

Last sunday I went to the Dollshouse Fair in Apeldoorn. I went together with Marie-Louise. We had a lovely day.
At the last stand we visited, after a short conversation with the exhibitor, I found THE solution. Just use magnets. I think this is even better than the pin-hinges I first thought to use. Now I must have patience till the magnets will be delivered. Then finally the building can start.

 Hope to inform you soon with some pictures.
  Krin

Something in between

On the site of Elizabeth, to be precise here, I found the prints to make the McLoughlin Folding Doll House. This would fit well in the toyshop I am making as a project this year. While making the folding dollhouse in 12th scale the thought came to me to make this folding dollhouse also in 24th scale for the girlsroom in the Bickersgracht.

   

Here you see the folding dollhouse in both scales. I put a ruler in front of it so you can see the sizes of each scale.

Some technical details about the 24th scale dollhouse:
The print is printed on 80 grams paper. (thicker paper would be too coarse for this scale, I find)
With tacky glue the pages are glued, when the glue is dry the walls will be strong enough.
I did use off-white paper to print on, not the plain white printer paper.
The print is coated with transparent nail polish. (hopefully it hold against discoloration)

In the meantime Elizbeth also made a couple of 24th pdfs for those who would like to make such a tiny folding dollhouse. If you are interested you will find them here.

Krin

Little progress

It remains quiet here. To continue with the house I first want the doors mounted on an other way. At the moment the doors are mounted with piano hinges. I want to change these. I would like to have the possibility to remove the doors completely. On this way the house takes less room when I want to set it open.
It is quite hard to find the right hinge for this finding. The onces I did find at the moment are a bit to large. But with a little patience I will find them.

 In the meantime I'm not standing still. There is some information I am looking for. Such as a nice double door that connects the staircase with the living room. And ways to decorate the walls. No new pictures of the house itself now.
But I can show you other furniture that I've made in the past.

These easy chairs I found in a book called: How to build modern furniture by Mario Dal Fabbro. A great book which includes lots of projects with line drawings, material list, and instructions how to make real life furniture. With this complete information I made these chairs in half scale.

With a picture as an example I made this telescope. Not that bad I think.

The stove is made with some measurement information I found on the internet. What would we do without the internet?

Some technical information about how I made the stove. The oven tray is made of an empty eye shadow tin, the hotspots are made ​​from button parts. The stove pipe is made from a straw.

  Krin

No progress

There is not that much progress on the moment. A few other projects have to be done first before I can start cleaning my workarea. After that I can start with the reconstruction of the building.

In the mean time I will show some furniture I already made in the past to place in the Bickersgracht.

The summer of 2009: I made a project for one of the Dutch miniature blogs. The assignment was: ‘create an image from a children's song’. I chose: Brother John (Vader Jacob). Most of the things are handmade by me, some were gifts. As you can see on the pictures there is Brother John, made by my mini-friend Marie-Louise, and lots of clocks.

 

When the first part of the building is finished Brother John gets a different place than I had thought before. 

Krin

Some old pictures

This is a picture of the Bickersgracht in real. I found it here on the internet. Here I did found out that these 5 buildings must be number 14 to 28.

A vieuw of the Bickersgracht without the doors.

The door on this side of the Bickersgracht is the entrance to number 28 I suppose.
Krin

Two instead of one building

The entire building measures 115 by 70 cm and is 40 cm deep. Clumsy to work on. Therefore I decided to saw the premises into two parts. Frankly I found it scary to do. But last year I did it. And this is what the Bickersgracht looks like now.

Now it is time to make sure that I can close all sides of the building with doors. Also to create a way that I always can expose the Bickersgracht as one building. I already have some ideas for that. Now just implement it.
Krin

The Bickersgracht

I bought this house in January 2009 from Marjo. I am very happy that I have been able to buy her house. This dollshouse is made in half scale. A granddad made this dolls house for his granddaughter. By the time he finished it, his granddaughter unfortunately got more interested in horses. It is called 'de Bickersgracht', and named after a canal in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) where these 5 houses are located. This is a replica of a block houses actually built along the Bickersgracht.

Krin