witch_craft

Here's pictures of the new bookcases and the dining table that came earilier in the week. I'm really pleased with them. I just wish that I had the room to put the house together, but sadly, I don't at the moment. Our flat is too small, and the house is otherwise going to be occupied. I'll post pictures of the DHE stuff when I get the chance to photograph them.

It arrived today and I have mixed feelings about it because there's not really much new stuff, but of the things which are new, it is good (for instance, more battery lights, etc).

I'm really glad to see that we're getting more battery lights over here because I'm not very confident about doing the wiring, which is great. I only wish that there were more styles to choose from, as I'd really love some Tudor style ones and there needs to be more table/floor lights. On the other hand, it's probably a good thing that there's not much new stuff since I have my eye on quite a few miniatures. One thing which I like about this hobby is that I keep getting ideas for new projects but the down side of it is that it's expensive.

Though I'm not much of a fan of the full size blue and white china, I have found some in miniature which would look good in Skaledale House because it would fit the period. I want some to go the corner cupboard which was mentioned in the DHE Treasures post a week or two back and after looking aorund I've found some which is a replica of the full sized stuff, and it's pretty. (The irony is that Paul's mum used to collect the real stuff, both antique and modern and used to have a business selling it - the trouble is, that there's just so much of it that when we move into the house we'll have to sell a lot of it and it can be a bit of a nightmare.) I don't mind it much in miniature, though, because it won't take over... (miniatures might, but they might loose out to my zoology textbooks and sci-fi novels, lol). These miniatures are quite expensive, and I've noticed that they are almost the same price as the modern blue and white in full size, so I shall probably not buy a lot of it, and go for budget stuff, but it would be nice to have a few pieces of it, just for in keeping with the time period.

This is the site that is doing it: http://www.stokesayware.com/

Today was my first visit to Doll's House Emporium in Ripley, Derbyshire. I have ordered from them before (the Tower, for instance, is one of their houses) and to be honest, I have mixed feelings about the company. I like the houses that they do, in particular, the smaller ones like the Tower, the Garden Pavilian, Market Cross and the Retreat, mostly because I can see what they can be made into. Of the larger houses, my favourites have to be the Stratford Bakery (the Tudor one which they do - I love tudor buildings, when they are done right) Fairbanks and Mountfield (I like the latter two because they have a 3D layout to them and look like proper houses, rather than just a box.), and after seeing it in the flesh, I also like Cumberland Castle.

However, my problem with DHE stems from the over pricing of their furnature, and that sometimes you can get the same thing which is either just as good or better from another retailer at half the price, or less, in some cases. Because of this, I've decided that I'm only going to get stuff from them if it's a house or if it's a piece of furnature or accessory which I can't get elsewhere. Having said that, some people think the pricing is OK (two customers in their while we were there spent over a 100 quid.) I often wonder just how people on their forum who seem to be obessed with buying dollshouses can afford the habit, because they spend much more than I do. My other problem with DHE is that they never seem to do anything unsual, which I can get at fairs and other retailers, and I also think that they could present their houses better in their catalogue and on the website if they made them look less plasticy  and used other materials like brick compound to make them look more realistic rather than just using wallpaper all the time. I might be inclined to like the other dollshouses then like those Georgain houses and Halls which I seem to hate because they all look the same. I also found that a lot of the stuff they had in their August sale broken - part of the reason why I went today was to get things on offer but I thought that this meant the good stuff was in the sale, not stuff which should mostly have been thrown out recyled (and considering that the factory was on the site as well, some of it could have been repaired before it was put on sale and no one would have noticed!) A mental note not to buy that rocking horse, because it'll most likely break. Some of the breakages could have been avoided if they'd been placed in cardboard boxes instead of those flimsy plastic ones, as well. The new catalogue comes out next month, so you'd have thought that there would have been more clearance going on.

Other than the costing, I'm quite pleased with what I got today - I bought the fairy tale figures for the Tower (includes a witch, wizard and a princess - I thought these would soften the more scary aspects of the tower...), the cushions which were for the chairs but are a bit too big, so I'm thinking of using them on the bed instead. I don't know why people get upset when something they've bought isn't quite right for purpose - you can always try to find some other use for them. I read somewhere where someone had thrown out an entire bathroom set just because the toilet was out of scale - come on, think of another use for it! I also got the leaded acetate for the windows in the Tower.

I also bought a sofa, an armchair and a corner cupboard for my other project, along with a beautiful kitchen range, a circular side table and a really detailed dresser and one of their new battery lights. I am pleased with these, but it was expensive - coming to 100 quid in all but they are all excellant pieces. What my problem is with the pricing at DHE is that some of the smaller things are really expensive - for instance, 9 quid for a washing barrel, (without the dolly for it) 20 quid for a mangle which didn't look all that great, etc. My problem with them is that if bought from another shop, these things usually cost about 6 quid (for the mangle) 3 quid for the washing dolly and barrel, etc. The pricing needs to be a bit more consistant.

I posted this here rather than the forum because I probably would have been branded a troll or something, even if what I've posted is honest and a fair opinion.

Doll's House Emporium -
green tassled cushions x 1 *
Leaded Acetate ^
Fairytale ornaments *

Minature Scene York -
Candles *
Jars *

The Little Dollhouse Company -
Battery Lights
Black Lantern Ceiling Light  x 2 *
Globe Lamp x 1 (mock glowing crystal ball!) *
Hurricane Lamp x 1 *
Coach Lamp x 1 +
Aromatheropy Lamp x 1 (Flickers!) *

Rushall Dolls House
Tudor Rope Bed *
Log With Axe +

Minimum World
Drystone Wall kit (grey) +
Flagstones (grey) +

Minature Living
Cauldron Over Fire +
Spiders *
Owl +
Blackbrid +
Pond +

Model Tree Shop
Apple Trees +
Silver Birch Tree +
130mm Deciduous Tree +

Tumdee Dollshouse Miniatures
Apples *
Mushrooms *
Ladle *

Airy Fairy
Greenman pins *
Acorn pin *

And the witch herself....

Just Papo
Princess of Darkness

* = stuff to finish off the inside
^ = building material
+ Stuff needed for the garden

A couple of weeks ago, I bought a dollshouse from Dolls House Emporium - the Magical Mystery Tower, which I've had my eye on for a few weeks. The house in question is a small tower consisting of two rooms, gothic windows and door and a garden.

Here it is, in its dry construction (without glue, just masking tape). When it arrived, it was much smaller than I expected and I'll have to be careful when choosing furnature for it that one piece doesn't dominate the house. I took it apart again and wallpapered it - I decided that it would be easier to do it this way because there's not much room to work in when it's constructed. The ceilings were painted white.