Undersized Urbanite - The Surrealism House

Hello fellow miniaturists, bloggers, lovers of all things dollhouse, random visitors, voters, and other special guests! It's that time again - The big reveal for Undersized Urbanite!

As stated in my WIP posts, my dollhouse did not get as 'done' as I had hoped, but I do have a pretty interesting exterior to show off, so here we go;

Now for close ups;

I think that the egg carton mosaic turned out beautifully

The re-design for the new front door was a last minute miracle. A big Thank You to one of my "Mantis" prints, which I decided to cut up for the cause (to be fair, it was a damaged print, but I just couldn't throw away those pretty metallic colors - planned to use it throughout the house actually).

I know that I changed my color scheme from gray to purple halfway through sketching out the mosaic siding, but I'm still not sure what possessed me to start painting clouds on the purple after that - It did turn out really well though,...

...So well that I decided to paint the top floor sky blue and keep those clouds going. ^_^

What house wouldn't be complete without some trippy racing stripes, right? XD

And then finally, I give you a little bit of Steampunk, 

because I can't stop going back to Steampunk (it's fun).

So there you have it - The exterior of My Surrealism House. ^_^

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There are a couple other things I did get a chance to work on, but they're part of the unfinished interior, but you know what? I'm going to show you anyway (Why not?);

Did you notice all the gold accents on the outside of the house? Well I got the idea for that while I was attempting to get the inside of the house painted. This painting/mural on the third floor is a mix of green, copper, and three shades of gold metallic paint. No sketching, just painted whatever I felt like painting.

And on that third floor, I also started a pond. It's acrylic paint with a few coats of Polycrylic to get the water effect. (I was hoping to add ducks - maybe someday) The green around the pond is more of the "Mantis" print - I was hoping to cover at least half of the floor with those shiny sea-foam tiles I was making (again, someday...). Oh, but what's with the puddle on the unfinished second floor hardwood? I'm glad you asked!

 I don't know if it was ever mentioned here on the blog, but one very rainy weekend last fall I walked into the art studio to find a huge puddle on the floor and rain pouring down in through the ceiling. It was just traumatic enough that I won't forget it anytime soon, but thanks to the studio visitors (some of which are friends now) who didn't seem to think a flood made the space any less awesome, that day was also just entertaining enough that it made it into this project. (Of course, I'm sure there was not actually a duck pond on the roof -it's more fun to to think about than cold Fall rain though).

I even made sure the ceiling is leaking.

Maybe I'll hold onto to the house and complete the interior next year, maybe when I have some time I'll keep working on it just for fun, maybe I'll finish it for an upcoming show - who knows? - For now though, this project is finished. As with any other year, I would like to say Thank You to Christina over at Little Victorian, for hosting Undersized Urbanite once more (Thank You!).

 Best wishes to the other entrants, hopefully you all finished in time. Can't wait to see everyone's entries. I think voting is open to everyone, so if you're reading this I encourage you to head on over to the official contest page and pick your favorite dollhouse.

Undersized Urbanite - Progress With A Bit Of Purple

Update Time!

At the moment I am torn between working on the dollhouse for Undersized Urbanite and posting updates for you all to see, so bear with me while I try to fit in time to take/edit photos + compose the quick write ups. As of typing this, I am actually weeks ahead of what you are seeing here, but I still have a ways to go (Will she meet the deadline? Stay tuned...).


Theme - wise the surreal house has been coming along nicely, the plan in my head has changed a bit though. Not that you could really see what the original plan was to begin with, I just thought I'd let you know that there is a lot more purple now (with even more on the way). ^_^


 Here's how the dollhouse looked the last time you saw it;

(Artwork in the background by studio co-artists:

 painting on the left by Dan Covey, 

2 digital pieces on the right are by Michele Mirabella)

 I planned to do some faux-stone mosaic work siding, 

so first I had to sketch out that area.

For new readers: By "faux-stone", 

I mean that I'm using egg carton/packing materials 

made out of recycled paper products. 

It looks great, as demonstrated in past projects.

 I painted the mosaic area gray and then started cutting out the carton.

I'm going with a mix of triangles and some free form shapes this time around.

Painted the pieces purple and started gluing them in place.

 The tricky part is finding something to use as the mortar/filler that goes between the carton pieces. Previous projetcs I was using clay, but that can be time consuming and a little expensive. So this time around I am using Puff paint/dimensional fabric paint. 
So far, I am enjoying the results.

I tested the puff paint out on a few pieces at the back of the house - looks good.

And here is the first finished section of the mosaic wall. It needs some touch ups, 

and I might do some light painting over the bright white to dull it a little bit, 

but this turned out really well. I am super happy with the house at this stage.

For anyone looking for this paint to try out on their own projects:
I am using Tulip Dimensional Fabric paint, Slick White. 
If you can't find it at your local store, it is available on Amazon.

 (Yep, ending this post with an ad, but I do like this paint, so why not?)

