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Close-up of Details

here you can see the small details I made and mentioned previously. I really like these additions as they add a sense of story and personality to the spaces it also helps add the time to the rooms.

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The final piece, "The Time Warp house"

I'm really happy with how this piece turned out. I'm very happy with the look of the rooms and the details I was able to achieve in the rooms. for example, making the little things was one of my favourite parts like picking what newspaper front page I wanted to use - I chose Elvis's death announcement as my papa also really liked Elvis and he shared that music with me when I was young. In the kitchen I made a miniature "Betty Crocker cookbook" as I remember seeing one similar in my papa's house. in the 90's bedroom I made a miniature teen heartthrob magazine and also miniature tickets to a Madonna gig on the nightstand. in the 00's themed bedroom which is also very similar to my own childhood bedroom I found an image of one of my favourite books that I remember from when I was little "little ones do" by Jana Novotny Hunter and illustrated by Sally Anne Lambert. in the "loft space" I made that too look more like today's day and age, in one corner a home office set up with a desk and a laptop. in the other corner I made an art studio, using a miniature canvas and easel I painted a scene slightly reminiscent to bob ross's work as he has become quite well known within social media within recent years. I made small paintbrushes or pencils by carving the ends of matchsticks. I also made the dust sheet look rather well-loved making look as if paint had spilled and someone had walked through it. I also placed my small wooden armature doll in the space.

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My top 3 pieces I made or designed!

The 70s telly was really fun to make, I used foam board and matchsticks that I stained darker using washes of acrylic paint. I printed out a scene from "on the buses" as it was from the 70s. I use LED/UV gel polish topcoat to give it a glossy and more glass like finish. And I used wooden buttons to make the buttons.

The 70s fireplace was also fun to make I painted wood effect on the top and base, then using the matchsticks again I created a brick like finish. Which I painted white and used beige and brown to age and add shadows. To finish it off I printed of an image of an electric fireplace and put it in the middle. And topped it off with a thick coat of regular clear nail varnish to make it look as if it had been varnished more than once.

For the kitchen cabinet I printed of some picture of cabinets and attached it on to a premade kitchen piece, I used a worktop similar to my papa's old one. I used golden acrylic paint for the tap and handles and silver for the sink. I also added a little bit of gel polish to add a sparkly water like effect inside the sink.

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Floors are in and the furniture is all nearly done.

In the 70s room, I chose to pick another bold pattern as there was a lot of patterns going on in the 70s. You can see some of the furniture as well, but I'll do another post more in depth about that.

In the kitchen I managed to find a flooring that was nearly identical to what my papas kitchen floor looked like; the kitchen had been fitted in the mid to late 80s so that is why I chose to base this room on that design.

In the 90s room I used a blue carpet which is actually more similar to the carpet I had growing up, but I hated it when I was little, so I put it in the 90s room.

For the 2000's room I chose what I would have done when I was 6 or 7. Pink. Everything was pretty much pink or Lilac.

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Next I began putting furniture into the rooms to see how I wanted the rooms to be laid out , and what objects I wanted . I was also testing out flooring and material samples to see if I wanted to use them .

In the 90s themes room (purple) I had already applied two posters to the wall an Nsynch one on the right and on the left is a poster that featured in Monica and chandler's flat on the TV show friends. I was inclined to use that as I have been looking at the shows design for some inspiration. As I wasn't alive in the 90s the ideas, I have for this room are based mainly off of movies and programmes. In the 2000's room I applied a border which is very similar to the one I had in my room growing up.

"The one where the French poster appears"

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Here I have began the designing stage , with all the walls painted or papered. I've printed out a selection of posters , some from my childhood and some that I feel fit the desired time period of each room .

In the bottom picture you can see the tiles in all their shiny bottle green glory. After I painted them I used clear nail varnish to make them look more like glazed tiles . The little foam pieces were self adhesive so there were easy enough too apply .

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I guess I can say now that I've hung wallpaper now

I knew I wanted almost a collage feel to the house so I'm wanting to use paper and printed images to create that feeling I've made in collages before. So I printed off the rather bold print i liked and used spray adhesive to coat the wall and add the paper. Before I did this I sliced the paper every 1.5 inch and leaving a part along the top I didn't cut to make a sort of fringe . Like I mentioned before I like my work to have links to family memories. And as the living room and kitchen are based off of my nana and papa's house , I'm relying on story's and pictures I've been shown . Basically my papa was great at a lot of things but DIY wasn't one of them ,one time he enlisted a few of my mums uncles to hang this new fangled wallpaper in the living room , it was a pre pasted paper . My papa and I belive my 2 great uncles jimmy and Ronald were rather proud of their work . My nana woke up the next day too the wallpaper on the floor as it had slid off the wall .

So I created the gaps in the wallpaper just to add a little detail and to Tie in that story . I also really like how it makes it look a lot more like wallpaper.

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I'm really liking how the tiles are looking so far so I decided to make more for the side wall , here I am again just working out roughly ill need to paint .

