Dolly Village

Post by **Lynn** » Tue Dec 01, 2015 10:17 pm

I’ve started a new village of Dolly houses. This village set included not only had the houses but a Santa his sleight and 3 reindeer. I was fortunate to have someone who was able to reproduce these sweet doors and windows. We copied the windows and doors from pictures of the original houses and then touched them up in the Paint program. I was happy when they printed and the green showed through the red just like the originals. I did tea dye them a bit but getting them to dry flat was a challenge. I used mica and snow tex . This house base is 5 by 3 inches and 3 ¼ inches high.

Post by **Howard** » Wed Dec 02, 2015 7:49 pm

Lynn...

I for one am following this thread with great interest...hope you'll continue to post pictures of all your dolly house reproductions...hopefully we will get to see a picture of all them on display...

I suspect there might be more interest in the sleigh you mentioned than you might think...

My very best regards...Howard...(who is now a big fan of dolly houses)...

Post by **PutzinVT** » Wed Dec 02, 2015 11:19 pm

Great repro.

No, a really great repro.

The windows and doors were a awesome reproduction too.

Can't wait to see the whole village.

Steve

Post by **PutzinVT** » Wed Dec 02, 2015 11:23 pm

Just saw this on ebay.

I'm thinking this maybe the santa and sled you're talking about.

: Dolly-Toy-Co-SANTA-REINDEER-SLED 800.jpg (154.89 KiB) Viewed 30541 times

Post by **Lynn** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 7:25 am

Thank you all! Yes that's the one. The are a few sets with different houses but they all include the santa.

Post by **paulrace** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 7:55 am

I have had a request to do up the Dolly windows for my resource page. Now that you have your houses on display, can any of you who have Dollies send me hi-rez photos and measurements? If so, contact me offline and I'll tell you how to send the photos. Thanks,

Paul

Post by **Lucy** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 1:33 pm

I love this Dolly house.

Paul, I second the request for Dolly windows and doors. They are really cool.

Lynn, did you use chipboard for the base? If I use one layer of cardboard as a base it curls up and won't stay flat. I am wondering if chipboard or maybe mat board will be better.

Also why do you use mica? Is it because it is historically accurate? I used some Diamond dust recently on one of my houses which looks wonderful, but I am concerned about it being dangerous because it's tiny glass shards. And finally, where do you get mica? I've seen 2 sources online - Meyer's imports and Blumchen. Do they stock the right kind?

Thank you for showing us this Dolly reproduction. It's great. Lucy

Post by **Lynn** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 5:28 pm

Hi Lucy,

For the base it's hard to say what it is, I purchased it a long time ago in a craft store with the scrapbooking items. It's gray and very soft. The base does curl, but painting the top and bottom 4 - 5 coats really helps. Once it's dry if it does curl a tiny bit I just bend it slightly in place. I also used this for my trees but it does separate at the points so I just brush on some white glue along the cut edges and a bit around the front and back, works like a charm. I was looking to buy some more if I do I will let you know what's its called.

I don't have any original Dolly houses but after looking at hundreds of pictures I believe mica was used. If anyone has an original possible you could let us know if this is right. But either way I really like the look. Some of the problem buying the mica I had was getting the color I wanted. When I order natural it was rather dark and I knew the colors wouldn't show through very well. I did find someone who had just the color I was looking for. I purchases this on ebay It is still being sold now (item #3811049902). I did run this through a coffee grinder and then a floor sifted but like Howard talked about in an earlier post this can be tricky and you could easily get more dust than flakes.

Post by **Laurie** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 6:45 pm

Lynn, those windows on your house are just great. (Well, so it the house

. I just received the Dolly house you made, in the mail with some other houses I had bid on. In fact, I received 3 of the Dollys in that series. After examining them, it appears the coating on the roof, house and base are a very fine silver tone, shiny glitter. On top of the painted 'snow' it really looks like fairly fine natural mica.

Lucy, I have been pleased with glitter and mica from 'Sugar Camp Cottage.' It looks like Sugar Camp has a fine mica glitter that would be appropriate for Dollys. I haven't purchased it so I'm just judging from the web site. I do know I've been stung before when purchasing mica which turned out to be iridescent cellophane. If it's real, or vintage, then you're probably okay. 'Save on Crafts' also looked to have a nice selection and I've been happy with them before. I run my diamond dust and my mica through the coffee grinder also.

Post by **Laurie** » Thu Dec 03, 2015 6:58 pm

I also took a close look at one of the bigger Dollys I have in storage and it looks like the coating is a mixture of medium size colored glitter and medium grade clear glass glitter.