Undersized Urbanite - Pretty Sure I'm Entering This Year

Christina over at Little Victorian is hosting The Undersized Urbanite Dollhouse Contest once again, and although it's been open for entries since September - I'm just now getting to it. And honestly I wasn't sure I was even going to enter this year, but between months of working like a crazy person, and more recently coming down with a cold bad enough that it killed my ambition there for a bit (and got me thinking about how much I'd been working lately), I decided that it was time that I get back into the art studio and work on something just because I wanted to make something cool/for my own enjoyment. Sound good to you? Ok, then here we go;

A year or two ago I stumbled upon one of those puzzle dollhouses on a clearance rack for $3.00, because the packaging had been torn open and it looked like there were pieces missing (turns out it was all there, but either way $3 is a steal for any kit) 

I spent an evening in the art studio with my friends/co-artists. They worked on their projects while I popped together the dollhouse before deciding what to do with it.

A couple days later, at 5am or so while I was at work, I had this idea that the dollhouse is going to end up looking pretty weird this time around. At first I was referring to the idea as a "mushroom" (it does sort of look like that in my head), but my friends were getting too caught up in the idea of it being a mushroom house when really the better term is just to refer to the plan as a Surreal styled dollhouse - There you go, My plan is to make a Surreal looking dollhouse. The photo above is the color scheme I think I've chosen for the exterior (here's hoping that the red/green/purple combo doesn't come back to bite me). And I also had these 2 little wooden birdhouses I thought I could use as odd shaped additions.

Since the studio gives me more space to work I might attempt a small yard, and for that I might just use some of these floor tiles I picked up at a garage sale last summer. They look like stone and I've been wanting to find a use for them. Have to get a board or something to use for a base first, but it's do-able.

The puzzle house is not one inch scale like I'm used to (half inch scale maybe?) and I don't have any furniture that fits. Luckily, I did buy this furniture puzzle hoping the furniture would work with a different dollhouse, but it too appears to be closer to half inch scale and will probably work better for this project. If that doesn't work, I'm sure I could manage with scratch building, but since I only have until February it would be nice if the puzzle furniture worked out.

Back to the house building now;

After following the directions to see how the house is supposed to be put together (which you just saw), I started making changes. Here's me figuring out how to attach the bird house rooms.

And here's how I left the house in the studio on day #2 of this build. The roof is off while I paint it red. The porch is being all torn apart and redesigned to make room for the bird house on the right (which is attached with nothing other than tape and paper towels for now). I know it's starting to look funny, but the idea in my head is pretty cool, so I'm hoping I can make it turn out the way I want.

No promises that I can make the deadline on this one, but I'm going to try. Stay tuned. ^_^

Perpetually Busy

I'm using the word "Perpetually" loosely here, but that's what it's felt like for the past several weeks. My business is picking up, life is picking up, and "up" is a great thing. :) The only downside is-I'm behind on blogging  again and I'm probably going to stay that way for a few more weeks.

So that it doesn't look like I've completely abandoned you all, I'm posting a few quick little progress reports - At least then you'll know that I' not just being lazy. :) (Apologies in advance for any typos)

ok, first up;

Undersized Urbanite 2014 - I posted my entry, but I did not have a to chance to post a follow up since then.
If you haven't found your way to it yet, Christina posted the winners, you can read more on that over at her blog. Congrats to the winners!!! ^_^
The site was down the first time I tried checking out all the finished entries, and things started getting busy for me right after that, so if in the next few weeks I start leaving comments about your awesome entries, like I just saw them for the first time-That's why. XD

Interestingly enough, I was already following the winners in the experienced category, and guessed they would win weeks before they even finished their houses (Cyd and Lyssa are amazingly talented)

Before I move on, I would like to take a minute to thank Christina for once again hosting Undersized Urbanite, and thank all the judges  (Brae, Victoria, & Anna) for taking time to both judge and leave nice comments for all the entrants.

Thank you. ^_^

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The Curious Concepts Project - I'm working on it, I'm almost done. I started the last of the illustrations and color proofed the already finished pieces-only one needs some fixing so far. No official updates, but I have been talking with the people who are still waiting for their new illustrations. I'll post more WIP shots as soon as I can.

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Shop seller reviews - I promised to give some honest reviews about my experiences having online shops on eBay, Etsy, and Zibbet after a few months of juggling all 3 - I'm putting that on hold for the moment. Between me changing things up and these sites also changing things up (eBay just changed some of it's policies, Etsy keeps running tests, and Zibbet is on the verge of relaunching as a whole new site) I think it's just better to wait until things settle down or I've had at least a year on all 3 sites.

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I think those are all the current main topics. I promise I'll try and catch up with the blog soon. In the meantime, if you want to see what new things are being made/posted online - Feel free to check out my gallery on DeviantArt.

