Requiem Art

The question that comes to any collection sooner or later is ‘where do you put it?’

For me, it was a bookshelf on my desk that I cleared out for my dolls. The dolls never just stood there: the stands they come with aren’t very pretty, so I got them furniture to chill on. And then accessories to go with the furniture. Then a shelf all their own, and then, when that shelf was too small, a bigger shelf. And then I just started making the damn things, because finding a shelf in just the right dimensions for dolls is a lot harder than you’d think.

I’m forever remodeling my dollhouses. I’m also forever remodeling my real house, so that doesn’t seem very strange. After I finish this blog entry, I’m going to go put on my painting clothes and get to it. It’s not that the rooms aren’t good enough as it is, it’s just that it always seems you can add something more, like crown moldings. Tiny, 1/6 crown moldings, cut with a tiny mitre and a 6″ saw. It’s a lot cuter (and easier) when I installed new moldings in my me-sized house.

That’s another benefit of dollhouses and dioramas: I can spend a couple of days doing special effects painting in my front hall with a 2 story extent-able paint roller and never want to paint again, OR I can do the exact same special effects painting in a dollhouse room and be done in an hour or less and love every minute.

I also enjoy the hunt. In a big house, you go to Lowes, Home Depot, or any of the various furniture and accessory stores for your house. Not so in miniatures. Sure, you COULD get everything at a toy store, but you’d have a hard time. It’s better to just keep in mind “dollhouse” wherever you go in regular activities. Doll-sized rugs can be made from place mats, party accessories, board games… the limit is your imagination. I have a perfect 1/6 scale red UK telephone booth (originally a cd holder) mailbox (change bank) devil duckies (pencil toppers) not to mention all the things that are just sold as cute ornamental miniatures not originally intended for dolls, like Christmas ornaments.

Let’s also not forget how you can do things with dollhouses you just can’t do to your normal house. I have a doll-sized mad science lab, armory, prison, porn studio, and chocolate shop. An entire dollhouse was made to be a bond-esque evil lair. And things like this:

Yeah, yeah, I hear your filthy thoughts. I’ll also point out that the first ceiling mirror I installed shattered, and I had tons of little cuts just from cleaning the damn thing up. The second mirror has also fallen a few times because the damn thing is BLOODY HEAVY even if it is only 15″ wide (but hasn’t shattered yet). Realistically, I’ll sleep a lot safer without a giant death trap installed in my ceiling, thankyoumuch.

So all in all, I highly recommend that if you keep dolls, figures, or anything else of a similar nature, to try out making a 1-room diorama to keep them in. Once you get over the stigma of ‘dollhouses are for little girls’ you’ll find it’s a lot of fun.