Making Period Dolls' House Accessories

Book excerpt: Imagine looking inside a Victorian house bedroom, and on the vanity you see a comb and brush set, a nail buffer, and curling tongs, each so tiny you can barely make them out. How do you make such delicate pieces? With these imaginative techniques you use ordinary tools and items you find around the house, such as thin wood strips, fine-design fabrics, buttons, beads, and bric-a-brac, as well as earrings, feathers, flowers, shells, and even a sloughed-off snakeskin. Using the standard inch-to-a-foot scale, accessorize a dollhouse with dainty items you can sell today because their antique counterparts are all but nonexistent. Here are just a few of the 85 projects and over 200 pieces you can make by following the simple instructions: ladies' and gentlemen's accessories: silver pocket watch, brandy decanter and glass, silk shoes; Food: cakes on cake stands, strings of garlic; Bedroom: chamber pot, writing slate, wax doll; Sitting room: porcelain figures, gramophone. Bonus: How to make dollhouse Oriental objets d'art, below-stairs brooms and brushes, gas wall lamps, and much more.