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Here Is some photos me mixing up the right colour and how the tiles were looking at this stage .

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Beginning stage of the refurbishment. Ever since my idea firmed up a little I knew what rooms I wanted to exclude in the house .

A 1970's living room

A 1980's kitchen (inspired by my papa's old kitchen)

A 1990's teenage bedroom

A 2000's child's bedroom (based on my childhood bedroom)

In these pictures you can see I have began painting some of the walls. I found these scrable foam stickers at a craft shop I think intended for card making but im hoping to paint them green and make them into the tiles that my papa's kitchen had .

I knew memories would play a big part in my work , and as I was recreating rooms based on decades I wasn't alive for i looked at old family pictures and asked about furniture that my mum or dad had in the 70's and 80's . For the 90s I was looking at media that was set in the 90s .

Here I'm roughly working out how many of the tiles I need to make .

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Got my hands on a dolls house after quite the search , I wanted a wooden one rather than plastic as it gives a more nostalgic feel. I also wanted one where I could easily be divided into different rooms too allow me to represent other decade's in each room .

Some more examples of the "before". Also I got the wooden dolls so I could use them if I want too , it also give a better sense of scale.

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Digital Collage using word

I knew I needed to do some experimental pieces to develop my idea. But I feel like doing physical pieces will take too much time and I would like to leave myself with as much time to make the actual dolls house. I have never made a miniature before so would like to give myself as much space for trial and error just in case as I would really like the final piece to be as close to how it is in my head.

using a mixture of images, I created this digital image of my papas old Livingroom. I really like how I managed to create the ever so slightly wonky look I get with collage due to the use of different perspectives. I always think collages are like visual memories, things may be brighter, bigger in memories or you might forget some things they are a slightly distorted similar to memories.

I was quite surprised with words capacities knowing as it can be typically very fickle when adding images usually. I also experimented with their 3D model software that's available to insert into the document much like an image or shape. but I couldn't edit the room pre-set and it just allowed you to spin it around. this got me thinking about what else could actually give me the ability to work in digital 3D space. The Sims 4, hopefully with as many hours under my belt as I do with that game, I can use the software to my advantage and use it to create some digital art. that hopefully can help me experiment and try out as many different styles as I want. a job for tomorrow.

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lastly before starting on the physically dolls house, I used the layout of the doll's house I have purchase so I can work out layouts, and rough design choices. I struggled most for the Livingroom here as the sims doesn't seem to have any real strong 70's inspired pieces but at least I have a clearer idea of what I'm doing.

working on these digital pieces and experimenting has been really useful as they have allowed me to experiment more without taking as much time. as this will be my first miniature piece, I want to leave myself with as much time to work on it and get it how I have envisaged it in my head.

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again, here are some digital mock-ups where I focused on the kitchen. very contrasting styles here actually both inspired by kitchens in houses I have lived/live in. the brighter and bluer kitchen is inspired by my childhood home and the grey modern kitchen is inspired by our kitchen now in my papa's old house where we live now.

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as my idea continued to develop, I experimented with a range of different styles and decades, as I knew I wanted time to play a part of the end product.

you can see this selection of pictures all contain a Livingroom of the same configuration. showcasing different time periods such as the 20's, Victorian era, mid-century modern and a more modern Christmas themed room as the season comes closer.

I feel like these digital mock ups have helped me so much by getting a better grip of what details I think will be important and also what will look best in a dolls house style configuration.

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after deciding to make a dolls house, I knew that it would take a long time to do and make everything I needed. so, to develop my idea before committing myself to deep into the idea I decided to make digital mock-ups. as they allowed me to make and change things and ideas as I went, instead of wasting time or resources on physically mock-ups, that again would take too long to do - or if I cut back on details they wouldn't be as interesting or helpful. so even though digital things can sometimes frustrate the life out of me I decided to try and be friends with it. (Now hoping that my laptop didn't hear that last bit and will continue working for me :D) as seen in the previous post I made some digital collages on word, and I feel as I got as far as I could with word and its abilities. I wanted to work on ideas and spacing and layout. so, I turned to the simulation game The Sims 4, it has a great building mode/engine and as I have played the game personally since it came out, I felt that it could do what I needed it too.

so above are several screenshots of what my papas house looked like. I wanted to explore the potential in what I already knew, seeing what things I wanted to try and replicate or what stories came to mind while building this. I tried to get everything as accurate as memory and the game engine ability allows. you can see the black, grey and red Livingroom/dining room with a red rug on top of matching red carpet. the green tiles in the kitchen and fridge placed in front of the 2nd door into the kitchen. the rocking chair in the hall. the tongue and groove bathroom. the blue and yellow themed bedrooms. creating this was very nostalgic for me as I spent a lot of time in this house growing up and I can tell you that you got the best after primary school nap in that yellow box room waiting on being picked up when mum finished work.

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Watch "THE NOSTALGIA THEORY" on YouTube

Again interesting to hear different perspectives. Also how different people feel about nostalgia. Especially how different items can bring back floods of the stuff .