Miniature Fireplace

This is what was in the package to the Petersiks from Young House Love.

A miniature replica of their fireplace!

I've been waiting until they'd posted about it to share it with you.

Which they have done. Check it out here, especially if you want a size comparison of the fireplace with a chihuahua. 

I've been known to make the occasional miniature fireplace and when I saw their post with a step by step of how they made their actual fireplace the two things connected.

I thought I would make their fireplace, and then maybe see if they wanted it. It's not like I had anything else to do (still no job).

This would also allow me to try using plastic materials which I'd been introduced to on the model making course I took, instead of card and wood.

Half way through the process of making the miniature the Petersiks announced they were moving house. At first I thought 'oh no!' but then it was even more of a reason why they should have this model. As a memento of the fireplace they built in their own house.

As soon as the model was finished I emailed a photo to the Petersiks and received the best email back from Sherry. It started with an excited 'AHHHHHHHHH!'

I love it when people are emotive over email, and Sherry is that fo sho.

#bloggerfangirlmoment

A few more emails back and forth and the mini fireplace was off to Virginia.

The hardest part of the model, or rather the most time consuming, was the tiling. I had to cut and then lay so many tiny tiles.

And then do the grouting.

The tiles were made from thin pvc card, painted with acrylic to look marble-y, and then cut in to individual tiles. 

Recreating the decorative trim was tricky, but achievable!

I'm really proud of this fireplace, and am pretty overwhelmed by the response it's got over on Young House Love.

I'm also really happy that I could give the Petersiks a way to take something with them from their old house to their old house.

Miniature Candlesticks

I had a recent commission for a miniature fireplace so I thought I would share how I made the miniature candlesticks.

All you need is two wooden kebab skewers, or cocktail sticks for smaller candles, four round beads and two flatter beads. It doesn't matter what colour as they'll get painted.

Cut the kebab skewers to the desired length, mine were 5cm, and glue the flatter beads at the bottom, then a round bead, and then a bit further up the second round bead.

Then you just need to paint them.

I went for cream for the candles and gold for the sticks.

A few coats of acrylic paint covered up the brightly coloured plastic beads.

Here they are displayed on a miniature fireplace, simply glued in place.

Behold, the miniature Christmas fireplace

Here are my finished miniature Christmas fireplaces!!

Since you can't really tell, the size of them is approximately 11cm wide, 9cm tall and 2.5cm deep.

That last one isn't approximate. I know that one fo sho.  

I love these candle sticks.

The white on white makes it a bit hard to see them, but I can assure you; they're pretty darn awesome.

Mini Christmas presents!

Feel free to imagine mini pairs of socks and mini boxes of chocolates.

It's really bits of cardboard wrapped up though.

Sophisticated fireplace.

All those green and gold bits were individually glued on. Thank you tweezers.

This one is my favourite.

Which one's yours?

It's beginning to look a lot like...

...Christmas!

A miniature Christmas anyway.

And the things that have helped this?

A Halloween broom and a packet of pot pourri. Both from Poundland. 

I've started decorating the miniature fireplaces.

There's a lot of festive candle arrangements going on.

The candles are made out of Sculpey. I painted the bristles of the broom green and those little 'pine cones' are from the pot pourri.

In my box of random little things I found this toggle thing that goes on the end of cord on a coat. Know what I mean?

Well it makes a fantastic flower pot.

This is my favourite thing so far.

A miniature woven basket for fire wood.

It's made out of card and I was so happy to see it turn out awesome.

Miniature fireplaces

This is my miniature fireplace army.

Each fireplace started off like this.

Two pieces of MDF glued together with two support blocks.

Then I used card to make the actual fireplace.

Elastic bands are handy for keeping everything in place while it dries.

More card to add more details.

A made a couple of them brick fireplaces using my usual method of a hand-carved rubber stamp.

Now they're ready for stage 2: Christmasifying.

Watch out local craft fairs. The miniature fireplace army is coming.

Commission complete

I can finally show you the commission I worked on over the summer!

It's a fireplace.

Infact it's a scaled down replica of the fireplace from the girl's house who I made it for.

There's one of the copper kettles.

And the clock you've already seen.

I had to make quite a few items for the top but I enjoyed the challenge.

The trophy was the hardest thing to make but I did it.

The fire itself was pretty tricky too but I'm pleased with it.

And so was the recipient!