Testing Part II

Our long awaited trip to the Good Sam Miniature show in San Jose, CA was so much fun, and the best to spend quality time with our oldest daughter. She planned a day of sight seeing on Friday and rather than rewrite that portion of the trip, you can see the two places we visited at Welcome To The Garden Spot, where I write about Big Basin Redwood State park near Santa Cruz that the CZu wild fire fire burned in 2020. You would think that a burned out forest would be pretty grim, but actually it was lesson in rebirth and renewal and the power of Mother Nature.

We toured theWinchester House in the afternoon. If you watch any of the stranger than truth TV shows, you might have seen the story of this house built by the widow of the man who invented the repeating rifle. To silence the voices of all of those who died by that weapon that his widow constantly heard, she set about remodeling--if you want to call it that--the 8 room farmhouse, expanding it to 160 rooms with doors that open to nothing but a wall and a stair case to nowhere, with the purpose of the constant construction noise drowning out those voices. Fascinating. But I seldom look at homes and houses these days without thinking about them in miniature. This house is furnished with beautiful Victorian era furniture as she might have had. None of the furnishings are original since a niece who inherited the furnishings sold them at auction. 

Along with the furnishings, the architectural detail is exquisite and worth studying for anyone who wants to build such a Victorian dollhouse this house provides the perfect details to help recreate an authentic Victorian era miniature house.

One of two formal Dining Rooms. I was struck by the elegant punch bowl.

The ball room ceiling offers quite a challenge for a miniaturist to recreate.

The house before the earth quake--once an 8 room farmhouse.

I must admit that the show itself was a disappointment in only one aspect: most of the vendors specialized in half scale and smaller. I work in 1:12 scale; however, that is not to disparage the absolute quality of their work; I just didn't find much to purchase. We did meet lovely venders and artists. I did meet the couple who has Art of Mini.com from Germany. It was exciting to see their beautiful items in person.

 I splurged with nearly a bank-breaking, account raiding purchase. I've been looking for my Best Ross doll for the recreation of her making 1776 American flag as commissioned by General George Washington. I've found the generic commercial period dolls, all looking the same, so when I found---who makes her dolls from start to finish, I had to spend the money for this lovely lady. She is posable, so I envision her sitting in a Windsor style chair hand stitching the flag that launched a new nation. It's going to be a fun project, but first I have to finish the Manchester.

Speaking of which, as you know, I have working on pieces that Jodi Hippler at My Miniature Madness so generously sent out to 14 testers to work on in return for their product review. 

To begin, I asked Jodi for some product suggestions. For acrylic paints, she suggest Apple Barrel acrylics that I ordered on Amazon because these paints are, as she explained, thinner and creamier than the brands that I've been using from Hobby Lobby, allowing for multiple thin coats. I love the brilliant colors. I purchased a dozen paints for under $20, which were delivered in 2 days. The DecoArt paint was in my paint drawer which I decided to use on the bake ware because of its metallic quality. Love the results.

There are several ways to create a glossy sheen to these tiny kitchen assessors. One way, I discovered, was to use a chamois type cloth that probably came with piece of sterling silver jewelry--a fabric that resembles flannel. The fabric will polish the paint without removing it like  the finest grade sandpaper or even steal wool. I found that steel wool discolors the finish, especially white, leaving a trace gray on the  paint.

                  

A spray on vanish might be easier to use instead of the brush on because I found it hard to apply thin coats. Actually, after top coating all my pieces I might have just left them polished; however, the vanish will protect the paint from chipping or scratching away, especially if children play with them. There are other products, such a ModgePodge that I have used before and some latex glosses.

Mixer Bowl

Love this little bowl. It has two coats of paint and one coat of varnish inside and out.

Bake Ware

This is my test piece, my practice piece. I began by testing on the bottom that won't show and originally used this medium gray, until I saw on TV shiny baking tray and decided to repaint it using the metallic gray.

Loved the results. I thought about distressing the pan to show a   baked-on residue, but I decided against that.

These pieces were refinished, too.

The Electric Mixer

I began by painting the motor vents with the metallic silver, using a needle point paint brush. The mixer is still a work in progress, and is the by far the toughest piece to work on. 

