Dollhouse Transylvania rug in 1/12 scale - Work in Progress

I finished the center of the rug and will start working on the borders today.

More information on the rug later...

Have a great weekend!

Natalia

Dollhouse Transylvania Rug in 1/12 scale - Work in Progress

Here is a little update on stitching the dollhouse Transylvania rug in 1/12 scale based on the painting "The Chess Players" by Cornelis de Man, c 1670.

More coming...

Natalia

Pepperwood Farm

It was years, I mean years ago, even before I opened my blog, I wanted to build a dollhouse for my daughter and didn't know where to start with, at the same time didn't want to buy a kit. I found a booklet "Pepperwood Farm" Doll house
construction plans.

My Sweetheart and I bought wood and we cut main pieces in one day. We put shell together, also built a stand on the wheels for this dollhouse, and... put it in the garage. Nataly was 5 months at that time. Today she is 7. The same is the house. I never intended to get rid of it hoping that one day I would start working on it. Since we moved to the new house that we bought last April, Nataly couldn't stop bugging me to finish it and give it to her and her friends to play. Here I am, bounded with a promise given to my daughter to finish the Pepperwood House as fast as possible.

The house has 8 rooms on 2 levels and 2 rooms in the attic, total 10 rooms. It opens at front, back and right roof. The size of the house is 38"H x 33" deep x 26" wide. And it is soooo heavy!

It would be not me if I didn't decide to search the information about the dollhouse Pepperwood Farm. The booklet stays that the Pepperwood Farm house is an original design of Jacqueline Kerr Deiber and published in 1976 by Craft Publications Inc.

Then I found very interesting information on (guess where?) Ebay.com in the listing "1979 Doll House" (http://www.ebay.com/itm/190710572093?ssPageName=STRK:MESINDXX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1436.l2649). The listing stays that it is "an original photo from 1979 featuring Frank and Esther Hand and the miniature Pepperwood Farms house they designed and built. This photo originates from the archives of the Chicago Sun-Times and Chicago Daily News, Detroit News, and Sport Magazine."

So, I am a little bit confused now and don't know to whom to give credits. Probably, all of them. You might ask me why it does matter. I like accuracy. I did consider to buy that original photo. I couldn't find on-line any other Pepperwood Farm dollhouse that were built. May be I am mistaken, may be you know more. Then share what you know!

Have a great weekend!

Natalia

New Commission

A couple of months ago I got a very irresistible offer that made it hard to refuse. I've been commissioned to reproduce, chart and petit point an antique rug that is depicted on the painting "The Chess Players" by Cornelis de Man, c 1670.

Cornelis de Man (1621-1706) was a Dutch Golden Age painter. In 1670, he painted “The Chess Players.” It is a painting of a man and a woman playing chess. The painting hangs in the Museum of Fine Arts (Szepmuveszeti Muzeum) in Budapest, Hungary. The story of the rug is unknown and this is what makes this project fun and challenge! Research, research, research!

I will tell more about this project later. For now I would like to show you the progress of stitching this rug that has been started last week. So far about 1,600 tiny stitches have been made, 45,000 to go. I chose 40 count silk gauze and Gloriana silk.

Cute smile of Mickey Mouse keep me positive!

have a great weekend!

Natalia