My Undersized Urbanite 2014 Entry - The Bird House

I finished my entry late last night and took some well lit indoor shots right away, just in case. Good thing too because the sky was pretty overcast when I went out today. Some parts of the house really popped outside while others still look better under my super bright work-space lamp, so I'm posting the best of whatever I took during both photoshoots. Sound good? Ok, then let's go see the house. ^_^

For those of you just tuning in,  you are welcome to check out my work-in-progress posts for this project, but don't worry about missing anything major-Here is the house before I began working on it;

That blue disk is a busted lazy Susan that the house can rotate on, I've since put it back underneath the house where it belongs. For this contest I understandably had to cover up that painting on the front, but I did keep the blue roof and the bird house theme.

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 My entry - The Bird House;

A little back story for you; The Bird House is basically a 3 floor complex (for birds who have all gone and flown off for the time being). This tall and tiny building includes a birdie self-serve "grocery store", a museum of oddities/shiny things, and a bird nest hotel.

The Exterior;

All the circular windows are shuttered up except for the hotel's mini entrance at the top. My original plans were for a white house with wooden doors/windows, and blue trim to match the original roof. I stuck to that plan, right up until a last minute decision that this house looked somewhere between boring and creepy when left all white. So I threw in some other colors and created a bright contemporary style siding design. I wouldn't do this to your typical house, but as a commercial venue, and an Artsy bird house, I think it works well.

materials;
-Cardboard (cereal boxes) for the wooden door/windows and their blue frames.
-Textured scrap booking paper, cut into strips for the diagonal siding.
-Acrylic paint (on the cardboard)

Now let's turn the house around and go inside,

Interior;

Starting with the bottom floor - The Grocery;

After an especially long winter, stocks are running low. 

Good thing it's Spring. ^_^

There's still a few homemade suet bells on the shelves, but the leaves, hay, and other nest making bits have been almost entirely used up by the hotel's feathered guests. Guess the birds will have to fly around outside and find what ever they need now. (It just occurred to me while typing this that I spent our extra long winter decorating a bird house for Spring, hmm...)

materials/props;

-Cardboard (cereal boxes) for the woven flooring

-Popsicle sticks for the hard wood flooring

-Brown Paper bags, for the walls.

-Polymer clay + a few seed beads, for the suet bells.

-Sharpies and Acrylic paint-for color. :)

-A miniature shelf-no labels, bought at a rummage sale.

-Whatever that big disk in the back is supposed to be-part of a necklace I found.

-Leaves, hay, fabric scraps, etc.

Next - The Museum of Oddities and Shiny Things;

An assortment of items that the birds found while out migrating, and whatever else birds do throughout the year, when not staying at bird house hotels of course. (Just go with it ^_^ )

There's not much a bird can do with these things (do you suppose they know what a rubber chicken is, Or what a bird cage is for?), so they made a tiny museum to display their findings for others to enjoy/laugh at.

 materials/props;

-Cardboard (cereal boxes) for the woven flooring

-Popsicle sticks for the floor edges

-Brown Paper bags, for the walls.

-Sharpies and Acrylic paint-for color. :)

-Leaf stems and a rubber band (painted white) - You know,  a typical birdcage.

-A miniature rubber chicken

-Unfinished dollhouse flower boxes make up the shelving.

-The shiny things are all jewelry/jewelry findings

-Leaves, hay, fabric scraps, etc. 

And finally, the top floor -  The Bird Nest Hotel

 

The little bits of fabric scraps and thread scattered along the other floors, 

all lead to here.

(Btw, I can take the roof off of this house)

As a human, I don't nest in trees, but I do enjoy looking at them enough that if my house had no windows I would probably paint a few trees on the walls. And here in the hotel, if you happen to be one of the many birds that prefers nesting in trees over inside of a bird house (but also need to stay the night in this bird house), the setup should work for just about everyone who can fit through the entrance. (one of the few hotels with a visible height limit).

The nests were all going to brown paper, until I remembered seeing what happens when birds find things like yarn to build their nests out of-Nests can actually be all sorts of colors. So I broke out some scrap construction paper and used some scrap fabric/leftover bits of thread to make this bird nest hotel as colorful as the Springtime flowers outside.

materials/props;

-Cardboard (cereal boxes) for the woven flooring

-Popsicle sticks for the floor edges

-Brown Paper bags, for the walls.

-Assorted papers for the nests.

-Sharpies and Acrylic paint-for color. :)

-Leaves, hay, fabric scraps, etc. 

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Just an afterthought; One of the things that I've been mentioning to my readers throughout this project is all the up-cycled materials that have gone into it. The house itself was purchased second-hand at a rummage sale. The doors, circle window shutters/blue window frames, and most of the flooring (the woven sections) were all made out of cereal boxes. The walls are discarded brown paper bags. Paint, Popsicle sticks, and most of the other things used for this house were left over from other projects or found outside. I didn't plan to be quite this thrifty, but it is neat seeing what can be done with some creative thinking, and what's around.

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Well there it is-my finished Undersized Urbanite project for 2014.
Congrats to goes out to all the other entrants -We're done! ^_^
Now time to enjoy seeing what everyone else has come up with this year.