 

The inside of the mixer bowl was finished with metallic and topcoated.

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Stacking Mixing Bowls

I am often tempted to purchase those colorful stacking mixing bowls, but I have glass ones, so I've resisted, mostly because I don't have storage room. Photographing your miniature items as you work on them certainly helps find the missed spots and the places that need more work.

The bowls received another coat of paint, got polished, and top coated with varnish.

 

Dutch Oven

Another favorite piece with many coats of paint, polished and varnished.

Part of the Collection Finished

The Canister Set

I have high hopes for the canisters. My original plan included using water slide decals. Oh what a fiasco from start to dreadful end of the decal making. So while the canisters are painted and wait for the top coat, I have to figure out the best way to add my decals.

The project fell apart from the very beginning when I went to print and cut the tiny .3cm decal labels designed on the Cricut. When they were cut, the image was not centered, so I spent a considerable amount to time trying to calibrate the fine point blade but never could get the image centered in the circle, so I decided that the water slide being clear, it didn't matter. 

I discovered an option to calibrate the Circuit with the printer, which worked and I was now able to get better centered image, so I printed then cut my first water slides. The photo show my test canister--one of those moisture canisters that come in aspirin bottles. The one to the left is a paper decal, affixed after I top coated it with vanish and then varnished over the image again. The second example is a clear sticker paper with not very good results because the clear sticker is too thick and too obvious. No top coat.

 

To solve the centering issue, I made the sticker white base larger so that I could trim away excess but have a better centered image. The water slide is much thinner and the edges would disappear once vanished 

First, I tested the water slide for my coffee bar sign and the printer ink began to dissolve. BUMMER!    

                        

My next thought was to top coat the water slide before placing it in the water. NOPE. If all else fails, read the instructions, but I already knew what I had to do from watching a Jennifer Youtube video on how to cut and apply water slide decals to water bottles and wine glasses.

SEAL THE WATER SLIDE WITH KRYLON ACRYLIC SEALER--3  COATS.

I knew that. 

So after a long work session late yesterday I gave up. I quit. I will, however, take a deep breath and reprint my water slides and SEAL them before I try to apply them. These little canisters are just too cute not have some sort of image on them. 

I will add here, that if you are new to working with blank 3-D pieces, it's nice to have practice pieces to test paints, top coats, and decals. I have much more to learn about creating fine, quality finishes, so I am really eager to see what the other 13 testers do. 

Here then are the finished pieces, painted and top coated. Once again photos show the spots missed even after I gave each piece one more coat before varnishing. 

I would say that for miniaturists who want perfection, hand made will have some human flaws, especially if they are learning a new technique. I would never venture myself to sell what I make because I'm just not that accurate, but I am happy with my little pieces. I especially admire and support what Jodi is doing because I think there is a market for blank items that hobbyists such as myself would love to have so that they can create unique and individual pieces customized to their mini houses and other projects and pieces sold in kits and collections so we don't have hunt around for this and that. The trick, I think, is finding the best products to get the results that you desire. 

I finished my work session late last night by mixing up a batch of chocolate chip Cookes to see how the baking sheet works. And it does. 

I have more pieces to finish so join me next time when hopefully I'll have all of my pieces finished and ready for a final review.

And another big THANK YOU, JODI, for giving 14 miniaturists an opportunity to learn, grown, and step out of our comfort zones. 

Be sure to visit My Miniature Madness to follow Jodi's progress on this huge and exciting journey, taking 3-D printing to new level. 

Thanks for visiting. Let me know what you think. 

The Testing Begins

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Answering the call=Accepting a challenge. As I wrote last time, Jodi at My Miniature Madness put out the call for volunteers to test her newly created kitchen bake and cooking sets. I immediately raised my hand--yes, I'm one of those who always sat in the front row, waving my hand to erase the black board or hand out the worksheets. Not always the teacher's pet, I wondered if Jodi would choose me. 

Now the adage "Be careful what you wish for" comes to mind because I feel I'm having to up my game by, re-set the learning curve. It's a good challenge and what better way to learn than to jump into the pool and start paddling. 

My quite impressive package arrived, but I had a full plate getting ready for my DAR chapter's 10th anniversary celebration on Oct. 1st. I spent Sunday cleaning the basement and putting away the party decorations to make way for the next project, the testing project. I know that Jodi must be on pins and needles waiting for reviews to come. I began by spraying the items with primer in the garage.

But before I began painting the 3-D printed project, I painted the faucets and bathroom accessories with model enamel, which spread on the unprimed 3-D Shapeways pieces with a nice glossy sheen.

I really do not know how to paint these 3-D printed pieces, trying to watch some Youtube tutorials mostly by gamers who make their own game figurines, which all seemed pretty overwhelming to me. I find it quite interesting that I haven't run across any dollhouse/miniatures tutorials. Most just say they used acrylic paint and added a glossy coat. They primed their pieces, so I primed mine.

So I began with the bottom of the cookie sheet by painting it with two different acrylics: one with iridescent platinum and one plain gray and two different brands. The top is the platinum which didn't go on very smoothly and seemed a bit clumps, so I settled on the plain grey, wanting my backward to look like my ancient aluminum bake pans and cookie sheet. Then I realized that I should have sanded the pieces before I primed them. 

I moved on to the dutch oven. I began by sanding it after realizing the I should have sanded the bottom of the cookie sheet, despite having primed the pieces. 

 I use a 120 grit and a 400 grit to sand out the ridges from printing. I sanded and sanded, even used a emory board, both sides, but as you can see I did not achieve a smooth surface on the dutch oven.

I am realizing that the nature of 3-D printed material creates lines and ridges, so hopefully another tester will have a more efficient way of smoothing out surfaces of these tiny pieces or perhaps it is just the nature of the product.

Some artists will use a latex gloss liquid topcoat to add a shine to their mini piece. I applied my latex gloss to the bottom of cookie sheet and didn't like it. I could see the brush strokes. So that's my next question: how to eliminate brush strokes?

But I achieve a shine on the dutch oven by polishing the paint--after four coats--with the soft cloth that came with my eyeglasses cleaner. I really liked the sheen that the soft cloth created. The photo does not reflect the sheen, and you can see the uneven surface that sanding didn't take out. Still, I like my little pot. 

Then I moved on to the tube pan that the Manchester mistress will use to bake her angel food cakes. It had a smoother surface than the pot,

Still not perfectly smooth. I don't think that more layers of acrylic paint will fill the ridges. 

From the cake pan, I moved on to the toaster which has deep ridges. I pondered how to paint it. Today we can find small kitchen appliance in all kinds of colors, but I decided to paint mine like my own toaster--white with a chrome colored trim. I taped the the ridge off with masking tape and used the iridescent paint. I had to paint it twice.

 

 

The toaster is really cool, but ridges are quite apparent. 

The loaf pan turned out nicely and polishing it the little cloth gave it a nice sheen.

So here are the results of today's work. I'm pleased with what I accomplished; however, I have lot more to learn and would hope for better sanding results to get smoother surfaces. The loaf pan probably needs another coat of paint on the inside. I pondered adding some burned-on looking stains, but I keep my bakeware clean and don't let those stains build up.

But what really counts is how the pieces will fit in the dollhouse. The neat thing is that once in the house the little imperfections won't show as they do in the closeup photos. The mixer, by the way, is not the one in Jodi's collection.

And the toaster looks pretty nice on the counter. And the dutch oven is full of chili simmering for supper.

I can see my cookie sheet filled with chocolate chip cookies ready to pop into the over--or not. The oven door doesn't open.😂

The fixtures are ready to put in place. They are made from plastic, according the Shapeways description, a different material than Jodi's. The enamel covered them well, which begs the question: could we use enamel on the Jodi's pieces? While this paint won't solve the ridges on the surface, it does have a nice gloss.

And look! The toaster works!

Thanks, Jodi, for asking me to be a tester. I'm having fun and learning so much. I am anxious to see what the other testers discover and learn.

I give all of these pieces a👍.

Today was my marathon mini day, but the rest of the week life takes over--a Dr. appointment, the Chiropractor, the car goes to the shop, and Thursday Heather and I take off for the Good Sam Show in San Jose, CA. I'll be posting on Instagram. Look me up: https://www.instagram.com/annrasmussen72/

Thanks for stopping by. It's always a pleasure to write for you.